Guest editorial

Citation

Evans, W.D. and French, J. (2019), "Guest editorial", Journal of Social Marketing, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 2-4. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSOCM-01-2019-114

Editorial for world conference edition of journal of social marketing

We are delighted to be acting as guest editors of this special edition of the Journal of Social Marketing that features a number of papers that are based on presentations and papers presented at the 4th World Social Marketing Conference held in Washington in 2017.

The World Social Marketing conference aims to bring together social marketing practitioners, academics and policymakers to capture and share good practice in social marketing and in so doing advance both the theory and practice of social marketing. The conference also has a key role in facilitating dialog and exchange between academics, practitioners and policymakers and people working on social marketing programs on different topics and in different regions and countries. The Journal of Social Marketing has been a key supporter of the World Conference for many years, and we would like to thank both Emerald Publishing and the permanent editorial team for their support and encouragement in bringing this special edition together. We also want to thank all those people who summited papers for review for this special edition and the reviewers who helped in the selection of the papers published in this edition.

In this edition, we have a number of papers that reflect some of the key themes presented and debated in Washington. Article one is entitled “A National policy process on social marketing” by Carlos Santos. This paper describes the national policy development process for social marketing in the UK. The paper reflects on social marketing policy in other developed countries and provides detailed lessons learned on the UK process, providing a rich case study on upstream practice and implications for social marketing implementation at a national scale.

Article two is entitled “The importance of shared beliefs for social marketing programmes” by Citlali Calderon This paper highlights the importance of shared beliefs and systems of belief among beneficiaries of social marketing programs. It reflects on social representations theory and how approaches based on this theory can be used to overcome barriers to adoption of socially marketed programs.

Article three is entitled “A tale of complexity” by Hamilton Carvalho. This paper focuses on the issues surrounding social systems that produce complexity in issues such as tobacco use. The paper explores the multiple layers of systems at various levels of social ecology and how these must be addressed in social marketing to achieve effective solutions. It offers theoretical perspective on systems thinking in social marketing.

Article four is entitled “Using system dynamics modeling to evaluate a community-based social marketing framework: a computer simulation study” by Brian Biroscak and colleagues. This paper examines the theory and practice of community-based prevention marketing (CBPM) in community mobilization to address social marketing challenges. The paper describes a novel test of CBPM implementation using computer simulation in the tradition of system dynamics modeling.

Article five is entitled “Resilience research and social marketing: the route to sustainable behaviour change” by Matthew Wood. This paper focuses on the ecological model and the macro, meso and micro factors that influence behavior and life outcomes. As the author notes, “[b]uilding resilience requires a relationship-building, person-centred, holistic and long-term developmental approach to behaviour change.” Wood argues that understanding and building resilience is critical to solve “wicked problems” in social marketing.

Article six is entitled “What’s health got to do with it? Influencing cookstove uptake in Cambodia through behaviour change communication” by Fiona Lambe and colleagues. This paper reports on a study of improved cookstove promotion and uptake in Cambodia. The manuscript describes a campaign to increase use of liquid propane gas stoves as a substitute to traditional, highly polluting and hazardous indoor stoves burning wood, dung and other local fuel supplies. The authors highlight the complexity of promoting purchase of cookstoves and opportunities for social marketers to help build healthy markets.

Article seven is entitled “What is this thing called money? Economic abuse in young adult relationships” by Jozica Kutin. This paper explores the issue of economic abuse in young adult relationships and the importance of financial literacy. The authors argue that reducing economic abuse requires addressing issues of equality at the relationship formation stage. They argue that social marketers can play a crucial role in addressing this challenge by shifting “attention from service engaged women leaving violent relationships to young adults who have not sought assistance from community or domestic violence services”.

As indicated by the papers reviewed above, social marketing is developing rapidly internationally as an applied field of practice that has developing theoretical foundations and also growing evidence base. One of the key milestones that was reached at the Washington conference that we wanted to acknowledge in this editorial was a finalization of a set of consensus principles describing the nature of social marketing theory and practice. Work commenced in 2012 on developing a consensus definition of social marketing. This work culminated in 2014 with the endorsement of the following definition by all professional associations in existence at that time:

Social Marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviour that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good.

Social Marketing practice is guided by ethical principles. It seeks to integrate research, best practice, theory, audience and partnership insight, to inform the delivery of competition sensitive and segmented social change programmes that are effective, efficient, equitable and sustainable.

It was subsequently agreed by all the social marketing associations that further work should next be undertaken to develop a set of consensus principles of practice to complement and make explicit the nature of social marketing described in the global consensus definition of social marketing.

A new working group was established in 2015 by the International Social Marketing Association and supported by all the existing national and regional professional associations in existence at that time. The task of this working group was to consider the global consensus definition of social marketing and to develop a set of principles that explains more fully the nature and added value of social marketing. The group was tasked with ensuring that the principles identified were consistent with the global consensus definition and that they should be set out succinctly, but also be comprehensive in scope.

The starting point for the development of this guidance was a literature review of published and gray material focused on the nature and practice of social marketing. This analysis was supplemented by reference to survey work conducted as part of the consensus definition exercise. A draft set of principles was developed and then subjected to four rounds of refinement by the working group including discussing among professional associations representatives at the World Conference in Washington. This was followed by the endorsement of the agreed principles by all association boards by December 2017.

It was recognized at the start of this process that social marketing is a dynamic and evolving field of theory and practice and that this will continue to be the case. In recognition of this, it was accepted that the principles set out should be subject to regular review and amendment at intervals deemed appropriate by the endorsing associations and any new associations.

The working group also recommended that the growing number of social marketing interest groups and associations should collaborate to draw on the principles set out to now develop a professional code of ethics for Social Marketing. This code should be designed to provide guidance to members about the appropriate and ethical application of the agreed principles. We are happy to report that this work is now underway.

The core social marketing principle: the facilitation of personal and social good

Core social marketing concepts

(Necessary elements in all social marketing programs):

1. setting of explicit social goals;

2. citizen orientation and focus;

3. value proposition delivery via the social marketing intervention mix;

4. theory, insight, data and evidence informed audience segmentation;

5. competition/barrier and asset analysis; and

6. critical thinking, reflexivity and being ethical.

A full copy of the endorsed consensus principles paper and the global definition paper can be downloaded from any of the participating social marketing association websites including the iSMA website: https://isma.memberclicks.net/assets/Documents_Shared_Website/ESMA,%20AASM,%20SMANA%20iSMA%20endorsed%20Consensus%20Principles%20and%20Concepts%20paper.pdf

The development of a stronger and consistent understanding about the nature, value and impact of social marketing is a task shared by both the Journal of Social Marketing and the World Social Marketing Conference. We are delighted that this supplemental edition of the Journal of Social Marketing demonstrates that significant progress is being made in the field. We are also delighted that there is also a growing recognition of the contribution of social marketing to solving many of the world’s key challenges.

On this last point, it is noteworthy that iSMA is now part of a broader organization forming to integrate multiple approaches to social and behavior change. This new body, the Global Alliance for Social and Behavior Change, was formally established at the 2018 Social and Behavior Change Communication Conference in Nusa Dua, Indonesia (https://sbccsummit.org/). Social marketing has now formalized its own standards through the consensus principles and stands as an integral part of the growing evidence base on methods to bring about international development and positive social change worldwide.