Mi Ensayo

Social Marketing:

Confusion Compounded

David J. Luck

What is social marketing ... and why is it important that we know?

T HE subject of "social marketing" has appeared

frequently in the JOURNAL OF MARKETING

during the past three years. That frequency

well may increase as social problems and

progress become more pressing demands on

society and a greater focus of the marketer's

thought and activity. This writer has become

keenly aware of a personal confusion regarding

the meaning of "social marketing" and that he

was even more uncomfortable basically about

the identity of "marketing." Examination of several

authors' apparent concepts of these terms

suggests that confused terminology may be

epidemic in marketing and, therefore, an impediment

to others' efforts to think clearly about

the discipline.

Why is this problem significant and urgent? Some apparent reasons are:

1. Development as a system is required for

social marketing to achieve science and discipline-and

thereby productivity. First,

its domain within the totality of social science

and structure needs specification,

which is impossible without adequate definition

of its seminal term.

2. Whether there is any real and vital distinction

between "social marketing" and "marketing"-apart

from divergent goals

among various interests-can be ascertained

only when both terms are well defined.

If they prove to be virtually

synonymous, conceptual and scientific

progress would be aided.

3. In this world of shrinking resources and

rising social consciousness, there is urgency

to converge societal values and systems with

those of privately owned and conducted enterprise.

This underscores the need for a

social marketing subsystem based on explicit

definition.

4. Progress depends on comprehension and

motivation of people, most notably: (a) business

and government administrators, and

(b) the generation whose values and competence

are being shaped today in higher

education. They can be attracted to social

marketing and make it effective only when

it has a lucid and commonly accepted definition.

In these pages several authors are cited, but

not in a derogatory sense. Both personal esteem

and a sympathy for those who attempt to grapple

with ideas at the conceptual frontier of the

marketing discipline impel a respectful attitude

toward these writers. Deficiencies are pointed

out solely to show how critical the difficulties in

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