The Routledge Companion to Marketing and Society focuses on marketing for social impact as the use of marketing strategies, tools and techniques to improve the well-being of society. As such it does not exclude the use of marketing to increase profit and shareholder value but rather prioritises the social impact of marketing, both positive and negative (even if largely unintended).

This companion is a scholarly reference providing an overview of marketing for social impact in terms of its current and emergent themes, debates and developments, as well as reflections on the future of the field. Using marketing tools and techniques for social impact is commonly accepted as an effective commercial strategy (e.g. corporate social responsibility, cause-related marketing) and increasingly accepted as an approach to planned social transformation that can be used to influence positive social change in behaviours such as recycling, healthy eating, domestic violence and human trafficking.

This reference volume serves as an authoritative and comprehensive statement on the state of contemporary scholarship focusing on the diverse subject of the social impact of marketing. It features 25 chapters written by international subject specialists within six themed sections, including consumer issues, marketing tools, commercial marketing and non-profit marketing. It will find a global audience of scholars and researchers within marketing and cognate fields, interested in using marketing tools and techniques to create social impact in areas such as public health, social and behaviour change communication, sociology and cultural studies.