Social Marketing Plan For ACOSS To Address Anxiety And Depression Problems In Australia (essay).

Background of the Organization

Discuss about the Social Marketing for ACOSS.

Social marketing is a new approach incorporated by today’s organizations to reach the mass. It is usually packed with information about the organization, which draws people’s attention towards the products, the organization is offering. The social marketing requires a promotional message that usually leaves an impact on the audience. Australian Council of Social Service is an advocacy group, which focuses on the social welfare in the country. The organization designs social policies for those organizations and individuals, which are focused in social welfare.

The purpose of this report is to analyze the social marketing plan for the Australian Council of Social Service. A new plan for campaigning will be analyzed here with the help of a thorough literature. A promotional plan will be included in the report along with a SWOT analysis for the organization. The campaign’s effectiveness will be analyzed with the help of the 4Ps marketing model.

According to the views given by Lawrence (2016), Australian Council of Social Service was founded in the year 1956 for providing help to the individuals and organizations, which operates, for social welfare causes. It provides social security and several types of services designed for the upliftment of the poor people in the country. Those who are unemployed, disabled, homeless, and facing social disadvantages are the focus of the programs of the organization. The present CEO of the organization Dr. Cassandra Goldie was previously working with the Australian Human Rights Commission. Australian Council of Social Service addresses the social matters of the country mostly in the presence of the Australian government. The organization helps many other organizations with the same views with developing plans and policies.

Australian Council of Social Service has among many other goals, developing experience-based solutions.  The organization provides robust and inclusive consultation mechanism for the stakeholders. As stated by Martinez-Harms et al. (2015), Australian Council of Social Service collaborates academics and researchers for the production of reports, which contributes to public understanding of topics like poverty, its impacts and solutions. It draws international and national research experience for developing new policies, which have the potential of reducing poverty and inequality in the country. The solutions are also applicable for other countries as well. As stated by Dobson et al. (2015), the survey had done by the organization shows headline poverty rate fell from 13.9 percent in 2013 to 13.3 percent in 2014. In last ten years child poverty in the country increased by two percent. 57.3 percent of the people belonging to the below poverty line relies on the social security as their main income source. These results drawn by Australian Council of Social Service helped the government and other organizations as well in addressing the poverty in the country, which otherwise escaped the required focus from the government.

Literature Review

The researches by the Australian Bureau of Statistics have shown that the health condition in the country has deteriorated significantly due to constant increase of anxiety and depression. Around forty-five percent of the total population is suffering from these symptoms. Two million Australians suffer from anxiety issues and one million Australian people suffer from depression. According to the views of Newburn and Stanko (2013), the reasons of depression have increased significantly in the country in the last few years. The reasons are situational. Anxiety issues are more common in the country. Following the views of Williams and Smith (2014), it can be said that, it would benefit many individuals as well as organizations, if Australian Council of Social Service could come up with campaign plans to fight this mental health issues witnessed by many Australians in a respectful way. The campaign will create personalized solutions for individuals as well as for groups. Professional psychiatrists will help creating the programs. The programs will be unique. For example, the professionals will help many institutions to incorporate fun activities in their weekly routine.

To understand the internal situation of the organization and determine how the campaign will perform, the following SWOT analysis is done:

Table 1: SWOT analysis for Australian Council of Social Service.

Source: As created by the author.

The SWOT analysis shows that Australian Council of Social Service being a nonprofit organization has much strength which profit making organizations miss. According to the ideas of Baum et al. (2013), ACOSS can get help from the government in the hour of need. The weakness of the organization is often it runs through deficit financing. It creates problems for paying the employees. It discourages people from getting into the jobs offered by the Australian Council of Social Service. The donations create opportunities for the organization to set and achieve the goals. The government also plays a crucial role in creating opportunities for the organization and its campaigns. During economic crises, the donations dry up. It hits the organizations budget and goals negatively and significantly.

The target market for the Australian Council of Social Service for the campaign is focused to the age group with lower boundary of sixteen years. There is no upper limit for the age, as the problem is seemed to increase with more age. Following the views of Sanders (2017), different age groups have different reasons behind depression and anxiety, which demands different age groups to be considered with specified criteria. As stated by Bloch et al. (2017), the depression level depends on the age groups. Hence, the organization has to make customized programs for the customers, which will suit the intended age groups. As g  The organization also requires help from psychiatrists with sound psychological concepts who will help in developing the programs. Different age groups and their traits have to be considered while creating the customized programs.

Campaign Focus

The following market analysis is required to analyze and look for the right path to introduce the programs. It will show how the campaigns will address the depression and anxiety issues in different age groups.

Product: The product in concern is the campaign addressing the depression and anxiety in the Australian population.  The campaign will be developed according to the age groups in country. The campaign will be divided into two categories. Following the ideas of Lawrence et al. (2015), it can be said that, the first category will require reaching the target population individually with the help of professional psychiatrists. The second category will be aimed to reach the big groups of people through mass meditation and weekly fun activities in offices, schools, and other working places. This will help people both individually and collectively. The uniqueness of the products will draw attention of the people and help them focusing on the cause of the campaign.

Price: The price of the campaign will be huge as it addresses almost the whole population both collectively and individually. Hence, the organization has to generate funds from different sources. For this purpose, the organization has to provide a clear picture of the campaign’s goals and the benefits that the society can benefit from. The views given by Rickwood et al. (2014), states that, the government of Australia can help for this cause with designed policies.

Place: The initialization process will be started in Tasmania. Various schools, offices, and other institutions will be approached to gain the attention from the mixed age groups. The campaign will then spread all over the country.

Promotion:  To reach people from all age groups the communication processes have to be chosen carefully. Following the views of Baldwin (2016), it can be said that, the communication processes have to be cost efficient and holistic. Various social media platforms will be used for this purpose like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and others. Other mediums like the printing and video media may also be used after the initialization process.

An attention-grabbing message is required by the organization to reach out to all those people, who need the help from this campaign. The message requires an attractive and focused appearance to reach the intended people as given below:

“Do not let depression and anxiety take away your happiness. Let us help”

The message given above is simple and focuses on the result of depression and anxiety. It creates urgency against the issues of depression and anxiety. The second part of the message shows that people has the opportunity to avoid being in pain. According to the ideas of Kidd, Kenny and McKinstry (2014), it also provides an assurance that the Australian Council of Social Service can address well the issues with the help of the campaign.

SWOT Analysis

Conclusion:

Non-profit organizations like the Australian Council of Social Service practice social marketing to let the population know about the benefits of the organization’s campaigns. A strong campaign helps the population of a country in the period of urgency when a common problem creates issues in the society. ACOSS, a non-profit organization, operates with the help of the government and private donations to help the society get rid of its negative traits. The majority of the population in Australia is presently suffering from depression and anxiety. These psychological issues are creating problems for different Australian people. ACOSS is about to create a campaign, that is focused to address the persons in need both individually and collectively. The collective measures will incorporate unique solutions like incorporating fun activities in the weekly routines of the institutions. For this purpose, the organization will generate funds with the help of the policies created by the government. As the organization is a non-profit organization, generating funds for the campaign is not that easy, whereas the cost will be high. For this purpose, the campaign will be initialized at Tasmania first. The whole population will be divided into several categories, according to their age. This way the Australian Council of Social Service is trying to address the major health issue in the country.

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