Social Marketing and Social Media Marketing
“When improving the quality of life of individuals is at the core of an organization, rather than the manufacturing of products, the type of marketing activity that organization engages in is called social marketing.”
– Philip Kotler
“Social Marketing is the design, implementation, and control of programs seeking to increase the acceptability of a social idea, cause, or practice in a target group. It utilizes market segmentation, consumer research, concept development, communications, facilitation, incentives and the exchange theory to maximize target group response.”
– Philip Kotler, Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations (1975)
Introduction
Marketing is a term applied to a broad field which contains numerous specialized areas, which includes: Advertising, Communication, Database Marketing, Direct Marketing, Event Organization, Global Marketing, International Marketing, Internet Marketing, Market Research, Public Relations, Retailing, Search Engine Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Plan and Strategic Marketing. Personally I prefer to break the field known as Marketing down into two subfields: Marketing and Social Marketing. It simplifies things, however such a simplistic breakdown will most likely only serve to cause uproar from those who take marketing courses in school and from many in the field.
A few historical definitions of terminology
Marketing, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, was a term coined in 1561 whose definition is “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service”
Social Marketing, is a term dating from 1971 and accredited to Dr. Philip Kotler which is defined as “The use of marketing techniques to promote the adoption of healthy or pro-social behaviors”.
In 1995 Alan R. Andreasen, author of Marketing Social Change, stated, “the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society”.
Around the year 2005, according to Spare Change, the term Social Media Marketing came on the scene. It was defined as “Marketing via online tools and platforms that people use to share information with each other, such as blogs, social networking sites, wikis, podcasts and shared media sites”.
In April of 2008, Chris Lang of Keywebdata, came up with the name City Social Marketing. At this time I checked Google and found no real listings for City Social Marketing, in fact the date is now 30 April (2008) and City Social Marketing is still the only site which employs the use of the term “City Social Marketing” as a sub-field of Marketing and Social Marketing fields. I feel I can’t reiterate this enough for two reasons. The first being the fact that if Chris actually is the first to coin the term, he should get credit, the second being if someone can prove they actually coined the term first… then they should get some of the credit.
Marketing, Social Marketing and Social Media Marketing
Generally speaking, where Marketing is the system basically used to sell goods, services, ideas, etc. for a particular agenda; Social Marketing is set up to sell ideas which promote ideas for the purpose of stimulating changes for the benefit of all Additionally Social Media Marketing is the sharing of information with each other on-line.
Social Media Marketing is a relatively new term, after scouring the net for 2 days I have failed to find when the term first appeared and who the first to use it was. On the other hand I have found that it’s not that old of an idea. Social Marketing is not really an old idea either, in fact it ranges from 13 to 37 years old, by most accounts. The concept of Marketing dates back around 450 years. All of these concepts are in an evolutionary process which redefines them on occasion, as well as modernizes their individual fields or subfields. Dr. Philip Kotler is often found listed as one of the fathers of modern marketing, but the distinction of the strategies and views of Marketing today, along with all its sub-fields, are not to be to his credit alone. Others helped shape the face of modern marketing, but Dr. Kotler is amongst the best of them.
Where’s City Social Marketing fit into this?
City Social Marketing is a new subfield for it crosses borders by incorporating online Social Media Marketing tools and platforms, such as message boards and places like Facebook, with Social Marketing and Marketing in order to bring news and information to the consumers which will not only result in social, or societal, change… but also benefit the consumers and marketers alike, according to geographical divisions, by providing a way to sell and buy locally… which helps to stimulate the economy on the local level.
Let’s face it, when you spend your money on the net… that money you spend usually ends up in places other than your own community. Such purchases may help the community of a far away place, and it may help the national or international community… but the money you work hard for and spend doesn’t always make it back to where you live. By targeting specific areas with ads for businesses in the communities you belong, that money goes to businesses in your area and often gets recalculated there.
Sources:
Seven Must-Know Marketing Principles
http://www.planonline.org/crib/sevenmarketing.htm
Spare Change
http://www.social-marketing.com/blog/2006/09/social-marketing-vs-social-marketing.html
Definition of Social Marketing
http://socialmarketing.wetpaint.com/page/Definition+of+Social+Marketing?t=anon
Wikipedia: Marketing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing
Comment by Chris Moran
Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
Comment by Chris Tackett
Been reading for a while now. Just wanted to say good job.
Chris Tackett