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. Early papers on the topic include those by William Lazer and by Philip Kotler and Sidney Levy. The Journal of Marketing presented a comprehensive discussion of societal marketing in July 1971.
Instruments of societal marketingKotler identified four categories of products, classified in terms of long term benefits and immediate satisfaction:
1.Deficient products, which bring neither long-run or short term benefits.
2.Pleasing products, which bring a high level of immediate satisfaction, but can cause harm to the society in the long run.
3.Salutary products, which bring low short term satisfaction, but benefit the society on the long run.
4.Desirable products, which combine long-run benefit and immediate satisfaction.
Kotler’s concept of societal marketing suggested that for the well-being of society, the deficient products should be eliminated from the market, pleasing and salutary products should go through a product modification process to reach the fourth category, by incorporating missing short term benefits into salutary products and long term benefits into pleasing products, and the companies’ ultimate goal should be to develop desirable products.
Source: Wikipedia
