AN APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND SOCIAL MARKETING UNEXPLORED POTENTIAL

RPCA | Rio de Janeiro | v. 11 | n. 5 | out./dez. 2017 | 140-152 | 140 Abstract This paper clarifies the definitions of the five different terms used by companies associated with Social Marketing in international journals. It reviews terms usually linked to social marketing practice, and discusses their different meanings for the sake of proper adoption by executives and scholars. The discussion is based on exploratory research and, as such, we adopted the literature review as the main approach of study. Two scientific databases were used in order to identify the most commonly used expressions, which were later reviewed and discussed, exploring their similarities, differences and relevance to the organizational environment. The conclusion is that Internal Marketing is directly related to employees and different stakeholders of the institution promoting or using this strategy or management philosophy, whereas Social Marketing is related to the changing behavior of the target markets.


Introduction
When one looks up social marketing definition in articles and books, different definitions for the term emerge, relating the concept to tools and practices that are sometimes quite similar.
In this paper the concept, and its derived variationsi.e. Cause-Related Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Internal Marketing, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Social Marketing -are revised in the light of current organizational practices, highlighting their characteristics and potential, allowing a better understanding and further adoptions of the terms to be explored not only by scholars, but also by executives.
The discussion relies on comprehensive research in two scientific databases -Ebsco and Proquest -for commonly used expressions associated with Social Marketing in international journals. The results helped to identify the most used terms, which were, later on, reviewed and discussed, exploring their similarities, differences and relevance to the organizational environment.
The concept of social marketing is referenced in a distinctive way in the business and academic environments. An effort to comprehend the meanings associated with concepts, understanding them unequivocally, becomes relevant owing to the possibilities of developing actions that sometimes resemble each other in purpose, but fall by the designation employed. Scholars and executives misuse the concepts of social marketing and social media marketing, and many of the terms used above, using them to describe actions that are related to benefiting a part of society (target markets), and that are, in fact, doing self-promotion or trying to sell their products for a higher price. This study clarifies the many meanings of the term and their main associations in the current business practices of organizations. We present a list of the practical implications derived from our definition of social marketing, establishing differences and similarities among its different approaches and concepts from Cause-Related Marketing or Charity Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Corporate Social Responsibility. We conclude that Internal Marketing is directly related to employees and different stakeholders of the institution promoting or using this strategy or management philosophy, whereas Social Marketing is related to the changing behavior of target markets, not necessarily related to such stakeholders, but to any interest group in society as a whole, for the well-being of all.

Theoretical review
Internal Marketing or "Endomarketing" Some definitions describe Social Marketing as the use of marketing tools to improve the working conditions, satisfaction and motivation of workers. Not only are better service and products possible outcomes, from an appropriate marketing practioner's perspective -in alignment with organizational culture -but also the enhancement of branding management, especially when social responsiveness is mandatory for core business, such as the Fair Trade segment (e.g. De Pelsmacker. Driesen & Rayp, 2005;Ha-Brookshire & Norum, 2011).
According to Hernandez and Grayson (2012), Internal Marketing should be put in first place, since it is an umbrella that facilitates internal communication and improves corporate volunteerin, aligning employees' needs with corporate responsibility goals.
The first concepts are as follows: holding that the organization's internal market of employees can be influenced most effectively and hence motivated to customerconsciousness, market orientation and sale-mindedness by a marketing like internal approach and by applying marketing like activities internally (Gronroos 1985, p. 42).
Internal marketing is attracting, developing, motivating and retaining qualified employees through job products that satisfy their needs. Internal marketing is a philosophy of treating employees as customers…and it is the strategy of shaping job products to fit human needs (Berry & Parassunaman, 1991 p. 151).
Internal marketing was initially targeted and considered more important for those organizations providing services, or in which the final customer had direct contact with the seller, or the organization, since employees are a powerful element tool of customer persuasion and a major parameter affecting the customer's perception of the quality of service delivered (Grove, Fisk & John 2000;Conradie, 2014). The brand's successful positioning and awareness depend on the role the employees play in delivering the service (Wilson, Zeithmal, Bitner & Gremler, 2012:249).
Nowadays even companies that produce industrial products and final consumer products have a differential if they produce in a sustainable way, regarding their employees and the environment as important issues to be taken care of (Tully & Winer, 2014).
In a competitive environment, employees are pushed to be committed and motivated to deliver the best services and products under the best possible conditions, as the demand for better communications, innovative products, efficiency in logistic and marketoriented price tends to be even fiercer.
There are approaches, like the French one, that connect salaries directly to internal marketing. Others consider salaries as a Human Resources management major responsibility.
For Bennet and Barkensjo (2005), Internal Marketing: describes a collection of human resource policies and procedures that treat employees (volunteers in the present context) as members of an "internal market" that needs to be informed, educated, developed, and motivated in order to serve clients more effectively. (p. 253) If the Internal Marketing strategies take into consideration change in behavior for the good of the whole group, or part of society, it can also be considered as a kind of Social Marketing.

Social Marketing
Social Marketing began with the ideas of Kotler and Levy (1969), proposing applications to the marketing of cities and locations, health-related and other causes, and even to people. Through this broadening in scope, marketing was able to become 'more socially relevant' (Andreasen, 1994, p. 109). Reflecting this move, Kotler and Zaltman (1971) adopted the term 'social marketing' to encapsulate marketing practices in pursuit of social rather than monetary gain (Kotler, 2013;Dibb, 2014Dibb, , p. 1159).
The main issues in the context of Social Marketing are its legitimacy, it being part of the marketing mainstream (Dibb & Carrigan, 2013); second, its main applications and the scope of the term (Gordon, 2013); and third, its focus on the complex relationship between social marketing and mainstream marketing, and the challenges associated therewith (Hastings, 2007;Dibb, 2014).
Social Marketing, in the early 1970's, was more related to persuading people to engage in more healthy, prosocial behaviors (Weinreich, 2012). To achieve their aims, social marketers -like commercial marketers -engage in activities that will bring about behavior change.
Initially, Social Marketing targeted individual or community change in behavior (Carroll, Craypo & Samuels, 2000), but nowadays it has changed and the focus suggests that social marketing needs to be anchored within community (Cronin & McCarthy, 2011, p. 146).
Social marketing campaigns typically work to alter an individual's perceptions and attitudes. The targets of these campaigns often aim at internal behavioral influences on the individual; however, in the case of a consumer community such as a subculture, they must aim to influence the cohort that the individual is part of. In this sense, social marketing should very much be grounded in community and the relational aspects of society. Cultural issues have to be considered; otherwise the plan will be rejected.
Simply put, Social Marketing is the use of commercial marketing principles and techniques to promote the adoption of a behavior that will improve the health or well-being of the target audience or of society as a whole (Weinreich, 2012, p. 4).
The official definition for Social Marketing, according to the International Marketing Association of Social Marketing, the European Social Marketing Association, and the Australian Association of Social Marketing, states that: "Social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good" (Dibb, 2014(Dibb, , p. 1162.
Social Marketing involves many issues, such as the contemporary tendency to understand Social Marketing by examining how organizational actors and strategic elements articulate themselves in sustainable practices, promoting harmonic exchanges.
For the sake of examples, we present some studies regarding the above-mentioned issues: Breastfeeding -To assess the practical implications in relation to breastfeeding behavior, regarding the dimension of the structural problems in the framework of social marketing, a qualitative exploratory research study based on the Social Ecological Model (SEM) was developed, through in-depth interviews with lactation consultants in Portugal. The content of these interviews revealed some of the key barriers to breastfeeding behavior in the dimension of the structural problems and in the context of social marketing (Dourado Martins, 2014).
Water Conservation -"effective social marketing strategies to promote usage and understanding of clean water and sanitation's value" (Madill & Ziegler, 2012). This paper is a case study on Ecotec and its mission to change the situation in East Africa, allowing the population to have access to public sanitation, and then changing the behavior of these populations regarding the proper use of water.
HIV/AIDS -Studies in Thailand, where a great number of people are infected, resulted in good behavioral changes. The diffusion of innovation theory and social marketing theory has been criticized due to their limited applicability in influencing unique population groups (e.g. female commercial sex workers (CSWs) working in low-class brothels). This study investigated the applicability of these two theoretical frameworks in outreach efforts directed at unique populations at high risk for HIV/AIDS in Bangkok, Thailand. It also examined Thai cultural characteristics that influence communication about HIV/AIDS prevention. The results suggest that certain concepts and strategies drawn from the two frameworks were used by effective outreach programs, providing several policy-relevant lessons. Cultural constraints, such as the lack of visibility of the disease and traditional sexual practices, influenced communication about HIV/AIDS prevention (Svekenrud & Shingal, 1998).

Rodrigo Ladeira, Ricardo Coutinho Mello e Maria Teresa Grimaldi Larocca
The interventions required to integrate the upstream, midstream and downstream often involve a number of different stakeholders, and, most of the time, they are interdisciplinary.
This way, we can define Social Marketing as objectof study in itself, but intersecting with other fields of knowledge, in order to achieve better results.
Concerning Social Marketing and organizations, most of the time, what is done to increase quality of life or to make society a better place to live is considered by many stakeholders as positive for the image of a given organization. Thus, investments in this area represent a gain in image and, sometimes, an additional gain in financial return, since customers are willing to pay an extra price for products or services that are involved with social practices and social marketing (Winer, 2014).

Cause-Related Marketing and Charity Marketing
Cause-Related Marketing or Charity Marketing is directly linked to campaigns to raise funds for a specific cause. It is important to notice that these campaigns do not necessarily do the whole planning; they mainly plan campaigns to raise funds or direct the money to already existing campaigns.
According to Adkins (1999), Cause-Related Marketing is "an activity by which businesses and charities or causes form a partnership with each other to market an image, product or service for mutual benefit" (p. 11).
As for Pringle and Thompson (1999), Cause-Related Marketing is "a strategic positioning and marketing tool which links a company or brand to a relevant social cause or issue, for mutual benefit" (p. 13). More than 50% of consumers report they have made a purchase to support a cause (Ross, Stutts & Patterson, 1991), and CRM also benefits the company's image (Rigney & Steenhuyson, 1991), positive publicity (Nichols, 1990), and favorable attitudes towards the sponsoring companies (Cone & Roper, 1999). These are found to be the most relevant benefits to the supporting brand.

Studies in the
For a CRM program or campaign to be successful, there must be total commitment to the cause, and evidence has to be shown on the part of the target markets and the population in general, for example through their alignment with the spirit of the cause and fairness to all stakeholders.

Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is quite frequently referred to as Social Marketing, however, in reality, should not be seen as such. The first is clearly a communication tool, developed to improve presence and image of the brand, product, or service in the minds of the target markets.
For Walsh (2014), Social Media Marketing is the communication tool used to promote goods and services through the relationships that people use to create and recreate their social relations.
As for Dr. M. Saravanakumar and Dr. T. SuganthaLakshmi (2012, p.4444): During different time era's different methods of communications has developed and changed the day by day life. Social media has become the method of statement in the 21st century, enabling us to express our belief, ideas and manner in an absolute new way. This way of interaction has also had a huge impact on corporation, where they have realized that without a correct plan and social media strategy they have no chance to stand out in the rapidly changing digital freedom (Sarvankumar & SuganthaLakshmi, 2012, p. 4444).
Authors like Gillin and Schwartzman (2011) and Lewis (2013) treat Social Media Marketing as Social Marketing, but, on the other hand, they clearly identify it as a tool of communication for the final consumer and the B2B consumer.

AN APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND SOCIAL MARKETING UNEXPLORED POTENTIAL
Social Media Marketing is sometimes said to be Social Marketing, since both are related to social interaction, but they are complementary, not the same thing. Social Media is best defined in the context of the previous industrial media paradigm. Traditional media, such as television, newspapers, radio and magazines are one-way, static communication tools, not allowing interaction most of the time, whereas Social Media Marketing assumes interaction as the main difference. New web technology has made it simple for anyone to create and, most importantly, issue their own content. A blog position, tweet or Youtube video can be tweeted and viewed by millions almost for free (Saravanakumar & SuganthaLakshmi, 2012 (Saravanakumar & SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). Facebook today is the main social media site, with more than 1,415 million users (Statista.com, 2015).
Following, we present the main benefits social media marketing can promote for an organization: It generates exposure for one's business, increases traffic/subscribers, improves search ratings, results in new business partnerships, generates qualified leads, reduces overall marketing expense, and improves sales. These benefits are strong enough for companies to continuously be seeking greater participation in the world of social media.
As we can see, social media marketing is a communication tool used to integrate and make possible interactions among different users, be they clients or not, related to brands, causes or issues of importance to the organization using it.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate Social Responsibility takes into account the development of a strategy for involvement in the community's life and a partnership out of which the company can get emotional and sustainable results, and benefits, too, such as customer fidelity, attracting new consumers and a higher volume of sales (Oprea, 2014). This kind of strategy is obviously linked to better performance of the brand image and the company itself.
CSR is an important tool for creating competitive advantage: it develops employee loyalty and attracts new talents; it attracts new business partners, capital and investments; and it improves the relationship between the company and local communities (Oprea, 2014).
According to studies such as that by Carvalho et al (2010), Corporate Social Responsibility has broader dimensions, including improving the quality of life of society as a whole, the use of environmentally friendly equipment, increasing quality of life for employees, and making policies with regard to information transparency amongst shareholders, suppliers and clients, in addition to investing in social programs to benefit society as a whole. It is usually accompanied by some source of financial support, or any other kind of donation, like employee work-hours, as happens at Starbucks.

Methodology
This paper is an exploratory research study and, as such, we adopted the literature review as the main approach of study. We used Proquest and Ebsco as the main databases and the keywords were Social Marketing, Internal Marketing, Endomarketing, Corporate Social Responsibility, Cause-Related Marketing, Charity Marketing, and Social Media Marketing.
The classification of this research is applied, considering its object, because it helps to reflect on immediate practical purposes, in the search for solutions to concrete problems (Cervo & Bervian, 2002). Its approach is qualitative and it aims to help the researcher understand and explain the meaning of a social phenomenon. The character of the research is descriptive, because the intention is to expose characteristics of a certain phenomenon. The research refers to the information and knowledge and is based on bibliographic research. In general, the bibliographical research is developed from theoretical references and works published by written and electronic means, such as books and scientific articles.
The main advantages of this kind of research are: the stimulus for new discoveries, the emphasis on Rodrigo Ladeira, Ricardo Coutinho Mello e Maria Teresa Grimaldi Larocca totality, because the researcher turns to a multiplicity of dimensions of a problem with a focus on the whole and the simplicity of the procedures when compared to other types of design. The most relevant limit, according to the authors, is the difficulty of generalizing the results obtained. Thus, through the methods described above, the following procedures are required to perform the following documental analysis and bibliographic research procedures.

Discussion
A priori interpretation is based on the content analysis method. Assuming the theoretical signaling of Bardin apud Triviños (1992, p 160) "is a set of techniques of analysis of the communications, aiming, by systematic procedures and objectives of description of the content of the messages, to obtain quantitative or not, that allow the inference of Knowledge of the conditions of production / reception of messages". It is known that three basic steps form this method of analysis: pre-analysis, analytical description and inferential interpretation.
A conceptual approach based on literature review is carried out to determine the existing definitions, differences and similarities among the abovementioned terms. The study starts with a list of practical implications derived from our definition of social marketing, establishing differences and similarities among its different approaches and concepts from Cause-Related Marketing or Charity Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Differences and Similarities between Social Marketing and Internal Marketing
Social marketing is clearly related to using marketing tools to change the behavior of a target market, aiming to enhance quality of life or improve social conditions for that segment of society, but not only for the employees of the organization; whereas Internal Marketing is specifically designed to influence the internal public of a certain company. It substantially differs from Internal Marketing in the broadening of scope and the publics targeted.
What has also been noticed is that products produced in a socially responsible manner receive a positive response as far as the purchase decisions of final customers are concerned, showing that the latter are willing to pay an extra price for such products (Tully, Stephanie M, Winer, Russel S., 2014). Despite the effects on the image of the brand, the two terms are very distinct, since Social Marketing is directed related to the management of stakeholders' expectations, whereas Internal Marketing is solely related to the internal public (employees) of the organization. We also have a kind of action that is related to changing AN APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND SOCIAL MARKETING UNEXPLORED POTENTIAL attitudes of specific publics, but restricted to the internal public, which is Internal Social Marketing.
Given the variety of possibilities of social marketing definitions, harmonizing marketing policies is a strategic factor that generates a differential (Hernandez and Grayson, 2012).
As management process depends on the attitudes, commitment and performance of all those involved in an organization, especially those that interact with customers, marketing policies must be aligned so that actions are less susceptible to internal criticism, particularly in service organizations, which demand greater employee involvement with the clientele.
The search for integration between concepts is a practice that broadens the reflection on the elements that access organizational culture, sometimes underestimated by marketing managers. In the case of a country with a myriad of juxtaposed cultures, it is necessary to understand internal marketing as an important stage of social marketing, as Grove, Fisk & John (2000) and Conradie (2014) argue. The study has its own dynamics when it is felt that the multiplicity of stakeholders, who orbit in medium and large organizations, is representative as a cultural factor, influencing the course of marketing actions. Thus, the relative dominance that the organization could hold over the internal public, going beyond the management of people, as suggested by Bennet and Barkensjo (2005), is extrapolated.

Differences and Similarities between Social Marketing and Cause-Related Marketing or Charity Marketing
Some authors like Fischer, Stefan and Hoyer (2012) consider Social Marketing as Cause-Related Marketing, when a brand is involved in campaigns that link it to various social causes, not only to their own employees, like campaigns for cancer research and children in need.
Cause-Related Marketing and Social Marketing are very similar, but again there is a very important difference: Cause-Related Marketing aims at getting funds for causes like cancer prevention and treatment, and other very relevant causes, but it does not necessarily aim at changing the behavior of these target groups. (2007), Chang (2008), Gupta and Pirch (2006), Haruvi and Popxkowsky Leszczyc (2009), Henderson and Arora (2010), Kristna andRajan (2009), Lafferty, Goldsmith andHult (2004), Nan and Heo (2007), Popkowsky Leszczyc and Rothkopf (2010), Popkowski Leszczyc and Wong (2010), Pracejus andOlsen (2004), andPracejus, Olsen andBrown (2003) measured the percentage people are willing to pay extra if the company or brand is involved with CRM and the Willingness To Pay for brands related to charity and cause-related marketing, and it was found that sponsorship spending has an average growth of 12% at the time, because of the company's donation to charity (Kristna, 1991).

Authors like Arora and Henderson
Social Marketing and Cause-Related Marketing each have a different locus of benefit, objectives sought, target market, voluntary exchange and marketing perspective. Because of that, it is important for professionals of marketing to understand these differences, and how each can be used to reach Corporate Social Responsibility (Pharr and Lough, 2012).

Social Marketing
Basic goal is to raise funds for specific causes Basic goal is to change behavior or specific target groups The main tools used are Communication and Pricing, through campaigns and extra price for products and services The 4 (four) Ps are used and carefully targeted to the groups of interest Source: Prepared by the authors Cause-Related Marketing can also be considered as part of a Social Marketing Strategy, since it is related to communication and specific campaigns to raise funds for a specific purpose, but it does not address the causes of the problem, or any changing of the behavior of such groups. It can be concluded that Andreasen's (1994) concept of "more socially relevant" deals with a critical analysis of what is understood as Corporate Social Responsibility, in the evolutionary context of marketing practices of a given organization in its incursions into society.

Rodrigo Ladeira, Ricardo Coutinho Mello e Maria Teresa Grimaldi Larocca
Differences and similarities between Social Marketing and Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing is a powerful tool, but it cannot be combined with Social Marketing, which is broader and more complex, since its main proposition is to change the behavior of certain target markets. It encompasses the sense of transforming the social context into a better place to live, being associated with the meaning of sustainable marketing. Social Media Marketing, on the other hand, is a communication tool, specially designed to create interrelation with the brand or company, increasing loyalty and value for it (Weinreich, 2012).
Social Media Marketing is sometimes called Social Marketing, but the first is a means of standing out in online environments, since the internet is a major presence in the lives of the majority of the population of developed and developing countries, and it has grown in importance in a number of companies' strategies.
Since the use of internet and social media channels has been increasing rapidly in the past years, being present and active in social media means being present in the choice options of the majority of the population.
Social Marketing can use Social Media Marketing to promote and interact with possible target markets; they are complementary, but not the same thing. The former aims at changing the behavior of these target markets and the latter is a communication tool. Social Media Marketing also can, and most of the time nowadays does use Social Media Marketing to persuade and influence the behaviors of the specific publics that they interact with, and aim to affect.

Differences between Social Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility is broader than Social Marketing since it includes a wide range of subjects, which may include several dimensions, such as environmental, social and economic issues.
The environmental dimension, a cleaner environment, environmental responsibility involving the planning of products, packaging, reverse logistics, pricing and communications are considered in the business plan. The latter may address integrating social concerns and business operations, considering their impact on communities, providing better actions and responses to behavioral changes whenever necessary. The economic dimension regards the economic development and the profitability of the institutions involved, as well as the stakeholder dimension. It is therefore necessary to rediscuss the definition agreed-upon by the Marketing Associations for Social Marketing, because it is understood that it goes beyond social anchorage. Whenever possible, marketing initiatives should be implemented by combining the internal and external environments, without prejudice to the scope to be developed, taking into account the effects and implications for both audiences.
Internal Marketing includes the observation and practices of organizations' interaction with employees, possible customers and other stakeholders, as well as the promotion of better relations with suppliers considering the use of Social Media Marketing.
Its adoption should consider the analysis of the last dimension, voluntariness based on ethical values, beyond legal obligations, and many times related to cause-related marketing or charity marketing (Alexander Dahlsrud, 2006).
As we can see, Corporate Social Responsibility incorporates most of the social marketing definitions, but we should be aware that it is broader, including all the previously discussed terms in this paper, and comprehends not only the use of communication tools but also behavioral strategies to address different publics. Corporate Social Responsibility can be considered a more complete action and positioning of organizations interested not only in changing behavior of target markets, but also being involved in environmental, social, and economical aspects, related to such organizations.

CONCLUSIONS
This paper has provided a critical review of the concept of Social Marketing and Internal Marketing, which has been so widely adopted in the management practitioner literature. After reviewing the theory about the terms discussed above, we conclude that Internal Marketing is directly related to employees and different stakeholders of the institution promoting or using this strategy or management philosophy, whereas Social Marketing is related to changing behavior of target markets, not necessarily in relation to such stakeholders, but to any interest group in society as a whole, for the well-being of all.
This literature review article aims to advance the understanding of Social Marketing as studied by management scholars. The implications derived from the definition of Social Marketing are established based on an analysis of differences and similarities from other proximity concepts. This paper clarifies the definitions of the five different terms used by companies and points out the main differences and similarities among them; it extends previous studies in suggesting that social marketing capabilities should be better understood in order to be used effectively in different contexts. The results show that Social Marketing distinguishes itself from other concepts in terms of scope and the publics targeted.
Cause-Related Marketing or Charity Marketing is directly involved with social causes, mainly through promoting campaigns to raise funds for issues that concern society as a whole, but not necessarily changing the behavior related to such causes.
Social Media Marketing is the most distinct from the definition of Social Marketing, since it is clearly a communication tool, whereas the latter is a full marketing strategy, using all the four Ps, not only communications. Corporate Social Responsibility is the broadest of all terms researched, including Social Marketing, Environmental and Financial Aspects related to the strategy or plan.
As academics, we can raise some important questions such as 'How has the concept of Social Marketing derived from industry to industry over time?", and "How has the concept differed from practioners to the academic environment?". However, within a business practitioner context, there is much less of an incentive to establish differences. Within this context, the lack of distinction may be less of an issue if practitioners use the marketing approach to solve immediate problems. However, future academic research should continue to work on disentangling the effects of Social Marketing and recognizing its complexity to better and more appropriately understanding of its capabilities and performance in a wide range time lapse, which may compromise organizational assets such as its public perception, as a brief example.
In this sense, this work brings practical contributions not only to the academic sphere, but also to the business practitioners that may get lost in a myriad of possibilities of practices, and not make appropriate use of Social Marketing strategies.
The lack of alignment between the theoretical foundations and empirical operationalization of the Social Marketing concept suggests that a comprehensive approach is yet to be developed in order to comprehend how companies design and evaluate their marketing strategies. From the results, it is implied that the evolution of Social Marketing is solely business-driven, but it is still a metaconcept without a standardized definition and measurement methods.
A practice, to be validated, is to try to approach the maturity models studies of the management processes to evaluate marketing and, with that, to correlate the definitions searched in this work to stages in a strategic perspective. The understanding of phases, or stages, provides as gain harmonized forms of control on the basis of common understanding, which must Rodrigo Ladeira, Ricardo Coutinho Mello e Maria Teresa Grimaldi Larocca take into account the variations of elements specific to each context in which the organization operates, as well as establishing referentials for objectives, results.
When it comes to countries, such as Brazil, with broad cultural strands, the attempt may be an initial response to the debate about standards of performance excellence and conduct for local business practices and marketing practitioners.
This study has limitations. One is the research of the literature, which focuses on ongoing discussion in the top academic and practitioner management publications, whereas our goal was to analyze how Social Marketing is being integrated into the management and business organization field. However, its application can be explored from other perspectives.