Social marketing transformed: Kotler, Polonsky and Hastings reflect on social marketing in a period of social change

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the editorial is to accompany this special issue on “Social marketing: social change”.

Design/methodology/approach

The editorial presents three invited reflections by Philip Kotler, Michael Polonsky and Gerard Hastings. It also discusses the articles in this special issue.

Findings

Overall, the contributed papers demonstrate that there are many layers to social marketing.

Originality/value

The articles featured in this special issue help to advance social marketing theory as well as offer valuable implications and recommendations for managers, practitioners and policymakers.

Citation

Dibb, S. and Carrigan, M. (2013), "Social marketing transformed: Kotler, Polonsky and Hastings reflect on social marketing in a period of social change", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 47 No. 9, pp. 1376-1398. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-05-2013-0248