Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change

Kotler, Philip, and Gerald Zaltman. "Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change." Journal of Marketing 35, no. 3 (July 1971): 3-12.

Kotler and Zaltman argue that, “the application of the logic of marketing to social goals is a natural development and on the whole a promising one”. These two gentlemen were ahead of their time with the publishing of this article because as I read through it today virtually all of it is still applicable in modern situations. They go on to say, “it is the explicit use of marketing skills to help translate present social action efforts into more effectively designed and communicated programs that elicit desired audience responses”. The findings of this article were that even a well-designed campaign can fail in accomplishing the desired social objectives, yet it does provide a bridging mechanism between environmental scientists and the consumers. It also states that the costs of the campaign may not be worth it. I think that with the advent of email and other forms of mass communication the costs in the present day will be minimal as compared, as will time spent on it, with the possible long term results.