The Community Population of American Cancer Society - Term Paper Example

American Cancer Society Introduction The American Cancer Society is a non-profitable voluntary health organization operating in a global environment. As a health organization, the association focuses on the elimination of life threats emanating from the deadly disease, Cancer. The American Cancer Society operates on an international basis with its Head Quarters based in Atlanta in Georgia. Moreover, the association is constituted of a dozen chartered divisions and more than 900 offices operating globally. The community population of American Cancer Society even crosses the 5,100 mark. In the pursuit of eliminating cancer from the global sphere, the American Cancer Society carries on substantial research and educational services internationally. Moreover, the American Cancer Society strategizes its goals and objectives through encouragement in building more cancer research institutes to enhance the global research potential. In fact, the American Cancer Society is found to be the largest voluntary research organization in America in the field of health. An association formed to render public services in the health sphere stands out to become a successful venture if its activities are subjected to due governance and monitoring. In this regard, the American Cancer Society is also governed by two separate and distinct set of body viz. the National Assembly and the National Board of Directors. In turn these two separate bodies are constituted by people both nonprofessionals and medical experts. (American Cancer Society, 2010) Marketing Activities of American Cancer Society Colon Cancer advertising campaign American Cancer Society in its bid to create awareness about Colon Cancer conducted an advertising program on a national basis. The voluntary association using Television commercials and print media conducted the advertising program. The advertisements aired in the television channels in the commercials and the newspapers were constructed targeting the general audience. A second group of advertisement was also made to target the African population dwelling in America. This advertisement was also aired but by the use of radio. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the advertisement program a market research activity was also initiated. The Market Research was conducted by targeting a focus group of women in the age group of 50 to 64 years. Moreover, a methodology was also devised to contact the target group of the advertisements conducted. The participants were contacted through telephone on an individual basis. Herein, a set of qualifying criteria was also decided upon. Firstly, it was found out whether the individual was a woman or not within the age group of 50 to 64 years. Secondly, inference was made on whether such individual pays a visit to primary doctors for medical consultation or not. Thirdly, the participants were asked on whether they had been diagnosed of colon cancer previously or not. Further, the market research was made on two different sets. The target population was divided into samples over which research was conducted both prior to the airing of the advertisements and again after the advertisements had been aired and published. For the target population prior to the airing and publishing of the advertisements the sample size was taken to be a group of 303 women. Out of the total sample of 303 women the African Americans amounted to 100. Again, the sample size taken for research after the advertisements had been aired or published the sample size was chosen to be 959 women. The African American population in this target group amounted to 359 women. However, it was found that out of the 359 Afro-American women only 178 of them resided in the high advertising zones. Research conducted over the samples chosen showed that the advertisement campaign conducted over Colon Cancer earned greater success in being able to create increased awareness for the disease. The research made on the post advertisement samples showed that around 61 percent of the sample population was able to recall the features of the advertisement made on Colon Cancer by American Cancer Society. In regards to the African American population, the rate of sample population been able to recall the features of the advertisements rated to 64 percent. The result of increased awareness in the population made them take resort to preventive actions in regards to Colon Cancer by conducting tests. Moreover, the Afro-American women population was also overwhelmed by the advertisements made and took preventive actions. In general it was found that around 42 percent of the target population countered changes having seen the advertisement. (National Colon Cancer Advertising Program, 2007) However, it was found that the respondents chosen for the colon cancer advertising campaign success study mainly concerned the female population. The male population was not addressed wherein the disease attacks both men and women. Further, survey was mainly conducted based on telephonic communication. Survey based on designing of proper questionnaires was not used in the process of gathering data. Anti-Tobacco Campaign The American Cancer Society had launched an advertisement campaign to cease the use of tobacco usage in the society. The Anti-Tobacco advertisement campaign launched by the American Cancer Society amounted to five million dollars and was mainly targeted to curbing use of tobacco in the youth population. To this end, the American Cancer Society focused on conducting six advertisements, which would be aired through televisions to help succeed in its mission. The advertisements were stated to contain of two sets of events. In the first set, an executive from the tobacco company would be shown who would pledge before the House to speak on the truth of getting affected by cancer for increased use of tobacco. In the second set a Christmas tree would be shown which would be showering a stream of tax dollars over the Federal government. The American Cancer Society strongly expects that the series of six advertisements aired on televisions would help in creating proper awareness in the society against the ill effects of tobacco. The American Cancer Society further feels that increased public awareness on the ill effects of tobacco would also help to reduce the propensity to diseases like oral and lung cancer. (ACS Launches $5 Million Anti-Tobacco Campaign, 1998). To this end, it can be seen that the anti-tobacco advertisement campaign conducted by the American Cancer Society used mainly depended on below-the-line activities, which involved the use of television media. The tobacco awareness campaign could have been more effective if the use of leaflets were encouraged to be issued to masses at terminal points like railway stations or bus stands. Above-the-line marketing activities could have ensured a more effective reach to the target group. (Narula, 2010) Moreover, the use of leaflets would have helped generated awareness among the masses that do not have access to televisions. The anti-tobacco campaign centered mainly on the youth population and failed to take into account other demographic parameters. Marketing for a Cause initiatives of American Cancer Society In addition to the mass advertising campaigns taken by the American Cancer Society to eradicate the effects of Cancer from society, the association also indulges in other innovative marketing activities. It is found that the American Cancer Society has built an effective tie up with the web marketing agency eBay. The tie up made focuses on the target group of people that uses the eBay to sell their products. These target groups of eBay customers are invited to grant the proceeds obtained from the sale of their products to the American Cancer Society for purposes of public funding. The American Cancer Society has given a special terminology to this set of event, which would help generate huge funds to let them fight for a social cause. It has been termed as Mission Fish. A second initiative taken by the American Cancer Society in this direction has been termed by the association as ‘Team ACS’. The ‘Team ACS’ initiative invites people to join in the association’s fund raising programs to help celebrate newer birthdays. Through the ‘Team ACS’ people can help organize events like sports or marathon relays and contribute the proceeds to the associations cause of fighting against cancer. The people can also create mementos for special days of their life like birthdays, wedding anniversaries or even remembering a loved one who had died out of cancer. (ACS Cause Marketing, 2010). The American Cancer Society can also go for mass purchasing of products from retail outlets, which can be sold at discounted rates to general population by organizing certain events. The association in helping the society to fight the disease can use the fund accumulated out of the sale proceeds. American Cancer Society’s campaign against Cancer and Presidential Elections Another major initiative taken by the American Cancer Society in its fight for Cancer includes innovative campaigning techniques to train the electoral candidates of Presidential elections to highlight agenda on cancer issues. Thus, the target group highlighted to this end would consist of the presidential candidates standing in elections. Such initiative is taken by the American Cancer Society to put stress on the issue of cancer eradication in the future President’s agenda to help render a healthy society. The American Cancer Society believes that if the leader of the country, the President becomes aware of the cause of fighting against cancer he would further help in reinforcing the same in the country. To this end, it is observed that staffs and volunteers of American Cancer Society have carried out extensive programs in areas like Iowa and New Hampshire holding breakfast discussions and other debates to infer into the election agendas of the Presidential candidates in holding issues on cancer eradication measures. Apart from the two mentioned zones, the American Cancer Society also focuses on other states of the country. The American Cancer Society largely expects that future Presidents of the country would help contribute largely for fighting against cancer by allocating more funds to activities like research, education, training and advocacy on the stated paths. Further, the American Cancer Society in addition to holding interfaces with the Presidential candidates is also targeting media efforts by the creation of advertisements for newspapers and radio. These, advertisements made would be aired in the radio and published in the newspapers specially targeting the regions of Iowa and Hampshire. Further, using the advertisements specific inferences would be drawn from the Presidential candidates in regards to their plan of actions to help eradicate the disease. To further enhance the effect of the advertisements the association to draw more attention of the electoral candidates would use two breast cancer survivors. These breast cancer survivors have turned into active volunteers of the American Cancer Society and are helping it to fight for the cause. To support the cause for the innovative campaign involving the Presidential candidates the American Cancer Society conducted a survey to understand the views of the voters in the electoral process. To this end, it is found that the voters of the Presidential election process vehemently supported the cause of fighting against cancer. Statistics given on the basis of the survey conducted states that around 90 percent of the voters supported the initiative taken by American Cancer Society to eradicate the disease. Moreover, the survey also showed that majority of the voters was deeply affected by cancer in one way or the other. Estimates made show that around 55 percent of the voters had people in their family who had been affected by cancer. (American Cancer Society Launches Campaign Against Cancer for Presidential Candidates, 2000) Thus, it is felt in this regard that this campaign taken by the association would certainly help to reinforce their fight for cancer. Conclusion The American Cancer Society is one of the largest non-profitable associations fighting for the cause of cancer. The association in its fight for issues related to cancer is found to organize large advertisement campaigns to help accumulate huge funds and create huge public awareness to reinforce its fight to eradicate cancer. The advertisement programs conducted by the American Cancer Society and aired through television and radio or published through newspapers act as a tool in creating public awareness mostly in the developing strata like the Afro-American groups of people. References 1. “ACS Launches $5 Million Anti-Tobacco Campaign”, (1998). mascotcoalition.org. Retrieved on November 18, 2010 from: http://www.mascotcoalition.org/news/campaign.html 2. “ACS Cause Marketing”, (2010). cancer.org. Retrieved on November 18, 2010 from: http://www.cancer.org/AboutUs/HowWeHelpYou/acs-cause-marketing 3. “American Cancer Society Launches Campaign Against Cancer for Presidential Candidates”, (2000). medscape.com. Retrieved on November 18, 2010 from: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/411508 4. “American Cancer Society”, (2010). cancer.org. Retrieved on November 18, 2010 from: http://www.cancer.org/index 5. “National Colon Cancer Advertising Program”, (2007). nccrt.org. Retrieved on November 18, 2010 from: http://www.nccrt.org/documents/publications/marketresearchACS.pdf 6. Narula, S. (2010). Below-the-Line Promotion. Retrieved on November 18, 2010 from: http://www.coolavenues.com/mba-journal/marketing/below-line-promotion Read More