Social marketing practices in building social benefit: Content analysis on TV and internet advertisements

The fact that commercial firms/brands only make material production and realize profit realization is encountered as a process whose competence and adequacy are questioned. Because nowaday, the majority of consumers (especially the generation called Z generation) expect more responsible behaviors from the companies/brands in question and judge them as a result of their behaviors towards the problems existing in the society. In addition, the tendency of consumers to companies/brands that featured with their actions in this context necessitates the relevant companies to prove themselves in the field. In this direction, social markating is that companies or brands should develop efforts to build social benefit (by encouraging virtuous behaviors, keeping the society away from defective behaviors or taking actions as an institution) by making use of marketing dynamics in order to benefit the targeted individuals and society, for the social problems existing in the society. Social advertising that among the components of social marketing, stands out as an important tool to develop new behaviors in the target audience or to provide information about the actions of the companies. In this direction, the main objectives of this study are how the commercial firms/brands operating in Turkey are trying to develop benefits for which social problems, how the related problems are handled and how the social benefit-advertisement relationship is constructed in the process of building social benefit. In this context, social advertisements published by commercial companies/brands operating in Turkey were analyzed using the content analysis method and the findings obtained within the framework of the purposes were interpreted. In line with the obtained findings from the research, it is seen that social advertisements are mostly organized within the framework of environmental themes, and social participation, violence and healthy life themes, respectively. In addition, it was observed that in order to reveal the desired behavior change, advertisements mostly focused on obstacles and focused on behaviors, personal benefits and opponent behaviors, respectively.