Social Marketing - Essay Example

Social Marketing Executive Summary The present report takes in to account the prevailing problem of youth violence in the East London. The rationale behind choosing this cause was that although youth violence is prevalent all across the world including Britain but its hold on London is quite disturbing. The fact that the year 2008 saw 56% of all youth violence taking place in London is reason enough to investigate. This report basically takes in to consideration the various marketing initiatives to combat the youth violence and assess and evaluates them on a criteria of their effectiveness. The results of the report hope to help improve the impact of these promotions and marketing initiatives by coming up with recommendations. A number of marketing initiatives were studied and promotions were accumulated in a portfolio. It was found that most of the promotion was done through public relations, reference and support groups. There was however some advertisement done through posters and other media too. It was found in this report that both the local agencies and the home office have been collectively working to address the issues related with youth violence. The successful rate of the campaigns and the marketing initiatives has been deemed quite satisfactory. The effectiveness of the marketing initiatives was verified by the decrease in the crimes related to youth crimes. Product Description: Cause: Violence among young people in East London  The recent trend of youth violence all across the world including in East London is a worrying picture. On one side it has been recorded that the overall crime rate has relatively decreased over the last couple of years but a rise has been seen in the trend of teenage homicide. If the total number of murders is to taken in account then it has reduced since 2003 up till now but the teenage homicides has increases significantly in 2007 (The London summit on serious youth violence, 2010). Another alarming factor that needs to be taken in to account is the fact that most of the homicide victims are over the age of 25 but there has been a change in the recent years. The recent years (2007-2008) have seen the under 20’s homicide trend (Mirrlees, Budd, Partridge, 2001). The violent behavior amongst youngsters is although prevalent all through Britain but it seems to be more persistently present in London. According to one statistics in the year 2008 alone there were 18 teenage murders in London which accounted for 56% of the Britain total. The fact that London makes up for only 11 percent of the teenage population of Britain makes the whole situation more disturbing (Mirrlees, Budd, Partridge, 2001). In addition to the fatal type of youth violence, the other sort which is non-fatal type is also not uncommon. According to one estimate they have increased in equal proportion to the homicide count. The non-fatal type of youth violence includes; offensive street behavior of youth, domestic violence and night time economy (The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 2006). The violent behavior amongst the youngsters has become a worse problem than previous years. In the year 2008 alone there were 27 reported cases of murder of violence. Out of the 27 cases reported in 2008, 22 were stabbed, 3 were shot and 2 were beaten to death (Mirrlees, Budd, Partridge, 2001). Another fact that needs to be highlighted and makes the situation more ambiguous is the fact that the crime figures are the ones which are reported to the police. All the victims do not feel the need to inform the police about the offences. There can be various reasons behind the youth being reluctant to report the offences to the police. They range from wanting to deal with the problem themselves, because they have had some previous criminal history themselves or lack of belief in the justice system. The ethnic minorities are seen to be more reluctant to report to the police. As a result of above mentioned reason it is very difficult to fully determine the extent of youth violence in London. The police data is the best source to get an estimate of London based youth violence extent and level (Czarnomski, Marshall, Summers and Dando, 2006). Causes of serious youth violence A report published by Cone, Feldman, and DaSilva (2001) came up with the reasons behind the youth violence which are listed below. The personal risk factors that can cause a increase in the offensive behavior is; insufficient learning of empathy during preschool period, poor parental supervision, discipline, family conflict, condoning problem behavior, low achievement, truancy, school disorganization, gap between puberty and beginning work with prospects, low family income or poor housing, drugs and alcohol availability, early involvement in problem or aggressive behavior, including bullying. The social drivers of youth violence includes; issues of territory/postcodes, anti social peer group / gang status – escalating feuds and revenge attacks, street justice and disrespect, illegal economy (drugs markets etc), coercion and grooming (older male siblings or family members), link between being a victim and becoming an offender, cultural acceptance of use of weapons among small minority, media coverage increases fear in young people (can lead to carrying weapons) and of young people by adults (can lead to fragmented society). The wider societal conditions behind drivers of youth violence: de-industrialisation, income polarization, increasing correlation of disadvantage with race, educational polarization, increases in organized and transnational crime, “ghettoisation” of the prison and the “prisonisation” of the ghetto, increase in violence portrayed in the media, social exclusion, criminalization and disaffection, reduction in stable family relationships. The present report evaluates and assesses the current marketing strategies and promotions undertaken by different government and non government organization to tackle the social issue of violence in youth of East London. The objective of the report is to access the effectiveness of the marketing promotions undertaken to publicize the prevention of violent behavior amongst youngsters. This project aims to utilize the findings in helping to improve the violence prevention services. Overview of Promotional Activities: The promotional activities undertaken for the cause of violence among young people, varied from group formation, torch lit walk of peace, gathering as prayers of freedom, support groups, summits, Peace festivals, anti violence campaigns, other initiatives by Violence reduction unit Glasgow. Most of the promotion was done through public relations, reference and support groups. There was little evidence of promotions through advertisements. Segmentation Targeting Positioning: The segmentation strategy used for promotions and marketing of violence amongst youngsters is demographic segmentation strategy and psychographic segmentation. Since the cause is exclusively focused on the youth, the demographics are very limited. The psyche of all the criminals minded people and the victims of such assaults are also a foundation for the segmentation for the marketing initiatives. The target market of such initiatives and marketing promotions are all the victims, offenders and prospect offenders and people who hold strong views about the violence in the youngsters and aim to make the society a safe harbor for everyone to live in. Consumer behavior, psychological and motivational theories and influences: The social marketers for the cause of Violence amongst youngsters have managed to come up with some effective marketing strategies and promotions. They have used a number of approaches and techniques to effectively communicate their vision. The reference and support groups make use of the theory of emotional coping responses. They aim to provide a platform to the like minded people and provide a psychological support and help deal with problem restructuring, and stress management that almost always accompany the violent events. The ad campaign with the slogan ‘carry a knife and lose your life’ seems to making use of the enactive learning in which the viewer is made to realize and learn from the consequences of their actions. Another type of learning ‘observational learning’ also can take place as a result of these advertisements when the viewer is restrained from taking part in violent behavior as a result of observing and learning from the character in the advertisement. In the initiative Gang members in violence summit- An initiative of Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit the strategy which was made use of was self-regulatory capability. The initiative like these can probe the self evaluative reactions in the current gang members and violators and make them question their actions and be productive in reducing the violent behavior in the process. Another strategy used by the initiative of violence reduction unit in which the victims are urged to talk by providing phones to help them report assaults is called the helping relationship strategy. The social marketers basically provides platform for trust and openness and propagates care and support in building a positive relationship. Relationship building, counseling and support sources like these are great marketing tools. The peace building summit in London is one example of social liberation. The summit took place after the Sharmaarke Hassan, 17, became the 15th teenager to be killed in the city this year. The summit was attended by many victims and families of victims. The peace summit and other similar initiatives work to bring a change by empowering the victims and engaging them in policy changing decisions and procedures. Gauging the Effectiveness of Marketing Strategies used for the Cause ‘Violence among young people in East London The effectiveness of the initiatives taken by the government and non-government organizations has been very effective. According to one recent study there has been a decrease in the youth violence victims by 4.5 percent compared to the previous year (University of Bedfordshire, February 2007). The marketing initiatives can also be credited because specifically the fatal crimes e.g. gun or knife crimes has seen a downturn in the year 2007-2008 of 17% as compared to the year 2002-2003 (Aksoy, Elloit, 2010). Conclusions: The local agencies along with the Home office have collectively worked to address the problems related to youth violence. They have been successful in coming up with campaigns and initiatives that have combated the issue of youth violence to some extent. The evidence of the effectiveness of the initiatives and the campaigns can be found in the decrease in the crimes related to youth over the years. Recommendations: 1. There is a need to include more relevant data which can be collected from national police. It should be made prominent in the marketing initiatives to help fully understand the extent of the problem and make different models in operation more effective. So frequent information sharing is very important. 2. The initiative undertaken by the private and government organizations should be amply funded. The insufficient funding can be significant obstacle in coming up with effective and efficient initiatives. 3. According to one study there is a strong relationship between bullying and other violent behavior within school and outside in the society. It can be useful to have the police officers based in schools. It will help the children to build the trusting relationship with the authority figures. So a safer harbor in the schools with the help of the security can help in reduction of violence in the society overall. References C.L. Cone, M.A. Feldman and A.T. DaSilva, “Causes and Effects,” Harvard Business Review 81 (July 2003): 95-101. Drumwright and Murphy, “Corporate Societal Marketing,” Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute, 2001 Farrington DP, Langan PA, Wikstrom P, (1994), Changes in Crime and Punishment in America, England and Sweden between the 1980’2 and the 1990’s. Studies in Crime and Crime Prevention Knife Crime: Ineffective reactions to a distracting problem? A Review of Evidence and Policy, The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, King’s College London, August 2006. L. Aksoy and K.M. Elliott, “Conference Summary: Marketing, Corporate Social Initiatives, and the Bottom Line,” in 2010 Working Paper Series (Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute, 2001). The London summit on serious youth violence (2010), LCSP Mirrlees-Black C, Budd T, Partridge S, (2001). The 2000 British Crime Survey, London: HMSO, 2001 (sub-analysis: Janson K, 2006) Reluctant Gangsters: Youth Gangs in Waltham Forest, John Pitts, Vauxhall Professor of Socio-Legal Studies, University of Bedfordshire, February 2007. Sarah Czarnomski, Ben Marshall, Lucía Summers, UCL Jill Dando (2006) Tackling Violent Crime Programme (TVCP) Evaluation, Institute of Crime Science October 2006, Read More