The Marketing Book 5th Edition

Social product Behaviour

Tangible object

Idea

Belief

Attitude

Value

Single act

Sustained practice

Social marketing 705

social marketer is not in the business of selling
condoms per se, but of selling a change in
attitudes (more favourable beliefs about con-
dom use) or behaviour (correct use of con-
doms) in order to bring about the social or
health benefit which condom use can confer –
improved reproductive and sexual health and
more satisfying relationships. Kotler and
Roberto (1989) caution that family planning
social marketers ‘who say their product is
a condom misunderstand their market’
(p. 140).
As a partial solution to this difficulty,
some commentators suggest conceptualizing a
‘core product’ such as ‘safer driving’ (Kotler
and Zaltman, 1971, p. 7), which may be
accompanied by a range of ‘buyable’ products
and services such as road safety campaigns,
driver training and transport policies which
contribute to the objective. Fine (1981) sug-
gests a similar conceptualization, in which a
‘class of products’ – e.g. ‘education’ – might
comprise various product ‘forms’, such as
adult education classes, literacy training and
so on.
This complexity makes social marketing
products difficult to conceptualize. As a con-
sequence, social marketers have a bigger task
in defining exactly what their product is and

the benefits associated with its use. This is

discussed further in the section on the market-

ing mix below.

Figure 27.4 The social marketing product
Source: Adapted from Kotler and Roberto (1989).

Varied demand

Marketing cannot create needs but commercial

marketers do manage to harness needs pre-

viously unknown for new product categories

such as CDs, catalytic converters and ‘new’

washing powders. Social marketers must not

only uncover new demand, but in addition

must frequently deal with negative demand

when the target group is apathetic about or

strongly resistant to a proposed behaviour

change. Young recreational drug users, for

instance, may see no problems with their

current behaviour (Andreasen, 1997). In these

situations, social marketers must challenge

entrenched attitudes and beliefs. Demarketing

approaches may help here (Lawther et al., 1997;

Hastingset al., 1998a).

Rangunet al. (1996) suggest a typology of

the benefits associated with a behaviour

change. The benefits may be tangible, intan-

gible, relevant to the individual or relevant to

society. Demand is easier to generate where the

benefits are both tangible and personally rele-

vant. In those situations where the product