Social Marketing

Social marketing is the application of traditional marketing tools and practices to promote social products rather than consumer goods and services. The term social marketing was coined in 1971 by Philip Kotler and Eduardo Roberto to describe socially based campaigns, though government agencies and nonprofit organizations had been using marketing practices many years beforehand. Social marketing and public communication campaigns, as well as public service campaigns, are often referred to interchangeably.

A primary goal of social marketing is to increase the acceptance of a social idea or practice in one or more groups of target audiences. Areas in which social marketing is often employed include disease prevention, gun control, the arts, conservation, seat belt usage, and charitable giving, to name only a few. Political involvement is ...