Social marketing partnerships: Evolution, scope and substance

Duane, Sinead; Domegan, Christine

doi:10.1177/1470593118799810

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Similarly, working with policy-level stakeholders and partners can create environments for genuine social change, but the language and culture barriers can create conflict and form a barrier to interdisciplinary (Spotswood & Warren, 2017). Although recent literature has sought to further acknowledge and solidify the role and importance of partners in broadscale social marketing (Duane & Domegan, 2019;Niblett, 2005) there remains a need to reflect on the limitations and indeed failings of social marketing programs that showcase difficulties in managing partner relationships rather than continue to emphasize the theoretical possibilities of adhering to best practice. Social marketing can learn considerable lessons from this critical self-reflection.…”

Section: Mismanaging Stakeholders and Power Imbalances Resulting In Poor Program Deliverymentioning

confidence: 99%

What Causes Social Marketing Programs to Fail? A Qualitative Study

Akbar

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Soraghan

et al. 2021

Social Marketing Quarterly

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Background: This paper addresses the key factors that cause social marketing programs (typically consisting of discrete programs or interventions, but also including broader-scale initiatives) to fail. It argues that understanding these failures offers greater insight to researchers and practitioners than publications solely focused on successes. Focus: Our paper discusses the causes of the failure of social marketing programs, an area that has largely been ignored in extant research. Research Question: What causes social marketing programs to fail? Importance: As the majority of practitioner-oriented social marketing research focuses on how to develop a successful program, we identify a tendency to ignore failed programs. We suggest that both researchers and practitioners can arguably learn more useful lessons from failures rather than successes. Thus, this paper contributes to social marketing literature by exploring the key causes of social marketing failures. Methods: We conducted ten semi-structured interviews with social marketing practitioners recruited using a purposive sampling technique. Results: We identify four elements responsible for the failure of social marketing programs, each centered on the planning and implementation stage. Firstly, formative research at the earliest stages of program planning is often neglected, resulting in a limited understanding of the target audience. Relatedly, extant research is frequently overlooked during this early planning stage, and this failure to use available social marketing theory and frameworks can result in program performing poorly. Thirdly, for a program to be successful, it must be congruent with the goals of the wider environment and infrastructure within which it is situated; adopting too narrow a focus can also result in a limited impact or program failure. Lastly, we found a common issue relating of stakeholder mismanagement, specifically around issues of power imbalance and mismanaged expectations resulting in social marketing program failing to launch. Researchers and practitioners must acknowledge that social marketing programs do indeed fail but recognize that in these failings lies insight into how to enhance future practice. Recommendations: We suggest that more attention is required from social marketing practitioners during the early design stage into understanding the target audience in detail. We suggest drawing upon extant social marketing frameworks and research to inform the planning and development of social marketing programs. We demonstrate how implementing these changes in the earliest stages of program designs would reduce the chance of program failure. Further, we suggest that adopting a more systems-level approach or critical approach would additionally benefit program outcomes. Limitations: A relatively small sample size could be considered a limitation of the study. Similarly, our focus on practitioner insights may limit the scope of the findings. Future research could advance the current findings by incorporating the views of a broader range of stakeholders, including the target audience themselves. We also suggest future research consider integrating the analysis of failure into the social marketing process to encourage practitioner reflection and inform and improve future practice.

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Section: Mismanaging Stakeholders and Power Imbalances Resulting In Poor Program Deliverymentioning

confidence: 99%

What Causes Social Marketing Programs to Fail? A Qualitative Study

Akbar

Foote

Soraghan

et al. 2021

Social Marketing Quarterly

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“…Therefore, brand activism goes beyond mere advocacy/messaging (i.e., Dodd and Supa 2014; Nalick et al 2016; Wettstein and Baur 2016) and involves alignment with corporate practices that uphold brand purpose and values. Messages are backed up by tangible changes within the organization to support employees, customers, and stakeholders through, for example, modifications to corporate practice and organizational policies (Kapitan, Kennedy, and Berth 2019), monetary donations (Crimmins and Horn 1996), and partnerships (Duane and Domegan 2019) aimed at facilitating social change. Yet, prosocial corporate practices vary considerably in terms of how deeply they are embedded in the business.…”

Section: Conceptual Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brands Taking a Stand: Authentic Brand Activism or Woke Washing?

Vredenburg¹,

Kapitan²,

Spry³

et al. 2020

Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

390

304

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In today’s marketplace, consumers want brands to take a stand on sociopolitical issues. When brands match activist messaging, purpose, and values with prosocial corporate practice, they engage in authentic brand activism, creating the most potential for social change and the largest gains in brand equity. In contrast, brands that detach their activist messaging from their purpose, values, and practice are enacting inauthentic brand activism through the practice of “woke washing,” potentially misleading consumers with their claims, damaging both their brand equity and potential for social change. First, the authors draw on theory to inform a typology of brand activism to determine how, and when, a brand engaging with a sociopolitical cause can be viewed as authentic. Second, a theory-driven framework identifies moderate, optimal incongruence between brand and cause as a boundary condition, showing how brand activists may strengthen outcomes in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Third, the authors explore important policy and practice implications for current and aspiring brand activists, from specific brand-level standards in marketing efforts to third-party certifications and public sector partnerships.

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“…In this endeavor, companies must look for their association with at least one non-economic or non-commercial activity or objective related to social welfare (Brennan et al, 2016). In fact, the supported causes are offered by companies' nonprofit earning partners (Duane and Domegan, 2018;Drumwright and Murphy, 2001, p. 164). CrM allows high public exposure and makes the cause and the organization known in the market (Du et al, 2008;Polonsky and MacDonald, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cause-related marketing: an exploration of new avenues through conjoint analysis

Kulshreshtha

Bajpai

Tripathi

et al. 2019

BIJ

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Purpose Cause-related marketing (CrM) is one of the effective marketing concepts which draw high public exposure and make the cause and the organization known in the market. Further, it develops a higher inclination of the customers associating themselves with CrM-related campaigns. In this regard, CrM campaigns generally take hedonic products into consideration. The purpose of this paper (comprises two studies) is to: study 1, examine the attributes leading to successful CrM campaign and afterward when the results of Study 1 were found in line with the existing literature; and, Study 2, empirically examine the consumer preference for hedo-utilitarian products type in the CrM context. Design/methodology/approach A total of 316 respondents participated in the survey. For selecting the appropriate research technique under the CrM study, the systematic review was conducted to arrive at a decision. Finally, conjoint analysis, a decompositional approach, was used for its ability to provide real-world setup to the respondents and keeping the social desirability bias at the minimum while assessing the consumer preference in the context of CrM. Findings Much literature is available in favor of using hedonic products for successful CrM activities. However, none has conceptualized the hedo-utilitarian products that have an equally fair chance to succeed under CrM strategy. The present study confirmed the relevance of hedo-utilitarian products (utilitarian products having hedonic features) for attracting the consumers having cognitive and affective responses altogether. Practical implications The novel concept of hedo-utilitarian product is introduced and empirically examined. The propositions and findings will facilitate the organizations in developing the products and marketing strategies in the context of CrM, giving them the option beyond the two product categories, i.e. hedonic and utilitarian. Accordingly, the companies may also focus and strategize for the “causmers,” i.e. the consumers who pay heed to the cause of the campaign during the purchase. Originality/value While several of the dimensions in marketing have been explored, CrM is the least explored area in the Asian region. The attributes that may affect CrM were taken all together as another product feature/attribute under conjoint analysis exploring the attributes affecting CrM most, eventually, leading to higher consumer preference. Further, the concept of hedo-utilitarian products was introduced, empirically examined and recommended to future researchers for bringing it forward.

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Social marketing partnerships: Evolution, scope and substance

Cited by 15 publications

References 86 publications

What Causes Social Marketing Programs to Fail? A Qualitative Study

What Causes Social Marketing Programs to Fail? A Qualitative Study

Brands Taking a Stand: Authentic Brand Activism or Woke Washing?

Cause-related marketing: an exploration of new avenues through conjoint analysis

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