Introduction

Social marketing is becoming increasingly relevant to the developing world. The success of social programmes has significantly contributed to the process of development in the countries of the Third World and the failure of such programmes has resulted in tardy development. Their success has been attributed to the adoption of marketing approach to the social/development programmes. In promoting any social idea or issue, it is not enough to prepare the communication programme. Everything associated with the delivery system has to be taken care of. Let us take the example of the immunization programme. One cannot expect the success to come only through catchy advertising campaigns. The network of primary health centres, with proper staff, adequate stock of vaccines kept under prescribed conditions, quality of vaccines and the price one has to pay for immunization are significantly important. It is the marketing approach which helps in gaining an insight into these finer aspects.

Social marketing, as the concept evolved, acquired two different dimensions (Luck 1974). One dimension of it related to social responsibilities of marketers, mainly in response to consumer advocacy movement and also the pressures of government regulations. In this case, the focus is on economic benefits to business and social benefits to society that emerge from the adoption of socially responsible business policies by business organizations (Lazer and Kelley 1973).