Books, journals & essential reading.
A curated starting point for practitioners, students and policymakers who want to go deeper into social marketing and behaviour change.
Peer-reviewed journals
The two leading academic journals dedicated to social marketing.
Social Marketing Quarterly
A scholarly, international journal focused exclusively on theoretical research and practical issues in social marketing.
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Journal of Social Marketing
Research integrating marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviour that benefits individuals and communities.
Visit journal →The papers that shaped the field
From Wiebe’s famous question — “Why can’t you sell brotherhood like you sell soap?” — to the case against nudging alone.
iSMA COVID-19 resources →Merchandising Commodities and Citizenship on Television
G. D. Wiebe — Public Opinion Quarterly
Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change
P. Kotler & G. Zaltman — Journal of Marketing
Social Marketing: Its Definition and Domain
A. R. Andreasen — Journal of Public Policy & Marketing
Why Nudging Is Not Enough
J. French — Journal of Social Marketing
Social marketing bookshelf
Textbooks and handbooks on strategy, public health and behaviour change.
Strategic Social Marketing: For Behaviour and Social Change
An ideal handbook for professionals and educators covering the full spectrum of social marketing principles in practice.
Social Marketing and Public Health: Theory and Practice
A framework for applying social marketing within public health, written for health professionals.
Social Marketing: Behavior Change for Social Good
The definitive guide to designing and implementing memorable social marketing campaigns.
Social Marketing: From Tunes to Symphonies
An updated introduction covering marketing theory, branding and value co-creation.
Strategic Social Marketing
The original edition of the strategic social marketing handbook.
Social Marketing and Public Health
A collective work looking at social marketing through a public health lens.
Up and Out of Poverty: The Social Marketing Solution
Pathways out of poverty seen through the lens of commercial marketing strategy.
Social Marketing and Social Change
Strategies and tools that weave multi-level theory into community and global problems.
Social Marketing in the 21st Century
Well-grounded scholarship that synthesises streams of thought with practical applications.
Policymaking for Citizen Behavior Change
How social marketing can make policy more effective at changing citizen behaviour.
Segmentation in Social Marketing
The value of segmentation in programme planning — and the practical barriers to it.
British Social Marketing Policy
A study of how national social marketing policy emerged, evolved and affected public health.
Social Marketing and Advertising in the Age of Social Media
A framework for social media mechanics and marketing strategy.
Social Marketing and Behaviour Change
A comprehensive review of validated behaviour change models, with case studies.
Toolkits
Practical planning templates and tools for social marketing programmes are on the way.
Planning a programme that needs people to change behaviour?
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