Good Works!: Marketing and Corporate Initiatives that Build a Better World...and the Bottom Line

Chapter 5

Corporate Social Marketing: Supporting Behavior Change Campaigns

As a company, Levi Strauss & Co. is committed to building sustainability into everything we do.¹

—John Anderson, CEO Levi Strauss & Co.

Our research shows that it's important to ask consumers to join this conversation, as a significant environmental impact from our products happens after consumers take their clothes home from the store.²

Robert Hanson, President Levi Strauss Americas

Corporate Social Marketing uses business resources to develop and/or implement a behavior change campaign intended to improve public health, safety, the environment, or community well-being.

Behavior change is always the focus and the intended outcome.

Successful campaigns utilize a strategic marketing planning approach including conducting a situation analysis, selecting target audiences, setting behavior objectives, identifying barriers and benefits to behavior change, and then developing a marketing mix strategy that helps overcome perceived barriers and maximize potential benefits.

Corporate social marketing is most distinguished from other corporate social initiatives by this behavior change focus. Although campaign efforts may include awareness building and educational components or efforts to alter current beliefs and attitudes, the campaign is designed primarily to support and influence a particular public behavior (e.g., not to text and drive) or action (e.g., vote).

Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman launched the broader ...