From Commerce to Society: Expanding the Domain of Marketing Education

Abstract

Despite conceptual developments of the 1970s which expanded the domain of marketing from a purely business orientation to incorporate wider social causes, marketing education has continued to be dominated by the commercial perspective. Issues such as the appropriateness or otherwise of the application of marketing tools to the selling of ideas and changes in behaviors are usually only addressed as a special interest topic within general marketing courses. However, the expansion of interest in social marketing over the past decade has resulted in a greater demand for a more in-depth treatment of the subject in the tertiary education curriculum.

One university which has taken the opportunity to develop the area of social marketing into a teaching specialization is Griffith University in Australia, which first offered a course devoted entirely to social marketing as part of the undergraduate curriculum in 1994. This paper outlines why and how the subject is taught and how it complements the broader curriculum of the university as well as including an overview of some of the special issues that arise in teaching a subject of this type.

Between 1969 and 1972, the marketing discipline redefined and dramatically broadened its domain. First, Kotler and Levy (1969) broadened the concept of marketing, then Kotler and Zaltman (1971) specifically applied marketing to the arena of planned social change and, finally, Kotler (1972) articulated the generic concept of marketing. This generic concept — the dominant paradigm of the discipline — asserts the applicability of marketing to all kinds of exchanges, not just commercial exchanges between a customer and a supplier (Graham, 1993; Graham, 1994). This expansion of the application of the marketing concept to include nonprofit organizations, government bodies and social causes has provided a fertile ground for researchers. However, it has not yet become a significant, nor even normal, feature of marketing education within University programs.

Griffith University in Australia is ideally suited to taking on the challenge of incorporating social marketing into the curriculum. Griffith University was established in 1971 with a view to broadening the discipline-based structures of traditional universities and has promoted the study and teaching of significant new fields. Evidence of this commitment includes the establishment of specialist faculties in Asian studies and environmental studies, areas not usually found in the older, more traditional universities. From its inception, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching and research has been actively encouraged at Griffith University. It was within this multi- and inter-disciplinary environment that the course in Social Marketing was developed.

It is worth noting that the specialization in Social Marketing was developed in response to student interest, rather than as a result of a traditional inclusion or ideological assertion of relevance. Originally, social marketing was taught as a minor part of another undergraduate elective, Contemporary Issues in Marketing.