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The Societal Marketing Philosophy 
The societal marketing concept emerged in the 1970s 
and has since overlapped with the marketing philosophy. 
The concept assumes that there is a conflict between 
consumer short-
term wants and society’s long-run 
interest, and that organizations should focus on a 
practice that ensures long run consumer and societal 
welfare [2,6]. Kotler and Armstrong [17] consider the 
societal marketing orientation as the best business 
philosophy to be adopted by organisations. They 
suggested: “this new concept represents an attempt to 
harmonize the goals of business to the occasionally 
conflicting goals of society’. They conclude: “the 
organisation’s task is to determine the needs, wants and 
interest of target markets and to deliver the desired 
satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than 
competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the 
consumer’s and society’s well-being” (p. 35).
It is understandable why this concept did not emerge
until 
around the 1970s. The importance of this concept 
became eminent when the effect of business activities on 
the environment and society became too pronounce. It 
was then necessary for businesses to think on how to 
satisfy the market with the aim of profit, and still minimize 
its effects on society. Happy society is more likely to buy 
and to recommend a firm’s product, while an angry 
society will refuse purchase of a company’s product even 
if it could satisfy the needs of the customer. This means 
the societal marketing philosophy emphasises the need 
not only to consider the customer in product decisions but 
also his immediate environment. The appropriateness of 
societal marketing philosophy is deduced from the fact 
that it supports a socially responsible behavior of
organization. It thus, challenges the earlier assertion by 
Friedman [21] 
that “the social responsibility of business is 
to make profit”. Organisation will still need to adopt this 
business philosophy to be able to deal with the cultural 
and regulatory aspect of the business environment. This 
means adoption of the societal marketing philosophy 
generate some factors of market orientation that foster 
business performance. The societal marketing concept is 
considered a separate business philosophy [2,6]; 
however the concept could be better looked at as 
complementary. It should be complementary business 
thinking to the adoption of other business philosophies,