Social Marketing Campaign - Essay Example

?Individual assessment: A report on social Marketing Campaign Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Part Background, purpose and focus of the social marketing campaign 3 Part 2: Situation analysis 7 Part 3: Target market 9 Part 4: Competition 10 Part 5: Positioning 11 References 13 Appendix 16 Part 1: Background, purpose and focus of the social marketing campaign 1.1 Key background information leading to the development of this issue Social marketing is the technique of using principle and marketing tools for understanding the market and then offering products for the society by organizing and creating communicative approach for the people to meet their demand along with demand of the society which in turn also solves some serious the problems of the society. This type of marketing is target for the audience with the concept of influencing the individual or a group or the society as a whole for creating some positive social change in the behavior of the people. This technique is also used to promote certain products and service for the target market by making people aware about the demerits of the competitive products and thus promote the products or services with the support of the well being from the company. The most effective way to deal with the social issues in the society is government or organization intervention into developing long term awareness program for building awareness amongst the people through social campaigns. Skin cancer is a major issue amongst the Australians mainly within the age group of 14 to 17 years due to several behaviors from the exposure to the sun (Skin Cancer, 2010). Every year skin cancer costs nearly $300 million to the Australian Health system which accounts to about 1850 lives every year. With the help of skin cancer campaign from the government every dollar investment returns about $2.32 decrease in the health care investment and in the next 20 years it is expected to reduce the skin cancer cases to great extent due to the social awareness raised by the government (Cancer Council-d, 2011). Social media campaigns mainly tend to change the behavior of the person rather than aiming the physical harm of the consequences. Various Medias can be introduced for the purpose of campaigning like advertisements, News paper, Internet and Printed Materials (Kotler, Roberto, Roberto, 1989, p. 94-95). While corporate marketing is satisfying the stakeholders of the company Social marketing is mainly concerned with the betterment of the society and improves the quality of life. Consumer behavior is the main objective in social marketing and it is more difficult to identify the target market and meeting the demands of the varied customers with more expectation from the products offered by the company (Serrat, 2010, p. 1-2). 1.2 What is the campaign purpose and intended impact or benefit? Social marketing is mainly concerned with the interaction with the social, environmental, economic, political and technological scenario of the market to accomplish noncommercial goal. This type of marketing involves long term planning which is not only targeted towards an individual but instead towards the society for the improving their life. For a better understanding of the society the marketer should follow a framework while approaching the different region, location or nationals for critical evaluation of the fact. The basic framework for the evaluation of the campaign involves several attributes which is needed to be understood by the marketer for a better approach to the society. The very first step of the evaluation process is to understand the orientation of the customers in the market, their belief, attitude and their needs. Then understanding of the behavior and implementing strategies accordingly which can motivate customers is very important for the success of the campaign. The core of the designing process of the campaign is the foundation of the campaign through proper understanding the nature of the society. For the evaluation process monitoring the activities of the people and the statistics of the people on the issue is needed to be collected by the marketer from time to time (Serrat, 2010, p. 1-2). 1.3 What is the campaign focus? This project is concerned with the investigation of the social marketing techniques and its effectiveness on the society which is conducted by several organizations, government and non-profit organizations to promote their products along with the motto of changing the behavior of the people in the society to prevent skin cancer. Australia records the highest number of skin cancers thus the Sun Smart program was initiated from the collaboration between the governments, Cancer Council Victoria and Victorian Health Promotion Foundation who jointly funded for the campaign which mainly aims to minimize the human cost in Victoria due to skin cancer. Here is an example of a printed campaign to increase the awareness of the audience on sun exposure- Figure 1: Print Advertisement 1 (Source: Skin Cancer-b, 2010, p. 1) Few more examples of the campaigns are attached in the appendix of the report for a better understanding of the messages communicated through the campaigns. Part 2: Situation analysis The situational analysis is basically the internal strength, weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats of the firm which is referred as the SWOT analysis of the company. Identification of the same will help the council to reach their own desire and objectives in a tactful manner and evaluate strategies accordingly. The strength of the council is mainly the good dimensions of the company which helps to generate revenue for the firm and gain market reputation in the long run. The Sun Smart from the Cancer Council is a huge success for the campaign conducted by the council. The cost effectiveness of the program gave itself a great exposure to many as it was rated as the second most cost effective and health saving intrusion in the economic analysis conducted recently from the financial department of Victoria. Sun Smart has been predicted to prevent about 1900 premature deaths due to skin cancer and is expected to be very effective in recent future which can reduce about 49,000 in the next 20 years from this program. The main strength of the program is due its cost effective approach which can be adapted by any people of the society to be safe from skin cancer disease. The association of Sun Smart with the Victorian Department of Human Services helps to promote the effect of Solarium services to the community at an age of 16 years without parental consent was monitored by Sun Smart revealed to the society the publicized death due to the loosening of the legislation. This helped the council to gain popularity in the mind of the customers and increased awareness amongst about the ill effect of the solarium services which is needed to be protected for the consumer health. The active support from the media is the key to the success of Sun Smart to influence the society about skin cancer with very minimal amount of advertisements and achieving huge media presence with the issue. The Solarium campaign has been attached with the appendix at the end of this research paper. The unique program form the company ensures a balanced vitamin for the customers and the promotional campaigns on the benefits and harmfulness of the UV exposure of the individual took them to a leadership position in the market. Sun Smart identified the need to promote itself with the school programs which can have great potential in the market to high participation rate. The Sun Smart school program has grown very rapidly and reached 2500 schools and 3500 childcare centers under Sun Smart within a very short period of time (Cancer Council, 2011). Identifying the appropriate need of the society and making people aware about the effects of the different activities through supportive approach is the major strength for the firm to gain trust from the customers to adapt their services and programs. Understanding of the appropriate media strategy is very important for the success of the Sun Smart campaign. For a new campaign development is involve huge investment in the different activities for the promotional purpose on different media. The program should be designed very effectively to clearly convey the messages otherwise it is often interpreted in a wrong way by the consumers from the different campaigns conducted by the council. There is immense opportunity for growth for Sun Smart as though many are influenced by the advertisement and changes in behavior are in effect but huge part of the population is left yet to be influenced by the campaigns which are needed to be reached. Programs can be extended to more supportive activities like providing shades at beach and also reminder service for the customers and broadcast promotional campaigns for Sun Smart UV alert during the summer. The major threat for the campaigns are the deregulation of the solarium industry which is needed to be improved and enforced regulation is required for parental consent for children’s and it is needed to be banned for people under certain age limit. Another issue is misconception from the campaigns in many cases like people may interpret that having Vitamin D can increase their ability to be more exposed to sun. These are needed to be addressed by Sun Smart program to educate people about the benefits and harmfulness of UV exposures (Sun Smart Cancer Council Victoria, 2008, p. 10-20). Part 3: Target market Before implementation process of a marketing campaign the marketer need to understand the target market to focus the advertisement to a particular segment of the market (Pride, Ferrell, 2011, p. 538). Understanding the target market can help the marketer to reach to the customer in a more tactful manner. For the purpose of social marketing the advertisement campaign should be targeted towards the whole society for generating awareness amongst the people to adapt the behavior suggested by the company. The target market for Sun Smart is mainly dependent on the types of programs offered by the council. For the Tattoo program Sun Smart mainly targeted towards the age group of 17 to 24 years teenagers as they are more prone to these activities (Sun Smart-b, 2011). On the other hand the farmer’s campaign is focused towards the farmers of the country who work outside with high risk of getting skin cancer (Sun Smart-a, 2011). Adapting the changing behavior of the people is a challenging activity for Sun Smart. People may find it difficult to understand the effectiveness of the programs and also sometimes people have misconception or misunderstanding of the campaigns conducted by the company. The motivation of the people can be best drawn if the campaign can reflect the betterment from the behavior of people from their act. The changing behavior is the main objective for the firm along with the development of social awareness is the primary goal of Sun Smart for the target market. Part 4: Competition The attitude of the people in the society is always towards strong advertisement campaigns. Various sunscreens provided by the different companies in the market with strong advertisement often influence the customers to use the products. People are more likely to continue their normal lifestyle of using available products to protect themselves from UV rays. This act of the consumers towards other products from the market is the major competition for Sun Smart. These behaviors of the audiences are mainly due to the strong advertisement force from the companies offering cosmetics for the market. People can avail their product much easily from the market which helps them to continue their own lifestyle without any change in their behaviors. Though adapting new behavior is very cost effective for the customers but change in lifestyle with the programs from Sun Smart may be difficult for the society to adapt suddenly. For changing the behavior of the consumers Sun Smart should concentrate on strong advertisement campaigns to relate their daily life with the problems they might face from the products available in the market and should concentrate on the benefits from the programs to the customers for a better hold of the market. Sun Smart UV alert posters as attached with the appendix can make people aware of the needs of the programs conducted by Sun Smart and might compete with the market with the trust of the consumers. Part 5: Positioning Due to high percentage of people are affected at Australia from skin cancer the Cancer Council committee have developed several positioning statement for the Sun Smart addressing the general misconceptions and misunderstanding developed amongst the people. Providing clear information and idea about skin cancer and its facts the council promoted the campaign to reach to the customers. All the positioning statement from Sun Smart is mainly designed with four primary ideas i.e. to target audience, to see the desired behavior from a product, to describe a product and its features and finally using the competitors to show the benefits from the Sun Smart program. Different products and programs from the company have different positioning approach like SPF30+ the sunscreen product shows the 100 % protection guarantee from the company which no other company can provide, while the window tinting mainly focus on the product features and educate the customers with UV protection (Cancer Council-a, 2011, p. 1). On the other hand the positioning statement of Sun Smart in its Sun Protection in the workplace program it mainly concentrates on the desired behavior which people should have at workplace and the required protection they should take for safety from skin cancer (Cancer Council-b, 2011, p. 1). Again in case of Sun protection and infants program the company mainly focuses on the requirement of safety for the infants and recommends usage of Sun Smart SPF30+ sunscreen for the babies for protection (Cancer Council-c, 2011, p. 1). References 1. Cancer Council. (2011). Sun Smart schools. [Online]. Available at: http://www.cancer.org.au/cancersmartlifestyle/SunSmart/SunSmartschools.htm. [Accessed on: September 06, 2011]. 2. Cancer Council-a. (2011). Position Statement Window tinting. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.cancer.org.au/File/PolicyPublications/Position_statements/PS-Window_tinting_October_2004.pdf. [Accessed on: September 06, 2011]. 3. Cancer Council-b. (2011). Position Statement Sun Protection in the workplace. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.cancer.org.au/File/PolicyPublications/Position_statements/PS-Sun_protection_workplace_May_2007.pdf. [Accessed on: September 06, 2011]. 4. Cancer Council-c. (2011). Position Statement Sun Protection and infants (0-12 months). [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.cancer.org.au/File/PolicyPublications/Position_statements/PS-Sun_protection_infants_May_2005.pdf. [Accessed on: September 06, 2011]. 5. Cancer Council-d. (2011). Re-introducing the national skin cancer awareness campaign. [Online]. Available at: http://www.cancer.org.au/policy/electionpriorities2010/skincancerawareness.htm. [Accessed on: September 09, 2011]. 6. Kotler, P., Roberto, E., Roberto, N. (1989). Social marketing: strategies for changing public behavior. Free Press. 7. Pride, W., Ferrell, O. (2011). Marketing. Cengage Learning. 8. Serrat, O. (2010). The Future of Social Marketing. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.adb.org/documents/information/knowledge-solutions/future-of-social-marketing.pdf. [Accessed on: September 06, 2011]. 9. Skin Cancer. (2010). National Skin Cancer Awareness Campaign. [Online]. Available at: http://www.skincancer.gov.au/. [Accessed on: September 09, 2011]. 10. Skin Cancer-a. (2010). Print advertisement: There is a lot more to treating skin cancer than removing a mole. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.skincancer.gov.au/internet/skincancer/publishing.nsf/Content/E94C55B6229888C4CA25766D001531A7/$File/prmole.pdf. [Accessed on: September 09, 2011]. 11. Skin Cancer-b. (2010). Print advertisement: Don't let your time in the sun catch up with you (1). [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.skincancer.gov.au/internet/skincancer/publishing.nsf/Content/DB71AE5536C841FACA25766D001531AE/$File/prcatch1.pdf. [Accessed on: September 09, 2011]. 12. Skin Cancer-c. (2010). Print advertisement: If this offends you, cover your eyes, back, chest, legs and arms. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.skincancer.gov.au/internet/skincancer/publishing.nsf/Content/325D51E2AE06BCCDCA25766D001531A9/$File/proffend.pdf. [Accessed on: September 09, 2011]. 13. Sun Smart Cancer Council Victoria. (2008). Skin cancer prevention. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.sunsmart.com.au/downloads/About_us/skin_cancer_prevention_bluechip_investment.pdf. [Accessed on: September 06, 2011]. 14. Sun Smart. (2009). Fashion to die for. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.sunsmart.com.au/downloads/resources/brochures/fashion_to_die_for.pdf. [Accessed on: September 06, 2011]. 15. Sun Smart-a. (2011). Farmers' campaign. [Online]. Available at: http://www.sunsmart.com.au/farmers_campaign%20/%202908. [Accessed on: September 07, 2011]. 16. Sun Smart-b. (2011). A history of Sun Smart media campaigns. [Online]. Available at: http://www.sunsmart.com.au/news_and_media/media_campaigns/a_history_of_sunsmart_media_campaigns. [Accessed on: September 07, 2011]. 17. Sun Smart-c. (2009). Your Daily Guide to Sun Protection. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.sunsmart.com.au/downloads/resources/posters/uv_alert_poster.pdf. [Accessed on: September 07, 2011]. Appendix Figure 2: Solarium Fashion to die for (Source: Sun Smart, 2009) Figure 3: Sun Smart UV Alert Posters (Source: Sun Smart-c, 2009, p. 1) Figure 4: Print Advertisement (Source: Skin Cancer-a, 2010, p. 1) Figure 5: Print Advertisement 2 (Source: Skin Cancer-c, 2010, p. 1) Read More