Customer Reviews

Up and Out of Poverty: The Social Marketing Solution

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I work on the board of a poverty fighting organization and this is the down to earth set of tools I have been looking for. No long discussions about the immensity of the poverty problem-but lots of guidance and case examples of what really works. Access is given to downloadable forms and checklists the book lives up to the sub-title A Toolkit. Perhaps most valuable is the way in which the authors demonstrate that the public, private, and nonprofit sectors can work together to do more, and one organization doesn't have to bear the entire burden.

Sound marketing can push products and services through sales channels. But can donors successfully apply the same marketing techniques to poverty reduction programs? That's the bold recommendation of authors Philip Kotler and Nancy R. Lee. They build a solid case, linking social marketing strategy with actual case studies worldwide. As the authors note, developed nations spent an estimated $23 trillion on foreign aid packages over the past five decades, but their money has done little to reduce poverty. The missing factor is a social marketing strategy that changes local behaviors and helps people work their way out of poverty. While this is a noble goal, Kotler and Lee's argument reads like a dry textbook, with too many lists and bullet points. Still, getAbstract found it to be an instructive guide for NGOs, governments and social activists who seek advanced strategies to bolster their poverty reduction programs.

Poverty, whether the abject destitute poverty in the developing world, or relative poverty in the developed world, is the scourge of mankind - resulting in wasted lives, unfulfilled potential, disease, and early death. Many experts have proposed methods for reducing poverty, all of which are offered in earnest, and have shown some degree of success (Bottom of the Pyramid, property rights, NGO funding, government funding, direct payments, microfinance, and so on), but none of them has proven to be the magic bullet to solve the problem. Here, Kotler and Lee don't disagree with these other programs, instead, they put them into a framework that has proven successful at everything from selling breakfast cereal to smoking cessation - marketing.

By using the marketing framework of the 4 Ps, segmentation, and understanding the customer, solutions can be put into place to maximize benefits for the greatest number of people. As someone with a marketing degree, I understand the concepts, but never thought about using them in a social setting. Anyone interested in poverty or social programs should pick up this book and think about how to apply its contents to their work.

I find there are many people who are passionate about social issues, but seem to only scream and yell to make their voice heard. By utilizing the marketing framework to "sell" their ideas, these people can build off the success of hundreds of years and billions of dollars of business experience developing marketing plans. I highly recommend this book as an excellent guide.

This book provides a wide range of examples of potential solutions
to poverty challenges where social marketing concepts and tools can be
applied -- and then shows how that can actually happen. Further, it is a
thorough review of all the basic approaches to doing social marketing well
-- written with an absence of academic jargon.

Finally, it is just the kind of book one would want to give to leaders in
the government, nonprofit and private sectors who don't know much about
social marketing or how it might be great way to improve the effectiveness
of what they do.

Kotler and Lee have written a book that deserves to be read by every aid organization in the world. Money alone will not solve the poverty problem. What's needed are changes in behavior. And how best to accomplish this objective: use the tools of marketing. That's not an easy message to bring to the powers-that-be, most of whom consider marketing to be simplistic and ineffectual. Not true and this book is a powerful first step in what is going to be a long and difficult sell.