The exchange satisfies the customer and the marketer. Social Marketing concentrates on tailoring programs to serve a defined target group. That group can be health professionals, community leaders, legislators, corporate executives, retail store managers, media decision makers, public health officials, and various public audiences. Social Marketing Wheel Social Marketing is most successful when it is implemented as a systematic, continuous process which is driven at every step by decision-based research used as feedback to adjust the program. There is constant research-based feedback and planning within each stage as well.
Analysis involves learning about the behaviors and environment to be changed.
For example, smokers may be divided by geography, demography, social setting, lifestyle, level of readiness for change, and media habits, among other factors. Planning involves identification of clear, realistic, measurable behavior objectives that fit the organization's mission, the behavior and environment to be changed, and the organization's resources. Much of the research conducted in marketing is formative and process research to know the consumer and to develop and refine concepts, messages, products, services, pricing, and distribution channels before they are implemented fully. Marketers view techniques such as focus groups, intercept interviews, and pilot studies as cost-efficient necessities to optimize program content and delivery and to avoid exposing expensive and irreversible disasters to the target audience. Summative research is also conducted in social marketing, often in the form of outcome monitoring.