Question

What is the definition of Social Marketing? What is the difference between the 4Ps and Social Marketing?
Illustrate how social marketing is done with your business.

Answer 1

Social marketing is an approach used to develop activities aimed at changing or maintaining people's behavior for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole.  So it’s simply defined as the way of marketing that takes the social benefits as the priority for its social marketing aimed at the people of the society with special needs or wants. The 4Ps of marketing are different from the social marketing perspective as:

Pricing: Social marketing takes this into account but it’s of not that important for social marketing where the delivery of the need is the priority.

Product: the product in the 4Ps of marketing is the goods that are to be sold while in social marketing terms its more of a specialized need fulfillment where the general theory of product doesn’t apply.

Place: The place for social marketing is important which in the 4 Ps is decided as per the demographics or economy. The social marketing, however, focus on the need-based solutions which are much customized and is for the welfare

Promotion: The ways of 4Ps promotion and audience to that of the social benefits over the individual benefits. Social marketing is for a cause that is promoted in a way that is different from that of the social marketing needs or wants.

The business gets the consumer needs identification first as the business if of Healthcare. The need of the consumers, their abilities to pay, or the need or emergency of the situation are various aspects of the marketing of social marketing which are more of responsible behavior from the business side for the products. Hence the care for society’s well being is the key aspect of the social marketing activities here.