The Evolution of the Social Context in Marketing
A new social consciousness is being re-awakened and restructured in the minds and behavior of Indonesian people. With recent upheavals in the economic as well as political sectors, and the emergence of interactive media and public opinion as agents of change, the management of socio-cultural issues run parallel with economic recovery. Social issues now seems to be taking the center stage.
The study and the management of social behavior change is contained in the traditional conceptualization of Social Marketing. Social Marketing, as a discipline ,was born in the 1970s and seeks to influence social behavior, to benefit the target audience and society in general and to learn what people want and need to attain better quality of life rather than trying to persuade them to buy commercial products.
A range of social programs using the principles of social marketing has come to the fore; programs which deal with campaigning the issues of health, education, environment, good governance, gender equality, disaster, poverty, urban planning, justice, peace building, housing, and so on. In the past, Indonesia owed its success in the area of family planning and the control of the population growth to a grand campaign based on social marketing principles. In other areas, international funding agencies as well as implementing agencies have conducted countless social marketing programs, from maternal health to disaster recovery. In the new reformation era, the messages of democracy also were conveyed through social marketing programs.
The word “social” evolved into new uses. When a message or program is to be conveyed to the public, it is called “socializing” the message. Therefore, dissemination of information to the public is to “socialize” to the public. “Socializing” is not just to make oneself available and connected to others, but it also means a form of promotion of a message. This meaning will not be found in the English dictionary.
Catching up on the “social” atmosphere, the business world has currently entered the era of corporate social responsibility and corporate social marketing. Businesses and corporations have come to realize that the business would be more sustainable if they gave something back, to improve the quality of life of the community or society at large. The company would thrive if it made the world a better place to live. Businesses , at least on the surface, are trying to become GCC (good corporate citizens) by having CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs. Depending on the type of business, CSR programs now range from education to public health to environment to poverty alleviation. Their “social” programs are sometimes purely social, and at other times are forms of PR-ing.
In line with this, the PSAs or Public Service Announcements also have their heyday. PSAs for social marketing are what advertisements are to commercial marketing. The use of ads during political campaigns sometimes surpass commercial ads in terms of volume/frequency and expenditures. However PSAs for other social marketing programs are fewer, because of the budgets involved. Public service programs to signify the performance of the different government ministries are also campaigned through the use of PSAs. Each government ministry has a public message to convey through the use of media advertisements. The Minister of Transportation would convey a message about the importance of safety in using public transportation. The Ministry of Tourism promotes Visit Indonesia Year.
The change does not end here……
More Changes to Come
In the past, when browsing in the internet to look for the term “social marketing”, the traditional definitions come up. However, nowadays, when clicking on the same word in the computer, there appears a whole new and different world of meaning to the term.
The world of marketing has now been molded by new technologies to create communities connected by the traditional media as well as the internet media. The soccer lovers, the bike-to-work communities, the batik lover communities are a few examples that may be found in Facebook, Twitter,Friendster . Traditional groups that are also the targets are the “arisan” groups and the “pengajian” groups. Interactive media has also helped to create one-on-one marketing, replacing the traditional mass media marketing. In one-on-one marketing, Individuals are reached through personal media such as handphones and PCs. These individuals seek other like-minded individuals to form their own communities. These communities become the target of marketing activities. These communities become targeted social-communities.
The marketing scene is also reshaped by the entrance of multi-level-marketing, where layers of individual members are formed, building up a pyramid of sub-communities. These also form a whole social network of upliners and downliners. Theses sub-communities are therefore facilitating the flow of the marketing, they become the channels as well as the target market.
The logical effect of these new changes is to give added connotation to the word “Social Marketing”. The term Social Marketing now has a double meaning. The original meaning of the term refers to the issue or the product that is being marketed, the issue being a social issue or a social product. Social Marketing in the traditional sense, is a non-profit marketing activity to market a social product to the public. The new meaning of the word refer to the target market, where the product being marketed may be a commercial product or service, targeted at social communities, through the “social media”.
The evolution of the social context in marketing seems to be two-pronged: ……… One introduces the element of social responsibility in marketing, the other gives more focus on social communities as targets. At the end of the day, can Social Marketing in both senses, create a better Indonesia to live in?