“Who are my customers?”: the case of social marketing a social entrepreneurship venture in India

Social entrepreneurial ventures generally have lower profitability owing to poor value perceptions of their offerings, which negatively impact financial sustainability. A frequent antecedent is the negative view of marketing prevalent in the sector, requiring an attitudinal transformation. This study provides one such success story that demonstrates how a deliberate marketing-driven approach allowed social entrepreneurs in Eastern India to pilot a new venture with creative offerings that detected and filled a financially viable gap in the cultural clothing market. This paper makes a case for social entrepreneurship ventures to be market savvy in order to financially nurture their social mission.