4 Ps

For my final post, I want to talk a little bit about the 4 Ps of my marketing plan. After completing the product portfolio matrix, I was able to identify 5 main Play 60 products, their attributes, and their relative importance. My list of products (in order of importance) follows:

1. After-school activities sponsored by Play 60: this includes sports teams, leagues, and other activities held after school that are ran and managed by Play 60. A good example is NFL Flag, which is a Play 60 flag football league that attracts children in my target age range. The main search attribute for this type of product would be "a chance to spend time with a group of my friends or make new friends" and the main experience attribute is "a fun activity".

2. Special Play 60 community events: Play 60 frequently holds big events where children can come and participate in different athletic activities and skills competitions with NFL players and personnel. Play 60 recently held an event like this in Central Park for the NFL draft. The main search attributes are "a day full of activities", "the chance to interact with NFL players and coaches", and "an opportunity to have fun with a large group of kids my age".

3. In-school promotion with NFL players: Play 60 sends NFL players to local schools to emphasize the importance of physical activity and get kids excited about athletics and other Play 60 products. A search attribute is "the chance to spend time with local NFL players" and an experience attribute is "learning fun ways to get active".

4. Play 60 challenge: this is an online planner that encourages children to log the time spent doing physical activities and helps them track their progress.

5. Interactive website with activity suggestions: the Play 60 website is geared towards children; it is an online community where kids can talk about sports, their favorite physical activities, and recent/future Play 60 events. It also provides activity suggestions from NFL players and trainers.

Promotion/communications

Since I have chosen an acquisition/earn share strategy, I want my communications objective to be informational and behavioral. For the informational aspect, I want to communicate to my target that getting active can be a rewarding social experience and fun with the help of Play 60 events, after-school athletics, and the interactive website. I also want to make a call to action in my marketing communications. This involves directly asking children to start actively playing for 60 minutes every day. Although the behavioral component of my communications will be tricky to execute, it is crucial to the success of the Play 60 campaign. In planning my communications, I want to focus primarily on the research and purchase channels. Within the research channel, I want to employ word of mouth (testimonials would be especially relevant here), in-school promotion, website, and TV spot marketing communications. In the purchase channel, I would use marketing communications such as public relations campaigns, local print ads, and the website to improve access to the product.

Pricing

In Play 60's situation, the cost of the products is not monetary, but is an opportunity cost instead. Specifically, it is the time children could be spending doing other activities. I think trial pricing makes a whole lot of sense here. For inactive children, physical activities can be very difficult at first. With trial pricing, I would urge them to start slow, with only 15-30 minutes of exercise every day. From there, they could work their way up to the full 60 minutes every day. Competitive pricing would also be effective. Play 60 could say something along the lines of: "in the same time it takes you to play a game of Madden 2010, you could be having fun playing real football with your friends". I identified Play 60's customer benefits as "improved self-esteem", "positive social interactions", and a "healthier lifestyle" whereas the costs are "time" and "difficulty of getting into the routine of exercising". When thinking about the benefits/costs in terms of customer lifetime value, I believe the benefits of Play 60's products far outweigh the costs.

Place

Since I am hoping to steal share from other voluntary activities, locational convenience is extremely important. Play 60 events should be held in major metropolitan areas because they would offer the best access for the largest number of children in my target. Additionally, Play 60 should coordinate activities with schools in as many regions of the country as possible to further expand its reach and accessibility. The most important channel members I identified were schools, the Play 60 website, parents (this is the most important channel member, in my opinion), sports teams sponsored by Play 60, NFL club members, and partners like the United Way. All of these channel members add value to the "product" and "place" aspects of Play 60.

In conclusion, I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to read my blog and provide valuable feedback. Social marketing can be confusing at times and its been nice to have so many people constructively comment on my ideas. If your project is one that I will be reviewing, I look forward to seeing your completed marketing plans. I am sure they will all be great!

4 Bs Analysis

Although I added this analysis to my marketing plan, I realized that I never shared it on my blog. The following is a summary of my 4 Bs based on research I did. I welcome any feedback you all may have:

Beliefs

Before - Physical activities are not as fun as sedentary activities like watching TV or playing video games (5.5 million US children in my target audience)

Percent Converted - 75%

After - Physical activities are fun and give me the chance to play with my friends outside of the virtual world. Also, regular physical activity will make me a healthier person (4.125 million US children

Behaviors

Before - I don't exercise very often and I choose sedentary activities in my free time over physical activities (4.125 million US children)

Percent Converted - 60%

After - I engage in some sort of physical activity every day (2.475 million US children)

Bodies/Bucks

Key Metric - Decrease in the number of obese children in the United States between the ages of 6 and 13

Incremental "Bucks" (Year 1) - I estimate that half of the children Play 60 successfully persuades to change behaviors will actually lose enough weight to no longer be classified as obese, so my "bucks" in year 1 is 1.2 million US children.

STP

When I first began thinking about segmentation, I was in class considering what type of relationship children would have with Play 60. After working with children in high school and mentoring a 12 year old in Psych 211 (an undergrad Mich course), I have come to the realization that children are totally irrational and unpredictable. Although I do believe many children care about their health, I do not believe that too many 6-13 year olds are thinking, "I need to start exercising more because high blood pressure and cholesterol will cause health problems in the future". I think that many children in my target audience have a hand relationship with Play 60's product, which is comprised of events, after school athletics, and activities suggested on the website that promote daily exercise. They may choose to participate in athletic activities occasionally, but it is not an important aspect of their lifestyles. Play 60 hopes to get kids emotionally involved with physical activities; this involves convincing them that athletics are not only fun, but also provide the opportunity to have a positive social experience with a group of peers. Therefore, I hope to convert hand loyals to heart loyals through the Play 60 campaign. In the strategic context, I want to focus on the most receptive competitive users, which would be overweight/obese children who enjoy physical activities occasionally but choose to participate in sedentary activities most of the time.

Selecting segmentation variables was a relatively straightforward task for me. Since my category is "voluntary daily activities" and my target is children, I define the main variable as fun/enjoyment. Have you ever met a child that voluntarily chose to participate in an activity that he/she didn't enjoy? I know I haven't. The dynamic variable is trickier, but I believe the main benefit physical activities offer (especially for team-based activities) is the opportunity to have a socially rewarding experience with peers that is based in reality. Modern video games do have a social aspect because you can play with people online. For many kids, this experience is probably not as satisfying as playing with friends outside or on the playground. I think that Play 60 has a great opportunity to differentiate its activities from the other things children spend time doing.

The following is my target audience description: Marcus Ray (OK, I watched the 1997 Michigan-Ohio State football game again last weekend...if you haven't seen what Michigan safety Marcus Ray does to David Boston when Joe Germaine lobs a pass over his head late in the game, suffice it to say that it was just slightly short of assault) is an overweight 10 year old who lives in Galveston, Texas. Although he occasionally participates in sports and physical activities, he chooses to play video games or watch TV in his spare time for a number of reasons. Not only does he find these activities more fun, but also his school does not have the funding to support many sports teams and his parents do not have the time to play outdoors with him because of their demanding work schedules. He would like to engage in more physical activities, but he has friends who also enjoy playing inside like him and his neighborhood can be dangerous in the early evening/night. Marcus vaguely understands that being overweight can cause health problems in the future, but he is not willing to participate in physical activities when he can have more fun with sedentary activities.

Although this is a work-in-progress, this is my concept for what Play 60's 5 box positioning statement would look like:

Currently do: I occasionally participate in physical activities, but I choose sedentary activities much more frequently in my spare time.

Current Belief: Physical activities can be a fun way to spend time with others, but I have lots of friends who like to play video games or watch TV with me, and these activities are significantly less strenuous.

Consumer Proposition: With events, sports teams, and activities sponsored/suggested by Play 60, you can have a positive social experience with your peers, meet NFL players and coaches, and improve your health/physical appearance at the same time.

Desired belief: Athletic activities are fun and they also give me the chance to interact with a larger group of my peers. Losing weight makes me feel better about myself too.

Desired do: I engage in some form of physical activity for at least 60 minutes every day.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions about how I can improve the STP portion of my marketing plan. In my final document, I will talk more about how the core competencies of the NFL will help Play 60 move children from their current belief to the desired belief. Also, check back soon for my outline of the 4 Ps.

A Slight Revision

After class on Monday, I began thinking more about the NFL's main and dynamic variables as they relate to Play 60. Without going into too much detail (that will be for a future post), I consider the main variable to be fun/enjoyment and the dynamic variable to be a positive, real social experience. Play 60 offers kids the chance to interact with NFL players, coaches, trainers, and other children in the same age group through events and multimedia. This is something that substitute non-physical activities like TV and video games cannot provide. Although those activities can have a social aspect, it is not always based in reality like participating in sports with peers is.

So based on my variables and the value proposition of Play 60, I have decided to switch my category definition from "physically active lifestyles" to "voluntary daily activities". I believe this category definition is broader, which makes the marketing objective and SOV easier to conceptualize. I welcome any feedback readers have about this change to my marketing plan.

Strategic Quadrant

This weekend, I started working on the strategic quadrant section of my marketing plan, which I have found to be far more challenging than outlining the business objective of Play 60. When thinking about Play 60's customer definition, I had to decide whether I would focus on the donors or beneficiaries. Since the NFL has such deep pockets and so many players/other employees to volunteer, I chose to use the beneficiary model. Thus, my "ideal" customer is a six to thirteen year old child who is either obese or at risk of becoming obese, but is working on living a healthier lifestyle through participation in Play 60-sponsored events and daily physical activities suggested by Play 60. In contrast, Play 60's target audience would be a child in the same age group who is suffering from obesity or being overweight, rarely engages in physical activities, and eats an unhealthy diet. Additionally, I want to focus on changing the behavior of the target customers of Play 60. Through this campaign, the NFL hopes to get kids who currently do not exercise enough and potentially eat poor diets to begin exercising more frequently and eating healthier.

Determining the source of volume in the strategic quadrant was significantly more difficult, especially because the SOV is far different in social marketing campaigns than in for-profit campaigns. Since I am focusing on the beneficiary model, Play 60 is not competing with other organizations for customers, but instead with alternative lifestyles. I chose to define the category as "physically active lifestyles"; although Play 60 combats childhood obesity by promoting nutritious diets in school and at home, its primary focus is on physical activity.

This is where I hit a roadblock. What exactly are the category benefits of a physically active lifestyle? And what is the category leader? After thinking about it, I decided that the category benefits are "fewer health problems caused by inactivity" and "enjoyment/satisfaction". For many children, these benefits do not have to be a trade-off; most children in the US enjoy physical activities. Obese or overweight children, however, are often overweight because they do not like physical exertion and therefore get less satisfaction out of physical activities. Although I have no data supporting this, I assume that the majority of children in the US value some physical activity and therefore the category leader would be "some physical activity as a part of children's lifestyles". According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 32% or people aged 2-19 years are overweight, suggesting that the majority of people in this age group do indeed engage in some form of exercise (note: I know this logic is flawed! I cannot account for genetics and eating habits. I do believe that most people who are not dangerously overweight exercise at least once in a while, though).

Most children may exercise occasionally, but Play 60 encourages children to exercise or play for 60 minutes every day, which is significantly more than "occasional exercise". Therefore, the campaign is looking to change usage behaviors from "little or no physical activity" to "frequent physical activity". For the purpose of this project, I define Play 60's overall strategy to change behavior as an acquisition/earn share strategy. The choice between acquisition and retention was easy for me because Play 60 is primarily concerned with changing the behaviors of overweight children who currently do not engage in physical activities. Deciding between an earn share and stimulate demand SOV was tough, however, because it is possible to think of kids who do not exercise as "competitive segment users" or "potential segment users". I like to think of Play 60's targets as being the former because Play 60 is mainly competing with other non-physical activities that children do with their time, such as watching TV or playing video games.

I have to do some more research to finalize the 4Bs section of the strategic quadrant. Specifically, I want to determine how many overweight children there are in the US, how prevalent physical inactivity is among children in my target age range, and how many could realistically be converted by this campaign. Next week, I will talk more about the STP section my marketing plan and any struggles I am experiencing.

Play 60 Advertisment

For those of you unfamiliar with the Play 60 campaign, I thought I would post an existing commercial that illustrates what the initiative is all about. Enjoy...

Business Objective

As all of you familiar with The Big Picture know, the first step in developing a comprehensive marketing plan is to define the business objective. This includes determining the fundamental entity, the entity's core competencies, and the overall goal of the marketing campaign. The fundamental entity for this campaign is relatively simple; Play 60 is funded and run by the NFL, so I consider it to be the FE. The NFL does partner with other organizations to expand the reach of Play 60, however. the NFL is partnered with United Way's "Get Kids Fit!" program, which is a similar campaign that aims to promote healthy and physically active lifestyles for children. The NFL also joined forces with the National Dairy Council to improve nutrition in school cafeterias. These partnerships are valuable in expanding the reach of Play 60, but the NFL is still the fundamental entity, in my opinion.

The NFL's core competencies make it the perfect organization to manage this type of social marketing campaign. I believe the NFL's most valuable core competency is the sheer number and notoriety of its players. When players like Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, and AJ Hawk (I hate giving Ohio State credit for anything, especially AJ Hawk) participate in Play 60 events and advertisements, children are more inclined to heed the lessons of the campaign than if some random volunteers ran the program. The main question I struggled with was whether this competency was inimitable, and in a way, I believe it is. Although the NBA and MLB have stars that most Americans recognize and adore, the NFL has so many more players to choose from because football teams are so much larger than other sports teams. This allows the NFL to sponsor more events and send more stars to each event than other professional sports leagues can. I loosely consider this to be an HR core competency. Another core competency of the NFL is its skill at awareness building. According to Harris polls (http://www.harrisinteractive.com/Insights/HarrisVault8482.aspx?PollYear=2007), the NFL is the most popular sport in the United States. This allows the NFL to reach a larger audience to promote its cause than any other professional sport can. I would like to find information that provides a demographic breakdown of its popularity to see if some of the segments that it is most popular with also face higher rates of childhood obesity. This data could help strengthen my assertion that the NFL is the perfect organization to execute this type of public health campaign.

The goal of the Play 60 campaign is fundamentally straightforward. The NFL hopes to change behaviors of children and adults alike to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity and the negative externalities that result from it. By making families aware of the problem and teaching kids the importance of good nutrition and physical activity, Play 60 should encourage children to lead healthier lifestyles. Additionally, educating adults about the problems caused by childhood obesity will hopefully lead to parents/guardians supporting physical activities and nutritious diets for their children. I imagine that Play 60 will be a long-term campaign; childhood obesity is partially caused by socioeconomic issues that are extremely difficult to solve (such as poverty and segregation) and the problem will not be improved with a short-term campaign.

If you aren't bored to death yet by this topic, check back next week, where I will talk about the strategic quadrant of my marketing plan.