Explore the principles of social marketing, defined as the systematic application of marketing and strategic communication principles to achieve human behavior change toward a social purpose or social good. You will examine consumer research techniques and definitions of social marketing, and analyze social marketing and strategic communication campaigns to evaluate the effectiveness of various planning techniques.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completing the course, you will:

• Understand principles of developing a social marketing initiative.
• Be able to use theoretical and applied frameworks and consumer research techniques to guide the development of a campaign and message strategy.
• Be capable of identifying an appropriate target audience, determining appropriate behavior and benefit exchange, and developing a social marketing initiative.

Sample Topics

• Intro to social marketing
• Social-marketing process and principles
• Theories behind social-marketing campaigns
• Cost-benefit analysis and marketing mix
• Determining costs and benefits, developing a strategy
• The importance of partnerships in social-marketing campaigns
• The role of entertainment education and case studies

Sample Assignments

• Team project on discussing underlying issues for social marketing campaigns
• Interviews
• Social-marketing strategy development and presentation

Click here for the official course description from the American University Catalog.

Note: The content presented on this page is representative information for example purposes and is subject to change as courses and student needs change over time.

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