Social Marketing

2
About This Book
Overview
AED first became involved with social marketing in 1978 when we were asked to promote
the widespread use of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) to reduce infant mortality from diarrhea.
We couldn’t have asked for a better starting place.
A complex marketing problem, ORT required that we: redesign the ORT product to meet the
needs of varying countries and audiences; develop innovative distribution systems in countries
where health infrastructure was all but non-existent; reduce the emotional and skill costs of
using ORT; and then find imaginative ways to explain why an infant should drink a liter of medicine
everyday to tens of thousands of mothers who could not read, had no television, and
had little trust in government. We did all of this in 15 languages and dozens of cultures while
fighting a medical system that had not yet come to believe that ORT was proven practice.
Since that early program, we have had the opportunity to “social market” immunizations, condoms,
TB testing services, anti-malaria bed nets, and beta-blockers. We have helped protect
watersheds, saved reefs from over-fishing, reduced small engine pollution, and helped teens
protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. And the list goes on and on - from public health to
environmental protection, to traffic safety to education reform.
Along the way, we have made a lot of mistakes and tried to learn from every one of them.
We have come to believe that:
Social marketing represents a unique system for understanding
who people are, what they desire and then
organizing the creation, delivery and communication
of products, services and messages to meet their desires
while at the same time meeting the needs of society
and solve serious social problems.
We developed this book, Social Marketing Behavior, as a first primer on social marketing. Its
goal is to introduce you to the concept, the process and the application of social marketing to
a wide range of social problems.