Sympathy for the devil
The subtitle of this textbook is “Why should the devil have all the best tunes?” This pretty well explains Gerard Hastings' approach to the subject which is that social marketing can learn and apply the tools and techniques from the “devil” of commercial marketing. Indeed the first chapter title reflects this adopt/adapt philosophy with “If it works for Tesco … ”. Although I do not expect the retailers will be so keen on the analogy! Hastings explains that social marketing incorporates critical marketing thinking, but aims to provide, not only critique, but also solutions. His preferred definition of the subject is that of Lazer and Kelly (1973): “Social marketing is concerned with the application of marketing knowledge, concepts and techniques to enhance social as well as economic ends. It is also concerned with analysis of the social consequences of marketing policies, decisions and activities” (p. 9).
The following three chapters clearly explain respectively the subject's theoretical foundations, the basic principles and the practical “toolbox”, consisting of the “who, what and how?” of social marketing, which are “translated” from the “segments, objectives, offerings” of conventional marketing analysis. Although this is explained lucidly for the reader as an introduction to the subject, the author himself recognises the conceptual and practical problems inherent in this (and probably any such) translation. “The idea of the marketing mix (4Ps) transfers a little uncomfortably from commercial marketing, but does at least provide a useful way of thinking about the problem”(p. 11). A little uncomfortably, indeed Gerard! So exclaims the co‐author of the old EJM article “The four Ps of the marketing concept” (Brownlie and Saren, 1992).
Chapter 6 takes the reader “upstream”, that is to the social and environmental forces that affect individuals behaviour. Hastings quotes Andreason (1995) to remind us that, unlike the commercial devil who deals in money or souls, social marketing focuses on behaviour. “While commercial marketers measure success in terms of shareholder value, sales or profitability, for the social marketer consumer behaviour is the bottom line” (p. 107).
As one would expect, the adaptation of relational thinking from conventional marketing applies well to the social marketing context, in chapter 7. Obviously an anti‐smoking campaign is not aimed at smokers giving up only a single cigarette (one transaction), but a long‐term behaviour change (a relationship). On the face of it, the link in Chapter 8 between competition and critical marketing is much less obvious, until we reach page 172. Here, Box 8.6 summarizes some of the social concerns regarding marketing highlighted by Wilkie and Moore (2003) in their seminal article on the history of marketing thought. They demonstrate that there has always been a critical stream in marketing going back to Vance Packard and beyond and continuing today in the writings of Joel Bakan, George Monboit and Naomi Klein. For Hastings however, “marketing is an amoral technology … ” (p. 173). The reason he argues is that it is the use that marketing is put to, not the tools themselves, that do harm. So by adapting and mobilizing these marketing techniques on the side of Good, social marketing can help alleviate, ameliorate or even avoid the marketing devil's damage done – Yes, Logo!
The last two chapters cover social marketing research and ethics respectively, although the two are closely linked. Chapter 9 begins with a word of warning about the overuse or over‐reliance on research in this area. It can lead to an “intervention mentality” where the minutae of techniques and methods become the objectives themselves, rather than that of understanding people's behaviour and change processes. Research in social marketing should be regarded, as the author's chapter title suggests, as a navigational aid to action. The final chapter describes some practical ethical issues and points to the theory of ethics literature to show the difference between ethical analyses based on motives, outcomes and rights, which can often conflict in social marketing.
This is a superb introductory textbook. Following the final chapter there are 18 case studies which provide students and teachers with a wealth of material and illustration of the enormous range of social marketing campaigns, applications, countries and methods. Each case has questions, lessons and references. The whole book is easy to navigate with an introduction for each chapter providing an overview, learning objectives and links to other chapters. Brandon Flowers sings “the devils water, it aint so sweet”; in this book Hastings takes it onto the side of the angels!
