RARE

Recently heard a radio interview with a director of RARE

from the Organization website we learn:

“Rare is the leader in social marketing for biodiversity conservation — with a successful track record in more than 50 countries to date. We train and support leaders from the world’s top environmental organizations, local grassroots groups, and governments – all of which are increasingly aware that failure to create support at the community level reduces the chance of conservation success.”
and
“The organization seeks to preserve rare and unusual creatures, the habitats that sustain them, and the people who live amidst them. Rare does this by putting people first, by inspiring conservation among the local communities in which species and habitats are threatened.”

Wikipedia says “social marketing” is:
the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good.^[1]
The primary aim of social marketing is “social good”, while in “commercial marketing” the aim is primarily “financial”.

RARE touts some of their success stories here

Joy
We are all for this social marketing effort. We feel that way too much direction is spent on the profit motive only @ Harvard, Wharton, and really all Western country business educations.

The battle continues now between those that wish to use resources and development only for their good vs those that wish to promote the common good.

Yes there are boundaries needed in both approaches.

We have seen how the BP spill shows what an out of control for profit company can do to others but it is interesting to see in the success stories above that RARE attempts to change peoples lives by putting boundaries on their normal practices.

A molding of social marketing and commercial marketing may be the answer.