R. Craig Lefebvre 
Social Marketing and Social Change 
Strategies and Tools For Improving Health, Well-Being, and the Environment

How can we facilitate more effective, efficient, equitable and
sustainable solutions to the problems that confound our communities
and world? Social marketing guru R. Craig Le Febvre weaves together
multi-level theories of change, research and case studies to
explain and illustrate the development of social marketing to
address some of society’s most vexing problems. The result is
a people-centered approach that relies on insight and empathy as
much as on data for the inspiration, design and management of
programs that strive for changes for good. This text is ideal for
students and professionals in health, nonprofit, business, social
services, and other areas.

‘This is it — the comprehensive, brainy road map for
tackling wicked social problems. It’s all right here: how to
create and innovate, build and implement, manage and measure, scale
up and sustain programs that go well beyond influencing individual
behaviors, all the way to broad social change in a world that needs
the help.’–Bill Novelli, Professor, Mc Donough School
of Business, Georgetown University, former CEO, AARP and founder,
Porter Novelli and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

‘I’m unaware of a more substantive treatise on
social marketing and social change. Theoretically based;
pedagogically focused; transdisciplinary; innovative; and action
oriented: this book is right for our time, our purpose, and our
future thinking and action.’–Robert Gold, MS, Ph D,
Professor of Public Health and Former Dean of the School of Public
Health at the University of Maryland, College Park

‘This book — like its author — is innovative and
forward-looking, yet also well-grounded in the full range of
important social marketing fundamentals.’–Edward
Maibach, MPH, Ph D, University Professor and Director, Center for
Climate Change Communication, George Mason University

Table of Content

Figures and Tables

Acknowledgments

Preface

The Author

1 The History and Domains of Social Marketing

Learning Objectives

The Change We Need: New Ways of Thinking about Social Issues

Wicked Problems and Their Solution

Why Use Social Marketing?

What Is Social Marketing

A Historical Perspective

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

2 Principles of Social Marketing

Learning Objectives

The Characteristics of Social Marketing

How Can We Use Social Marketing?

Strategic Social Marketing

Ethics for Social Marketing

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

3 Determinants, Context, and Consequences for Individual and Social Change

Learning Objectives

Why Use Theory?

From Individual to System Levels of Analysis: Changing Scales of Reality

Shifting from Individuals to Markets

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

4 Segmentation and Competition

Learning Objectives

Segmentation

Competition

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

5 Moving from Descriptions of People to Understanding, Empathy, and Insight

Learning Objectives

The Depth Deficit

Priority Group Personas or Archetypes

The Creative Brief

The Vital Function of the Planner

Insight

Designing Research for Empathy, Insight, and Inspiration

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

6 The Consumer Experience as the Marketer’s Touchpoint

Learning Objectives

Going Out of Our Heads

Exploratory Formative Research: Online Health Information Behaviors

A Continuum of Touchpoints

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

7 Strategic Positioning and Brands

Learning Objectives

Positioning

Positioning Concurrency as an HIV Risk Behavior

Brands

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

8 Embedding Marketing in Programs and Organizations: Developing Strategy

Learning Objectives

Creating a Marketing Strategy

Applying Social Marketing Anywhere, Anytime

Ways to Improve Social Marketing Programs

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

9 Using Marketing Mix Components for Program Development

Learning Objectives

Products

Services

Places

Prices

Promotion

Pulling It All Together

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

10 Monitoring and Evaluation

Learning Objectives

Program Monitoring

Evaluation

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

11 Personal and Community Engagement in Change

Learning Objectives

Community-based Approaches to Social Marketing

Shifting from Engagement to Activation

Can Social Marketing Revitalize Communities?

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

12 Social Technologies for Social Marketing and Social Change

Learning Objectives

Developing Strategies for Social Media

Mobile Technologies

Pulling It Together: The Media Multiplexity Idea

Implications of Social and Mobile Technologies for Marketing Social Change

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

13 Social Marketing for Dissemination and Program Sustainability

Learning Objectives

Dissemination of Program and Service Innovations

Marketing to Achieve Sustainable Programs

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

14 Management and Innovation

Learning Objectives

Creating a Marketing Culture

Innovations

Looking to the Future of Social Marketing

Summary

Key Terms

Discussion Questions

References

Index

About the author

R. Craig Lefebvre, Ph D is a thought leader and practice advocate for applying marketing to social issues. He is chief maven at social Shift–a social design, marketing, and media consultancy, lead change designer at RTI International, and research professor in the University of South Florida College of Public Health.