Adaptation and Adoption of the American Marketing Association (2007) Definition for Social Marketing

Abstract

Social marketing has traditionally been the adaptation and adoption of commercial marketing. With the release of the American Marketing Association (2007) definition, commercial marketing may well have become the adaptation of social marketing with the new commercial marketing definition recognizing the role of non-profit and social marketing with “clients” as one of the four beneficiaries of marketing activities. The revised definition also includes indirect benefit in the form of value for customers, consumers, and society at large in an update that makes the contemporary definition of marketing extremely compatible with existing social marketing theory and practice. This article examines how social marketing theory and practice fit into the revised understanding of commercial marketing. It also discusses how the new AMA definition resolves several of the problems encountered with the AMA 2004 definition of marketing. In summary, AMA (2007) presents an opportunity for the mainstreaming of social marketing within the core understanding of marketing practice, while also creating the opportunity for social marketers to adopt the commercial marketing approach of creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings of value to improve the welfare of the individual and that of society.