MKTG318 - Social Impact of Marketing

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

MKTG207 Marketing Toolkit OR MKTG100

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

This unit focuses on the social impact of marketing strategy and tactics on a range of stakeholders within society. The unit provides an overview of what marketers must, could and should do before designing and implementing the strategies to solve a social problem that impacts the stakeholders and societal wellbeing. The ‘must do’ component of this unit allows students to understand the legal and regulatory environment that a marketer must consider and abide by before designing and implementing the solution for a social problem. The ‘could do’ component entails the formal 10 step social marketing plan that a marketer develops to solve the social problem. The ‘should do’ component of this unit highlights the importance of ethics and values that a marketer should consider before they analyse and plan how to tackle real-world social problems and develop creative solutions. The unit also explores leading-edge trends related to the social impact that marketing has on stakeholders' wellbeing, society, and the environment and how marketers respond to increased scrutiny of their actions and ethical practices. This unit aims to further develop critical thinking among students studying marketing and increase their awareness of the possible social impacts of marketing on past, current, and future consumers, and other stakeholders. It engages students in debating how marketing contributes positively or negatively to the common good. These impacts may be either positive or negative (or a mix of both). An awareness of these may lead to more socially responsible marketing practices and positive behavioural changes among future marketing practitioners and consumers. 

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Understand the key regulatory frameworks for consumer protection and their significance for and impact on marketers’ action, the common good, the society and environment (GA2, GA5)

LO2 - Research and use specific social marketing principles, concepts and techniques to analyse and plan how to address the social problems and develop an effective and creative solution for positive behavioural change (GA5, GA8)

LO3 - Think critically and reflect on trends that influence marketers’ decisions and actions to develop creative solutions for a social problem. (GA4, GA5)

LO4 - Critically examine the ethical dimensions of marketing in practice (GA3, GA5)

Graduate attributes

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

Content

Topics will include:

• Regulatory frameworks for consumer protection
• Principles of social marketing
• Models of social marketing
• Social marketing tools and tactics
• Societal influences on marketing practice
• Societal impact of marketing
• Application of ethics models in marketing
• Professional marketing codes of conduct

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

The learning strategy adopted in this unit can be described as constructivist or student-centred. Thus, students are expected to be active participants in their learning to enhance life-long learning experience. In this student-centred learning environment, the instructor’s role is to create the enabling learning environment and conditions to facilitate learning by guiding the student along with relevant learning tasks and a valid assessment regime. 

The rationale is to develop student critical thinking skills and prepare students for the current competitive business environment, where marketing is often held to account by stakeholders. 

A variety of learning materials (real-life examples, case studies from current issues relating to marketing theory and marketing practices, videos, lecture capture) will be used. Deep learning is likely to be fully realised if students are exposed to a variety of learning tasks.

Mode of delivery: This unit is offered in different modes. These are: “Attendance” mode, “Blended” mode and “Online” mode. This unit is offered in three modes to cater to the learning needs and preferences of a range of participants and maximise effective participation for isolated and/or marginalised groups.

Attendance Mode

In a weekly attendance mode, students will require face-to-face attendance in specific physical location/s. Students will have face-to-face interactions with lecturer(s) to further their achievement of the learning outcomes. This unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops, most students report that they spend an average of one hour preparing before the workshop and one or more hours after the workshop practicing and revising what was covered. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for you to prepare and revise.

Blended Mode

In a blended mode, students will require intermittent face-to-face attendance determined by the School. Students will have face-to-face interactions with lecturer(s) to further their achievement of the learning outcomes. This unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for you to prepare and revise.

Online Mode

In an online mode, students are given the opportunity to attend facilitated synchronous online seminar classes with other students and participate in the construction and synthesis of knowledge, while developing their knowledge. Students are required to participate in a series of online interactive workshops which include activities, knowledge checks, discussion and interactive sessions. This approach allows flexibility for students and facilitates learning and participation for students with a preference for virtual learning.

Assessment strategy and rationale

Assessments are used primarily to facilitate the learning process. ACU adopts a constructivist approach to learning which seeks alignment between the fundamental purpose of each unit, the LOs, teaching and learning strategy, assessment and the learning environment. Active learning of students is encouraged, and the focus is on deep learning as opposed to surface or rote learning. 

The first assessment helps students understand the key regulatory frameworks for consumer protection. It also enables students to research and use specific social marketing principles, concepts and techniques to analyse and plan how to address the social problems. In the second assessment, students work in a group to review and analyse each other work and develop a presentation for the industry professional. A group presentation combines the cooperative learning benefits of working in groups with the active learning benefits of speaking in front of an audience. It also helps students make decisions together, negotiate shared responsibilities, and collaborate on designing creative solutions to a social problem. Finally, the third assessment, an e-portfolio-,  helps students understand and articulate the leading-edge trends related to ethics and social marketing to demonstrate what they have learnt formally and informally.

Most of the learning materials are uploaded on LEO so that students can learn the content in their own time and at their own pace so that the class time can be utilised for meaningful learning activities. A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements. Such procedures may include, but are not limited to: essays, reports, examinations, student presentations or case studies. 

The research paper is intended to expose students to a range of secondary data sources from which they can access, identify and analyse a body of regulations and statutes relating to a particular product category. This will give students an appreciation of the formal constraints imposed by government and industry bodies on marketer activities. The major paper is intended to raise student awareness of, and knowledge about, social marketing issues covered in the course, that are generally perceived as having a negative social impact. These impacts are often researched, and there is often a debate about their precise nature. Awareness of these debates, and ability to review them increases student’s awareness of social impacts, and ability to think critically about them. The final assessment is intended to provide students with an opportunity to overview what they have learnt from the unit, and to demonstrate their overall competency in achieving the Learning Outcomes through a presentation.

Academic integrity is addressed through focussed content in assessment including the specification of issues to be addressed which will vary year on year whilst retaining alignment with the unit objectives.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Lee, N. R., & Kotler, P. (2019). Social marketing: behavior change for social good. SAGE Publications.

Hastings, G., & Domegan, C. (2017). Social marketing: Rebels with a cause. Routledge.

Wendel, S. (2020). Designing for behavior change: Applying psychology and behavioral economics. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".

Gringarten, H., & Fernández-Calienes, R. (Eds.). (2019). Ethical Branding and Marketing: Cases and Lessons. Routledge.

Murphy, P. E., Laczniak, G. R., & Harris, F. (2016). Ethics in marketing: International cases and perspectives. Taylor & Francis.

Baker, M. Saren, M. (Editors) (2016) Marketing Theory – A Student Text, 3rd Edition, Sage Publishing, London

Kotler, P. and Lee, N., 2016. Social marketing: Changing behaviors for good. Sage.

Eagle, L., Dahl, S., Hill, S., Bird, S., Spotswood, F. and Tapp, A., 2013. Social marketing. Pearson Education.

Laczniak, G. R., & Murphy, P. E. (2019). The role of normative marketing ethics. Journal of Business Research, 95, 401-407.

Fine, C., & Rush, E. (2018). “Why does all the girls have to buy pink stuff?” The ethics and science of the gendered toy marketing debate. Journal of Business Ethics, 149(4), 769-784.

Wilkie, W. Moore, E. (2012) ‘Expanding our understanding of marketing in society’ Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol 40, p 53-73

The rise of ‘advertising: why ‘social good’ marketing works, The Guardian Australia, 18th July, 2017

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sadvertising-social-good-marketing-business-brands

Journal of Business Ethics

Journal of Consumer Research

European Journal of Marketing

Journal of Consumer Affairs

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