Sasin’s Assistant Professor Krittinee Nuttavuthisit, Ph.D., recently launched her new book, Merry Marketing (การตลาดเพื่อความสุข), at the National Book Fair 2015. The book is a collection of her weekly articles published (since 2005) in the column, Marketing Weapon, in Krungthep Turakij Business News.

While marketing may often be viewed as a cause of suffering by encouraging greed, it can also be viewed as creating happiness in the form of a better quality of life.  For example, if we thought of societal development as a product, people would be the target market who we wished to ‘buy’ [into] that development. Marketing can lead to the creation of social measures that fit with people’s interests and demands, to communicate and promote awareness, interest, and (ultimately) adoption of development among citizens of the country. (An example would be a campaign to stop drunk driving.) This societal marketing could complement, or even supplant, the laws and regulations governing society. After all, the intent of marketing is to have people voluntarily do what the marketer would like them to do. This can be applied to societal ends just as well as to hedonistic, or capitalistic ends.

The book, Merry Marketing, has 7 main sections that cover a wide range of issues from the role of marketing in one’s wellbeing, and marketing’s relationship to minority groups, career advancement, education, culture, and collective collaboration – – all important topics to be discussed in bringing sustainable happiness to society.