Discuss about the Rethinking Boundaries of Social Marketing.
Social marketing is a procedure of campaigning or attending a wide base of target audience for a greater communal benefit (Evans, 2008). In order to establish a successful social marketing campaign companies or governmental agencies or not-for-profit organizations need to undertake extensive research to study and understand the purview of the concept of social marketing. Partnering with theories, concepts and research entails development of a fruitful marketing campaign. Pókemon Go is a mobile and tablet played game developed by Niantic Company in the year 2016 (Serino, 2016). The game was launched and played across iOS as well as Android applications apps. In order to play the game, player needs to turn on their GPS locations and locate a Pókemon available at various locations. Then the player needs to walk up to that location to catch the Pókemon. While this game is played across globally and has gained a lot of prominence in many countries it has been found associated with some major issues caused due to accidents, injury and other crimes. QTC Traffic Solutions in the view of the problem faced while playing of the game aims to decide on a solution such that parents of children playing the game can be warned and they can take necessary precautionary measures while playing of the game. The report discusses the social marketing campaign that will be adopted by the Company for the social cause.
QTC Traffic Solutions is a Company based in Sydney, Australia established in the year 1995 (www.qtcts.com.au, Retrieved on 9th February 2017). the Company has immense experience in the field of traffic management and solutions which it is devises in a cost effective manner. The Company makes use of Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) that is also used across 27 countries and possesses capabilities to control 37,000 intersections world across. It is an extremely innovative Company that has capabilities in designing suitable innovative solutions for engineering and traffic transport systems. The products and services the Company provides are ISO certified and it has high knowledge regarding the traffic conditions existing in Australia (Corrigan, 2011). Due to the presence of a number of data and experience in the field, QTC will be able to develop an appropriate campaign that matches needs and expectations of various stakeholders.
Pókemon Go has been identified to have caused a large number of traffic disturbances (Pokémon, 2012). There are a lot of instances when due to playing of the game people have fallen on roads, faced traffic accidents or entered dark areas or zones where there have been instances of criminal activities. There is a large amount of safety concern facing playing of the game. But at the start of the game, the Company transfers all risks associated with playing of the game to the players and does not hold any responsibilities for any type of injury or harm caused to any player. Thus, the central campaign focus for QTC Traffic Solutions has to be to make people aware such that they are able to avert such accidents (Althoff, 2016). The target market for the campaign for the social marketing initiative for the Company will be children from 6 years of age to 17 years. Parents of children playing the game, schools and other sports institutes where mostly children of the age are found. The Company will target mostly children from middle income to upper income class group as in order to play the game they need to purchase a handset which has a costs associated with it. The geographic segment targeted by the Company will be focused on Sydney with other cities in Australia as well (Lennon, 2010).
A Strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis for the social marketing campaign has been conducted in order to understand the effectiveness of targeted campaign (Hastings, 2007).
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Strength Ø Extremely focused campaign Ø Aims to target key geographic segment as in cities where risks are maximum Ø QTC is unmatched in the field at expertise levels |
Weakness Ø Incapable of convincing parents of children Ø Lack of financial support from any other organizations Ø Lack of police efforts to curb playing of the game on main streets |
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Opportunity Ø Campaign can highlight the ill-effects of the game Ø Lower accidents Ø Reduce injuries and other criminal activities |
Threat Ø Intervention from governmental bodies Ø Inability to conclude the program (Peattie, 2009) |
Figure 1: SWOT Analysis
Source : Author
QTC social campaign has a high scope and focus; it aims to curb accidents, injury and criminal activities from taking place. Pókemon is easily hack able game, which has been used by multiple number of times by criminals to build Pókemon Stops in dark places (Dann, 2010). Players unaware of their surroundings have entered such places have faced burglary and threat of life. While walking and playing the game players have often entered construction sites or fallen into pot holes. While driving and playing the game players have often entered wrong ways causing inconvenience to others. Police origination in the cities have tried multiple times to curb the playing of the game irresponsibly but with no significant results. For children there are greater risks associated as getting drugged, kidnapped or entering into other possible crimes. Children are all the more vulnerable while playing the game out in the open though this game helps them socialize (McCartney, 2016). The marketing 4P’s devised by QTC will be adopted as below;
Product : QTC will devise a free map for the marketing campaign which can be downloadable across iOS and Android applications. This map will have clear indication of traffic, construction sites, places to avoid and so on (Wymer, 2010). The map will be available across for all users and it will function parallel to the game using the GPS system. It will blink the red light on the screen upon diagnosing any sort of hindrance that might occur while playing the game.
The Company also aims to install various signs and traffic control mechanisms whereby accidents can be avoided. QTC will develop and implement signs at various places including glow signs, boards, hoardings and other necessary directions that can act as a guiding users as well as other pedestrians to avoid certain places (Research, 2012).
Price: The map will be available free of costs and downloadable for iOS and Android mobile users. Though the company will spend a lot of money in developing the App, it will be made easily available to all users.
The price to be paid by the audience of the campaign will be opportunity costs, time, place, listening and downloading the app (Wood, 2008).
Place: The Company will base most of its promotional campaign at Sydney but it will also aim to spread it to other locations. The Company will have a mass demonstration near Sydney ground which will send out open invites to school children from several school across the city. The mass demonstration will have several hoardings and banners to highlight the cause. Pamphlets will be given out for the purpose of attracting audience to download the App.
Promotion: The Company will aim to promote the campaign through mass demonstration, banners, hoardings, pamphlets and television advertisement (Stead, 2007). The Company will try and attract as much as audience possible to the program. QTC will also aim to target its audience for the campaign through social media marketing websites as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. As users of social media in Australia is high in number its marketing strategy will help attract a lot of audience.
The Company’s goal is a social marketing campaign hence it will try and develop effectiveness campaigning strategy to attract maximum attention. The Company will aim to devise a methodology whereby it will evaluate the effectiveness of its marketing campaign (Raj, 2016). The Company will develop a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) score which will be set against number of downloads achieved per month of the map App. Upto 50% achievable download will be considered as effective marketing strategy. Any score below 50% will be rejected as being ineffective in nature.
Conclusion
Social marketing has an underlying social cause and attempts to benefit large number of target mass. The scope of the report was to develop a marketing strategy by which QTC Solutions will aim to target and meet awareness amongst children paying Pokemon Go on the streets. While there are greater challenges and issues that can arise from playing of the game while walking or driving, awareness regarding the same will help curb such practices. Through the media campaigning and app the Company aims to attend and overcome its current challenges faced in regards to playing of the game.
Reference Lists
Althoff, T. W. (2016). Influence of Pokémon Go on physical activity: Study and implications. Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Corrigan, P. W. (2011). Best practices: Strategic stigma change (SSC): Five principles for social marketing campaigns to reduce stigma. . Psychiatric Services, 824-826.
Dann, S. (2010). Redefining social marketing with contemporary commercial marketing definitions. Journal of Business Research, 147-153.
Evans, W. D. (2008). Social marketing campaigns and children’s media use. . The Future of Children, 181-203.
Hastings, G. (2007). Social marketing: Why should the devil have all the best tunes? Butterworth-Heinemann.
Lennon, R. R. (2010). Social marketing and distracted driving behaviors among young adults: The effectiveness of fear appeals. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 95.
McCartney, M. (2016). Margaret McCartney: Game on for Pokémon Go. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 354.
Peattie, K. &. (2009). Social marketing: A pathway to consumption reduction? Journal of Business Research, 260-268.
Pokémon, G. O. (2012). Pokémon GO—A New Distraction for Drivers and Pedestrians. Am J Epidemiol, 473-481.
Raj, M. A. (2016). Pokémon GO Imaginary Creatures, Tangible Risks. Clinical Pediatrics, 0009922816669790.
Research, J. o. (2012). Transformative social marketing: co-creating the social marketing discipline and brand. Journal of Social Marketing, 118.
Serino, M. C. (2016). Pokémon Go and augmented virtual reality games: a cautionary commentary for parents and pediatricians. Current opinion in pediatrics, 673-677.
Stead, M. G. (2007). A systematic review of social marketing effectiveness. Health education, 126-191.
www.qtcts.com.au. (Retrieved on 9th February 2017). Company Profile. https://www.qtcts.com.au/company-profile/about-us.
Wymer, W. (2010). Rethinking the boundaries of social marketing: Activism or advertising? Journal of Business Research, 99-103.
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