Social Marketing in the Indian Context: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead

Like most things in life, the world of marketing is vibrant. It is something, which is going on all around us. The marketing concept is a business philosophy which believes that the customer's satisfaction is the motive for the business existence. Marketing management is an evolving, independent and formal discipline. It was developed in the USA as a form of applied capitalist economics. It is subject to continued review, redirection, and improvement. Starting from 1950s, the concept of marketing has undergone major changes. From marketing point of view this is relatively a new way of thinking which believes in newly emerged concept of 'green marketing" since early part of 1970s. Distantly related to this new concept is the area of what might be called 'social marketing' as they both have a 'social' dimension. Related developments of social marketing have attracted considerable attention from every sector. The present paper purports potential concerns with social marketing and its conceptual ideas. It also explains the planning of social marketing and its wide applications in various fields. The article concludes by addressing the unique new challenges posed by social marketing and its great opportunities in India.