This type of marketing is based on the perception of acquiring or improving a social idea. In this manner, it has as its goal to take care of solving social problems, but not to sell. A social marketing campaign can be carried out both virtually and through other communicative channels. In addition to obtaining a cause beyond the social aspect, it is equally important to sell a social thought. This is so that the consumer is informed at all times.
How Important is Social Marketing?
Although it does not have an economic contribution, making a social marketing campaign brings something beyond money. It is about social evolution, since with this tool social changes can be achieved for the benefit of the company and consumers.
Main Focus of Social Marketing:
- Improve the processes that a company maintains with society by carrying out significant changes and responsibility with social problems. (This in addition to implementing marketing techniques to have results in the future). In this way they can gain prestige for the brand that is being promoted through the solutions they want to apply.
However, most of the time, social marketing campaigns are not rooted in corporate social responsibility (CSR). That is to say, the company can include methodologies of this type of marketing, but not have a total idea of what it wants to achieve in this responsibility.
How to Implement a Social Marketing Campaign
Applying a social marketing campaign in the right way is fundamental to the whole process. This given that with just one mistake or misstep, losses are possible. If the best realization and best use of such a tool is applied, the fulfillment of objectives is more easily achieved.
As mentioned before, if you have a bad management of your tools, the repercussion can be negative. Therefore, it is advisable to follow these measures in order to be successful in the social marketing campaign to be carried out:
- Analyze and identify the needs of the public to which the company wants to promote its services or products.
- Value the process through which you want to achieve your goals and always remembering each step to avoid messing up the process.
- Make an outline of the problems and find out what is the best solution, whether medium, short or long term.
- Maintain the established time in which the problem has to be solved without losing the course of the clear idea to be applied.
It is important to say that the development of this strategy is part of the responsibility of the company in order to find a solution to the problem. This in order to make known the brand, the idea of which is in line with what was planned and its initial value.
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Strategies to Use in Social Marketing Campaigns
Emphasizing the problem rather than the company itself is an aspect that cannot be overlooked. It is important to explain how to solve the social problem and not to mention the brand that is representing it. It is a tool that can be directed more to the company or to the public, depending on their needs.
In this sense, there are two main strategies used in a social marketing campaign:
- Storytelling. This is the strategy that is implemented due to a story that connects with consumers. It is commonly used in many types of marketing, such as commercial. Its objective is to generate sympathy for the message expressed to the audience, connecting the audience with the brand in a linear way. To accomplish this, video is a good working material for this strategy.
- Common act. It is fundamental to start with a test to get ideas across. For example, an awareness plan is always a good idea, as it could help us to control the situation from the beginning. This way, the results are sustained with the lowest failure rate, so it is a considerably good option.
Social Marketing Campaign: Examples
To summarize, it is important, as previously mentioned, to have commitment to the strategy of this type of marketing. This is because many of the campaigns conducted have negative results or are unsuccessful due to lack of commitment. Although most of the results of a well-executed social marketing campaign are usually positive.
Below are two clear examples of such campaigns:
Dove’s Campaign:
Dove is a brand that has a lot of experience in the beauty market, which is why it named its campaign “Real Beauty Sketches.” The campaign focused on how other people see us and comparing their vision to ours.
In short, someone went into a room with several people and started asking them: how do you describe yourselves to each other? Instead of answering with words, they had to draw a picture of the person who asked them. (It should be noted that there is no trace of the brand anywhere).
Colgate’s Campaign:
To begin with, this very distinguished and prestigious brand of toothpaste used a particular social marketing campaign. In a nutshell, to create an impact with the lack of water in the world, they emphasized that we shut down and take care of the clean water we use. The campaign shows a man brushing his teeth with unbranded toothpaste and encouraging us to turn off the faucet when we brush, without wasting a drop of water. As he does so, many hands of different people of different ages appear, showing the potential usefulness of wasted water.