Motivating communities to shop locally : implications of ethical behavior marketing for independent businesses

Local independent businesses are critical to the economic health and quality of life of communities. This thesis examines whether marketing can motivate people to consciously and reliably support local independent businesses in their community. The first chapter provides an introduction to the problem, explains why marketing can be a solution, and describes how one emerging type of organization - the Independent Business Association - is currently engaged in this process. Chapter 2 reviews the literature on social marketing to develop a framework for analyzing marketing campaigns, and the literature on ethical consumerism to recognize trends and identify characteristics of the typical ethical consumer. Chapter 3 uses a social marketing framework to examine four ethically-motivated organizations who market products to consumers: SERRV, Ten Thousand Villages, TransFair USA, and CISA. Each case study discusses the organization's marketing goals, strategies (positioning and target markets), and tactics (product, price, place, and promotion). Chapter 4 provides recommendations to Independent Business Associations for creating marketing campaigns that encourage community support for local independent businesses, and makes conclusions based on the research.