Societal Marketing Concept: Definition of the Business Concept

The societal marketing concept refers to an organization’s task to consider its societal impact as well as its ability to make profits.

In hewing close to this concept, companies can still seek to make money but with an equally strong focus on promoting individual well-being for their customers and holistic social welfare, too. By striving to benefit society as a whole, adherents to the concept believe businesses have a better chance of also cultivating mutually beneficial, long-term customer relationships.

The societal marketing concept provides the foundation by which companies seek to create social change at the same time they follow through on more traditional economic priorities. Social marketing efforts like this are essential aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR)—the duty to use your business structure and marketing strategy to advocate for the long-term welfare of society while striving to reach your target market.

The concept of societal marketing is relatively simple to grasp and potentially world-changing in practice. Consider these three key focal points:

• Company profits: Turning profits will always be one of a company’s requirements, no matter how benevolent the organization. To stay afloat and thrive, businesses must engage in economic planning to ensure they bring in a consistent flow of revenue. By increasing market share and maximizing profits, companies also gather the resources to do more for the common good.
• Individual well-being: Customer satisfaction—on both a short-term and long-term level—is essential to the societal marketing concept. Businesses must understand what a consumer wants and how to best deliver it to them. Still, they must also do so while keeping societal welfare in mind. This means refusing to sell socially corrosive or individually damaging products to their target market. For example, cigarettes might sell, but they’re bad for both individual health and the wider environment.
• Societal welfare: Among the key objectives of societal marketing, promoting human welfare as broadly as possible is perhaps the most important. This means using your company’s revenue to raise the living standards of your employees, campaign for social justice, and contribute to the common good however and wherever possible. It also means using your brand’s status to celebrate and stand up for people of all races, ethnicities, gender identities, and other groups.

There are plenty of methods by which you can employ the societal marketing concept in your own outreach and advertising. Here are five ways to implement the concept in your marketing plan for the year:

1. 1. Adopt ethical business practices. Strive to adhere to an ethical model of marketing. Ethical marketing means selling products honestly and authentically, letting social needs dictate your marketing decisions, and treating your employees well. It also necessitates researching ways you can develop and market goods to help make the world a better place.
2. 2. Campaign for positive causes. Use your commercial marketing campaigns to both sell your products and raise awareness about social issues. Focus on creating both long-term and short-term satisfaction for customers with your products. In the era of social media marketing, it’s easier than ever to create a potentially viral campaign to both increase brand awareness and maximize wider consciousness of social concerns simultaneously.
3. 3. Commit to sustainable development. For the well-being of future generations, commit to sustainable marketing and development in general. Customers will appreciate your company doing its part to mitigate the effects of global warming, climate change, and other environmental concerns. For example, if you send out print ads, consider doing so with only recycled paper.
4. 4. Create beneficial products. Do your best to create desirable products in every sense of the word. They should cater to your customers’ immediate satisfaction but also to the world’s long-term benefit. This means using sustainable materials, refraining from selling deficient or socially harmful products, and creating durable, long-lasting goods for your customers.
5. 5. Meet consumer needs. In societally focused marketing as much as in any other kind of advertising and sales, consumer satisfaction is key. Keeping society’s long-term interests in mind and meeting your customers’ needs are not mutually exclusive. When you market sustainable, ethically made products, you make the world a better place—one happy customer at a time.

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