698 The Marketing Book
objectives of the two activities: non-profit mar-
keters are ultimately concerned with the suc-
cess and survival of their organization, social
marketers with changes in their target popula-
tion. Again, however, there is a confusing
degree of overlap. There are some bodies
whose primary business is social marketing,
such as the Health Education Authority in
England or the Centers for Disease Control in
the US, who may also use non-profit marketing
to manage their own organization. On the other
hand, there are non-profit organizations like the
Cancer Research Campaign, whose primary
function is to raise money for cancer research,
who may sometimes get involved in social
marketing activities.
To help clarify matters, a special edition of
theSocial Marketing Quarterlyinvited key fig-
ures in the field to define social marketing,
which was then 25 years old (Albrecht, 1996)
(see Figure 27.1).
A number of key, common elements arise
from these different definitions of social mar-
keting. The first is the focus on voluntary
behaviour change. The second is that social
marketers try to induce voluntary behaviour
change by applying the principle of exchange –
the recognition that there must be a clear
benefit for the customer if change is to occur.
Third, marketing techniques such as consumer-
oriented market research, segmentation and the
marketing mix should be used.
Andreasen’s (1995) definition of social
marketing encapsulates these points:Social marketing is the application of commer-
cial marketing technologies to the analysis,
planning, execution and evaluation of programs
designed to influence the voluntary behaviour
of target audiences in order to improve their
personal welfare and that of society.
(p. 7)Figure 27.1 Definitions of social marketing