Commercial vs Social – What’s the Difference?
I often get asked what is the main difference between Social Marketing and Commercial marketing – or indeed if there is any difference. Of course, this is understandable, not least because after all we are using fairly similar tools (and theories in some cases). However, I’d argue that the main difference is probably in the starting point. Consider the basic definition of Marketing as a “social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with others.” (Kotler et al, Principles of Marketing). One of the main points for commercial marketing is the creation and exchange of products that people want and need, for social marketing while that may be true in the long run, it may not be so in the short term. Take the example of healthy food choices: While it may be true for some people that they do prefer a piece of fruit, many more people are likely to prefer unhealthy food choices (chocolate anyone?). For commercial marketers, the main objective is to find out which people want the healthy food and supply them with apples, bananas and grapes – while also supplying and exchanging unhealthy food with the people who want it. In that sense, commercial marketing is pretty value free – it delivers what people want, when they want it (and without starting a discussion about the ethics of such an approach), does not really make a judgement if that is good or bad.
Social marketing is pretty different: In social marketing we would be actively trying to convince those people that want unhealthy food to switch to healthy food (and we would probably not be too concerned about those that already eat healthily). Thus, our target is very, very different (and yes, we are making a judgment call, i.e. that there is such a thing as desired behaviour as well as undesirable behaviour). This also explains why in many ways it is a lot easier to be a commercial marketeer: after all commercial marketing is a little like running in open doors (or delivering what someone wants when they want it in the way they want it) – while social marketing really is about convincing someone that a particular behaviour is bad/unhealthy/undesirable and to do something that he/she may not originally want to do.
That’s certainly one difference, but the main difference to me is in who profits from it. In commercial marketing, the marketing organization (ie, the company) reaps the profits if they are successful in convincing people to adopt their promoted behavior (purchasing the product). In social marketing, it’s the target audience — the people being marketed to — or society as a whole that benefits. The social marketer isn’t in it for himself.
This doesn’t mean that any marketing by nonprofits is social marketing; nonprofit marketing may in fact be more similar to commercial marketing in that effective fundraising ultimately benefits the nonprofit itself with the behaviors promoted primarily being donations (though hopefully down the line the people the nonprofit serves do get the benefit as well – it’s just more indirect).
I think both social and commercial marketers benefit. It’s a matter of perception.
A commercial marketing agency is paid for producing a campaign (regardless of the end results, once management and the board like it, they’ll receive payment). Meanwhile, a social marketing agency continues to receive clients/projects and thus funding based on its ability to produce social marketing campaigns with positive results. While social marketers receive the additional benefit of positively impacting lives, there is also a real financial benefit to producing the campaign. I don’t believe we live in a purely altruistic world.
Perception also plays a part when considering audience benefit. I think it can be argued that in either case the people/ groups targeted “feel” like they have had their needs (whether good or bad–no judgment) met. They have received some benefit.
it is very helpful,A commercial marketing agency is paid for producing a campaign (regardless of the end results, once management and the board like it, they’ll receive payment). Meanwhile, a social marketing agency continues to receive clients/projects and thus funding based on its ability to produce social marketing campaigns with positive results. While social marketers receive the additional benefit of positively impacting lives, there is also a real financial benefit to producing the campaign. I don’t believe we live in a purely altruistic world.
Is communication more important in commercial or mom commercial organization