encouraged to draw on Kotler and Lee (2008) for guidance as they .... Kotler, Philip and Nancy R. Lee (2008), Social Marketing: Influencing Behaviors for Good.
Social Marketing and Social Media: Helping Students Discern the Difference
Introduction Although the term social marketing was coined more than four decades ago (Kotler and Zaltman 1971), and many would agree that social marketing can be defined as the “application of commercial marketing principles to influence behavior for the benefit of individuals or wider society” (Wood 2012, p. 96), there is still considerable confusion regarding the nature of social marketing (Wood 2012). The rapid proliferation of social media and the resultant attention given it in the popular and academic press has only exacerbated this problem. Practitioners, policy makers, and the public all frequently confuse social marketing with social media (Wood 2012). Regrettably, authors of marketing textbooks may contribute to this confusion. For example, Kerin, Hartley and Rudelius (2013) fail to define social marketing nor include it in their discussion of the marketing discipline. Furthermore, when Kerin and his colleagues (2013) do mention social marketing, they link it closely to social media [e.g., “Social marketing campaigns and social media offer non-profit organizations very effective tools for engaging their members, fans, friends, and the public.” (p.302)]. Undergraduate students with limited exposure to the term social marketing and extensive experience with social media, could be forgiven therefore, in confusing social marketing with social media or thinking that social marketing is simply the use of social media for marketing purposes. This suggests that one way to begin to address the confusion surrounding the term social marketing and advance the social marketing discipline is to develop methods to foster a more accurate understanding of social marketing among collegeaged, social media-loving students. It has been suggested that completing a Social Marketing Plan (SMP) at the earliest stages of undergraduate education may be an effective way to teach students about social marketing and to advance the social marketing discipline (McKay-Nesbitt, DeMoranville, and McNally 2012). Given that suggestion and the evidence discussed above, the purpose of our research is to explore the effectiveness of a SMP as a means i) of developing social marketing knowledge and ii) of alleviating confusion between social marketing and social media, thus contributing to the advancement of the social marketing discipline. McKay-Nesbitt and her colleagues (2012) however, suggest that students who complete a SMP should be examined on social marketing concepts to be assured that students have actually learned the concepts. Consequently, the research reported here tests and compares the social knowledge of marketing students who complete a SMP as part of their course requirements with those who are simply introduced to social marketing concepts as part of their introductory marketing course content. This research demonstrates that students who complete a SMP are more knowledgeable about social marketing and are better able to distinguish social marketing and social media than those 1
who do not participate in a SMP. Our research thus contributes to the advancement of the social marketing discipline. Method Four sections of an introductory marketing class at a small university in northeastern United States participated in this study. Introductory marketing courses at the university are required for all students, regardless of major, and are standardized such that all sections of the course use the same text and adhere to the same course requirements. Students in the four sections were required to complete a group project as part of their course requirements; students in two sections of the course (the experimental group) completed a Social Marketing Plan (SMP) group project and students enrolled in two other sections of the introductory marketing course (control group) participated in group projects that focused on marketing a durable consumer product. The two experimental group sections were taught by the same instructor as were the two control group sections. The instructors were matched in terms of teaching experience and teaching evaluations. The SMP assignment required in the experimental group sections provided students with an opportunity to integrate and apply social and commercial marketing principles by developing strategies to achieve a desired behavior change. Although, no lectures on social marketing were conducted, the experimental group instructor met individually with groups at least once to review the assignment and the related social marketing concepts. The SMP project assignment stated that the purpose of the SMP was to develop strategies to encourage people to adopt a behavior that would improve individual health, the community in which individuals live, or the environment. The assignment further stated that the SMP was to focus on a specific behavior consumers were expected to perform and that all elements of the marketing mix were to be employed in developing strategies to encourage the recommended behavior. Students were encouraged to draw on Kotler and Lee (2008) for guidance as they developed a 20-page written report and prepared a in-class presentation of their analysis and recommendations. Students in the control group received no instruction on social marketing and were required to complete a group project that focused on a durable consumer product. Ninety-nine sophomore students (50 experimental group students; 49 control group students; 58.6% female) participated in the study. The study was conducted during the 11th and 12th weeks of a 14 week semester and was administered in a lab where students responded to questions on a computer. Participants responded to social marketing knowledge, business attitude, and demographic questions (i.e., age, gender, course section). Ten social marketing knowledge questions were introduced by asking students to read several statements about social marketing. Participants were told that some of the statements were true and some were false and were asked to indicate which ones were true and which were 2
false. Correct answers received a score of one (versus zero for incorrect answers) resulting in a maximum knowledge score of ten and a minimum score of zero. The ten statements were developed by the researchers based on the understanding of social marketing presented by Kotler and Lee (2008). One statement provided an abbreviated version of Kotler and Lee’s (2008) definition of social marketing; one referred to the emphasis of social marketing on health and safety of individuals, the health of the environment or the well being of society; one statement referred to social marketing’s reliance on non-monetary incentives and disincentives when pricing products; and three statements referred to social marketing’s emphasis on behavior change and the competition that arises from competing behaviors (Kotler and Lee 2008). Four social marketing knowledge questions linked social marketing and social media (e.g., Social is about using social media to promote products.). Attitudes toward business were assessed with nine five-point items from a previously published scale regarding attitudes toward business (five items) and marketing activities (four items) (Barksdale and Darden 1972). End points of the attitude questions were anchored with strongly agree (1) and strongly disagree (5).
Results and Discussion Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with course section as the factor and social marketing knowledge as the dependent variable revealed that as expected, students in the experimental group had significantly higher social marketing knowledge scores than those in the control group (Mexperimental = 5.94, SDexperimental = 2.05, Mcontrol = 4.51, SDcontrol = 1.50, F(1,97) = 15.57, p < .001). Further analysis of individual questions revealed that members of the experimental group had significantly more correct answers to statements that confused social marketing and social media. Experimental group members were significantly more likely than control group members to recognize that the statements “In social marketing, competition often comes from various social media sites” (Mexperimental = .50, SDexperimental = .51, Mcontrol = .18, SDcontrol = .39, F(1,98) = 12.10, p < .001) and “Social marketers have to consider that cost of social media sites when pricing products” are not accurate (Mexperimental = .44, SDexperimental = .50, Mcontrol = .20, SDcontrol = .41, F(1,98) = 6.59, p < .05). Control group members were also significantly less likely to recognize that in social marketing, the behavior of an individual is the product that is being promoted (Mexperimental = .80, SDexperimental = .41, Mcontrol = .61, SDcontrol = .49, F(1,98) = 4.31, p < .05). A univariate analysis with course section and gender as factors revealed no main effect for gender on social marketing knowledge (Mmales = 5.10, SDmales = .28, Mfemales = 5.34, SDfemales = .24, F(1,95) = .45, p = ns) nor a gender by course section interaction effect on marketing knowledge (F(1,95) = 1.95, p = ns).
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The five business philosophy attitude questions were averaged to form an index of attitudes toward business and the four marketing activities questions were averaged to form an index of attitudes toward marketing activities. Responses were coded such that higher scores were indicative of more positive attitudes toward business and marketing. Interestingly, members of the experimental group had significantly more positive attitudes toward business than did the control group members (Mexperimental = 3.22, SDexperimental = .48, Mcontrol = 2.98, SDcontrol = .44, F(1,97) = 6.68, p < .05). There were however, no differences in attitudes toward marketing activities between the experimental and control groups (Mexperimental = 3.40, SDexperimental = .42, Mcontrol = 3.35, SDcontrol = 47, F(1,97) = .23, p = ns).
Conclusions and Implications for Theory and Practice Our research has demonstrated that incorporating a SMP in an introductory marketing course has a positive effect on students’ social marketing knowledge. Students who complete a SMP know more about social marketing than those who complete projects that focus on consumer products. Furthermore, students who complete a SMP are better able than those who do not participate in a SMP project to distinguish social marketing from social media. Interestingly, although students in the experimental group were involved in a project that focused on a social problem whereas students in the control group focused on a project that focused on a consumer product, the evidence provided here shows that participating in a SMP has no deleterious effects on students’ attitudes towards business and marketing activities. To the contrary, our data show that students who complete a SMP have more positive attitudes toward business than those who do not complete a SMP as part of their course requirements. In summary, these results provide support for the notion that an SMP is one way to increase social marketing knowledge and advance the social marketing discipline. Although social media are an increasingly important promotional tool for social marketers, (Bernhardt, Mays, and Hall 2012), regrettably social media are too often confused with social marketing. It is therefore incumbent upon all who wish to advance the social marketing discipline to ensure that marketing students emerge from college with a clear understanding of social marketing and its distinction from social media. We have shown that a SMP is one way to provide for students to gain this understanding of social marketing and make this distinction between social marketing and social media. Having gained this understanding and made this distinction, it is possible that some marketing students will become social marketing practitioners or theorists. Given that today’s college graduates are well acquainted with social media, it is also possible that these future practitioners and theorists will make good use of social media to achieve the aims and objectives of social marketing. As such, the SMP may be one more means by which the social marketing discipline can be advanced and social marketing goals may be achieved. 4
Reference List
Barksdale, Hiram C. and William R. Darden (1972), "Consumer attitudes toward marketing and consumerism," Journal of Marketing, 36(October), 28-35. Bernhardt, Jay M., Darren Mays, and Amanda K. Hall (2012), "Social marketing at the right place and right time with new media," Journal of Social Marketing, 2(2), 130-7. Kerin, Roger A., Steven W. Hartley, and William Rudelius (2013), Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Kotler, Philip and Nancy R. Lee (2008), Social Marketing: Influencing Behaviors for Good. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. Kotler, Philip and Gerald Zaltman (1971), "Social marketing: An approach to planned social change," Journal of Marketing, 35(3), 3-12. McKay-Nesbitt, Jane, Carol DeMoranville, and Dan McNally (2012), "A strategy for advancing social marketing: Incorporating social marketing into introductory marketing courses," Journal of Social Marketing, 2(1), 52-69. Wood, Matthew (2012), "Marketing social marketing," Journal of Social Marketing, 2(2), 94102.
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