ASSIGNMENT ON SOCIETAL

MARKETING

BY

K. RAJESWARI
087MB142
SOCIETAL MARKETING CONCEPT – in brief
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. Under the Societal Marketing
Concept organizations have to balance company profits, customers’ wants
and the society's interests

There seems to be a lot of confusion over what is meant by "societal

marketing". For one thing, it has nothing at all to with using social
networking sites as a marketing tool. Also, it is not the same as niche
marketing, or the targeting of marketing towards particular social groups,
although there are connections.

It must also be distinguished from "social marketing", which refers to

the deliberate use of marketing techniques to achieve a social end, or what
might be termed social engineering via the marketplace.

E.g. Marketing condoms with the stated aim of reducing HIV/Aids

infection

Societal marketing has only one meaning, which is the consideration

of the wider social aspects of marketing a particular product to a particular
group. It is therefore an aspect of ethical marketing.

Societal Marketing has gained immense importance during the past

years. It is basically the marketing decisions of a company that not only
consider the consumer's wants, the company's own requirements but also
give importance to society's long term interests. It is based on the concept of
social responsibility. It has become important because of changing consumer
trends. People are now more concerned about the overall doings of a
company. Consumers and investors increasingly appear to want to purchase
products and services from and invest companies that act in social
responsible ways. As a bonus, these companies earn both tangible and
intangible in a socially desirable manner, it just makes good business sense
to take actions the benefit society.
E.g. People are really concerned about the use of child labor by
companies such as Nike and it actually influenced the sales of its products.
That is why, Nike is now trying to focus on the fact that it is not using child
labor for its products and it is doing a lot for third world communities where
its shoes are being manufactured.

COMPANIES EMPLOYING THE SOCIETAL MARKETING

CONCEPT
COCA-COLA
Coca- cola is a soft drink company started early in the 90’s in USA.
After gaining a good market value in the world the company looked out for
promoting large people towards their products. As a result they formulated
an awareness program in the African countries about the HIV awareness.

 In the 2001 the Coco-Cola African foundations was formed to reduce the
impact of HIV – AIDS on coca-cola 60000 employees and 40
independent bottlers in Africa. At present, 100 percent of the coca-cola’s
 independent bottling companies in 54 African countries are enrolled in
the foundations programs.
 All their employees and the employees’ families are eligible to receive
benefits, including access to antiretroviral drugs, testing, counseling,
prevention, and treatment. The foundations outreach also extends beyond
employees and into community.
 It focuses it efforts on three factors which Coca- cola operates:
healthcare, education, and the environment. The many projects are
supported by the foundation cost millions of dollars each year, but coca-
cola offers more than just funding. By using its distribution network, one
of the most extensive in Africa, coca-cola can transport vital materials to
the remote part of the continent.
 It reach areas of Africa which the AIDS/HIV workers have not
previously had easy access and thereby ensure that people in those areas
can obtain information about the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Even Coca-Cola’s marketing expertise is being used to raise awareness of
key issues of such as HIV prevention. By leveraging its corporate assets,
Coca-Cola has made contribution to all African communities.

LOBLOWS COMPANIES
It is an integrated group of food wholesaling and retailing companies.
The company more than the employing the marketing concept it introduced
product that are environmental friendly. As a result, they formed the product
which is called as the GREEN line.
 The Green-line launch had its origin in one of Dave Nichol’s buying trips
to Germany in 1988, where he was struck by the number of grocery
 products that were promoted as “ environmentally friendly “. He
discovered that The green consumer guide, a “how- to” book for
consumers to become environmentally responsible, had become a
best-seller in England.
 There were three products that have been recommended for the GREEN
line: energy efficient light bulbs, toilet tissue made from the recycled
paper or a high- fiber cereal. They added 100 products to the GREEN
line and all of them were either environmentally friendly or healthy for
the body. Loblaws contacted a number of prominent environmental
groups to assist in the products.
Thus by employing the social responsibility concept the company started
producing a serious of products which ultimately became the products of the
company.

NIKE - "Just do it”

Nike, Inc., a marketer of athletic shoes and sports apparel, has grown
into a large multinational enterprise through a marketing strategy centering
on a favorable brand image.
 In 1996, NIKE decided to design a new, state-of-the-art campus for its
European headquarters in the Netherlands. A complex of five new
buildings, the campus was designed to integrate the indoors with the
surrounding environment, tapping into local energy flows to create
healthy, beneficial relationships between nature and human culture.
 We had come to see that our customers' health and our own ability to
compete are inseparable from the health of the environment," said Darcy
Winslow, one of the early leaders of the sustainability movement within
the company. Product innovation and performance remained Nike's first
 priority, she said, "but our sense of design excellence had expanded to
include a commitment to ecological intelligence, to fully understanding
the impacts of our products on the natural world."
 Nike's first steps toward ecologically intelligent product design began
with materials. Together they sought to determine the chemical
composition and environmental effects of the materials and
manufacturing processes. Using natural flows of energy and nutrients as
models, these product materials are designed to flow in closed loop
cycles, eliminating the concept of waste while enhancing and
replenishing both nature and commerce.
 With its Management of Environmental Safety and Health program, for
example, Nike has merged health and safety metrics with a Nike
management model to create a framework for sustainability suitable for
its Asian contract factories.

MCDONALDS-
 In April 2008, McDonald's announced that 11 of its Sheffield restaurants
have been using a biomass trial that had cut its waste and carbon
footprint by half in the area. In this trial, waste from the restaurants were
collected by Veolia Environmental Services and used to produce energy
at a power plant. McDonald's plans to expand this project, however the
lack of biomass power plants in the U.S. will prevent this plan from
becoming a national standard anytime soon.
 In addition, in Europe, McDonald's has been recycling vegetable grease
by converting it to fuel for their diesel trucks.
 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized McDonald's
continuous effort to reduce solid waste by designing more efficient
packaging and by promoting the use of recycled-content materials.
McDonald's report that they are committed towards environmental
leadership by effectively managing electric energy, by conserving natural
resources through recycling and reusing materials, and by addressing
water management issues within the restaurant.
 When McDonald’s received criticism for its environmental policies in the
1970s, it began to make substantial progress towards source reductions
efforts. For instance, an “average meal” in the 1970s—a Big Mac, fries,
and a drink—required 46 grams of packaging; today, it requires only 25
grams, allowing a 46 percent reduction. In addition, McDonald’s
eliminated the need for intermediate containers for cola by having a
delivery system that pumps syrup directly from the delivery truck into
storage containers, saving two million pounds of packaging annually.
Overall, weight reductions in packaging and products, as well as the
increased usage of bulk packaging ultimately decreased packaging by 24
million pounds annually.
 They have introduced products which are useful the societal
environment. As they found the customers are more hygiene concerned
and diet conscious they started to do research and development and they
produced low fat and cholesterol content.
 When it opened in Hong Kong in 1975, McDonald's was the first
restaurant to consistently offer clean restrooms, driving customers to
demand the same of other restaurants and institutions.