Macro-social Marketing

2015/11/24 by Ann-Marie Kennedy, Ann‐Marie Kennedy · 148 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · #Business #Computer science #Economic system #Economics #Environmental Sustainability in Business #Macro #Macro level #Macromarketing #Management and Organizational Studies #Marketing #Marketing management #Marketing research #Marketing science #Political science #Public Sector Marketing #Public relations #Relationship marketing #Service and Product Innovation #Social marketing #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1177/0276146715617509

published in Journal of Macromarketing 36(3), 354-365 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2015/11/24 · crossref created 2015/11/24 · crossref issued 2016/07/27 · crossref published 2016/07/27 · crossref published-online 2016/07/27 · crossref published-print 2016/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/04/29 · crossref indexed 2026/08/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

This article provides the theoretical underpinnings for the concept of macro-social marketing. Macro-social marketing seeks to use social marketing techniques in a holistic way to effect systemic change, as opposed to individual level change. The article provides the conceptual roots of the concept derived from systems theory and institutional theory. It starts by explaining what types of macromarketing issues – dubbed here wicked problems – can be approached using macro-social marketing. Systems theory is then used to explain the interconnectedness of wicked problems throughout the social and cultural systems, as well as the material environment and marketing system (Dixon 1984). Subsequent sections apply institutional theory to explain how systemic change can be brought about through the use of macro-social marketing, and discuss change at a broader conceptual level, as well as how this process then trickles down to individual organizations within the marketing system.

Citations

• Preventing game over
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• The Adolescence of Institutional Theory
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• Carrots, Sticks, and Promises: A Conceptual Framework for the Management of Public Health and Social Issue Behaviors
• The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields
• Markets as Politics: A Political-Cultural Approach to Market Institutions

Cited by

• Alleviating Poverty as a Lived Polycrisis Through Inclusive Phygital Solutions
• Socially Responsible (Macro-Social) Marketing
• A Tri-Sector Model for Market Emancipation: Bridging the Algorithmic Divide