The Battle between Commercial Marketing and Social Marketing

Comment by Nedra Kline Weinreich

This is an important article that both social marketers and commercial marketers should read to understand the interplay between the polar sides of the marketing approach and their large-scale effects. The concept of Commercial Determinants of Health is not well-known in the world of public health, but it is just as critical to understand as the Social Determinants of Health. And in fact, moving up a level to an even more macro systems view, the CDoH both directly and indirectly influence the SDoH. However, social marketers and commercial marketers do not always need to be at odds with each other. Marketing commercial products that promote health and/or sustain the environment can benefit individuals, society and the companies producing them. Some examples of this corporate social marketing approach include bicycle helmets, medicines, sunscreen, firearm safety locks, solar panelling, and any product deliberately designed for the circular economy. Partnering with and co-promoting these socially beneficial products is good for everyone. In addition, social marketing already has the tools to counter CDoH. Corporations are made of people, who make decisions about how to design and market their products. Considering those individuals at key companies as a priority audience, we can design social marketing interventions to influence their behavior for good. In my own list of 8 social marketing P’s, Policy is an important component of the marketing mix. When appropriate, policy makers may be another key audience to address as part of a social marketing strategy. And for those commercial products that are actively harmful, and continue to be marketed in a way that spreads that harm, social marketing also has extensive experience with using a “demarketing” approach to reduce consumer demand for those types of products. While social marketing does not have the same resources to make this a “fair fight,” we do have the tools that are just as effective as those of the commercial marketers. We just need a societal commitment to use (and fund) them.