Marketing of social causes-referred to as Social Marketing- has, over the years,  grown into a specialised application area. The growth has been slow but significant. Be it in fundraising ,health communication, or social welfare program,s the social sector has been increasingly looking to marketing expertise for conceiving an agenda of action and then implementing it.

This was not so  way back in late 1970’s when I started teaching the subject.The place was the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management of the University of Mumbai and the class, the first batch of students doing the Masters Programme in Marketing Management. The subject had not become fashionable then and had not entered the curriculum of any other programme including the full time MMS programme.

The Director, Dr Varanasy Murthy himself had put together the syllabus. When he told me to handle it, I was nervous and said I did not have the expertise to teach the subject. He said” If had found an expert I would not have called you. Try to coordinate the programme. Organize presentations by leaders of social service organisations and research bodies and get your students to analyse them in marketing terms and come up with solutions”

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