Social Marketing and Business Functions

Question: Discuss about the Social Marketing and Business Functions. Answer: Introduction It would be correct to say that marketing has emerged as one of the core business functions. In the current era, marketing function is important not only for the organizations in corporate world but also for the organizations in the non-profit sector. One of the basic or the core things in the marketing is to define the marketing mix. The marketing mix of organizations includes four elements. These are product, price, place and promotion. It is important that the marketing strategies or the marketing campaigns of organizations should be based on these four elements of marketing mix (Griskevicius Cantu, 2012). The objective of this paper is to discuss, analyse and compare two marketing campaigns across different elements of marketing mix. The two campaigns can be highlighted as: Campaign 1: RSPCA Adopt a pet campaign reviewed at https://www.rspca.org.au/adopt-pet Campaign 2: WWF Adopt an animal reviewed at https://donate.wwf.org.au/campaigns/donate/ Both the organizations operate in a non-profit segment. These organizations have the objective of improving the life of animals and these firms need funding to sustain. These firms often have to launch marketing campaign to establish a good rapport with consumers. These organizations are working of the social cause and it is expected that marketing function would enable these organizations to achieve its goals and objectives (Saravanakumar, 2012). The comparison of the four elements of marketing mix for RSPCA and WWF can be discussed as: Comparison Analysis: Product element One of the most basic elements of the marketing mix is product. It is critical that the marketers should realize the importance of product element. Both of these organizations provide services to end consumers and the underlying product in this case is the service. The RSPCA is an independent, non-government community-based charity providing animal care and protection services. The company launched adopt a pet campaign to help the people to adopt the right kind of pet. RSPCA has multiple branches in Australia. People can visit the offices of RSPCA and decide to adopt the pet. People can also visit the website of RSPCA to see the available options. World Wildlife Fund or WWF is a unique partnership of scientists, business and government leaders, with the support and guidance of HRH Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. WWF has two key offerings. The organization provides pet service to consumers and at the same time, WWF arranges fund raising interval at large scale. The underlying product of WWF is the service that it has launched in the month of December (Cader Tenaiji, 2013). The organization has launched a special campaign where it has made a Christmas appeal to consumers. The consumers are asked to spread happiness among the animals at the time of Christmas by making donations or by adopting the animals. The comparison of the underlying products of RSPCA and WWF can be disused as: Underlying Product RSPCA WWF Core (It refers to the underlying benefit of using the product or service) Feeling of satisfaction or love that people can get when they adopt a pet Feeling of satisfaction or love that people can get when they adopt a pet or when they make a donation Actual (It refers to the various tangible aspects of product) It means various physical attributes of the pet like colour, breed, size, weight, etc. It means various physical attributes of the pet like colour, breed, size, weight, etc. Augmented (It includes the various intangible elements associated with the product like delivery, guarantees, etc.) It refers to the after sales services like product delivery, guarantees and warrantees, services provided by customer case executives, etc. It refers to the after sales services like product delivery, guarantees and warrantees, services provided by customer case executives, etc. Comparison Analysis: Price element It would be correct to say that pricing is a crucial element to reach masses. There would be some people in the target market that would not be price sensitive. However, it is expected that majority of the target market can be influenced by the pricing strategy. The management of RSPCA realizes that it does not sell any tangible products and likewise it cannot charge customers on the basis of product properties. There is no dollar value attached to the services of RSPCA. The organization accepts the funds openly (Miller Grimes, 2012). The main profit of the organization is through the selling of pets and insurance. People have the option to select the pet at the given prices. There are multiple pricing options for insurance. The customers can select the insurance program based on the coverage that they require for their pets. WWF has the objective to get maximum funds for the organization. The company accepts the funds through its web site. Moreover, people can also physically visit the store and make the donations. People can make the donations in the small amount or in the large amounts. WWF also have a pricing strategy where people are encouraged to make monthly payments. People can enrol themselves on the monthly payment plan where people can make monthly funding. Analysis: Place/ Distribution The importance of place or distribution channels cannot be avoided in the marketing mix. In the marketing mix, place or distribution plays a critical role. Simply defined, place or distribution refers to the movement of products from producer to intended user. This movement could be through a combination of intermediaries such as distributors, wholesalers and retailers (Santos, 2012). The major part of the distribution channel of RSPCA is Internet. The company has an interactive website. People can actually place the order and make contributions on the website of RSPCA. WWF also uses the web medium to reach out to consumers. The organization can reach out to consumers through its website. At the same time, consumers can visit any of the stores of WWF and complete the purchase. Analysis: Promotion Today competition is high in most of the industry and among this competitive landscape; promotion is one of the major elements of marketing mix. In recent times, the focus of the promotional elements has changed from offline promotional elements to social promotional elements. Both the organizations have been focusing on digital and social promotional elements and it is expected that these firms would continue to make investment in the digital and social landscape (Shanbhag Nayak, 2015). RSPCA has a strong digital strategy. The company has a very active FB page and Twitter handle. Consumers can reach out to management any time. The management of RSPCA is also very active on social media platforms like FB and Twitter. The organization ensures that people get the prompt reply on their queries. WWF also uses a combination of offline and digital channels. The company conducts various promotional events where people can participate. At the same time, the organization also conducts various online and digital events (Vries Gensler, 2012). WWF has conducted various online and social events on its FB page and on its Twitter handle. It is expected that the organization would continue to have a good presence on social media and digital channels. Target Market description The target market for RSPCA is the people from the age group to 15 to 50 years. The organization specifically wants to target the youth and the teenage population as youth and teenage population loves pets the most. In terms of income group it can be said that RSPCA targets the middle class and upper middle class family. The middle class and upper middle class are the consumers that would want to make good donations. WWF targets the age group of 18 to 55 years. The company wants to target the teenage population, as they are the best target group that provided donations and funding. The organization wants to take its customers as its partners that would take the organization forward. This is the reason that the company wants to invest heavily on social media and other promotional events. Conclusion The above paper discusses the social marketing approach of RSPCA and WWF. It can be concluded that both the organizations realizes the importance of marketing function. It is expected that these organizations would continue to make investment in the marketing function. The above paper discusses the four elements of marketing mix for both the organizations. It can be said that all the elements of marketing mix are important for RSPCA and WWF. The paper discusses the importance of each of the elements of marketing mix. The promotions on the social media channels like Facebook and Twitter would help these organizations in short term. In the long term, the organizations should continue to invest in social media and offline promotional events. As a bottom line it can be said that effective communication channels and effective integration among all the elements of marketing mix is the key for organizations to move forward along with all the internal and external stakeholders. References Cader, Y. and Al Tenaiji, A.A., 2013. Social media marketing. International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2(6), pp.546-560. Choi, N. and Majumdar, S., 2014. Social entrepreneurship as an essentially contested concept: Opening a new avenue for systematic future research. Journal of Business Venturing, 29(3), pp.363-376. De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P.S., 2012. Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(2), pp.83-91. Griskevicius, V., Cantu, S. M., Vugt, M. V. (2012). 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