Why Social Marketing? Can Social Marketing Make a Difference?

Posted on by PEI-CHI CHEN

Although social marketing still plays an important role as a contribution to solve society problems within the society, but the effectiveness of social marketing is always something people are uncertain about. There are hardly any marketers willing to keep track of the behavior changes of their target audience due to the cost-effectiveness of this process.

So- Why would people want to use social marketing to better the society if there is no hard evidence that indicates that there is a positive change to the society?

On the Effectiveness of Social Marketing- What Do We Really Know, a study conducted by Bernd Helmig from University of Mannheim’s Business school, one of Germany’s leading research universities with a particular emphasis on the social and economic sciences, and his study partner Julia Thaler. They two decided to provide the first scientific, strictly designed study to focus on the fundamental analysis of Social Marketing.

Using observation, questionnaires, and surveys, the researchers found that the result of the highest social marketing effectiveness in social marketing commerce is 43.8%. “The outcome of the most significant change in behavior in the efficacy in social marketing commerce is 43.8 %, followed by intentional change 33.7% and attitude change 23.1%.”

I had also designed a survey as an experiment to try prove the percentage of intentional change and attitude change among 30 anonymous respondents.

After the respondents saw the poster that uses fear appeals (unappealing words/ visuals) to discouraging the smoking behavior. There are more than 50% of the people in the survey think they will reduce the amount of cigarettes they smoke if they smoke on a daily basis.

In conclusion, both of the results indicate that social marketing is effective. The positive behavior change from the have strongly indicates the cruciality of the position of social marketing in our society. Aside from the ethical dilemmas, it is definitely necessary to use social marketing to try make the world a better place.