Reference no: EM132333805 , Length: 10

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this course you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which insights from social marketing may contribute to social policy.

2. Critically review social marketing campaigns that have aimed to change consumers' behaviour.

3. Demonstrate a detailed understanding of marketing's role in contemporary social and ethical debates.

4. Critically analyse social marketing theory and practice.

5. Demonstrate a detailed understanding of how social marketing theory has evolved, differences between social marketing theories, and limitations affecting these theories.

Assessment 1: Report

Task: To present a critical analysis of the role of social marketing in society. Specifically, your discussion of the topic should address the following points:
• Define social marketing, and explain how social marketing contrasts with commercial marketing.
• Discuss how law and education fit within the social marketing framework.
• Discuss why the use of upstream interventions in social marketing is debated.

The first module of the study guide and related material provides a basis to address this assessment task. However, you will need to undertake your own investigation of the topic, critically evaluate the key issues that you identify, and reach your own conclusions. This requires that you read widely and consider the sometimes conflicting viewpoints presented. Use examples to illustrate and provide context to your discussion.

Assessment 2: Report

Task: To present a critical analysis of the role of theory in behaviour change.

Select a social marketing initiative in which behaviour change is the desired outcome (e.g. the introduction of standardised (plain) packaging as an initiative to address smoking cessation and non-commencement).

First, provide a brief overview of the social marketing initiative and the desired outcome. Then, drawing on your knowledge and understanding of the role of theory in social marketing:
• explain how it is thought that the social marketing initiative will work in terms of achieving the desired outcome.
• discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the initiative in terms of its likely effectiveness to achieve the desired outcome.

The second module of the study guide and related material provides a basis to address this assessment task. However, you will need to undertake your own investigation of the topic area selected, consider the different perspectives that exist on behaviour change theory, critically evaluate the key issues you identify, and reach some conclusions. This requires that you read widely and consider the sometimes conflicting viewpoints presented. Use examples to illustrate and provide context to your discussion.

Assessment 3: Report

Length: 4000 words
Format: refer to the assessment preparation guidelines section

Task: To present a critical analysis of aspects of social marketing campaign development and evaluation.

Select a social marketing related campaign of your choice (e.g. NZTA's ‘Your speed is shared'; the Health Promotion Agency's ‘Get Hep C tested'). The topic area of social marketing focus that you select for this assessment should differ to the area of focus you selected for assessment two.

Imagine that you have been asked to critically review the campaign. Based on available information, provide a brief overview of the campaign and discuss the following points:

• Thinking of the target audience and the desired campaign objective, identify what barriers exist to adopting the desired behaviour, and what would motivate people to adopt the desired behaviour. To address this point, conduct a literature search to identify factors that are positively and negatively associated with the behaviour of interest.

• Campaign messages is one tool that can be utilised to foster behaviour change. Discuss the pros and cons of positive versus negative message framing. Explain which message framing approach the campaign adopts: positive framing (emphasising a gain) or negative framing (emphasising a loss). Evaluate the likely effectiveness of the message framing approach used.

• Identify some potential campaign evaluation measures (direct and indirect) that could be associated with the campaign selected. Discuss the strengths and limitations of the evaluation measures outlined.

• Looking ahead, provide a brief contribution of ideas, thoughts or suggestions that could be applied to improve the likely effectiveness of future stages of the campaign.

The third module of the study guide and related material provides a basis to address this assessment task. However, you will need to undertake your own investigation of the topic area selected, consider the different perspectives that exist on social marketing campaign development and evaluation, critically evaluate the key issues you identify, and reach some conclusions. This requires that you read widely and consider the sometimes conflicting viewpoints presented. Use examples to illustrate and provide context to your discussion.