2. The Fundamentals of Social Marketing

This chapter explains the steps necessary for creating a social marketing program. These include identifying appropriate objectives and goals for your program, properly segmenting the potential audience, selecting an appropriate target audience who will be receptive to your efforts, and positioning your social marketing program in a way that appeals to your target audience. It is essential to identify the barriers your target may face and remove these, as well as offer benefits to encourage the desired behavior change. A “four P’s” approach is explained for designing your social marketing program. This method considers the “product” you are offering (behavior change), the price it represents for your target audience (both monetary and non-monetary), the place where it will be offered, and how you will promote it. Finally, this chapter discusses the ethical challenges inherent in social marketing efforts.