Summary

This book explains the principles of social marketing and examines the implications of using techniques devised on Wall Street to further social and health goals. Naomi Kein, Joel Bakan and George Monbiot have each done a great job of telling us what is wrong with corporate capitalism. This book begins to provide some solutions. It shows how we can a) borrow the techniques they use to promote consumption, to encourage more socially desirable behaviours, and b) use rigorous research to enable regulators to constrain the worst excesses of Wall Street. Modern marketing techniques now pervade every aspect of our lives: the government, charities, advocacy groups use it to encourage us to live more healthily, support good causes or be more ecologically sensitive. This book asks whether this works and what does it tell us about the relationship between business and civil society? Highly accessible with clear learning objectives, exercises and worked examples, this is also a text that stretches our understanding of the discipline and raises questions about future directions.