ABSTRACT
Social marketing is different from either business-related concepts such as cause-related marketing; societal marketing; and pro-social marketing to promote a social cause. The word 'consumer' is used routinely in both social marketing and commercial marketing, clearly the meaning in the context of social marketing is different. Rather than talking about customer satisfaction and profit, social marketing perhaps combines individual and social satisfaction. Social marketers are aware that there are many messages that vie for the attention of the young population and they have to be as creative as possible to get the message across and effect a change of behaviour. Language and associated assumptions linked to social marketing programmes have also been seen as potentially counter-productive. Social marketing is a welcome development that helps address the excesses of unfettered profit-based marketing. A study by Gracia-Marco et al. studied the effectiveness of social marketing obesity prevention programmes targeting children and adolescent populations.
