Can the tobacco industry be trusted to educate our children about the dangers of smoking? Is a brewer the best source of health promotion? These are the questions that will be answered at a workshop at the Southern Cross University Gold Coast campus in July.
The questions, and more, are also tackled in the inaugural edition of the Journal of Social Marketing which takes a look at the thorny issue of industry-funded social marketing campaigns.
Co-edited by Professor Andrew McAuley, Pro Vice Chancellor of Business and Law at Southern Cross University and Associate Professor Sharyn Rundle-Thiele from Griffith University, the new tri-annual Journal of Social Marketing explores how marketing is used to influence social behaviour for the benefit of individuals and society, and will take on issues such as public health campaigns, accident prevention, alcohol and obesity.
The newly-launched publication, which will be available for free online throughout April and May only, will also be accompanied by a series of one-day workshops set to take place in July in Brisbane and at the Gold Coast campus of Southern Cross University.
Professor McAuley said the journal reflected Southern Cross University’s philosophy to make a difference.
“Brand, product, and service marketers may be more fortunate than social marketers. Their job is to create, communicate and deliver a product that is new, improved, bigger, or better,” said Professor McAuley.
“In contrast, social marketers are typically faced with a difficult scenario where they are marketing an alternative that is less appealing to people – or in the cases of alcohol and tobacco – actively encouraging people to reduce, or even stop, consuming something they may really enjoy.
“While the underlying marketing process and environmental issues remain the same, social marketing faces unique challenges.
“The new Journal of Social Marketing seeks to publish research and practical case studies that showcase how commercial marketing activities have been adapted to induce behavioural change to achieve a social goal.
“The first issue examines industry-funded social marketing and also includes a review of common social marketing ‘mythunderstandings’.”
To celebrate the publication of the inaugural issue of the Journal of Social Marketing, Emerald is offering free online access to the content from April 1, 2011 for two months. Visit http://www.emeraldinsight.com/new_launch/index.htm for more information about this offer and a full list of journals featured over the coming months.
The accompanying workshops ‘When education is not enough: applying social marketing to change behavior’ will take place in Brisbane on July 14 and 15 and at the Gold Coast campus of Southern Cross University in Bilinga on July 18. Costs are $225 for Australian Association of Social Marketing (AASM) members or $275 for non-AASM members. To obtain information on workshops, please contact Sharyn Rundle-Thiele on s.rundle-thiele@griffith.edu.au
To sign up for future issues, obtain author guidelines and paper submission instructions, go to www.emeraldinsight.com/jsocm.htm or contact the publisher, Zoe Sanders for more information on
zsanders@emeraldinsight.com.
