Chapter-I

Introduction
1.1 Chapter Overview

In the first chapter of the thesis, at the outset, the background and introduction of social

marketing is explained and related to the Indian context. The concept of social

marketing is explored and its historical origin is traced. The study further elaborates the

tools supporting a social campaign and the contributors to the success of a social

programme. Essential criterias for an effective programme are also highlighted. The P's

of marketing mix are applied to social marketing and the importance of promotion to

make a social programme effective is sketched out. Further, the chapter focuses light on

celebrity involvement into such programme for more effective implementation. The

differences and similarities between commercial marketing and social marketing are also

clearly denoted in the chapter.

1.2 Background

The marketing concept evolved as a philosophy according to which an organization tries

to provide products that satisfy customers needs through a coordinated set of activities

that simultaneously allow an organization to achieve its goals. (Pride W. M. and Ferrell

O.C.)40 Today marketing is viewed both as a function and a philosophy. Marketing is the

process of creating, distributing, promoting and pricing goods, services and ideas to

facilitate satisfying exchange relationship with customers in a dynamic environment

(Pride et.al.)40 where the customer expects to gain a reward or benefit in excess of the

costs incurred in a marketing transaction and the marketer expects to gain something of

value in return, generally the price charged for the product.

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Individuals and organization engage in marketing to facilitate exchanges, the provision

or transfer of goods, services or ideas in return for something of value (Pride etal) 40 .

Marketing concept evolved since people started living in groups and the emergence of

the 'Barter system'. However, the formal study of marketing appeared in the early

1900's. In 1905, "The marketing of products" was taught at the University of

Pennsylvania and in 1910 "Marketing Methods" were taught at the University of

Wisconsin. Marketing became a popular subject only after World War II (Bose Biplab

S.).6

Psychology has been used extensively for the study of consumer behaviour qualitative

studies and attitudinal studies (Bose Biplab S.)6. The conceptualization of the principles

of marketing are not only related to the generation of profits but the instrumentality of

marketing, today lies in satisfying the consumers and users (Jha S. M.)11. Hence, the

modern marketing concept is a consumer oriented, marketing driven, value-based,

integrated, goal - oriented philosophy for a firm, institution or a person. (Joel and Evas;

Barry Berman).It is a total system of interacting business activities designed to plan,

price, promote and distribute want - satisfying product and services to present and

potential customers (Sherlekar S.A.)19. The modern marketing deals not only with goods

and services but it also focus on propagating ideas, issues, concepts and principles. To

sum up we can put it as, marketing is 'Managing Profitable Customer' relationship (Dr.

Karunakaran)12.

The definitional differences between the social and managerial concepts of marketing

are very clear. Where the managerial role emphasizes on delivering a high standard of

living and the art of selling products, the social role stresses upon individual and groups

2
obtaining what they need and want through creating, offering and freely exchanging

products and services of value with others.( Kotler Philip and Keller Kevin Lane, Koshy

Abraham, Jha Mithileshwar) u.

Today marketing has become an integral part of selling and it includes marketing of

goods, services, events, experiences, persons, places, properties, organization,

information, and ideas.

1.3. Definition of Social Marketing

Social Marketing practitioners believed that it was high time social marketing had its

unique identity, developed its own definition and distinguished itself as a separate

discipline. According to Kotler, "social marketing seeks to influence social behaviour

not to benefit the marketer but to benefit the targeted audience and general society".

Here, unlike commercial marketing, the primary focus of social marketing is to persuade

and influence the society in their own benefit. Social marketing is one strategy for

addressing various social issues as slavery, child labour, women's right to vote, female

feticide, birth control, health issues, safety, community involvement, pollution,

unintended pregnancies, drinking and driving, mentoring youth, environmental

awareness and many more. Hence, Kotler states that "Social marketing refers to the use

of marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntarily

accept, reject, modify or abandon behaviour for the benefit of individuals, groups or

society as a whole". Looter and Roberto defined social marketing as, "A Social change

management technology, involving the design, implementation and control of

programmes aimed at increasing the acceptability of a social idea or a practice in one or

more groups of target adopters. It utilizes the concepts of marketing segmentation,

3
consumer research, product concept development and testing, direct communication,

facilitation, incentives and exchange theory to maximize the target adopters' response".
n
(Jha Mithileshwar)

The social concept is also referred to as the "human concept" or "the ecological

imperative concept" or "the intelligent consumption concept" (Bose Biplab S.)6. One

strong view point put forth by Philip Kotler and Sidney J. Levy emphasizes "social

marketing as an activity of the non-profit organization". This takes into account the

involvement of NGO's and other non-profiteering institutions to create a social

awakening. Social marketing employs the use of marketing concepts in an effort to

persuade consumers to accept social ideas beneficial to the society at large. To conclude,

social marketing focuses on enhancing the acceptability of socially relevant ideas and

practices for a social change. It is a systematic attempt to bring about a social change for

the benefit of individuals, groups and society. To put it in the nutshell, "social marketing

aims at selling a behaviour".

1.3.1. Birth of Social Marketing

The formal study of marketing made appearance in the 20th century and thereafter its

applications were extended from manufacturing units, to service sector and recently to

the nonprofit sector. In 1940's and 1950's major thrust of marketing was managerial i.e.

meeting organization goals of sales, profit, market share and image building.

In 1960-70, the focus enlarged to marketing in social context (quality marketing) and in

1970, the application of marketing was evident with a social motive too. Hence, the

broad categorization of marketing can be made into (i) Product marketing (ii) Service

Marketing (iii) Social Marketing (Sherlekar S.A.)20.

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1.3.1.1. Pioneering Articles:

• In 1980, the World Bank, WHO, and Centres For Disease Control started to use

the term "Social Marketing" to promote the interest in this new discipline.

• In 1981, Paul Bloom and William Novelli, reviewed the first 10 years of Social

Marketing in the journal of marketing.

• In 1985, Richard Manoff published an article on "New Imperative for Public

Health" which focused on the issue of message design in Social marketing

programme.

• In 1988, R. Craig Lefebvre and June Flora wrote on "Social Marketing and

Public Health Intervention".

• Philip Kotler and Ned Reberto added a text "Social Marketing: Strategies for

Changing Public Behaviour" in 1989, which outlined the application of

marketing principles and techniques for influencing social change management.

• To give impetus to the growing discipline, in 1990 academic programmes were

conducted at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland and the Department

of Community and family health at University of South Florida, led by Associate

Professor Carol Bryand.

• During the same time, a publication was launched in South Florida by the

Department of Public Health and Best start Inc., named "social marketing

quarterly".

• Alan Andreasen's text on "Marketing Social Change: Changing Behaviour to

Promote Health, Social development and the Environment" made a significant

contribution to both the theory and practice of social marketing in 1995.

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 *

1.3.1.2. First Conference:

The first National conference on "Social Marketing and the Public Health" was

sponsored by University of South Florida in 1990 followed by "Innovations in Social

Marketing Conference" held in 1994.

1.3.2 Evolution of social marketing as a discipline:

A major development of the discipline occurred during the 1960s. During the previous

period, the late 1940's and 1950's, the main and sometimes the sole orientation was the

managerial thrust. A different perception of marketing and its responsibilities however

has currently emerged. The justification is now sought in a social context as well as a

corporate one. Pluralistic marketing objectives are evolving and becoming more explicit

(Lazer William)27.

In the past, marketing decisions have been justified solely, on the basis of cost-revenue

relationship. Now however, the concepts of social costs, social profits, social audits and

social benefits are being introduced. Mention is also being made of social products,

social capital and social wealth. The result is evident in the emergence of the discipline

of social marketing.

1.3.2.1. Initial Contributors to Social Marketing:

After conceiving the term "Social Marketing" in 1971 by (Kotler Philip and Zaltman

Gerald) 2S, the trail was followed by distinguished researcher and practitioners who

joined the voice in promoting social marketing as Alan Andreasen, James Mintz,

William Novelli and William Smith.( Kotler Philip)15

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1.3.2.2. Formation of Social Marketing Institute:

The Social Marketing Institute was formed in Washington, DC with Alan Andreasen as

the Interim Executive Director in 1999(Kotler Philip)15 (Annexure-I).

1.3.3. The development of social marketing:

The increase in social awareness and the social responsibility concerns have different

meanings for various groups in society. In conjunction with traditional orientations to

marketing, the development of the social marketing approach is leading to a re-

in

evaluation of the marketing concept (Lazer William) .

In 1952, G. D. Wiebe raised the question, "Why can't you sell brotherhood like you sell

soap?" (Kotler, Zaltman)2S. People like Mc Ginniss and before him John K. Galbraith

and Vance Packard, believed that everything and anything can be sold, while people like

Wiebe felt that it is exaggerated.

Social Marketing is a much larger idea than social advertising and even social

communication. Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman define social marketing as "the

design, implementation and control of programmes calculated to influence the

acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing,

communication, distribution and market research."

To put it in simple terms, social marketing, suggest that marketing decisions cannot be

justified on economic costs and profits alone (Lazer William) 27. It indicates that some

products and services should be marketed where there is little or no economic profit. It

holds that marketing has dimensions that extend beyond the profit motive.

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1.3.4. Pioneers of Social Marketing

Social marketing was born as a discipline in 1970s, when Philip Kotler and Gerald

Zaltman realized that some marketing principles that were being used to sell products to

customers would be used to sell ideas, attitudes and behaviour as well. The roots of this

new discipline was sketched out in the pioneering article, "Social Marketing-an

approach to planned social change" in the journal of marketing.

1.3.5. Pre Historic Base of Social Marketing

Social Judgmental Theory:

The trace to social marketing dates back to 1961 when Musafer Sherif (Social

Psychologist) presented studies on Social Judgment theory. 'Social Judgment theory' is

used in the field of marketing to understand better how to persuade consumers towards a

certain product, company or an idea. The theory is based on the human mind, the

interpretation and implication of a message that the mind makes. The crux of social

judgment theory is that persuasion is mediated by judgmental processes and effects. The

theory explains why people become disconcerted, why persuasion is difficult and how to

execute persuasion in daily life (Sheriff and Nebergall, 1965). Previously it was believed

that memory of the persuasive message played a vital role in changing consumer

attitudes. However, today there is a movement towards the belief that the success of a

programme correlates with the consumer learning curve of the persuasive message and

acceptance of the message. (Hovland, Carl, Janis, Irving and Keoey, 1953)One of the

key insights presented in the social judgmental theory is that, human minds have a

subconscious "attitude scale" and it is the placement of judgment that is fundamental to

the success of persuasion. Accordingly in 1990 0 ' Keefe categorized latitudes as:

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1.3.5.1. The Latitude of Acceptance:

The latitude of acceptance exists along with other alternatives which are close to the

persons attitude towards the message. The latitude of acceptance contains the "anchor"

position, which is the single position that an individual finds the most acceptable. So, the

larger the latitude of acceptance, the easier it is to persuade and create an impact

(Sheriff, Sheriff and Nebergall, 1965).

1.3.5.2. The Latitude of Rejection:

The latitude of rejection is where objectionable attitudes exist. These attitudes are

rejected as they are furthest from the anchor point and the person's personal opinion

(Sheriff et.al, 1965).

1.3.5.3. The Latitude of non-commitment:

The latitude of non commitment rests were attitudes are neither accepted nor rejected.

This latitude is where attitudes of undecided and no opinion are placed. (Sheriff etal,

1965).

1.3.6. Application of Attitudes:

With reference to the social judgment theory, the level of involvement a person has

directly influences his attitude towards the position, which is known as "ego

involvements", which is determined by the level of importance the issue has towards his

self identity. The latitude of acceptance and latitude of non commitment grows smaller

and becomes more defined in a situation of high ego involvement but the latitude of

rejection becomes larger. (O' Keefe, 1990).

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1.3.7. Role of Persuasion:

Persuasion plays a key role as far as application of attitudes is concerned. Persuasion

begins when ideas in the latitude of acceptance are presented closer to the anchor then

they actually are and the individual begins to shift the judgment towards the anchor.

This shift in judgment is known as "assimilation". However, when ideas fall outside the

latitude of acceptance and are presented to be less like the anchor then they actually are,

it is known as "contrast" (O'Keffe, 1990, Sheriff and Holland, 1961). However,

persuasion cannot exist in the latitude of rejection. If the individual is ego involved, the

latitude of rejection becomes larger. (Hovland, Carl, Janis, Irving and Keoey, 1953)

derived that persuasion can best result when a new idea falls into latitude of acceptance

and is different from the anchor and cannot be assimilated or contrasted.

1.3.8. Distinguishing the terms:

Social marketing is different from terms like "societal marketing", "nonprofit

organization marketing", "social advertising" and "social communication" (Fox and

Kotler 1980; Andreasen 1995; Weinreich Klein 1999). The researcher feels the need to

clearly distinguish between the terms so as to bring clarity to the subject of social

marketing.

• Societal Marketing:

Societal marketing does not try to influence people to adopt another behavior, but rather

just inform them. (Kotler and Roberto, 1989)

• Non-Profit Organization Marketing:

Non-profit organization marketing is about market non-profit organizations, political

candidates, and public institutions. Its goal being to give benefits, goodwill,

10
understanding for the organization and not necessarily especially to the programs/ideas

the organizations implements and stands for (Andreasen 1995)

• Social Advertising:

Social advertising is about using traditional media and mass media to influence change

and/or to inform people in society. Social advertising is often used as a component in

social marketing but the approach of social marketing is much broader (Andreasen

1995).

• Social Communication:

Social communication is a broader approach to social advertising where sales support

and Public Relation was added to the mass advertising (Kotler and Fox, 1980). The

researcher has used social advertisement and social communication as a promotional

tool to measure the effectiveness of a social programme.

1.3.9. Social Marketing and Attitudinal Change:

The approach to social marketing becomes more complex as the social programme deals

with human psychology and attitude. Social marketing is often concerned with a major

"attitudinal" change which is on uphill and all too frequently a heart breaking task, such

as the weaving away from the pernicious dowry system of marriage, where it is not

sufficient merely to cite or screen pitiful and horrendous examples but to inculcate a new

idealistic attitude in the minds of the people. Social Marketing thus refers to as 'idea'

being sold, rather than a product or service and the benefit or profit accrues to the

society (Davar Rustom S.)7. However, social marketing is a very difficult concept often

carelessly defined and commonly misunderstood. According to Keith Crosier, social

marketing is a difficult concept often carelessly defined and commonly misunderstood.

The most serious obstacle to acceptance is the difficulty in perceiving ideas as

marketable products.

1.4. Growing Concern Globally

An estimated half of all deaths can be attributed to the full root causes and thus could be

considered "premature". Tobacco... diet and actively levels... alcohol... infectious

agents... toxic agents... fire arms... sexual behaviour...motor vehicles... illicit drug use

and many more (Kotler Philip, 1997)15.

Environmental issues need a severe thinking as NASA discovered that the ozone hole

was bigger than even before, almost 13 times larger than in 1981 (U.S. news and World

Report2, 2000, Kotler). Urgent attention is required to solve social issues which cannot

be overlooked now.

1.4.1. Global Issues of Topmost Priority:

Health Issues Smoking, breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Fetal

Alcobol Syndrome in infants, Teenage
Pregnancy, Ma] Nutrition, Malignant Melanoma
Safety Issues Alcohol related crashes, Home fires, Safe
driving, Youth suicide, Gunshot wounds etc.
Community Involvement Blood Donation, Kidney, Heart and Organ
Transplant, Voting, Help to underprivilege,
Importance of donation and charity, Child
education etc.
Environmental Issues Pollution, Global Warming, Conservation and
Preservation of Natural Resources and wild life,
depleting resources, deforestation, soil erosion,
non-biodegradable waste, garbage etc.
(Source: Kotler Philip, Keller Kevin Lan, Koshy Abraham and Jha Mithileshwar, Marketing
Management-A South Asian Perspective-12,h Edition) (Table 1.1)

Considering these burning issues the researcher has tried to make a social contribution

with regards to the safety aspect. The above thesis relates to the safety aspect and thus

focuses on traffic week as a social programme to find out the effectiveness of a social

programme through the celebration of traffic week.

12
1.5. Social Marketing in Developing Countries: (Specifically in Asia)

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, leading NGO activists from Malaysia quotes, "Asia is where

majority of the human race lives. There are millions and millions of Asians who do not

enjoy the most basic human rights.... we should try to develop a holistic integrated

vision of human rights... urgent and equal attention to the economic and social rights of

the people of the continent significant segment of Asia's population does not enjoy

some of the most basic economic and social rights- including the right to adequate food,

clothing and housing, the right to work, to fair wages, to health, to education...." Pawar

S.N., Ambedkar J.B., Shrikant D.) 38 .

To add, Andreasen, 1995 claims that the environment in which the social marketing

programs are planned, implemented and received, vary depending on the development

of the country and the cultural context. Social Marketing in the west is most frequently

used for issues as to decrease smoking and drinking, promote a healthy life style or fight

drug abuse. The real challenges for social marketing lie in the developing world because

in such countries "issues deal with life and death and the scare is vast". (Da Cuna in

Fine, 1990)10.

In fact in developing countries the areas that the government and the organizations try

to influence are casually a pressing matter of direct life and death such as

immunization, sanitation, AIDS/HIV and family planning (Da Cuna in Fine, 1990)10

equal status for women, responsible parenthood and adult literacy (Melkote and

Steeves, 2001), and many more. Therefore, there is a greater need in developing

countries to focus attention on advertising communication to attract the public on

matters of social concern.(Mahendra Mohan)16. The researcher has thus pressed upon

13
advertising communication as an important promotional tool to make social programme

effective.

1.6. Social Marketing in India:

Urgent attention is required in a developing country like India which is burning with

sensitive issues. Exceeding fifty major social issues have been recognized in India that

could be benefited by the application of social marketing principles and techniques.

Many social problems in India are extremely complex and interrelated, the solutions to

which lie in the socio-economic, historic, religious, political and cultural framework.

However, in India the segments of the society firstly need to be identified, particularly

vulnerable crowd who is the targeted audience.

1.6.1. Social Issues in India:

India is encircled with the host of problems as health, sanitation, treatment for T.B., mal

nutrition, hepatitis, polio immunization, illiteracy, dowry system, ill treatment of

women, family planning, youth unrest, labour militancy, child labour, child molestation,

illegal drugs, alcohol, arson, looting, road accidents, street children, old age people,

slums, minority population, etc. The list is endless, the time is running out and the

solution needs to be urgently sort out. The researcher has thus felt the necessity of

selecting a sensitive issue as road safety and thereby measuring the effectiveness of a

social programme.

1.6.2. Early Social Programmes in India:

The researcher highlights that India is the country which started with the world's first

social marketing programme with 'Nirodh Campaign' in the mid- 1960's (Martinsen

Cecilia, 2003). It was only that the dimensions and parameters of social marketing had

14
not emerged clearly, that lead to the misunderstanding that social marketing was lately

introduced in India. The government in 1960's procured condoms from various Co.'s

and coerced large-network FMCG and durables Co.'s such as ITC Union Carbide (till

the Bhopal gas tragedy), Hindustan Lever and Voltas to distribute them. In 1963, the

advertising agencies on the request of International Organizations conducted a public

awareness programme on "Beauty without Cruelty". (Mahendra Mohan)16. The agency

worked out the first ad, "Pretty isn't it" and used this advertisement in collaboration with

various other organizations (Annexure 2). This was probably the second biggest social

program conducted in India during 1960's (Mahendra Mohan, Simoes Frank). When the

winds of liberalization started blowing in the early 1990's, specialized social marketing

agencies like PSI, Marie Stops, Family Planning Association of India and DKT

International entered the scene and the private sector co.'s kept to their own domains.

1.6.3. Initial Social Events In India:

Social marketing started in India with a campaign by famous slogan "Mera Bharat

Mahan" advertising films, states Rediffusion India President, Sandeep

Goyal.(www.tatachemicals.com.)

Event -I : In 1975, the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation launched a campaign with

four major objectives:(Mahendra Mohan)16

(1) Cleanliness of the city.

(2) Avoiding encroachment of footpaths.

(3) Rehabilitation of beggars in beggar homes.

(4) Protection against rabies.

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Event-II: In 1977, the WHO declared the International children's year and made an

appeal for immunization of children against communicable diseases. The Advertisement

Club of Bombay nominated a team for preparing the advertising campaign with the aid

of indoor and outdoor medias, the result of which was exboundingly encouraging. By

mid 1978, 65% of the targeted groups of 2 million unprotected children were

immunized. (Mahendra Mohan) u

Event-Ill: The year 1981 was earmarked as the "International Year of Disabled

Persons". Many companies took initiatives to create awareness towards the magnitude of

problems that beset people suffering from various disabilities. (Mahendra Mohan)

Event IV: The Tata chemicals initiative "Desh Ko Arpan" is a remarkable example of

corporate and NGO's who work together for a social cause where 10 paisa from every 1

kg. pack of Tata salt sold is funded to a social programme. Under the slogan "Maine

Desh Ka Namak Khaya Hai", Tata team clubbed up with CRY for six projects and

collected Rs. Thirty three lakhs within a short span of twelve months for social causes.

(www.tatachemicals.com.)

1.7. Hurdles in social marketing:

There is a greater and urgent need for focusing attention of the public on social issues

which are ignored in India since decades as mentioned in (1.6.1). This aggregates the

need for using appropriate social marketing programme to remedy the deteriorating

situation. However, a number of bottlenecks prevail in the way of successful social

marketing programme as mentioned by Mahendra Mohan.

16
1. Shortage of Funds:

A question of vital concern is that of raising funds and gathering resources for helping

and promoting the cause. Situations arise when resources are available but

communication act as major limitations in reaching the target group.

2. Lack of Professionalism:

A number of social programme developers have strongly advocated promotion of social

issues through professionalism. An obvious reason is that experts would be in a better

position to identify the problems and communicate them effectively through proper

marketing strategies for it is not merely a question of being charitable but of professional

challenge and excellence.

3. Inadequate Data:

Another obstruct to effective social marketing is lack of adequate and good quality

secondary data on behavioural characteristics of the targeted audience (Bloom and

Novelli, 1979). It is only then possible to develop an appropriate message and design

that would be effective. Selection of media vehicle, considering their reach and other

relevant parameters also demand due justice, for a campaign to be successful. However,

the base rests on authentic data and hence one of the biggest hurdles is "Inadequate

Data".

4. Production Problems:

Another major hurdle occurs in the actual production of a social campaign i.e. Creative

strategy and creative execution. The creative strategy suffers serious short comings

with lack of necessary information about the audiences and the market and hence, lapses

occur in the execution strategy also. The communication strategies are also difficult to

17
implement as some groups may oppose the use of certain types of appeals as well as the

budget for effective communication is very limited. Social campaigns also fail because

of lack of marketing sophistication and excessive reliance on volunteers. Formulating a

product strategy is also difficult as the audience is expected to modify or abandon a

particular behaviour. The pricing tool also fails in the hands of social marketers as well

as the channels fail to support the social marketing programme wholeheartedly.

5. Policy failure:

Social programme have proliferated with seeming abandon but of late the efficiency of

such program have been widely debated. Policy failure is hierarchically defined by Kerr

as

(1) "Implementation failures" occurs when a policy cannot be put into action for all or

for some time.

(2) The "Instrumental failure" occurs, when a policy fails to fulfill its purpose.

(3) The "Normative Justification failure happens when a policy lacks ethical integrity.

(Prather James E., Gibson Frank K.)39.

All these failures lead to an unsuccessful social marketing programme.

1.8. Loopholes in social marketing:

1. Core Values with Less Channel Support:

The equation is very difficult and the solution complex in social marketing as it typically

deals with markets where core beliefs and values are deep rooted. To shift such a deep

rooted behaviour unmatched support from channels becomes inevitable. However, social

marketing has to work with channel systems that are less work well-defined and less

peculiarity motivated. (Kotler Philip and Zaltman Gerald, July, 1971)25.

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2. Unaccepted Objectives:

There is a great possibility that the marketing of social objectives will be resented and

resisted. Yet social marketers persistently advocate such a change.

3. Unnecessary cost burden:

Social marketing is also accused of increasing the costs of promoting social causes

beyond the point of net gain either to the specific cause or the society as a whole.

Loopholes in Social Marketing:

According to Gerson Da Cunha, one of the most tragic sin in social intervention is

waste, especially when it is avoidable and honestly caused. Poor message design,

message expression, message content and creativity, poor target group identification and

lack of systematic analysis are some other deadly sins in social marketing.

4. Not Real Marketing:

Social marketing has not touched many vital issues and is accused that "social marketing

is not real marketing". It is still considered as a business discipline with little or no

application to social causes. As stated by Laczniak and Michie (1979), marketers should

take enough pride in the scope of traditional marketing.

5. Unethical and Manipulative:

Social marketing is also accused of being manipulative where manipulation connotes

hidden and unfair ends or means used in the influence process. Laczniak and Lusch and

Murphy (1979) believed that social marketing is potentially unethical in giving power to

a group to influence public opinion on a contested issue as pornography and abortion.

(Fox Karen F. A. and Kotler Philip)13

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6. Self- Served:

Social marketing is also accused of being self-served as social marketers in the due

course of promoting a cause also make profits eg., seat belt manufacturers are major

supporters of auto safety legislation, partly because they stand to gain.

7. Use of Tax Money:

A troublesome issue is the use of "tax money" by government agencies to promote

politically motivated efforts.

8. Ineffective Marketing:

Social marketing is accused of arousing negative public sentiments towards marketing.

The most devastating blow to social marketing is that it demonstrates that it is

ineffective and does not change anything. Ineffective marketing is a wasteful of

resources and may lead people to expect results which cannot be produced. The

researcher has thus felt the necessity of working on the effectiveness of social marketing

programme. The thesis is based on this important dimension where the study provides

valuable insight as to how to make a social programme more effective.

9. Inflated expectation:

Novelli (1980) notes that managers and planners looking for a panacea or a "quick fix"

may rush to embrace social marketing with inflated expectations, "when these quick

solutions are not forth coming they are disappointed and viewed as failed". Also the

social issues are poorly backed as against the high costs and low level of consumer

involvement (Rothschild 1979)42.

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10.Inappropriate evaluation:

The solution to the problems in social marketing will depend in part on the accumulation

of additional experience in applying and evaluating social marketing on continuing

efforts to integrate and disseminate findings and on theoretical and empirical work to

improve the understanding of factors that can be used to increase the impact of such

programme (Bloom, 1980; Cook and Campbell, 1979; Cook and Mc Anany, 1979; Fine,

1979; Fox, 1980; Rothschild, 1979) The present thesis attempts to suggest measures to

overcome these lapses so that social marketing programme can be made more effective.

1.9. Difference between Social Marketing and Commercial Marketing

The selling of healthier behaviour and the selling of products have much in common,

yet neither health nor brotherhood can be sold like a soap and hence practitioner's

remind us of the significant difference between 'Commercial Marketing' and 'Culturally

Adapted Social Marketing' (CASM).

As Novelli points out, "Package goods marketing is very hard to do but social marketing

is a thousand times harder". This is because of certain distinct peculiarities that

differentiate both from the dimensions of mission, assumption, strategies and

expectations as presented by Mithileshwar Jha.

1. Negative Demand:

CASM marketers have to deal mostly with a negative demand in many situations unlike,

the commercial marketers whose client segment is most willing to accept an offer. This

is so because in many cases, the individual may not perceive a direct benefit from the

cause as in case of environmental conservation, road safety and discipline, family

planning and health measures, etc. Also, the parties in CASM are completely different

21
entities with different needs and motivations and educational levels and hence may fail

to digest the idea. CASM deals with complex issues (selling an idea or motto) in contrast

to simply selling a tangible or intangible product or service.

2. Limited Resources:

Resource constraint is a very vital limiting factor in social marketing as compared to

profit oriented commercial marketing. In kind services, volunteerism and donations may

add to the resources yet the social marketers can seldom match the resources available to

product marketer.

3. Objective:

The objective in social marketing is not to induce or affect sales and profit but to retain

clients and focus on shaping their minds by creating awareness and propagating

profitable behaviour on the basis of a set of different criterias as prevalence of social

problem, ability to reach the audience or readiness for change and others. Where in

commercial sector marketing, the primary beneficiary is the corporate shareholder; the

beneficiary in social marketing is the individual, group, or society as a whole.

4. Competition Criteria:

Competition criteria for a social marketers focuses on the current or preferred behaviour

of the targeted mass rather than competition with other organizations. The most vital

difference between both however, lies in the advertisers expectations from expenditure

incurred on advertisement and other forms of promotion. (Kotler)15

5. Time of Gratification:

The timing of gratification also varies as it takes months and years for the benefit

offered in a social campaign to be accepted. Infact many of the benefits sold are

22
preventive in nature, resulting in absence of fantasy event. Also a social campaign

promises an increased probability of benefit (e.g. lower risk of cancer by quitting

smoking) whereas a product campaign usually offers unequivocal gratification or may

even provide an exaggerated guarantee for the benefits offered.

6. Presentation Style:

The presentation style of a social campaign is "information" to avoid overselling the

benefits or recommended change as in contrast to deceptions offered to product

consumer. Hence, a greater trustworthiness can be typically attributed to the sponsorers

of a social marketing campaign than to that of a product due to the belief that marketers

have no vested interest or other hidden motive other than the desire to do good.

However, the fact still remains that social marketers consciously or unconsciously use

marketing principles, tools and techniques to bring about a planned social change by

inputting probing, partitioning, prioritizing and positioning to affect a particular

behavioural change. Hence, the fact derives that the greater a social marketing

programme resembles a commercial product; the greater are the chances of success

1.10. Similarities between Social Marketing & Commercial Marketing:

Despite lots of variations and disparities, there are signs of similarities between the two

disciplines of marketing.(Philip Kotler)15

1. Customer Orientation:

The most basic uniformity among both lies in its orientation, i.e. 'customer orientation'

which is applied to appeals to the target audience.

23
2. Exchange Theory:

The 'exchange theory' is fundamental to both where the perceived costs equate the

expected benefits. However, the degree of exchange varies in case of a theme, motto or

idea to be propagated.

3. Marketing Research:

Use of marketing research is inevitable in each discipline as it helps to microscopically

understand specific needs, desires, beliefs and attitudes of target audience.

4. Market Segmentation:

Segmentation of markets and audiences are equally necessary to implement differential

strategies to equate unique wants, needs, resources and current behaviours.

5. 4 P's of Marketing Mix:

The use of 4 P's which are considered an ultimate winning strategy to conquer the

market is common to social marketing as well as commercial marketing. Hence, the

importance of price, place, product and promotion cannot be undermined. Added

emphasis can be given to additional P's as power, packaging, public relations,

perception and persuasion to conquer the market as well as the audience minds.

6. Future Designing:

The results obtained in case of social marketing as well as commercial marketing can be

used for future improvement accompanied by a feedback and free advice to create a

striking effect.

24
1.11. Similar levels in product and social marketing programme

Social marketers use three same levels as in case of a product.

(Fig. 1.1)

Social marketing sells the benefits of a desired behaviour as the core product. Charles

Revson of Revlon provided a memorable quote illustrating the difference between

product features and product benefits (core products), "In the factory we make

cosmetics, in the store, we sell hope". (Kotler Philip, Koshy Abraham, Kelller Kevin
14
Lane and Jha Mithileshwar) Surrounding the core product is the specific desired

behaviour which is the actual behaviour to be promoted. The final level includes every

tangible object and services to support the desired behaviour change. These may include

opportunities to brand and to 'tangibilize' the campaign, create more attention, appeal

and create memorability for target audiences.

25
1.12. Extended elements in social marketing:

Social communicators make greater use of personal selling and editorial support in

addition to mass advertising. Till recently, social marketing has begun to replace social

communication as a larger paradigm for affecting social change. Social marketing adds

for atleast four elements that are missing from a pure social communication approach

according to Karen F. A. Fox and Philip Kotler.

The first element is "sophistication" where the social marketer examines the size of the

market, the major market segments and the behavioural characteristics of each segment

as well as the cost-benefit impact of targeting different segments and designing

appropriate campaigns for each.

The second extended element is "product development" where the social marketer will

make potential product easier for the audience to accept a desired behaviour.

The third element according to Fox and Kotler is the "use of incentives" where social

marketers concentrate on composing dramatic messages that benefit or disbenefit

different kinds of behaviour and positively affect their level of motivation.

The fourth element is "facilitation", where people wishing to change their behaviour

can invest time and energy in easily available possible alternatives. For eg., smoking

cessation classes may be conveniently located and conducted in a professional manner.

The present study has interwoven all the above elements in the research to find out the

effectiveness of a social programme through the study of "Traffic Week".

1.13. Major areas of concern yet not covered

There are a number of areas of concern to which social marketing has yet not extended

to. Also the view and dimensional approach towards an issue differs when looked from

26
managerial point and social point of view. Perhaps a good indication may be gleamed

from the list of 'concerns' developed by the 'Committee on Economic Development'

which extend to various uncovered social issues of prime importance. Certain vital

issues excavated by William Lazer27 are :

(1) Economic growth which is an assumed traditional responsibility.

(2) Education and training in the broad sense which includes more than

schools and universities.

(3) Employment and the provision of opportunities for people to realize

themselves vocationally and professionally.

(4) Civil rights and equal opportunity for all.

(5) Urban renewal and development.

(6) Pollution abatement.

(7) Culture and arts.

(8) Conservation and recreation.

(9) Healthcare.

(10) Governmental relationship which extend well beyond anti trust laws and other

regulations.

1.14. Definition of a Social Programme:

Dr. Francis, 1971, in the report of the committee on measures of effectiveness for social

programs, defines a social program as, "A plan of action, an experiment introduced into

the society for the purpose of producing a change in the status of the society or some of

its members". It is very important to recognize that social programs are experiments. In

this context, Random House dictionary defines experiments as, "A test, a trial, a

27
tentative procedure, or an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something

unknown or of testing a principle, supposition, etc". Though not all but most of the

social program of the federal, state and local governments and private organizations are

indeed experiments (Jensen Robert E., Campfield William L., Frank Werner G., Luoma

Gary A., Manes Rene P., Oliver Bruce L. and Onsi Mohamed)18

1.14.1. Developing a Social Marketing Plan:

A Social Marketing plan has to pass through eight steps to ensure viability and success.

It is very necessary to realize the foundation level where we stand which refers to the

current scenario and current status. Hence, for developing a sound social programme

the following stages have been outlined by Philip Kotler:

1. Analyzing the Social Marketing Enterprise is the first step. Relevant information is

to be complied to help determine target markets, objectives, goals and strategies.

Step 1 :

• Determine program focus

• Identify campaign purpose

• Conduct SWOT analysis

• Review past and similar efforts

2. At the second stage, the "bulls -eye" for marketing efforts are selected. It begins

with segmenting the market and ends with choosing one or more targets. This stage

focuses on objectives, goals and target audiences. Hence,

Step 2 : Select target audiences

Step 3 : Set objectives and goals.

Step 4: Analyze target audiences and the competition.

28
3. The third stage, uses marketing mix, a blend of strategies (4 Ps) that are integrated

to appeal to the marketing. The marketer designs a strategy to answer the question,

"How will we get there?"

Step 5: Product: Design the market offering

Price: Manage costs of behaviour change.

Place: Make the product available.

Promotion: Create messages

Choose media (Communication channels)

4. The last stage deals with Social Marketing Program Management.

Step 6: Develop a plan for evaluation and monitoring

Step 7: Establish budgets and find funding sources

Step 8: Complete an implementation plan.

1.14.2. Choosing the Campaign Focus:

Decision making begins with identifying the major potential approaches that can

contribute to solving or supporting the social issue.

• Evaluating the potential approaches and choosing a focus:

The following criterias can be used for choosing the most appropriate focus.

Criteria - 1 : Behaviour change potentiah-

It is necessary to assess whether a clear behavior can be promoted to address the issue or

not. Eg. Offering enhanced counseling services for pregnant teens do not have the same

potential that a "safe sex" focus would have.

29
Criteria-II- Market Demand:-

The number of people that can be benefited from a behavior change campaign with a

specific focus needs to be determined.

Criteria-Ill- Market Supply:-

Whether the issue is already being addressed by other organization and campaigns needs

to be found out.

Criteria-IV- Organizational Match:-

What is the match for the sponsoring organization, its consistency with the mission and

culture, infrastructural support, staff expertise etc. needs to be assessed at the time of

choosing the focus.

Criteria-V- Funding Sources and Appeal:-

The approach which has the greatest funding potential should be found out. Eg.,

drinking and driving has the greatest potential for partnership with non-profit

organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and Corporate Sponsorship from

the Beer Industry.

Hence, an appropriate focus will have the highest potential for a behavior change.

1.14.3. Evaluating the Environmental Factors:

A SWOT analysis for a social campaign is vital to find out whether it will sustain both

internal and external forces. The micro environment (internal factors) constitute the

resources (funding, staffing, expertise), the past performance, service delivery,

management support, issue priority and internal publics.

The macro environment (external forces) are the set of forces typically outside the

influence of social marketer as cultural forces, technological forces, demographic

30
profile, natural forces, economic forces, political legal forces, external publics and many

more.

1.14.4. Criterias to Qualify as a Social Project:

Both Lefebvre and Flora (1988)26 and Andreasen (1995) identity criteria for project to

be called social marketing projects, described as the 7 key features of social marketing.

1. Consumer behavior is the bottom line

2. Programs must be cost-effective

3. All strategies must begin with the customer

4. Interventions should involve the Four P's: Product, Price, Place and Promotion

5. Market research is essential to design, pre-testing and evaluating intervention

programs

6. Markets be carefully segmented

7. Competition be always recognized

1.14.5. Designing a successful social Programme:

The targeted segment can be influenced for a behavioral change via the instrument of a

social programme. Thus, a social programme is a medium which reaches out to the

audience to bring about a social change. The researcher has thus used "Traffic Week" as

a social programme to measure the effectiveness and assesses its impact on the audience.

The designing and communication of a social programme cannot be undermined. The

goal of social marketing is to develop communications that will capture the attention of

our target audience and persuade them to adopt the desired behaviour. The test is

complex as it calls for choosing from a variety of potential communication elements,

styles, tones, words and formats. However, every social programme needs backing of an

31
appropriate social campaign to create awareness and strike a change. So designing a

social campaign for successful programme cannot be undermined.

According to Kotler and Andreasen:

• Potential messages generated by interviewing targeted markets and ideas can be

accumulated.

• A second approach might use creative brain storming sessions or formal

deductive framework in the third approach.

• A formal method of designing a successful campaign begins with the key

message (idea generation).

• Choosing the audience segment.

• The communication objective (to know, to believe, to do).

• To clearly outline the advantages of the behaviour (benefits to promise).

• To state facts, figures, graphic visuals, real stories to support the promise.

• To select the communication media (T.V., internet, radio).

• Finally the positioning and placement of all the ideas.

This sequential ladder ensures integrity in the design of the whole campaign and

ultimately leads to an effective social programme.

1.14.6. Different Approaches to Strike Social Change:

There have existed and still exist many approaches and concepts for social change.

Concepts like Health Education (Bates and Winder, 1984), Health promotion (Downie,

1990), Social advertising (Kotler and Roberto, 1989), Public communications

(Andreasen, 1995) are commonly used to describe different approaches for social

change.

32
Andreasen (1995) group them into groups:

• The Education approach

• The Persuasion approach

• The Behaviour modification approach

• The Social Influence approach

• The Social Marketing approach

• The Education Approach:

According to Andreasen (1995) this approach starts with the assumption that people will

do the right thing if they only know what and how to do it. The goal is to impart

knowledge and the facts to the target audience. This is the method used extensively in

the health care field as well.

• The Persuasion Approach:

The followers of this approach believe that people will only take action if motivated

enough. This could be called the "selling approach" and social advertising is one

example of methods under this type of approach.

• The Behavioral Modification Approach:

The behavioral approach stresses the behaviorist theory that people do what they do

because 1) they learn a technique 2) find it rewarding.

• The Social Influence Approach:

Followers of this approach claim that the most cost effective way to achieve social

change is to influence community norms and collective behaviour.

33
• The Social Marketing Approach:

Social Marketing is just not a set of tools to accomplish social change. It represents a

new ideology, or mindset, the assimilation of which can prepare the ground for

widespread and more effective social change (Kotler & Roberto, 1989)

Andreasen(1995) argues that social marketing uses features from all the above and is a

more comprehensive approach. The thesis incorporates all the above approaches to make

social programme more effective.

1.15. The P's of Marketing:

1.15.1. Product:

Just as in traditional commercial marketing, the 4 P's make up the marketing mix, the

same P's are applied in social marketing with a different perspective. The Social

marketing product might be very intangible like a belief or behaviour and it is a lot

harder to formulate a product concept to such a product than extra soft toilet paper

(Bloom and Novelli, 1981)4.

People have to feel that they have a problem and that the product offered is a viable

solution to that problem(Kline Weinreich, 1999).Kotler and Roberto(1989) suggest that

that is a part of the reason why many social campaigns fail because their target group do

not perceive a problem, want or need, again undermining the importance of

segmentation. The present thesis highlights on this point to make a social programme

effective.

According to Kotler and Roberto (1989) the social product can either represent an idea,

a practice or a concrete object. The idea can then be either a belief (breastfeeding is good

for my child), an attitude (planned babies are better cared for than babies from accidental

34
pregnancies) or a value (all humans have equal rights). To distinguish these three terms

Rockeach suggested that "a person has many beliefs, some attitudes and few values"

(Rockeach in Kotler and Roberto 1989). The practice can be an Act (immunization) and

the repeated act turns into behaviour (using a condom). The tangible object could be a

condom, soap, oral rehydration formula, etc.

1.15.2. Price:

"The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to

acquire it is the toil and trouble of acquiring it"(Smith, 1776 cited in Kotler and Roberto

1989).

Price does not have to be monetary but can also be non-monetary like time, effort,

change in life-style. (Kotler and Roberto, 1989; Joyce and Morris in Fine, 1990;

Weinreich Kleine, 1999; Kotler, 2002). The thesis counts on this price in terms of

investment of time, money, energy, efforts and change in knowledge and attitude while

measuring effectiveness of a social programme.

1.15.2.1. The Monetary Price:

Many social programs such as family planning programs, health clinics, charge a

fee(price) for its products and services. Like any other product the price determines who

and how many who choose have the ability to purchase the product or service.

The monetary price serves several functions and Kotler and Roberto (1989) talk about

three functions that the social marketer should have in mind when considering the

monetary price of their services or products.

1. The accessibility function(where price determines whether it is easy or hard for

the people to buy the product)

35
 2. The product-positioning function(where price issued by the buyer to judge the

quality of the product)

3. The de-marketing function(where excessive demand can be discouraged by

raising the price)

1.15.2.2. The Non-monetary Price:

In social marketing there are many times no monetary prices for the product

(Rothschild, 1979; Bloom and Novelli, 1981; Weinreich Kleine, 1999) but the price that

is more important might be the non-monetary one. Kotler and Roberto (1989) divide the

non-monetary price/cost in two categories:

a) Time costs (for example travel time or waiting time)

b) Perceived risks(psychological risks, social risks and physical risk)

Social marketers should seek to reduce the prospect's time, energy, and physical cost.

Joyce and Morris (1990) are less enthusiastic about the use of pricing as a tool for social

marketing. They claim that social marketers have little control over non-monetary

prices.

Many experts state that pricing strategies for social marketing are complex and difficult

and that social marketers cannot use all the tools available for price management in

commercial marketing (Jyoce and Morris, 1990; Kotler and Roberto, 1989).

The thesis includes both the cost, monetary and non-monetary cost to abandon a

behaviour.

1.15.2.3. Cases Studied: (Martinsen Cecilia, 2003) (Uganda)

1. Breastfeeding might be perceived as free but consider the price a mother could be

considered paying: time, dealing with sore nipples, the worries of the quality of the

36
 milk and the inability to work when breastfeeding. The cost for a woman in Uganda

taking her baby to the doctor could be numerous. The time to walk there, the

admission fee, shame (the risk to be seen as a mother that cannot take care of her

child, or not believing in traditional medicine) and the time taken from other duties in

the home represent the non-monetary cost.

2. Price to use a condom, shame (to buy one, to ask to use one, an act against religion)

reflects the non-monetary price of the condom.

1.15.3. Place :

"Place is where and when the target market will perform the desired behaviour, acquire

any related tangible object, and receive any associated service" (Kotler et al 2002).

Distribution channel is another work used when talking about place (Alcalay and Bell

2000).

The social marketing placing/distribution objective must provide access to the product

as convenient as possible for the target group. This could include more and closer

location, extended hours, change the appearance of the location and make the

performing of the desired behaviour more appealing than the competing (Kotler et al

2002).

Alcalay and Bell(2002) also talk about the "social availability" for ideas and behaviour

meaning that they must be "supported and accepted within the customers social sphere".

Eg. Framing legal rights for lactating women to take breaks to breastfeed or religious

leaders supporting the use of condoms for family planning.

37
1.15.4 Promotion:

"Communication and promotion often involves persuasion to influence attitudes and

behaviour. In order to persuade you need to capture the attention of the person you want

to persuade in competition of many other sources for example, another person, the radio,

the TV, noise etc." (McKenzie-Mohr and Smith, 1999)34.

The traditional promotional mix in marketing contains advertising, personal selling,

publicity and sales promotion (Zaltman, 1972). They can be used separately or in

combination depending on the communications need of the specific program. In recent

years popular medias such as television series, radio shows, theatres, movies etc. have

been used to communicate a marketing message (Fraser and Restrepo-Estrada, 1998).

The researcher has related promotion mix to enhance effectiveness of a social

programme in the due course of study. The various ingredients of promotion mix used

are:

1.15.4.1. Advertising:

Advertising is the most important and popular tool (Rados, 1990) but also the most

expensive. Advertising is paid media or unpaid public service announcements (Kotler,

2002). There are different sorts of medias to choose as TV, radio, internet, print media,

direct mail, public billboards, etc.( Weinreich Klein, 1999).

1.15.4.2. Personal Selling:

In social marketing programs personal selling is often used (Kotler, 2002). It can take

the form of face-to-face meetings, for example a discussion between a health worker

and a mother talking about the benefits of breastfeeding and immunization, village

38
meetings where all mothers are invited to talk about immunization, breastfeeding,

family planning etc.

1.15.4.3. Publicity:

Publicity or Public Relations is the marketers' tool to use the media to get free, positive

coverage of the social project. This would cover news on TV or radio, articles or

editorial comments in magazines and newspapers (Kotler, 2002).

1.15.4.4. Sales Promotion:

Sales promotion includes all activities directly devoted to promote the "sale" of a

product. Different activities are product sampling, where you let the target audience get

a free sample of product, couponing, etc can used to enhance acceptability of an idea.

Kotler (2002) labels these kinds of medias as 'Popular Medias' to complement the

communication tools.

1.15.4.4.1. Popular Media:

It means using entertainment to communicate behaviour change messages including

movies, television, series, radio programs, comic books, theatre, songs and puppeteers,

etc. Fraser and Restrepo-Estrada (1998) shows that this type of media has been

successful in the today's world. They take up examples like:

1. The most popular band in the Congo that wrote and produced a series of songs

about breastfeeding, oral rehydration and child growth monitoring, in the 80's and

the use of soap operas in Mexico to talk about HIV/AIDS and family planning.

2. UNICEF's Sara (In Africa) and Meene (in South Asia) initiative communicates

with adolescent girls about their rights and about important issues like HIV/AIDS,

39
 female circumcision and women's situation in Africa through a radio series,

animated films, comic books, storybooks, audiocassettes, posers and guides.

Different social marketing programs have used all types of promotional techniques to

promote the use of safe sex by use of condoms. Mass media advertising, radios, talk-

shows, dramas, the use of logos, peer group educators, sales agents, puppet shows,

traditional storytellers, posters, advertising placards and educational materials are used.

The promotion was designed not only to promote the acceptability of the product, but

also to affect behavioral change.

1.15.5. Additional P's:

Hubley(1993) talks about social marketing as focusing on the 4 P's in the marketing

mix while Alcalay and Bell (2000) chooses to explain the social marketing mix as 5 Ps

including, positioning, as the additional P's. Other experts suggest the expansion of the

4 P's to 7. Fine(1990) adds, Producer(the marketer or the source of the promotion),

Purchaser(who is the target and what do they want) and probing (research). Kotler and

Roberto(1989) talks about, Personnel (those who sell or deliver the social product),

Presentation(the setting in which the product is acquired or used) and Process(the steps

the buyer needs to take to acquire the product).

Kein Weinberger (1999) adds 4 P's to Social marketing Mix, Publics(internal and

external audience), Partnership, Policy and Pursestrings(funding agencies).

1.15.6. Importance of Promotion in a Social Programme:

The promotion mix discussed in (1.15.4.) provides a strong backing to a social

programme. The above study thus rests upon promotion as an important tool to make a

40
social programme effective. To support promotion, effective communication and media

involvement become inevitable.

1.15.6.1 Effective Communication:

To create an emphatic imprint on the minds of the segment, effective communication

skills are inevitably. Mc Kenzie-Mohr and Smith (1999)34 suggested certain guidelines

for making the executional strategy more effective.

• The message should be vivid, personal and concrete.

• The message delivery should be endorsed by a credible individual or organization.

• Message content should focus on what the individual is loosing by not acting rather

than what he saving by acting.

• Threatening message should be coupled with specific suggestion regarding what

actions an individual can take.

• Communication content especially instructions for a desired behaviour should be

made clear and specific.

• Message designed should be framed in a way that the targeted group remembers

know what to do, how and when to do it.

The researcher endorses the above criterias to make the social programmes more

effective with respect to effective social programme communication. The researcher has

thus paid due attention to effective communication as an important element for

enhancing the effectiveness of social programme.

1.15.6.2. Media Involvement:

As a vehicle of promotion, the contribution of media to enhance awareness cannot be

undermined. Media encompasses both indoor and outdoor means which include press,

4 1
V
print, audio, visual and insight means of coverage. The impact created by media

provides an unmatched support to any social programme. With respect to the above

thesis, the researcher lays the foundations on effective message and effective vehicle

(media) for optimizing effectiveness of a social programme.

1.15.6.3. Media and Social Change:

(a) Print and Radio Coverage:

The rapid changes in television have overshadowed the print and radio as media. In

1997, revenue on AIR was Rs. 95 Cr. which rose to 125 cr. in 1998 (Dr. Kejariwal O. P.,

Director General AIR) and is currently approximated to be 450 cr:

Also with a significant population being illiterate, the print media approaches a minority.

The radio's outreach continues to be greater, but lesser in comparison to Television

(Anand Anita, 1998)2.

The researcher has though included the print and audio media also as an instrument for

creating awareness, more emphasis has been laid on Television as it is accessible to

majority Indian population. Through these medias the researcher has tried to find out the

awareness spread of a social programme amongst the masses.

(b) Television Networking:

In modern times the desire to be connected, to be in touch and to be informed is the

basic requirement. In India, the media is fast becoming a big business. Amongst all the

medias available (as discussed above), the highest desired and wide spread media is the

"television". The television media has the highest network coverage and is the most

impactful tool for creating awareness for a social project. (Anand Anita, 1998)2

42
In 1998, the Indian market of satellite cable viewers was estimated to be 18 million

homes (with a base of 55 million sets- more than France and UK combined) which rose

to 65 million homes in the year 2000. Currently, approximately 62 percent of

households in India own a television set. (Anand Anita, 1998)2. Hence, the networking

of television is one of the largest in India through which a social issue can be advocated

and so the researcher has emphasized on this tool to measure spread of a social

programme- Traffic Week. The researcher has involved television media as important

coverage tool in the questionnaire as well as in the interviews to collect datas.

1.16. Important elements for an effective executional strategy:

There are four important elements of vital importance for effective execution of a social

campaign.

• The rational element focuses on delivering straight forward information and facts.

• The emotional elements are designed to elicit some negative feelings as fear, guilt

or shame or positive emotion as humor, love, pride or joy that motivates a desired

behaviour.

• The moral element targets the audience's sense to what is right and ethical.

• The non verbal element relies on visual cues, graphic images and symbols of body

language of actors and models, including expressions, facial and body movement,

eye contact, spatial distance and physical appearance.

A social campaign should incorporate these elements to bring out the emphatic essence

and click the audience.

43
1.17. Magic Mantras for successful social programs:

Weinreich Nendra Kline, 199549, designed ten tips for building social marketing into

social programs. These guru mantras provide backing to a social programs and help in

effective implementation

Success ladder
Talk to your customer
(Listening)
Segment your audience
Position your product
(behaviour and attitude)
Know your competition
(Competing messages)
Go to where your audience is
(use media coverage)
Utilize a variety of approaches
(Combine mass media community, small graph and individual activity)
(consistency and continuity are key for successful campaign)
Use model that works
(To move from contemplation to action)
Test, test, test
(focus group and surveys)
Build partnership with key allies
(Build connection with people, organization, professionals, local service organization,
religious groups and existing community coalitions)
See what you can do better next time
(test and refine the message)
Source: Social Marketing Quarterly, 1995 (Table 1.2)

1.18. Alternative tools supporting a Social Campaign

Marketing is not the only approach to influence or change public behaviour. Other

supplementary tools can have a far reaching effect to strike a change.

• Technology support to enhance a social cause cannot be undermined. A

technology can be designed and developed in a way to enhance or advocate

behaviour as incase of some cars which facilitate automatic seat belts that wrap

around the passengers when the door is closed.

44
 • Economic pressure and incentives also exert force on an individuals behaviour

as increasing taxes on cigarettes and providing incentives for conservation of

environment.

• Making laws tougher when all methods fail would lead to positive reactions, eg.

laws pertaining to feticide and saving a girl child or drinking and driving.

• To connect a line of understanding between social marketing and audiences,

education acts as a bridge to create magic on the minds of people, eg.,

education on AIDS and child immunization.

Hence, social marketing would fail to have an imprint in absence of these tools. It is

very obvious that when all tools fail, the ultimate weapon which works is forceful law

enforcement to bring about a behaviour change, eg., punishment for driving without

licenses.

However, social marketing mostly relies on voluntary compliance rather than legal,

economic or coercive forms of influence. This is because social marketers cannot

promise a direct benefit or immediate pay back in return for a proposed behaviour

change.

1.19. Additional Approaches to make Social Programme Effective:

Various supplementary criterias supporting a sound campaign have been sketched out

for making a campaign effective and emphatic. Fox Karen F. A. and Kotler Philip

applied various approaches to a cigarette abolishation campaign, to increase its impact.

(With reference to this campaign),

(1) The legal approach refers to passing laws that make cigarette smoking illegal,

costly or difficult (prohibiting smoking in public places).

45
(2) The technological approach focuses on developing an innovation which will

help people abstain from smoking, eg., anti-smoking pills or harmless cigarette.

(3) The Economic approach can also contribute to making the campaign emphatic.

This can be done by raising price or cost of cigarette, higher taxes, higher

insurance premiums for smokers, etc.

(4) The roots of social marketing lie in the informational approach in the form of

social advertising. This approach refers to persuasive information at the smokers

end about the risk of smoking and the advantages of not smoking e.g. warnings -

"smoking is injurious to your health".

1.20. Contributors to the success of a Social programme

As social marketing does not assure a monetary yield, advocators and practitioners of

social marketing look for a unique motive. The equation is still more difficult as social

marketing guarantees no rewards and assurances pertaining to the behavioural change as

it depend on mental convictions of the audiences.

Social marketing is propagated by professionals working for governmental agencies and

organizations, professionals working for non-profit organization, associations and

foundations (like green peace, world wild life fund, friends of earth etc.) professionals

working for profit organization in position responsible for corporate philanthropy,

marketing or community relations (e.g. An Insurance Company promoting use of

helmets) and marketing professionals who provide services to organization engaged in

social marketing campaign such as advertisement agencies, public relation firms and

market research firms.

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To sum up, social marketing may be taken up by organization such as government

department concerned with health, social welfare and education as well as other non-

profit organization and associations. Corporate concerns are also contributors to social

campaigns these days. Voluntary social organization like Charitable Trusts, Red Cross

Society, Political Organization and Non Profit Organization like educational institutions,

hospitals etc. are instrumental in promoting campaigns related to anti-smoking,

pollution, drugs, ethnic discrimination, child labour, illiteracy, pure drinking water,

sanitation, mobilization of small savings, etc. This effort of social advertising is also

known as "Public Service or awareness advertisement" (Kotler).

1.21. Celebrity involvement in social programme

In as many as 70 percent of the cases of people who came to the polio booth, the

respondents admitted that Amitabh Bachhan had been the prime motivator in creating

awareness. (Brent Burkholder, WHO regional advisor immunization and vaccine

development for south east Asia) Icons like athletes, film star and dancers are the heart

of culture and can certainly create awareness more emphatically than other measures or

strategies. Richard Gere, the Hollywood star emerged as a major player in the global

campaign against HIV/ ADDS (July 10, 2008, Chennai). Striking awareness has been

observed when campaign are endorsed by celebrities as Batting Maestro, Sachin

Tendulkar to remove misconceptions on HIV affected people or Aaishwariya Rai

Bachhan, who advocated eye donation as the ambassador of the "Eye Bank Association

of India". Thus the quickest way to convey messages convincencingly is to engage

celebrities to support and promote a social cause or a social behaviour.

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1.22 Chapter Summary

The introductory chapter begins with a detailed insight of the concept, origin and history

of social marketing. The researcher has tried to present an overview on the subject-

Social Marketing by including similarities and differences between commercial and

social marketing, hurdles in social marketing, developing an effective social marketing

programme, etc. Social issues have been studied from macro level globally to developed

and developing countries and then filtered down to the Indian context. The study

includes the P's of Social Marketing and the importance of promotion in a social

programme. The study also encompasses the elements of a successful Promotional

Campaign as message (communication) and the vehicle (media) which helps in making

a social programme effective. The chapter thus begins with introduction to Social

Marketing and ends with elements for making a social programme effective.

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