The secret to

innovative social

marketing in 2015

emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/JSOCM

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Product, Price, Place, Promotion

The 4Ps of social

marketing is the widely

accepted model for social

marketing intervention,

but does it still work?

The 4Ps of social marketing

We consider the struggle

of the 4Ps in dealing with

the increasing range of

interventions based on

social marketing.

Reconfiguring the social marketing mix

What’s the problem with the

current model?

“…[is] the shift in marketing

activities from one-off

transactions or exchanges to

dynamic interactions aimed

at building relationships and

retaining customers”

The problem with the 4Ps

Lefebvre (2012)

Social marketing mix

should start with customer

insight to enable full

appreciation and value.

Customer first

The model should also

aide and encompass the

extending number of

activities which make up

social marketing.

Cover all the basics

4Ps – A help or a hindrance?

The 4Ps are simple

to remember.

Help

Each P has a wide

applicability to the

context social

marketing covers.

Help

Definitions enable

flexibility for social

marketing activities -

highlighting the broad

nature of the model.

Help

The 4Ps suggest an

internal orientation,

not an external focus

on customer first.

Hinder

There’s a lack of

consideration of the

relationship approach in

social marketing.

Hinder

4Ps model encourages

“doing things to

customers” rather than

being led by them.

Hinder

(O’Malley and Patterson (2002))

So what is required?

A model which helps

the social marketing

practitioner with the

real-time ‘creative’

process of design.

A new approach…

The model should aid

thinking to help

managers in their

deliberations.

A new approach…

The COM-SM model

The Capability Opportunity Motivation (COM) model

www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JSOCM-01-2013-0011

Introducing:

“Product” becomes

“motive” -

considering what

motivates people to

do something;

advantage or gain.

Motive

“Price” becomes

“costs” - the skills

or capability to

enact a behaviour.

Costs

“Place” becomes

“accessibility” - less

about the physical

location, more

about they type of

activity occurring.

Accessibility

Where’s the link between COM

and Social Marketing (SM)?

SM activities can be

organised in to “design

clusters” where the

use of social marketing

is located in specific

communities.

Design clusters

The capabilities for

social marketing

already exist, but are

tweaked to nudge

people into new

behaviour.

Nudge activities

Reward/exchange

reflects the need for

more substantial

motivational triggers

for a conscious

decision.

Reward/exchange

People are motivated

to change but lack

the skills and/or

opportunities to make

it happen.

Services and support

The need for

essential intervention

in response to deficits

across the whole

COM model.

Relationship and community work

Is COM-SM the secret to

effective social marketing?

The COM-SM model is

considered an aide to

management thinking

rather than a precise

predictor of outcomes in

all situations.

An aide to marketing

This new model contributes

to the process of creating

interventions rather than

the 4Ps model which lacks

the relationship

consideration so vital to

social marketing.

Conclusion

From the 4Ps to COM-SM:

reconfiguring the social marketing mix

Journal of Social Marketing

Read the full text article to use the COM-SM

model to aide your social marketing activity.

Alan Tapp, Fiona Spotswood