Reference no: EM13945685 , Length: word count:3500

In this assignment we need to pick a current social issue and work on it according to the assignment description. I have chosen the topic is "DRUG ABUSE" and also specify the "ICE DRUG EPIDEMIC", which is a current issue in Australia right now.

Here is the assignment description and format. Please go through that and follow the criteria. Please use double quotes if it is cited from the article directly otherwise do not use anywhere.

Social Issue topic: Drug Abuse (specify Ice drug in Australia)The purpose of this assessment item is to demonstrate your ability to conduct a scoping report relevant to a social issue of your choice. The objective of conducting a scoping analysis of the social issue is to ensure specification of a viable, relevant exchange offer that the target audience perceives as doable and achievable. In addressing this assessment item, you will need to applyknowledge of social marketing principles and theories.

STRUCTURE FOR THE SOCIAL MARKETING SCOPING REPORT

Below identifies key information to be addressed. As each social marketing intervention is unique additional information may be required.

1. Executive summary
2. Table of Contents
Scoping analysis
3. Social / Health issue
4. Environmental analysis
5. Competition analysis
6. Target market profile
7. Behavioural drivers (barriers & benefits)
8. Guiding theory underpinning strategy
9. Social change objectives and potential strategy recommendations
10. References
11. Appendix

Ensure you do not replicate information across sections and ensure each section provides information relevant to the section.

Use the headings as outlined above in your final report. Your report should be supported by research of secondary sources relating to population and social trends, incidence statistics, previous campaigns as well as relevant, current academic literature (ie. academic journal articles)

Use APA referencing style (this includes Harvard referencing, and most referencing styles utilised by academic marketing journals).

Use 1.5 or double line spacing and make sure you consult your marking criteria when preparing your report. You will be requested to resubmit your assignment if you use single line spacing.

Include the required Griffith University cover page.

Assessment aim and learning objectives

This project will provide the opportunity to consider the challenges associated with planning and developing a social marketing plan, thereby further developing practical information skills, ability to synthesise data, critical analysis and strategic thinking.

This piece of assessment addresses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Graduate skills enhanced through this piece of assessment effective written communication, critical evaluation, problem solving and creativity and innovation. 

Social Marketing Plan Template

• Executive Summary
o Brief summary identifying problem & behaviour to change

• Table of Contents

• Social/Health issue

The objective of this section is to provide a global view of the issue at hand justifying the severity of the health/social issue and deciding on what aspect of the health/social issue to focus. You are required to define the social / health issue via analysis of national statistics concerning the issue.

This section MUST culminate in the specification of the purpose of the social change initiativeand specification of the behavioural focus.

Here are some examples of more specific behaviours that could come from broad behaviours

TIP:
How you define the problem in this stage will affect the rest of your social change program. Think this through carefully. You may also want to think about what types of approaches are needed to reduce or eliminate the problem. For example, a problem could be framed in any number of ways. Think through how you frame the problem because it will likely have implications on your ideas for solving the problem. For example, you may assume that a group of people is overweight only because of their behaviours without paying attention to the influence of the environment in which they live.

Decide whether you want to define the problem as the existence or lack of a particular outcome (i.e., obesity) or the current state of people's behaviour (i.e., not eating enough fruits and vegetables). Defining the problem in relation to an outcome leaves the door open for more behaviours to play a role, while defining the problem in terms of a behaviour will lock you into a certain behaviour early on in the process. Either is appropriate, as long as you are making a conscious choice.

• Environmental analysis

Conduct a PEST analysis to identify key environmental drivers influencing current behaviour. Summarise this section identifying key issues that can be engaged to facilitate behaviour change (as related to your specified behavioural focus).

TIP:

This section aims to locate external environmental determinants that help maintain current ‘bad' behaviour, and which may need to be altered to influence the uptake of the new behaviour (e.g. influence provision of food offerings in food halls). What are the trends or other factors that might affect your social marketing solution? Which groups/ community leaders support or oppose the initiative? Are there laws or pending legislation that might affect how the TA responds to the social marketing initiative?

• Competition analysis

This section requires you to analyse the competition that competes with your social issue. Identify key organisations that currently address your social issue or compete with your social issue. Analyse their social change / advertising initiative.

It is your responsibility to conduct a thorough analysis in this section to identify key gaps in previous social change initiatives. As such you are required to analyse what has been working well, what hasn't and what are the gaps that leverage a potential opportunity (i.e. a behavioural focus).

DO not simply explain the social change initiatives - rather analyse use your analytical skills (e.g. collate information regarding past initiatives in a table format and summarise information).

• Target audience analysis

You need to specify who the target audience for the social change initiative is. You will need to understand which groups of people need to change their behaviour to positively impact the problem. Developing this understanding begins the process of selecting a target audience. Build an understanding of the lives of the audience(s) involved and specific relevant behaviours.

This section requires you to justify your target audience and conduct a psychographic analysis of your target market!!!!!

TIP:
Determine Criteria for Selection
Before you start deliberating about which audiences you might like to work with, it can be helpful to think about some criteria for selection. Knowing what characteristics you need or desire in an audience can help you narrow down your choices.

For example, you may decide that your ideal audience would be:
• Affected by the problem (or have the ability to change the environment of those affected by the problem).
• Likely and willing to change their behaviour.
• Easily accessible by you or your partners.
• One that your stakeholders are interested in reaching.
• One that fits in with your organization's priorities.
• Have behaviours that are easy to change.
• One that has available existing research you can use.
• One that is not currently being targeted with other programs

However, no single audience is likely to have all of these characteristics. You must prioritize which ones are most important to you and your team. Is it more important to work with a high-risk audience, or is it more important that you aim for early success by starting with a "low hanging fruit" approach? What happens if your stakeholders want to work with an audience who is at high risk, but it will require extensive resources to help them change their behaviour? Work with your planning team to prioritize criteria. Which are most important? Which are ones that would be nice but aren't crucial? Once you know this, then you can start thinking about different audience groups.

You are likely to segment your audience by their behaviour
• Those who do the desired behaviour consistently.
• Those who do the desired behaviour but somewhat inconsistently.
• Those who occasionally or rarely do the desired behaviour.
• Those who never do the desired behaviour.
This type of framework would work well when the behaviour is ongoing and somewhat complex.

Or, you could choose to segment based on attitudes and motivation
• Those who want to do the desired behaviour and are successful at doing so.
• Those who want to do the desired behaviour but have some common difficulties or barriers to overcome.
• Those who have no interest in the desired behaviour and no motivation to adopt it.

Other examples include stage of change, perceptions, intentions, lifestyles, common benefits, common barriers, or geography.

• Behavioural drivers (barriers & benefits)
Build insight to what drives behaviour towards the desired behaviour. Essentially this section requires your analysis of the TA attitudes towards the issue - what are the barriers and benefits to taking up the behavioural focus.

At this stage you will check in with the audience to determine what they might value about the desired behaviour and what might make it more difficult for them to adopt. This stage requires you to understand the motivations, attitudes and values of the TA towards the current behaviour under investigation, and to the desired behaviour positioned as the social marketing solution. How can the desired behaviour be made more easily accessible and doable? Does the desired behaviour need to be broken down into smaller steps/stages? An understanding of the barriers will assist.

The behavioural drivers section should discuss the:
- The barriers to taking up the social issue
- The benefits to taking up the social issue
- Identify what the social change initiative requires the TA to do differently and specify the value exchange offer that the TA will consider relevant and doable.

TIP:
Think Broadly and realistically: think realistically about which barriers and benefits you can address and which you will have little or no ability to modify with your program. Also, think broadly about potential barriers. There may be environmental and policy issues that are real barriers, but the target audience may not even be aware of them.

You may want to think about connecting the behaviour to some larger benefit (for example, self-esteem) that people desire. What emotional ties can be linked to your behaviour? People don't buy commercial products only for their technical attributes (the type of rubber in the soles of the shoes, the quality of the material in the jeans). They buy the image and emotions that go along with the product (I'll be a better basketball player, or I'll get attention from others). However, you can only promote benefits that people can or will actually experience from doing the behaviour.

EXAMPLE: The desire to engage in healthy behaviours, to be around for a long time, to take care of children can be a strong motivator for mothers. Another classic example is the TRUTH campaign, designed to reduce smoking in teenagers. It capitalized on teenagers' desire to rebel against authority by showcasing the misleading practices of the tobacco industry.
Considering the following questions is helpful when writing this section - note: these questions are not exhaustive however point you in a direction for further inquiry!
• Does the audience believe they can do the behaviour?
• What will the audience need to give up to adopt the desired behaviour?
• Where does the audience do the desired behaviour (or its competition)?
• Where does the audience spend time?
• Where does the audience get information about the target behaviour?
• Who would be a credible source of information to the audience about the health topic or about the behaviour?
• What does your audience value in their lives? What are their hopes and dreams? What do they want out of life?

• Theoretical underpinnings for behaviour change
This section requires you to identify and apply a behavioural change model to your social issue. Explain how the model or key variable of the model is relevant to your social issue - behavioural focus. Explain how the model is relevant to facilitate behaviour change.

Tip:
Apply the model you have chosen and ask key questions:
EG: Health Belief Model
• What is the level of perceived susceptibility among your TA? - high, medium, low
• How severe does the TA think of the consequences are? Very severe, somewhat severe, not severe
• Does the TA believe that engaging in the preventive behaviour will lower the risk of the problem? Yes, uncertain, no
• What are the benefits, barriers of engaging in the advocated behaviour
Consider key outcomes and develop objectives to address how the model can be used to overcome issues.

• Social change objectives and recommendations
The social change objectives link to your behavioural focus, and must specify knowledge, attitude and behavioural objectives. They must be written in order for future benchmarking, as such they must be SMART

For recommendations broadly overview a potential strategy (usig 4ps and social marketing strategy terminology); identify future partnerships that will be useful to assist strategy implementation; consider what conditions need to be altered (i.e. resourcing/services etc) to facilitate behaviour change; and identify any ethical considerations

Some examples of SMART behavioural objectives are:
1. Mothers of preschool children in Oak Park neighbourhood will offer at least one additional ½ cup serving of a fruit or vegetable each day to their children between (date) and (date).
2. High school principals in Eastside school system will replace all sugar-sweetened beverages with water and 100% fruit juice in all school vending machines by (date).
3. Increase percentage of urban African-American tween males in the state who are involved in active play (outside of school time and with peers) for at least 60 minutes a day, 5 days a week from 35% to 50% by the end of this year.

• References
• Appendix