Marketers are often portrayed in an unsophisticated way - that they are evil manipulators that are trying to get us to buy things we don’t want. But there are areas of marketing, like macro marketing and social marketing, where marketers are attempting to use marketing… for want of a better phrase… for good.

Social marketing uses the tools of marketing to lead to better societal outcomes, in things like health behaviour change programs. Their tools tend to be predominantly in the field of promotion - so this is why you often hear on the public health field people talking about health promotion, but more sophisticated social marketing considers all aspects of the marketing mix, including designing campaigns around segments, around the barriers to the good behaviour, and around how we move people through different stages to achieve the positive outcome.

That said, social marketing campaigns can also harm and become quite anti-social. In this episode of the marketing lab, we continued our exploration of food marketing and ethics with Alice Zaslavsky (Alice in Frames), and Deakin Alumnus, Moreen Kamau and Michaela Jackson and examined what happens when social marketing might miss the mark or a campaign goes wrong. We also explored how you can make the ordinary strange and the existential angst that comes with waiting for your Deliveroo or Uber order to arrive.

The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.