Global Social Marketing Manifesto
Introduction:
This manifesto sets out the case for the increased application of Social Marketing across all Government, NGO, Not-for-Profit and business activity.
Around the world we are faced by a complex web of challenges in the light of new understanding about what works and what does not. A fundamental reappraisal of how best to address these challenges is rightly underway.
This new era is characterised by a greater emphasis on working with citizens and value for money.
The rationale for applying marketing to help solve complex problems: Effectiveness, Efficiency and Ethical implementation
Marketing is a set of principles, strategies and tactics that have developed in the commercial world over many years as a proven approach to making business more effective and delivering the goods and services that people want. We can use the lessons learnt in marketing to help us better understand the social challenges people face and how we can more effectively, efficiently and ethically deliver interventions that people value rather than trying to manipulate their behaviour.
Organisations and governments all over the world have been using Social Marketing for more than fifty years because it works and is an efficient way to structure programme development and delivery. SM has been shown to have a positive impact on programmes designed to solve big complex problems like disease prevention, family planning, environmental protection, economic development, crime reduction and compliance with laws and regulations.
Social Marketing is successful because unlike other interventions it employs an insight and bottom-up way of working rather than being a top-down expert driven approach. Social Marketing uses market research and coalition building to develop interventions that people support. It is a deeply democratic and respectful approach rather than one that is focused on telling people what to do or forcing them to do things.
As citizens around the world become better educated and empowered, they are increasingly demanding a new relationship with the governments and agencies that serve them. People often want to play a bigger part in identifying problems and creating solutions. Social Marketing represents a process for engaging citizens and using their knowledge, ideas and resources to solve the big challenges we face.