It has its roots in both commercial marketing and social reform campaigns, such as the abolition of slavery and campaigns for government regulation of the quality of food and drugs. While social marketing campaigns often rely on the use of mass media channels, it is more than mass media advertising. It involves identifying the needs of a specific group of people, supplying information so people can make informed decisions, offering programs or services that meet real needs, and assessing how well those needs were met. Social marketing can be used in a range of situations to give information to the public or encourage specific target groups to take specific actions. Using commercial marketing practices, social marketing makes the consumer, or in this case, the target audience, the focus of the program.
Marketing is the planned process of exercising influence on customer behavior.
In the case of commercial product marketing the desired behavior is, of course, the purchase of the product being marketed. Social marketing is more complex, in that the product being promoted is more abstract, such as a change in behavior or belief to effect social change. Health campaigns aim to change fundamental behaviors, whereas much product advertising aims to mobilize an existing predisposition, as in switching brands. However, some product advertising does aim to create new markets. Amount of change expected.