Social Marketing in Action

This textbook provides students with real-world social marketing case studies from different countries and regions around the world, taking learners from classroom theory to practice. The primary objective is to clearly portray to students distinct, identifiable steps that are essential for successful social marketing campaigns. Core social marketing practices are applied to each case to help students master social marketing principles and apply them to their own real world social marketing activities in order to affect positive social change.

This textbook first provides the tools necessary to understand the effective applica- tion of social marketing, and then offers 24 case studies exemplifying effective social marketing efforts from all around the world. Specifically, Part I clearly and concisely explains the principles of social marketing in five chapters:


• Upstream vs. downstream social marketing, SWOT, competition


• Fundamentals of social marketing, ethics

• Formative and Evaluative Research

• Theories applied in social marketing

• A historical perspective on social marketing

Part II features 24 social marketing case studies that demonstrate the application of social marketing principles. All 24 cases follow a consistent structure that includes:

• Background • Positioning

• SWOT • Research

• Objectives • The 4 P’s

• Target audience • Evaluation

• Barriers and benefits • Discussion

• Competition


This format allows for students and professors to easily and effectively select individual cases and compare between cases. This textbook also allows instructors to encourage critical thinking by having students compare and contrast not only the cases themselves, but the applications used. In addition, teaching guides with answers to discussion questions, suggestions for activities inside and outside of the classroom and further readings are available to assistprofessors in teaching from this book.