Social Marketing

Marketing Mix
Product
In commercial marketing, creating products and services is a fundamental and indispensable
function of marketing. In social marketing, many of our challenges are either education or regulatory
challenges where the central problem is really promotion. Too often, however, we default
to the promotion P when, in fact, the real problem may be marketing, which requires the development
of new products and services to help the consumer adopt new and difficult behaviors.
Many of our audiences are economically disadvantaged, discriminated against, stigmatized, and
“hard to reach.” They live in worlds very different from that of the social marketer. For example,
we ask a single mother without a job to exercise, eat fruits and vegetables, immunize her child,
get tested for HIV, manage her child’s asthma, wear a seat belt, all while avoiding cigarettes and
alcohol. What we offer her are promotional messages carefully crafted and based on audience
research. What she needs are products and services that will increase the benefits she cares
about and reduce the barriers that worry her most. Some examples of the successful application
of the product P are below:
• To help fishermen in Indonesia end the practice of fishing using dynamite on delicate reef systems,
social marketers created a personal digital assistant (pda) system that allowed fishermen
to catch only the kind of fish that were actually needed in the marketplace.
• To help mothers rehydrate their children and prevent death from diarrhea, social marketers
provided access to ORT one kit “solutions,” including both the mixing containers and premixed
ingredients.
• To help gay men use condoms and thus reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases,
social marketers lubricated condoms, added colors and made them stronger, lighter, and more
sensitive.
• To help farm workers protect themselves from eye injuries, social marketers created a special
kind of goggles that did not fog up, and were comfortable in hot tropical weather.
• To help men in a rural setting stop drinking and driving, rather than promote anti-drinking
and driving awareness, social marketers created a limo service that drove men from one bar
to another.
Product Considerations
There are many aspects of product development to consider. A product or service has features:
function, appearance, packing, and guarantees of performance that help people solve problems.
When designing a product, social marketers should address the issue of product classes.