On 9 December, Dr Haruka Fujihira from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), delivered a special online lecture titled “Social Marketing: Marketing for the Better” during the Marketing Strategy/Marketing course (Course Instructor: Toyohiko Sugimoto). The session offered students a practical understanding of how marketing can be used to create positive change for both individuals and society.
Dr Fujihira currently serves as a Teaching Fellow in the School of Marketing and International Business at Victoria University of Wellington. She is also one of the founding members of the Japan Social Marketing Centre. In 2021, she earned her PhD in Social Marketing from Griffith University (Australia). Her research focuses on theory-based behavior change, and her PhD research proposal won the Best Paper Award at the ANZMAC Mid-Year Doctoral Colloquium in 2017. She has been actively involved in multidisciplinary social marketing projects addressing issues such as chronic disease prevention, healthy lifestyle promotion, and environmental conservation. Her research has been presented at leading international conferences, including ANZMAC, ISM, and AMA, and published in respected academic journals like Social Marketing Quarterly, Maturitas, and Progress in Transplantation, as well as book chapters.
The first half of the lecture focused on introducing the fundamental concepts of social marketing. Dr Fujihira explained how marketing can be used as a tool to address social issues by encouraging people to shift towards positive behavior. She then explained what social marketing is and how it differs from commercial marketing and health promotion. She also provided a brief history of the field, illustrating its development. A key highlight was her explanation of the Eight Social Marketing Benchmark Criteria, which form the foundation of social marketing.
In the second half of the lecture, Dr Fujihira engaged students in a group activity where they applied their learning by designing social marketing campaigns. Using the online collaboration tool Miro, students selected one of three topics – 1. saving endangered animals, 2. train safety, or 3. street-peeing prevention – and worked in groups to create their original social marketing campaigns. This interactive approach allowed students to deepen their understanding of key concepts through practical application, fostering creativity and teamwork.
Following the activity, Dr Fujihira presented how social marketers have addressed similar issues in reality. She presented three social marketing campaigns: “Leave It”, (wildlife conservation project, Australia); “Dumb Ways to Die”, (a train safety campaign by Melbourne Metro, Australia); and “St. Pauli Pinkelt Zurück”, (street-peeing prevention campaign, Germany). These real-world examples highlighted how social marketing can drive positive change in the real world.
For many GLOMAC students, this lecture was their first exposure to social marketing. The combination of theoretical knowledge, interactive tasks, and inspiring case studies provided a well-rounded introduction to the field, encouraging students to consider marketing’s broader role in addressing societal problems.
Most students appeared highly engaged throughout the lecture, demonstrating strong interest in the topic and actively participating in the group activity. They showed particular enthusiasm when working together to develop innovative social marketing initiatives for the assigned social problems, such as wildlife conservation. Using the online innovative tool, students actively proposed creative ideas and collaborated seamlessly with their classmates.
The course’s primary textbook, Principles of Marketing, widely used by prestigious business schools around the world, does not extensively cover social marketing issues. Therefore, for most students, this lecture was a valuable first introduction to the field, offering them the opportunity to explore social marketing principles and applications in a societal context.
