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Social Marketing Theory

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Social Marketing

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Definition

Social marketing theory encapsulates beliefs perceptions and observations about the nature of and what influences the purpose, practice, and evaluation of social marketing.

Introduction

As is the case in many other forms of applied interdisciplinary fields of study, research, and application (Peters and Hirst 1971), social marketing theory consists of a number of suppositions and a system of ideas intended to explain both the nature of social marketing and its rationale. Like many other fields of study and application, the nature of social marketing and the theories that underpin it are contested. Academics and practitioners engage in a continuous dynamic dialogue about what constitutes good practice, and what constitutes good and authentic social marketing. In this way, social marketing exhibits like many other fields of study such as economics, behavioral sciences, and education, a sophisticated and contested uncertainty that acts as s spur to further refinement of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Strategic Social Marketing, Liphook, UK

    Jeff French

Authors
  1. Jeff French
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeff French .

Section Editor information

  1. No affiliation provided

    Patricia David

  2. No affiliation provided

    Julie Hentz

  3. No affiliation provided

    Hamilton Carvalho

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French, J. (2022). Social Marketing Theory. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Social Marketing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14449-4_22-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14449-4_22-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14449-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14449-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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