Social marketing was originally named – as were other sub-branches of marketing
such as business-to-business or industrial marketing – to refer to a specifi c sub-area
of marketing. In practice, what occurred was that modern marketing techniques
developed for consumer products began to be applied by other areas of business
as they saw the apparent success of these techniques. These sub-disciplines were
demarcated because, although the principles and tools of marketing could be applied
in the different areas, the ‘marketplaces’ were very different for each. Marketers in
these areas required an understanding of these marketplaces in addition to their
understanding of marketing per se . Hence, we now have texts and courses entitled
industrial or business-to-business marketing, services marketing, fi nancial services
marketing, government or public sector marketing, events marketing,sports marketing, and even religious marketing. Social marketing came about as marketers and
social change practitioners began to apply marketing techniques to achieve socially
desirable goals.