DCCI’s Marketing Matters Conference Part 8: ‘Social Marketing for Positive Behaviour Change’ by Nonjabulo Hlengwa

The Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry Marketing Matters Conference welcomed a total of seven speakers from very different segments of the strategic marketing industry. The speakers were all assigned a session of approximately an hour and these were followed by another short session which allowed the audience to ask questions about certain aspects from the presentation. Therefore there were a total of seven sessions that ran throughout the day and they covered topics such as the advances of technology and its impact of marketers, social marketing, ‘green’ marketing the King III report and other relevant strategic marketing topics.

The final session involved a presentation by Nonjabulo Hlengwa and she spoke about ‘Social Marketing for Positive Behaviour Change’.

Hlengwa is a proud African woman and she currently holds the position of the General Manager of Marketing and Corporate Affairs at Transnet. She has many years’ experience in both the advertising and marketing industries, and her specialization now lies in Social Marketing- specifically behaviour change. She has been on a USA Road show where she lectured on social marketing, but she currently deals with strategic marketing and corporate affairs at Transnet.

She adopted the idea that marketing is no longer just about growing your market share, but that marketing practitioners need to move beyond the classical 4 P’s and companies should focus on creating common goals for the company as a whole. Her speech aimed at using social marketing for positive behaviour change which would lead the company towards a legacy.

The whole idea of Social Marketing is defined in Kotler (2005) the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution and evaluation of programmes designed to influence the voluntary behaviour of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society. Nonjabulo preferred to constantly refer to Social Marketing as ‘Behaviour Change’ and it seems very appropriate as that is what the trend of marketing is all about.

This was certainly a new marketing topic and Nonjabulo presented the concept in a very understandable and impressive way. It made it accessible to non-marketers and strategic marketers alike and it is very likely that many of them were itching to get their teeth into a social marketing campaign now.