New ideas – fresh thinking: towards a broadening of the social marketing concept?

Citation

Gordon, R. (2013), "New ideas – fresh thinking: towards a broadening of the social marketing concept?", Journal of Social Marketing, Vol. 3 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSOCM-07-2013-0043

New ideas – fresh thinking: towards a broadening of the social marketing concept?

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Social Marketing, Volume 3, Issue 3

Recent commentaries (Donovan, 2011; Gordon, 2012; Spotswood et al., 2012), and discussion at the World Social Marketing Conference in Toronto in April 2013 have highlighted that there are a number of debates around the fundamentals of social marketing. For a number of years, scholars have been calling for social marketing to mature (Andreasen, 2003), spread its wings and develop its own theories (Peattie and Peattie, 2003). Furthermore, there is recognition that social marketing needs to demonstrate its legitimacy not only as an approach to social change, but as an academic discipline. Recently, these debates have intensified as those in the field discuss the merits or otherwise of singular definitions of social marketing, and the appropriate social marketing mix. Discussions on the utility of wholesale transference of marketing theory and concepts, services orientation, and value creation have also emerged. In addition, ideas on critical thinking and reflexivity in social marketing are increasingly prominent. These developments are concomitant with complex societal challenges. These include the global financial crisis, environmental sustainability, corporate malevolence, increasing economic, health, social, and cultural inequalities, ageing populations, migration and immigration issues, and the erosion of social welfare programmes.

If social marketing is to provide means to meet some of these challenges, a review of existing concepts and consideration of new ideas is pertinent. Indeed, viewing the history of social marketing one could argue that the field currently stands at the point at which the progenitor marketing discipline stood in 1969 when Kotler and Levy published their seminal article “Broadening the concept of marketing” (Kotler and Levy, 1969). Traditionally social marketing has focused on influencing individual and voluntary behaviours, using transactional models developed in mainstream marketing in the 1960s. However, in recent years there has been an emergence of debate on whether social marketing should focus on factors beyond the individual, and should proactively develop theory and practice rather than transferring frameworks from commercial marketing in a wholesale manner.

Similar to how Luck (1969) and Bartels (1976) challenged the broadening of the marketing concept, traditionalists in the social marketing field may seek to retain focus on the individual, and transactional values, and on using the 4Ps marketing mix. They may also forgo debates around critical social marketing, or critical reflexivity. However, for social marketing to fully realise its potential, and become firmly established as a discipline (and not merely a tool focused on social change), a broadening movement should be supported. Indeed, broadening the concept of social marketing is not a new suggestion (Lazer, 2013). Critical debate, exchanges of ideas, reflexive practice, and new theory development are all markers of bona-fide academic disciplines. There is emerging impetus for consideration of midstream and upstream social marketing (Russell-Bennet et al., 2013; Gordon, 2013), new marketing mix models, and other social change tools such as service thinking (Lefebvre, 2012), critical social marketing (Gordon, 2011), theory development (Peattie and Peattie, 2003), and reflexivity (Spotswood et al., 2012).

However, for social marketing to continue its journey into maturity as an academic discipline, further renewal and refreshment of ideas is required. Heretofore, and some notable exceptions apart (Lazer and Kelley, 1973; Hastings, 2007), the social marketing field has been somewhat cautious and reactionary. This is surprising given that social marketing claims to operate at the forefront of social change, which by its very nature demands innovation and transformative thinking. If social marketing is to embrace a renewal of ideas it will be important to recognise that often there will be no perfect models, theories, concepts or solutions. However, by stimulating debate, social marketing should only benefit; differences of opinion and views should be embraced, not discouraged. Searching for singular and universally accepted definitions and concepts can actually be harmful and un-inclusive by limiting the exchange of ideas and challenges to conformity.

The Journal of Social Marketing, has provided a valuable outlet for contemporary ideas in the social marketing field such as critical social marketing (#bib100), transformative social marketing (Lefebvre, 2012), upstream social marketing (Hoek and Jones, 2011; Kennedy and Parsons, 2012), and social marketing pedagogy (McKay-Nesbitt et al., 2012).

Continuing this tradition, and in acknowledgement of the wealth of debate in social marketing currently, this special issue entitled “New Ideas, Fresh Thinking” encourages the development of innovation and originality in the field through the publication of five articles that introduce, or advance existing knowledge. In doing so, it is hoped that this special issue will stimulate debate around the “broadening” of the social marketing concept.

In reflecting upon the process of guest editing this special issue, I have found it a very interesting, albeit challenging task. The special issue generated significant interest, and a number of papers submitted concerned interesting and worthy topics. One particular challenge pertained to submissions from emerging economies or countries outside the Anglo-Saxon centric core of social marketing. Whilst such submissions presented stimulating ideas, they were unable to be accepted for publication largely due to issues such as language barriers, quality of writing, and issues with academic standards. This is unfortunate as it limits diversity. Ethnocentricity in journals is a common problem in the marketing discipline, and indeed academia in general (Svensson, 2005). To avoid myopia, and to be consistent with the broadening concept of social marketing, it is important moving forward that the field is inclusive and representative. Therefore, attention on how greater diversity can be achieved is encouraged. In acting as guest editor I was also very fortunate to be able to view some of the very interesting and novel ideas emerging in the social marketing field, which has given me fresh impetus in my own views on the discipline.

In keeping with the high standards set by the Journal of Social Marketing, all submissions were desk reviewed to ensure their relevance to the special issue and their academic quality. Submissions successfully negotiating this initial process were then sent out for triple blind peer review. This process ensured that the articles included in the special issue are of a high standard, a belief that I hope readers will share.

Each of the five articles included in this special issue demonstrate that innovative thinking is alive and well, and that the idea of a broadened concept of social marketing is a realistic goal. The papers comprise a mix of empirical and conceptual work, with contributions from the UK, Ireland, and Australia. They demonstrate the variety of research traditions in social marketing featuring use of qualitative ethnography, quantitative survey, and case study methods.

The first article by Alan Tapp and Fiona Spotswood is entitled “From the 4Ps to COM-SM: reconfiguring the social marketing mix”. In the paper they debate the thorny topic of the social marketing mix, proposing a reconfigured model that moves from the 4Ps towards a more integrative model based on Michie et al.’s (2011) capability, opportunity, motivation (COM) framework. Their work acknowledges the difficulties in identifying a marketing mix model that can be easily understood whilst encompassing behaviour change tools used in contemporary social marketing. The COM-SM model they present, offers an interesting development that will hopefully be empirically tested in the future.

The second article is a conceptual paper by Rebekah Russell-Bennett, Matthew Wood and Jo Previte entitled “Fresh ideas: services thinking for social marketing”. The article proposes that a concentration of debates on individual level (downstream), and policy level (upstream) social marketing has led to less focus on midstream social marketing. Midstream social marketing considers the impact that people’s more immediate environment such as workplaces, schools, local communities, and service delivery organisations has on behaviour. Applying services marketing thinking, the authors propose that midstream social marketing should also include how services and service employees influence and support behaviour change. Given that social marketing can often involve the provision of services, for example smoking cessation programmes or cancer screening services, the relevance of services thinking is clear. The article proposes that there are four key services marketing principles that should inform social marketing programmes concerning the service experience, service employees, service quality/customer value, and active customer participation in value creation. Case study examples are used to support these propositions.

The third article in the special issue entitled “Value co-creation in social marketing: functional or fanciful?” is by Christine Domegan, Katie Collins, Martine Stead, Patricia McHugh and Tim Hughes. In their conceptual paper, they run with the concept of services thinking in social marketing introduced by the Russell-Bennet et al. (2013) article by considering the topical issue of value co-creation. The paper presents a critical perspective on the adoption of value co-creation in social marketing, highlighting that whilst the consumer oriented, collaborative and liberating nature of co-creation seems congruent with social marketing, there are some conceptual, ethical and practical limitations. The authors use two case study examples of projects using collaboration and co-design to illustrate issues with ideological compatibility, explanatory completeness, and ethical conformity.

This critical analysis is timely given that the emergence of service-dominant logic (S-D Logic) in the mainstream marketing field has generated considerable interest, and for some has transformed how marketing is conceptualised (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). However, the unquestioning acceptance of S-D Logic by marketing academe has been criticised, with Wright and Russell (2012) pointing out that the model is highly generalised and largely descriptive rather than prescriptive, and that there is a lack of empirical evidence to test the theory. Domegan et al.’s (2013) paper expands this debate by considering challenges for value co-creation in the social marketing domain. Therefore, the uncontested acceptance and transfer of S-D Logic to social marketing should perhaps provoke caution given the managerial and shareholder value orientation of commercial marketing. Moving forward, social marketers should consider why and how a distinct social marketing S-D Logic might be beneficial, and also evaluate its impact.

Leading on from this debate, the fourth article is by Nadia Zainuddin whose research article entitled “Examining the impact of experience on value in social marketing” provides some much needed empirical testing of value creation concepts within the social marketing domain. Specifically, the author examines the impact of experience levels on consumers’ value perceptions when using a breast screening service. The study featured an online, cross sectional survey with Australian women using breast screening services, and found that experienced users derived higher levels of functional and emotional value from using the service, whilst satisfaction was a strong driver of behaviour for novice users. The author highlights some theoretical and practical implications from this work, suggesting that value benefits sought by social marketing service users offers a more sophisticated segmentation techniques, as well as an important driver of behaviour. The study also highlights how value in social marketing can be conceptualised and empirically tested.

The final article in this special issue is from Alan Tapp and Fiona Spotswood entitled “Beyond persuasion: a cultural perspective of behaviour”. In this challenging and thought provoking piece the authors argue that social marketing has been too focused on individual behaviours, and individual level theories of behaviour. They espouse that a cultural perspective is required that seeks to analyse the cultural mores of individual attitudes and behaviours to increase insight and understand and develop more effective interventions. Applying Bourdieu’s habitus theory of class culture (Bordieu, 1990) to an ethnographic study of leisure time physical activity among low-income consumers, the authors argue that social marketers should move beyond using persuasion to change behaviour, and embrace cultural change approaches.

Overall, the articles included in this special issue demonstrate that social marketing has developed into a legitimate academic discipline featuring critical debate and new ideas. I am sure that the featured contributions will help stimulate debate on introducing new ideas and fresh thinking to social marketing. It is hoped that these ideas will help social marketing realise its full potential to deliver positive social change and build more equitable and sustainable societies.

I would like to end this editorial by offering thanks to Sharyn Rundle-Thiele and Andrew McAuley who as co-editors of the Journal of Social Marketing not only granted me the opportunity to edit this special issue, but also have been very supportive and encouraging. I would also like to thank Lucy Houlden, Jo Alexander, Tansy Fall, and colleagues from the Emerald publishing team for their expert assistance and guidance throughout the editorial process. Considerable thanks should be offered to each of the ten contributing authors not only for their original and thought provoking articles but also for their patience and cooperation during the publication process. Finally, special thanks should be extended to the many reviewers from around the world, as without their time, effort and constructive comments, it would not have been possible to produce this special issue.

Ross Gordon

References

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Further Reading

Dibb, S. and Carrigan, M. (2013), “Social marketing transformed: Kotler, Polonsky and Hastings reflect on social marketing in a period of social change”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 47 No. 9