716 The Marketing Book
products are perceived and positioned. For
example, in Case 2 above, different water
fluoridation products were offered to local
councils and water companies.
Price
Only a few of social marketing’s products have
a monetary price (condoms are an obvious
example: see Harvey (1997) and Dahl et al.
(1997) for discussion of pricing strategy in
contraceptive social marketing.
However, there are almost always costs
associated with behaviour change which act as
obstacles to marketing social change; these may
be financial, time, embarrassment, effort, iner-
tia, pain, perceived social exclusion (e.g. Mar-
teau, 1990). However, there should be benefits
also. These may be tangible and personal
benefits such as a longer life or intangible,
societal benefits such as a better environment.
Rangunet al. (1996) argue that there are four
broad types of social marketing initiatives
according to this cost-benefit analysis:
1 Low cost and tangible, personal benefits, e.g.
cervical screening for women. In this case the
target perceives clear, direct benefits to
themselves. As change is easy, relative to the
four other types of initiative, communication
and information are key elements of the social
marketing strategy.
2 Low cost and intangible, societal benefits, e.g.
recycling programmes. Here the behavioural
change is relatively easy to adopt, but the
benefits are not perceived to be as relevant to
the individual. The authors argue that
convenience is the key to this type of
programme, and the ultimate benefit to
themselves and to society should be stressed.
3 High cost and tangible, personal benefits, e. g.
smoking cessation programmes. In this case
there is a very clear personal benefit to
adopting the suggested behaviour, but the
costs associated with doing so are high. It is
suggested that the social marketer adopts a
strong ‘push marketing’ approach, supported by
communications campaigns and community
level initiatives.
4 High cost and intangible, societal benefits, e.g.
CFCs in aerosols. This is clearly the hardest
type of behaviour change to induce, as the
costs are high and the benefits are hard to
personalize and quantify. In this case, it may be
necessary to adopt de-marketing approaches,
use moral persuasion or social influence.Place
Kotler and Zaltman (1971) suggest that place
should be defined in social marketing as
encompassing distribution and response chan-
nels, and ‘clear action outlets for those moti-
vated to acquire the product’ (p. 9). Where there
is a communications element to a social market-
ing initiative – for example, television advertis-
ing, outdoor advertising, direct mail, health
education leaflets – place applies to the media
channels through which messages are to be
delivered. Place can also apply to distribution
channels where a social marketing programme
has a tangible product base (e.g. condoms,
needle exchanges). In these two instances and
in social marketing programmes where a spe-
cific service is being offered – for example, an
antenatal class or workplace smoking cessation
group – place variables such as channel, cov-
erage, cost, timing (Kotler and Roberto, 1989),
location, transport (Woodruffe, 1995) and acces-
sibility (Cowell, 1994) are all relevant. For
example, an initiative to increase uptake of
cervical screening could reduce the costs of
attending by manipulating the place variables
of distance, time and convenience (offering
screening at flexible times and in different
locations).
In addition, many social marketing ini-
tiatives depend on intermediaries such as
health professionals, pharmacists, teachers and
community workers to act as distribution chan-
nels for media materials or as retailers for a
particular behaviour change product – for
example, GPs are often given responsibility for
changing smoking and drinking behaviour