Introduction to Social Marketing

Designed to introduce social marketing as a discipline to social development planners and program implementers, this book suggests that the basics tenets of the marketing discipline as practiced in the commercial sector be followed in all development planning and execution; thereby reducing adhocism, but not individual initiatives. The fundamentals of India`s Social marketing discipline are illustrated. Some twenty-eight years ago, as a sub-divisional officer, while groping to scientifically tackle the development tasks entrusted to me, I came across a young executive who was hoping to introduce a new product in the rural market. In the course of my conversations with him, it struck me that it should be possible to try out some of the time tested techniques of marketing in promoting the adoption of social and development programmes. My journey into "Social Marketing" that thus began nearly three decades ago took definite shape when I was allowed by the Government of India to take leave and pursue the topic. I believe the insights and `prescriptions` contained in the book, based on my long experience as a development administrator, will not only be useful to those who are entering the field of social development but also to those whose work involves an input from that sector; even those who need to understand behavioral change. Indeed, I was delighted to be told by a Chairman-cum-Managing Director of a Public Sector Unit, who I had requested to go through the manuscript, that he had applied some of the concepts `very successfully`, even during the course of his reading. My intention behind writing this book was to spread its message and the `possibilities` far and wide. Social Marketing cries out to be tried in India as one very promising technique for marketing social development.