Question

Topic: Student Questions

Thesis On Societal Marketing

Posted by Anonymous on 8/10/2011 at 9:34 AM ET 125 Points
Dear All, I am applying for a Higher degree by Research in Marketing and I need to submit a thesis proposal for the same. I have the following in mind, please let me know whether this is good enough for a M.Phil. degree:

Topic: Societal Marketing - Is it perceived as a marketing gimmick to mask short comings, especially in this age of experienced and well informed customers?

The research questions that I would want to take up are:
1. Does societal marketing build brand and loyalty?
2. Where does societal maerketing stand when compared to other features of a business, in building brand and loyalty?
3. Is profit making or self interest very evident to customers in societal marketing campaigns?
4. Whether 'cause related marketing' (like donations and charity) have a better acceptance amoung customers than making a few changes in some ' completely socially problematic products/services' and making them 'somewhat socially problematic products/services'?

Please write back to me, your opinion about this research. It could be in the form of advice, feedback, criticism or even references to papers/books I should read to improve the thesis further.

Thanks a lot in advance.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 8/10/2011 at 10:48 AM Accepted
    Question (1) seems obvious to me, and (3) is a function of the content. Therefore (2) and (4) strike me as better questions.

    A good book to read about "cause" marketing with the social media is "The Dragonfly Effect:Quick, Effective and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change" The authors (headed by Jennifer Aker) have strong academic backgrounds. In spite of that, the book is well written! The reviews on amazon.com will tell you if it is worthwhile for you. The long link is:

    https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_20?url=search-alias%3Daps&fie...

    Below is a quote from an article by a McKinsey author team in the July 11th (electronic) issue of the McKinsey Quarterly: "Are Your Customers Becoming Internet Junkies?"

    Presumably part of your research will be a questionnaire that Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. members fill out for you - aiming at specific target groups. A pretty standard sortware to check is www.surveymonkey.com.

    Lastly, there may be YouTube videos up on precisely this subject. If not, consider posting your own YouTube video about it, with a link to your questionnaire.

    Regards,
    JH
    QUOTE: Social networks, particularly Facebook, are emerging as the dominant digital-communications channels. For people aged 34 and under, they already are the preferred channel (by minutes of use per day), displacing e-mail, texting, and phone calls. Social-network use, growing swiftly among all segments of our survey population, has doubled among those over 55.
  • Posted on 8/10/2011 at 11:09 AM Author
    Dear JH, Thanks so much for the reply. I would think of some other questions instead of 1 and 3.

    To everyone,
    I have one more question to ask:
    There are a lot of products that are recalled due to some defect in the whole lot, especially those related to children. Can this be considered as 'Societal Marketing'?
    Sorry if this questions sounds silly. I am just exploring all possibilities to make my thesis interesting and valuable.
  • Posted on 8/10/2011 at 12:26 PM Accepted
    I don't think I understand what you mean by "societal marketing." That makes it hard to help. Do you have a working definition and/or some examples? Is this a local/regional term? If so, where?
  • Posted on 8/10/2011 at 4:02 PM Author
    Hi mgoodman, Thanks for replying.
    Societal Marketing came into existence in the 1970s. Prof.Philip Kotler came up with the concept.
    This is the definition:
    Societal Marketing concept holds that the organisation’s task is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer’s and the society’s well being (Kotler, Philip. Marketing Management 11th ed. Prentice-Hall, 2004).
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 8/10/2011 at 8:22 PM Accepted
    Look, ALL marketing is social. If it's NOT, then it's not reaching any market, is it?

    Not sure that anything is "good enough" for the purpose—whatever that is. But the thing is that every student writing a thesis seems to be writing about social media.

    This will put the assessors that have to read these things to sleep. So, when everyone else zigs (writes about social media), consider zagging (meaning, write about anything BUT social media.

    I cannot and will not tell you what to write, or what's good enough. All I'll advise you to do is to remain curious about everything.
  • Posted on 8/10/2011 at 8:57 PM Moderator
    Except for the words "... and the society's" the definition sounds just like the definition of Marketing.

    So what you are really asking is about the effect of Marketing on the *society's* well-being. Otherwise you could leave out the word "societal" and deal with Marketing overall.

    I think the topic is way too broad for a thesis. You may need to narrow it to a specific company or industry, and a specific location/region.
  • Posted on 8/16/2011 at 4:00 PM Author
    Thanks Gary Bloomer and mgoodman for writing. Thanks for the inputs.
  • Posted by rizwanahmad_251 on 9/29/2011 at 4:03 AM Member
    Dear I need all materiel on societal marketing & questionnaire about future of societal marketing for my MS thesis. urgently needed.
  • Posted on 11/14/2012 at 1:20 PM Member
    how different is it from "social marketing".... I have read a Kotler Zaltman paper(Journal of Mkting 1971) from the early 70's it talks of 'non-profit' marketing...
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