Societal Marketing Concept – Principles, Advantages, Disadvantages,Examples,Instruments | Principles of Marketing

Societal Marketing Concept definition | Principles, Advantages, Disadvantages, Examples, Instruments | Principles of Marketing | Societal Marketing Concept (1970-2000)

The slogan of Societal Marketing Concept

“We are not free from social responsibility”

Societal marketing concept definition

The Societal Marketing Concept believes that the company should make marketing decisions by considering consumers’ wants, the company’s requirements, and society’s long-term interest. It emphasizes social consciousness as part of an overall marketing plan. Most of the marketing concepts overlooked the long-run welfare for aiming to fulfill the short-run wants of customers. This scenario gave rise to a question that revolved around the possible conflict between long-run welfare and the short-run wants of consumers. This condition resulted in the evolution of a new marketing concept called the societal marketing concept.

This concept assumes that the organization should consider the well-being of the society while developing any marketing strategy that aims in satisfying customers wants. The rise in the concept of modern marketing has resulted in many problems (deterioration of the environment, scarcity of resources, inflation, population explosion, etc.) in the world affecting social welfare in the long run. Therefore the concept of societal marketing concept believes in fulfilling the social interests along with fulfilling the wants and interests of the consumers.

Principles of Societal Marketing Concept

The organizations or marketers need to follow the principles listed below if they want to adopt the concept of societal marketing.

• Firstly, identify the social group that he/she is willing to target and deal with;
• Secondly, identify and understand the basic needs, wants and problems of the target social group;
• Thirdly, the means of fulfilling the social needs, wants, and problems should be through integrating or coordinating the socially acceptable marketing tools;
• Fourthly, the ultimate goal of the organization or the marketers should be to sustain and succeed a business by providing social welfare and well-being and accepting social responsibility.

Advantages of Societal Marketing Concept

• Builds a better brand image for the organization.
• It gives a competitive advantage over the competitors.
• Customer retention is high along with customer loyalty.
• The high volume of sales along with high market coverage.
• Long term growth and facilitate expansion
• Improves Living standards of people.
• Better economic planning that is fruitful for the society.

Disadvantages of Societal Marketing Concept / Premises of Societal Marketing Concept

• The wants of Consumers do not always coincide with their long-run interests or society’s long-run interests;
• Those organizations will be increasingly favored by the consumers who show concern regarding meeting their wants, long-run interests, and society’s long-run interests.

Societal Marketing Concept Example

Some of the companies that use societal marketing concept are as follows:

• Body shop societal marketing concept

It uses plant-based ingredients to make its products and avoids testing its products on animals.

• Avon societal marketing concept

It has raised millions of dollars fund for Breast Cancer in 1993 in a partnership with NABCO (National Alliance Of Breast Cancer Foundation).

• Coca-cola societal marketing concept

It has published the song ‘America is beautiful ‘in different languages which shows the cultural harmony at a larger point of view.

Instruments of Societal Marketing Concept

Societal Marketing Concept Triangle

The above triangle reflects that the organizations must balance their profit, wants, and needs of the consumers and society in developing the marketing strategies and concepts.

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