Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral

goals for a social good.[1] Social marketing can be applied to promote merit goods, or to make a society avoid demerit goods and thus to promote society's well being as a whole. For example, this may include asking people not to smoke in public areas, asking them to use seat belts, or prompting to make them follow speed limits. Although "social marketing" is sometimes seen only as using standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals, this is an over-simplification. The primary aim of social marketing is "social good", while in "commercial marketing" the aim is primarily "financial". This does not mean that commercial marketers can not contribute to achievement of social good. Increasingly, social marketing is being described as having "two parents"a "social parent" = social sciences and social policy, and a "marketing parent" = commercial and public sector marketing approaches. Beginning in the 1970s, it has in the last decade matured into a much more integrative and inclusive discipline that draws on the full range of social sciences and social policy approaches as well as marketing. Social marketing must not be confused with social media marketing.

Applications of social marketing Health promotion campaigns in the late 1980s began applying social marketing in practice. Notable early developments took place in Australia. These included the Victoria Cancer Council developing its anti-tobacco campaign "Quit" (1988), and "SunSmart" (1988), its campaign against skin cancer which had the slogan Slip! Slop! Slap!.[2] WorkSafe Victoria, a state-run Occupational Health and Safety organization in Australia has used social marketing as a driver in its attempts to reduce the social and human impact of workplace safety failings. In 2006, it ran "Homecomings", a popular campaign that was later adopted in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, and named the 2007 Australian Marketing Institute Marketing Program of the Year[3] DanceSafe followed the ideas of social marketing in its communication practices.[citation needed] On a wider front, by 2007, Government in the United Kingdom announced the development of its first social marketing strategy for all aspects of health.[4]

Two other public health applications include the CDC's CDCynergy training and software application,[5] and SMART (Social Marketing and Assessment Response Tool).[6] Social marketing theory and practice has been progressed in several countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and in the latter a number of key Government policy papers have adopted a strategic social marketing approach. Publications such as "Choosing Health" in 2004,[4] "It's our health!" in 2006; and "Health Challenge England" in 2006, all represent steps to achieve both a strategic and operational use of social marketing. In India, AIDS controlling programs are largely using social marketing and social workers are largely working for it. Most of the social workers are professionally trained for this particular task.[citation needed] A variation of social marketing has emerged as a systematic way to foster more sustainable behavior. Referred to as Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) by Canadian environmental psychologist Doug McKenzie-Mohr, CBSM strives to change the behavior of communities to reduce their impact on the environment [7] Realizing that simply providing information is usually not sufficient to initiate behavior change, CBSM uses tools and findings from social psychology to discover the perceived barriers to behavior change and ways of overcoming these barriers. Among the tools and techniques used by CBSM are focus groups and surveys (to discover barriers) and commitments, prompts, social norms, social diffusion, feedback and incentives (to change behavior). The tools of CBSM have been used to foster sustainable behavior in many areas, including energy conservation [8], environmental regulation [9] and recycling [10] [edit] Types of social marketing Social marketing uses the benefits and of doing social good to secure and maintain customer engagement. In social marketing the distinguishing feature is therefore its "primary focus on social good, and it is not a secondary outcome. Not all public sector and not-for-profit marketing is social marketing. Public sector bodies can use standard marketing approaches to improve the promotion of their relevant services and organizational aims. This can be very important, but should not be confused with social marketing where the focus is on achieving specific behavioral goals with specific audiences in relation to different topics relevant to social good (e.g.: health, sustainability, recycling, etc.). For example, a 3-month marketing campaign to encourage people to get a H1N1 vaccine is more tactical in nature and should not be considered social marketing. Whereas a campaign that promotes and reminds people to get regular check-ups and all of their vaccinations when they're supposed to encourages a long-term behavior change that benefits society. It can therefore be considered social marketing. As the dividing lines are rarely clear it is important not to confuse social marketing with commercial marketing. A commercial marketer selling a product may only seek to influence a buyer to make a product purchase.

Social marketers, dealing with goals such as reducing cigarette smoking or encouraging condom use, have more difficult goals: to make potentially difficult and long-term behavioral change in target populations. It is sometimes felt that social marketing is restricted to a particular spectrum of clientthe non-profit organization, the health services group, the government agency. These often are the clients of social marketing agencies, but the goal of inducing social change is not restricted to governmental or non-profit charitable organizations; it may be argued that corporate public relations efforts such as funding for the arts are an example of social marketing. Social marketing should not be confused with the Societal Marketing Concept which was a forerunner of sustainable marketing in integrating issues of social responsibility into commercial marketing strategies. In contrast to that, social marketing uses commercial marketing theories, tools and techniques to social issues. Social marketing applies a "customer oriented" approach and uses the concepts and tools used by commercial marketers in pursuit of social goals like Anti-SmokingCampaigns or fund raising for NGOs. [edit] Social marketing confusion In 2006, Jupitermedia announced its "Social Marketing" service,[11] with which it aims to enable website owners to profit from social media. Despite protests from the social marketing communities over the hijacking of the term, Jupiter decided to stick with the name.[12] However, Jupiter's approach is more correctly (and commonly) referred to as social media optimization. Another similar, but different marketing approach is Holistic Marketing which also aims to benefit society, but through aligning the values and ethics of employees and owners of a company with their marketing goals, regardless of the product being marketed. [edit] History of social marketing Social marketing began as a formal discipline in 1971, with the publication of "Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change" in the Journal of Marketing by marketing experts Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman.[13] However, earlier, social marketing had already been used as a tool for birth control in India, where a persuasion based approach was favored over a legislative approach.[14] Craig Lefebvre and June Flora introduced[verification needed] social marketing to the public health community in 1988,[15] where it has been most widely used and explored. They noted that there was a need for "large scale, broad-based, behavior change focused programs" to improve public health (the community wide prevention of cardiovascular diseases in their respective projects), and outlined eight essential components of social marketing that still hold today. They are: 1. A consumer orientation to realize organizational (social) goals

2. An emphasis on the voluntary exchanges of goods and services between providers and consumers 3. Research in audience analysis and segmentation strategies 4. The use of formative research in product and message design and the pretesting of these materials 5. An analysis of distribution (or communication) channels 6. Use of the marketing mixutilizing and blending product, price, place and promotion characteristics in intervention planning and implementation 7. A process tracking system with both integrative and control functions 8. A management process that involves problem analysis, planning, implementation and feedback functions[16] Speaking of what they termed "social change campaigns", Kotler and Ned Roberto introduced the subject by writing, "A social change campaign is an organized effort conducted by one group (the change agent) which attempts to persuade others (the target adopters) to accept, modify, or abandon certain ideas, attitudes, practices or behavior." Their 1989 text was updated in 2002 by Philip Kotler, Ned Roberto and Nancy Lee.[17] In 2005, University of Stirling was the first university to open a dedicated research institute to Social Marketing,[18] while in 2007, Middlesex University became the first university to offer a specialized postgraduate programme in Health & Social Marketing.[19] In recent years there has been an important development to distinguish between "strategic social marketing" and "operational social marketing". Much of the literature and case examples focus on operational social marketing, using it to achieve specific behavioral goals in relation to different audiences and topics. However there has been increasing efforts to ensure social marketing goes "upstream" and is used much more strategically to inform both "policy formulation" and "strategy development". Here the focus is less on specific audience and topic work but uses strong customer understanding and insight to inform and guide effective policy and strategy development.

Retail merchandising is the process used in order to conduct retail sales. As part of the process, the merchandiser pays close attention to the types of products offered for sale, how to best present those products to consumers, and determining what is a reasonable retail price for each unit sold. While retailers have traditionally engaged in the task of retail merchandising in a physical location, the Internet has now made it possible to apply these same basic principles in a virtual setting. The first important step in retail merchandising is establishing working relationships with manufacturers who will provide the goods or services that are ultimately sold by the retailer. This type of retail buying involves determining what products will be carried in the retail establishment, negotiating the unit price that will be charged by

the manufacturer, and arranging for the delivery of those goods. Depending on the number of units the retailer can afford to purchase at a given time, it may be relatively easy to obtain a discounted unit price, making it easier for the retailer to be competitive in the local marketplace. Once the goods are secured, the retailer must determine the unit price that he or she will assign to the products. In all cases, this retail price will be higher than the cost of purchasing the goods from the supplier. It is this difference between the wholesale price and the retail price that allows the retailer to make a profit and remain in business. Some retailers follow a formula of setting the retail price at a fixed percentage above the acquisition price, while others base the retail pricing on factors such as the desirability of the items and the amount of competition from other retailers in the immediate area. After setting the retail pricing, the process of retail merchandising moves on to the task known as setup and display. This process is concerned with displaying the goods within the retail setting to best advantage. By using such devices as display windows, elevated platforms, and colorful backdrops to attract the attention of shoppers, the retailer increases the chances of selling units quickly. Setup and display are often considered especially important with fashion merchandising and similar retail settings, in that the visual display is often the key means of attracting customers who are highly likely to make a purchase. Quick sales lead to higher profits and the chance to secure more products that will result in more sales. Retail Merchandising Retail Merchandising Jobs Retail Visual Merchandising Retail Merchandising Software Retail Merchandising Careers Retail Store Merchandising Retail Merchandising Solutions Ads by Google Retail Fit Out Discount Retail Chains Get Retail Search POS Retail Solutions Marketing is an important aspect of any retail merchandising strategy. Engaging in a publicity campaign to reach prospective customers may involve something as simple as advertising in local publications as well as electronic advertising on local radio and television stations. Direct mail is also a common strategy in retailing, as the mailings make it possible to reach people in their homes and places of business rather than relying on them to approach the retailer first.

Tasks performed in Retail firm Strategic Management TasksPerformed in a Retail Firm Develop a retail strategy Identify the target market Determine the retail format Design organizational structure Select locations Merchandise Management Tasks Performed in a Retail Firm Buy merchandise Locate vendors Evaluate vendors Negotiate with vendors Place orders Control merchandise inventory Develop merchandise Budget plans Allocate merchandise to stores Review open-to-buy and stock position Price merchandise

Merchandise Management Tasks Performed in a Retail Firm Buy merchandise Locate vendors Evaluate vendors Negotiate with vendors

Place orders Control merchandise inventory Develop merchandise Budget plans Allocate merchandise to stores Review open-to-buy and stock position Price merchandise

Visual merchandising

Visual merchandising is the activity of promoting the sale of goods, especially by their presentation in retail outlets.(New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1999, Oxford University Press). This includes combining products, environments, and spaces into a stimulating and engaging display to encourage the sale of a product or service. It has become such an important element in retailing that a team effort involving the senior management, architects, merchandising managers, buyers, the visual merchandising director, industrial designers, and staff is needed.

Facility Visual merchandising starts with the store building itself. The management decides on the store design to reflect the products the store is going to sell and how to create a warm, friendly, and approachable atmosphere for its potential customers. Many elements can be used by visual merchandisers in creating displays including color, lighting, space, product information, sensory inputs (such as smell, touch, and sound), as well as technologies such as digital displays and interactive installations. Visual merchandising is not a science; there are no absolute rules. It is more like an art in the sense that there are implicit rules but they may be broken for striking effects. The main principle of visual merchandising is that it is intended to increase sales, which is not the case with a "real" art. Visual merchandising is one of the final stages in trying to set out a store in a way that customers will find attractive and appealing and it should follow and reflect the

principles that underpin the stores image. Visual merchandising is the way one displays 'goods for sale' in the most attractive manner with the end purpose of making a sale. "If it does not sell, it is not visual merchandising." Especially in todays challenging economy, people may avoid designers/ visual merchandisers because they fear unmanageable costs. But in reality, visual merchandisers can help economise by avoiding costly mistakes. With guidance of a professional, a retailer can eliminate errors, saving time and money. It is important to understand that the visual merchandiser is there, not to impose ideas, but to help clients articulate their own personal style. Visual merchandising is the art of implementing effective design ideas to increase store traffic and sales volume. VM is an art and science of displaying merchandise to enable maximum sale. VM is a tool to achieve sales and targets, a tool to enhance merchandise on the floor, and a mechanism to communicate to a customer and influence his decision to buy. VM uses season based displays to introduce new arrivals to customers, and thus increase conversions through a planned and systematic approach by displaying stocks available. Recently visual merchandising has gained in importance as a quick and cost effective way to revamp retail stores. Purpose Retail professionals display to make the shopping experience more comfortable, convenient and customer friendly by:

Making it easier for the shopper to locate the desired category and merchandise. Making it easier for the shopper to self-select. Making it possible for the shopper to co-ordinate & accessorize. Informing about the latest fashion trends by highlighting them at strategic locations.

Merchandise presentation refers to most basic ways of presenting merchandise in an orderly, understandable, easy to shop and find the product format. This easier format is especially implemented in fast fashion retailers. VM helps in:

Educating the customers about the product/service in an effective and creative way. Establishing a creative medium to present merchandise in 3D environment, thereby enabling long lasting impact and recall value. Setting the company apart in an exclusive position. Establishing linkage between fashion, product design and marketing by keeping the product in prime focus.

Combining the creative, technical and operational aspects of a product and the business. Drawing the attention of the customer to enable him to take purchase decision within shortest possible time, and thus augmenting the selling process.

Variances Planogram A Planogram allows planning of the arrangement of merchandise on a given fixture configuration to support sales through proper placement of merchandise by Style, Option, Size, Price points, etc. It also enables a chain of stores to have the same merchandise displayed in a coherent and similar manner across the chain. The main purpose is to support ease of applicability to the merchandiser while also increasing selection & enhancing the merchandise display in a neat and organized manner. Window Displays Display windows may communicate style, content, and price point. A window might combine seasonal and festive points of the year such as Back-to-school, Spring, Summer, Easter, Christmas, New Year approaching, Diwali, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day,Women's Day, etc. Food Merchandising Restaurants, Grocery Stores, and C-stores are using visual merchandising as a tool to differentiate themselves in a saturated market. With Whole Foods leading the way, many are recognizing the impact that good food merchandising can have on sales. If a food merchandising strategy considers the 5 senses, it will keep customers lingering in the store, and help them with the buying decision process. Aroma, if pleasant, can be used to help sell product and visual graphics on the boxes and packaging can make them look as good as they taste. Texture can be utilized to entice customers to touch, and samples are the best form of food advertising. Especially for large quantity items, the ability to experience the product before committing to the purchase is critical. Food merchandising should educate customers, entice them to buy, and create loyalty to the store.[1]

Characteristics of

Social Marketing The four Ps of social marketing Examples

Product Decide on what is the product, its form, format, and presentation in terms of packaging and characteristics

The marketed product can be: physical item e.g. a VIP latrines, SanPlats; or a practice or behaviour: wash hands after using latrines; or an idea: clean environment, good sanitation for health

Price Decide on what the consumer would be willing to pay, both in terms of direct and indirect costs and perceptions of benefits: make the product worth getting

The price can be : monetary or direct costs: cost of products (with or without subsidies), social cost opportunity/indirect costs: time lost from other activities, missed opportunities, transport, loss in production or income psychological or physical costs: stress in changing behaviour, effort involved in maintaining latrine or obtaining additional water required

Place Where will the product be available to consumers, including where is it displayed or demonstrated Promotion How the consumers will know the product exists, its benefits, costs, and where and how to get it.

The place is every location where the product will be available, e.g at tea shops, builder's yards and suppliers, at clinics, pharmacies, clubs and local businesses

Promotion relates to the ways of delivery of the information about the product. For example this can be done through television, radio, newspapers, posters, billboards, banners, folk singers or dramatists, public rallies, interpersonal/counselling

Franchising Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a (transitive) verb.[1] For the franchisor, the franchise is an alternative to building 'chain stores' to distribute goods and avoid investment and liability over a chain. The franchisor's success is the success of the franchisees. The franchisee is said to have a greater incentive than a direct employee because he or she has a direct stake in the business. Except in the US, and now in China (2007) where there are explicit Federal (and in the US, State) laws covering franchise, most of the world recognizes 'franchise' but rarely makes legal provisions for it. Only Australia, various provinces within Canada, France and Brazil have significant Disclosure laws but Brazil regulates franchises more closely. Where there is no specific law, franchise is considered a distribution system, whose laws apply, with the trademark (of the franchise system) covered by specific covenants. Obligations of the parties Each party to a franchise has several interests to protect. The franchisor is most involved in securing protection for his trademark, controlling the business concept and securing his know-how. This requires the franchisee to carry out the services for which the trademark has been made prominent or famous. There is a great deal of standardization proposed. The place of service has to carry the franchisor's signs, logos and trademark in a prominent place. The uniforms worn by the staff of the franchisee have to be of a particular shade and colour. The service has to be in accordance to the pattern followed by the franchisor in his successful operations. Thus, for the franchisee he is not in full control of the business as he would be in retailing. A service can be successful by buying equipment and supplies from the franchisor or those recommended by the franchisor if they are not over-priced. A coffee brew, for example, can be readily identified by the trademark when its raw materials come from a particular supplier. If the franchisor requires purchase from his stores, it may come under anti-trust legislation or equivalent laws of other countries. So too the purchase of uniforms of personnel, signs, etc. But it also applies to sites of franchise if they are owned or controlled by the franchisor. The franchisee must carefully negotiate the license. They, along with the franchisor must develop a marketing plan or business plan. The fees must be fully disclosed and there should not be any hidden fees. The start-up and costs and working capital must be known before taking the license. There must be assurance that additional licensees not crowd the "territory" if the franchise is worked to plan. The franchisee must be seen as an independent merchant. He must be protected by the franchisor from any trademark infringement by third-parties. A franchise attorney is required to assist the franchisee during negotiations.[5]

Most often the training period - the costs of which are in great part covered by the initial fee - is too short to operate complicated equipment and the franchisee has to learn on his own from Manuals. The training period must be adequate but in low-cost franchises it would be considered expensive. Many frachisors have set up corporate universities to train staff online. This is in addition to literature and sales documents and reach by email. Also, franchise agreements carry no guarantees or warranties and the franchisee has little or no recourse to legal intervention in the event of a dispute. [6] Franchise contracts tend to be unilateral contracts in favor of the franchisor; they are generally protected from lawsuits from their franchisee because of the non-negotiable contracts that require franchisees to acknowledge, in effect, that they are buying the franchise knowing that there is risk, and that they have not been promised success or profits by the franchisor. Contracts are renewable at their sole option. Most franchisors make franchisees sign agreements waiving their rights under federal and state law, and in some cases allowing the franchisor to choose where and under what law any dispute would be litigated. Businesses for which franchising works best have the following characteristics:

Businesses with a good track record of profitability. Businesses which are easily duplicated.