Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12508

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Jones S.
Social marketing: dimensions of power and politics.
Eur J Mark 1982; 16:(6):46-53
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12280422

Abstract:

PIP: The effective us of marketing strategies by nonprofit organizations necessitates involvement in political activities, i.e., mobilizing power to influence others. Most nonprofit groups and marketing experts who work for nonprofit groups are not sufficiently aware of the value of using the tactics of politics to win support for their causes. The experiences of a voluntary group which used politics and power to develop a program aimed at assisting unemployed black youth were presented. The group wanted to establish a workshop to provide training for hard core unemployed youth. The group needed to raise funds to set up the workshop. The 1st step was to identify a target group of potential donors, and then to develop a strategy for selling their product, i.e., the worthiness of the workshop project. The group decided to direct its fund raising activities toward organizations in the community rather than individuals. The market was segmented, and the product was presented differently to differ groups. Initially, the voluntary group was powerless. Political tactics were subsequently used to legitimate the group and its product. A network of influencial sympathizers, primarily clergymen and politicians, was established. This network helped the group garner the support of the targeted donor organizations. The threat of sanctions was used to gain support for the project, but sanctions were applied with considerable care. For example, the support of local politicians was obtained partially by implicitly threatening them with the possibility of bad publicity if they failed to promote the project. Voluntary organizations are not immune to internal conflict and competition. In introducing a marketing perspective into a voluntary organization, internal politics must be taken into account. In the case presented here, the marketer had to decide who in the organization to align himself with and then develop strategies to increase his influence and the influence of his allies. In organizing and operating the workshop it was sometimes necessary to engage in the political strategies of negotiation and compromise to settle conflicts arising out of the differing perspectives of the project’s donors and clients (the unemployed youth). In summary, a group which seeks to exert changes in the attitudes, values, and behavior of another group must involve itself in the political tactics of negotiation, bargaining, legitimizing, and manipulating. Marketers are advised to accept as clients only those nonprofit organizations with which they share common values. They may then abandon their customary role of dispassionate expert and adopt the more effective role of committed power broker.

Keywords:
African Americans Attitude Behavior Communication Community-Institutional Relations* Economics Education Employment Ethnic Groups Group Processes Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Information Services Leadership Marketing of Health Services* Population Characteristics Private Sector* Psychology Public Opinion* Social Behavior Social Change Social Class Social Planning Social Values* Socioeconomic Factors Unemployment