Value Co-Creation in Branding Social Marketing Services: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The study intends to determine how informally social pioneering initiative in terms of value cocreation gets transformed into vibrant social brands having credibility and sustainable dimensions. This phenomenon is critical to study in order to advance the body of knowledge of social marketing, particularly in context to branding social causes. The rationale for continuing with conventional approaches reinforces model ways of thinking in social marketing. This is one of the reasons that several efforts were made to promote development programs like Millennium Development Goals, Non-smoking, and environmental conservation have barely come to fruition. Lack of success or failure could only be attributed due to lack of conceptual advancement and developing innovative techniques to transform the creative ideas of social marketing into practices. This research transcends the traditional approaches taking group rather than individual as a unit of analysis. An exploratory study has been conducted to find out what are the major determinants, ideas and thoughts that transform social pioneering initiatives in to a credible brand. The study confirms that value co-creation is a function of transcendental values that people experience while interacting and consuming social marketing services.