Societal Marketing - Instruments

Instruments

Kotler identified four categories of products, classified in terms of long term benefits and immediate satisfaction :

1. Deficient products, which bring neither long-run or short term benefits
2. Pleasing products, which bring a high level of immediate satisfaction, but can cause harm to the society in the long run
3. Salutary products, which bring low short term satisfaction, but benefit the society on the long run
4. Desirable products, which combine long-run benefit and immediate satisfaction

Kotler’s concept of societal marketing suggested that for the well-being of society, the deficient products should be eliminated from the market, pleasing and salutary products should go through a product modification process to reach the fourth category, by incorporating missing short term benefits into salutary products and long term benefits into pleasing products, and the companies’ ultimate goal should be to develop desirable products.

This way, rather than focusing on selling a products, which can be good or bad for the consumers, the main focus is on consumer and society well-being.