Societal marketing concept is evident when an organisation determines consumer needs and

wants and then integrates all activities in the firm to serve these needs while simultaneously
enhancing societal well being (McColl-Kennedy, Kiel, Lusch & Lusch, 1994)

“Social marketing is the adaptation of commercial marketing technologies to programs designed

to influence the voluntary behaviour of target audiences to improve their personal welfare and
that of the society of which they are a part.” Andreasen, (1995)

Societal marketing is the business driven, profit orientated way of changing the world as a means
of developing revenue based product. Societal is about the direct benefits for the organisation
(profit) and secondary benefit for the community. Social marketing is about changing
behaviours for the benefit of the broader society. Social marketing is about the social gain, target
market’s gain, and the flow of benefits where profit may not actual exist, or if it does, then it’s
just an incidental secondary benefit for the campaign.

societal marketing is any form of marketing that takes into consideration the needs and wants of
the consumer and the well-being of society. Basically, societal marketing is marketing combined
with social responsibility.

Conversely, social marketing uses more traditional commercial techniques and strategies
(focusing primarily on selling) to achieve goals for the greater social good. Social marketing
campaigns can either encourage merit goods (Ex. Fund raising for Not-for-profit organizations)
or dissuade the use of demerit goods (Ex. Non-smoking campaigns).

Social marketing focuses more on the end result of the marketing (promoting a merit good) while
societal marketing is more concerned with the marketing process in general and the marketing
strategy used (using marketing techniques that take into account the well-being of society).

A marketing campaign focusing on smoking cessation is an example of social marketing, but if

the marketing strategies and techniques used in that campaign focus on increasing the well-being
of society, that same campaign can be an example of societal marketing as well.

Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and
techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good.[1] Social marketing can be
applied to promote merit goods, or to make a society avoid demerit goods and thus to promote
society's well being as a whole. For example, this may include asking people not to smoke in
public areas, asking them to use seat belts, or prompting to make them follow speed limits.
The societal marketing concept is an enlightened marketing concept that holds that a company
should make good marketing decisions by considering consumers' wants, the company's
requirements, and society's long-term interests. It is closely linked with the principles of
corporate social responsibility and of sustainable development.

The concept has an emphasis on social responsibility and suggests that for a company to only
focus on exchange relationship with customers might not be suitable in order to sustain long term
success. Rather, marketing strategy should deliver value to customers in a way that maintains or
improves both the consumer's and the society's well-being.

Societal marketing should not be confused with social marketing. The societal marketing concept
was a forerunner of sustainable marketing in integrating issues of social responsibility into
commercial marketing strategies. In contrast to that, social marketing uses commercial marketing
theories, tools and techniques to social issues. Social marketing applies a “customer orientated”
approach and uses the concepts and tools used by commercial marketers in pursuit of social
goals like Anti-Smoking-Campaigns or fund raising for NGOs