Is there a role for marketing in community development?

K Collins

doi:10.1093/cdj/bsu028

Abstract

Social marketing is the application of marketing theory to social issues. A significant drawback, though, is that practitioners are encouraged to assume high levels of agency among their target audiences, often while developing programmes aimed at very disadvantaged groups. However, some social marketers work openly and collaboratively at neighbourhood level to co-create change with the people who would usually be cast in the much more passive role of an audience. This article describes a project that adopted these principles, working with people in two deprived neighbourhoods to co-create strategies to reduce risky drinking. Locals used alcohol to cope with feelings of being trapped, emotionally and socially isolated with limited access to employment and facilities. A mobile services hub with a street cafe was piloted for 4 days. This project is an example of the potential for overlap between social marketing and community development and suggests that practitioners could learn from each other's expertise. The article concludes with a review of social marketing's role in situations where structural barriers to behaviour change are high, finishing with a call for social marketers and community developers to open themselves to collaboration.

Highlights

Marketing has rather an unfortunate image tainted with a whiff of corporate greed, a touch of artificially inflated consumer desires and a Machiavellian willingness to manipulate in pursuit of economic success
I conclude that a combination of a focus on individual neighbourhoods and the adoption of participatory methods by social marketers creates potential for overlap with community development, providing as an example a project to co-‐create solutions to the problem of risky drinking in two deprived neighbourhoods
Turning back to the marketing academics of the 1960s, it seems that critics of the foundational work that led to the field of social marketing may have had a point

Summary

Introduction

Marketing has rather an unfortunate image tainted with a whiff of corporate greed, a touch of artificially inflated consumer desires and a Machiavellian willingness to manipulate in pursuit of economic success. More than forty ideas emerged from a workshop attended by a small core of community volunteers; resonating with the principle of segmentation, some were quite specific to a particular age and life-‐stage (e.g. extreme sports could help divert groups of young men from organising all their social activity around alcohol) but possessed characteristics that apply to all (e.g. provide activities that don’t revolve around drinking) These ideas coalesced into a vision for a Hub that would host a range of services for all ages as well as being a venue for ‘positive’ (i.e. non stigmatising) reasons to visit. A street café was provided on each day, and all equipment was donated for use in future events

Conclusions

Discussion and implications

Funding statement