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.
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I find the topic very interesting and you have done a great job breaking down the core competency of the NFL and the goals of the program. One thing about the program though is that while there is a clear goal for the program, what are the measurables attached to it? How does the NFL know if Play60 is working or not? If its not clear from the current information available what the metrics are then you can identify some they could use.
ReplyDeleteBuilding on what Jose suggested, surveys? Maybe, since it's nationwide, surveys about physical activity before, during, and 6 months after the campaign. Something, and that might help. Also surveys during the events they put on about attitudes, which might help to tweak the campaign as it continues.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, all of the reasons you listed are really wonderful, and will hopefully make for a very effective campaign, since the NFL is a huge deal in the US.