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This paper aims to present a definition of social marketing that considers the purpose and role of social marketing beyond behaviour change.

The paper reviews present social marketing definitions and then bolsters its underlying theoretical structure with insights distilled from three schools of thought: macromarketing, transformative consumer research and the capability approach.

Guided by the three theoretical streams, we introduce our definition, namely: social marketing is the application of marketing principles to enable individual and collective ideas and actions in the pursuit of effective, efficient, equitable, fair and sustained social transformation.

We present a list of practical implications derived from our definition of social marketing. We stress that our social marketing definition better reflects the need to balance the effects (efficiency and effectiveness) and the process (equity, fairness and sustainability) of social marketing practices. By our definition of social marketing, the marketer becomes a facilitator and participant rather than a behaviour change agent.

The paper introduces into social marketing three streams of thought that represent the most contemporary aspects of economic, market and consumer philosophy. We believe our definition can better guide social marketing in its quest to transform societies to be capable, free, equitable, fair and sustainable.

Compares the marketing functions of social enterprises with that of private enterprise, and discusses the management problems involved in the selection and implementation of a social enterprise strategy. Purports that the marketing function in a social enterprise, as in other types of enterprise, is concerned with decisions relating to the level, composition, and distribution of the output. Recognises that marketing mix decisions – e.g. product, price, place, and promotional decision – provide one specific way of determining the output enterprise. Concludes that the marketing planning problem, in a social enterprise, is a complex one, and success depends on the twin elements of operating flexibility and consumer participation.

After briefly reviewing the recent development of interest in social marketing, some areas where it differs from business marketing are explored. “Social” and “societal” marketing are said to be distinct developments but both have substantial implications for the marketing concept. Four distinct types of social marketing are identified depending largely upon the marketeer's sources of financial support.

The purpose of this paper is to review the possible contribution of “nudging” as a tactic and “form” of exchange and suggest two new frameworks to aid in the description of four “forms” of exchange and “types” of intervention that can be used in social marketing.

Discursive review of the contemporary impact of liberal paternalistic thinking on policy and operational delivery of social change programmes. The paper also considers the tensions within social marketing regarding voluntary and involuntary change including the use of incentives and disincentives in social change programmes and presents a model that seeks to describe the range of options available.

It is concluded that in addition to restricted, generalised and complex exchanges, as defined by Bagozzi there are basically four basic “forms” of exchange that can be used by governments and public institutions who apply a marketing approach to brining about positive social change. These “forms” of exchange includes “nudging” but also other legitimate “forms” of exchange that can be called “shoving”, “ hugging” and “smacking”. It is further suggested that together with these four “forms” of exchange there are five basic “types” of intervention that can be used to bring about change, these two elements can all be brought together in a proposed intervention matrix. The paper makes the case that a key advantage of adopting a marketing mind‐set (i.e. one that is driven by consumer‐centric thinking and based on the creation of value) in the selection of “forms” of exchange and “types” of intervention is that the selected mix will be much more likely to bring about the socially desired change because it is informed by the preferences and consent of the majority of citizens.

This paper does not explicitly address the nature of social marketing. A position is taken that social marketing is what Gallie has defined as an “essentially contested concept ” and what Peters would term a “field of study”. This means that social marketing will by its nature just like many other fields of endeavour be subject to continuous debate and development. Consequently, in adopting this position, the paper tacitly accepts a broad and inclusive definition of social marketing. The proposed exchange matrix and intervention matrix, together with the deCIDES framework outlined in the paper need to be tested to discover if these models have utility in being able to accommodate existing social marketing practice and inform the selection of future social marketing programmes.

If the models set out in this paper prove to have descriptive utility, they may prove to be a useful additional conceptual and practical planning tool for those involved in applying marketing interventions directed at social issues at the policy, strategy, tactical and operational levels of practice.

This paper sets out three conceptual models, two of which have not been published before. The models and the accompanying commentary will add to the debate about the scope of what legitimately constitutes the “operational territory” of social marketing both in terms of up‐ and down‐stream activity and interventions that span both voluntary and involuntary change.

The purpose of this paper is to supplement the growing literature on social marketing by reflecting on the kinds of social marketing activities undertaken in one area of a public service administered by a large City Council in the UK. The study sought to consider the extent to which traditional theoretical ideas on marketing can be coupled with current contributions in operational terms in practical situations.

The methodology is based on anecdotal data and the critical reflections of the principal researcher concerning current and recent activities in the area of interest within the council. For this purpose, traffic services and management within a City Council was chosen, an area in which the first author of the paper has considerable experience and expertise.

People engaged in the type of work examined here, in fact, undertake social marketing, although they do not readily recognize the activity in these terms. Concerning road safety, the majority of resources and effort is directed at children on a specific issue (that is, pedestrian safety). Little is done to reinforce the importance of the notion of road safety or branding as individuals move through life. Illustrations and cases are used to highlight the key findings.

There are relatively few studies highlighting the working of social marketing and very few in the particular context of this paper. As such, the paper provides a useful and novel contribution to the literature.

The advent of social media is dramatically changing the way marketing communication is conducted. This paper reports a study regarding the use of social media in the wellness industry. This industry is competitive and utterly dependent on creating mutually beneficial relationships with customers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of social media marketing in the wellness industry.

Qualitative methods have been used. In-depth interviews have been carried out with marketing communication professionals in seven leading Swedish spa-hotels. The data from the interviews were analysed utilising the constant comparative method from the grounded theory approach.

Dimensions describing the activities, challenges and results of social media in the hotels have been defined. The findings are related to service quality theory, in particular the service dominant logic of marketing (SDL), and a comprehensive framework is proposed.

The findings should be useful for the scientific understanding of the effects of social media in marketing. The study is based entirely on qualitative data.

The results of the study should be useful for managers trying to market their offers effectively through social media.

The connections between social media and the SDL has not previously been studied in the wellness industry and such studies in other industries are rare.

The social venture (SV) is an increasingly popular form of organization to pursue social goals using a commercial approach. Although marketing plays an important role in SV research and a key driver of the performance of SVs, how and the extent to which market conditions play a role remains understudied. This study examines if market turbulence can moderate marketing capabilities and performance relationships.

The authors developed several hypotheses rooted in the marketing literature and tested them using data collected from a sample of 109 SVs from East Asia (i.e. Hong Kong and Taiwan). Using multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling, the authors analyzed the marketing capabilities and financial and social performance relationships and the positive moderating role of market turbulence.

The results suggested that market turbulence is a positive moderator which influences the effect of the marketing capabilities–financial performance relationship, but not the marketing capabilities and social performance relationship.

This paper attempts to interrogate the SV's marketing capabilities–performance relationship in the East Asian context and how market turbulence may enhance or weaken the relationship. This is one of the earliest papers in this research area. The key findings from this research offer valuable theoretical contribution to the study of SV performance.

Given the lack of understanding of social marketing success in theory and practice, this study aims to investigate how social marketing experts conceptualize success.

In this qualitative study, the authors conducted an open-ended online questionnaire with 48 worldwide social marketing experts, most with more than 20 years of experience in the field. The authors analyzed data using topic modeling, a machine-learning method that groups responses/terms into cluster topics based on similarities. Keywords in each topic served to generate themes for discussion.

While behavior change is mentioned as paramount to conceptualizing success, participants prefer to use more tangible and less complex forms to define/measure success, such as campaign recall uptick. In addition, lack of funding was considered an important factor in measuring success. This study provides a two-stage taxonomy to better understand success in social marketing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to conceptualize success in social marketing practice.