Social marketing plan for charitable organisations

Social Marketing Plan

Stop Crime, Be a Human first

Historically, South Africa was colonized under a brutish Apartheid system where there was a clear distinction in South Africa between the various divisions of the population before 1991. These racial categorizations were the Africans (black), Asians, the Coloreds and the Whites. This law has long been abolished but the majority of the South Africans still view each other along these racial lines (U.S. Department of state, 2011). It is estimated that the population of South Africa is 49.9 million people of whom the black Africans make up the 79.4% of the population and are also divided into various ethnic groups. The whites take up 9.2% while the Indian/Asians make up 2.6% of the total population and 8.8% being the coloreds (SouthAfrica.info, 2011).

According to Beggs et.al, (2001) there is a wide disparity between the blacks and the whites holding white collar jobs with the latter occupying the vast majority of the official positions despite being the lesser population. This precipitates a very dangerous state where the poor black South Africans, who are the majority, keep targeting the minority rich whites for their money. This has seen many racially motivated killings and arsonist attacks and even assassinations taking place.

The South African case is even more complex in the contemporary times. There has been an outburst of migration to South Africa for their economic and educational facilities and political unrest. These factors have led to heightened xenophobia in South Africa and an assortment of other crimes from the foreigners. As seen in BBC (2003) website, there was a bitter clash among the street traders with the indigenous South Africans shoving the foreigners off the street selling spaces. This was again realized in 2008 as the explosions were even more serious with burning of houses, killings of foreigners and targeted looting of foreigners' shops as reported by Bizz Community (2008).

A recent case that is still on going in South Africa where Malema, an African National Congress youth wing leader was accused of using and incitement song entitled "Shoot the Boer" to incite the black Africans against the whites. Malema however denied the accusations saying he is only concerned about the land distribution. The case is yet to be determined (Donna Bryson, 2011).

According to Nation Masters (2011), the crime prevalence in South Africa as per the last survey by The Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2002) stood at 2,683,849. Juxtaposed against a population of 49.9 million people, it means that for every 18 people, one person is a victim of crime at least within the year. This is a very high crime rate and is presumably exacerbated by the migration status of South Africa (SA). The interesting fact about S.A is that the crimes committed are variegated in nature such that they range from property crime to drug problems, to the racially motivated crimes in the country. These crimes have attracted a range of punitive measures ranging from the community social work to long jail terms and even death penalties but the crime rates have continued unabated. This then raises the question of why the crime continues to climb in S.A. And how can it be mitigated.

1.2 Campaign purpose

Stop Crime, Be a Human first campaign is aimed at reaching out to the members of the community and the youth in particular, who are seen to dominate the crime scenes, and strive to change them from the criminal lifestyle and the gangster ways. The Stop Crime initiative is aimed at engaging the youth themselves in influencing the society through sensitizing them with crucial information on the dangers of crime to self and society and the alternative ways of living away from crime. The ultimate goal of the campaign is to ensure that the crime levels in S.A. are reduced to the possible minimum. The high levels of crime particularly in the shanties must be curbed to a level where all members of the society in the poor region feel safe and well confident in their neighborhood as far as crime is concerned.

1.3 Campaign focus

The Stop Crime campaign will centre majorly on the poor shanties (case in focus Soweto) and the suburbs of S.A. where the crime rates are highest and the likelihood of an individual joining armed gangs is high. The campaign will target the youth in these regions in particular and also the young South Africans who are still in learning institutions of whatever level with and aim of stamping out the criminal tendencies that exist in the poor areas of S.A.

2.0 Situation analysis

2.1 Internal strengths

The internal strengths that the campaign seeks to explore are the increasing perception of self-worth and competence that the youth and school students are increasingly having. There is also already a significant community involvement in the crime prevention through other programs in S.A. which will act as a vital link between the campaign and the society at large in the targeted areas.

2.2 Internal weaknesses

Due to the significantly high crime rates in S.A. there has been historical imbibing of crime as a way of life and only means to survival in the shanties among the population living in the slums. This will have to be appropriately tackled and demystified.

2.3 External forces

Since there is a wide range of crimes in S.A. that affects not only the people in the shanties but also the people living in the richer neighborhoods like burglary and xenophobic perpetuated crimes, there is a push from outside the targeted population towards curbing the menace.

2.4 External opportunities to the campaign

There are various external opportunities that the campaign will utilize and drive the plan to the logical conclusion. These include the funding from the international NGOs like the World Vision and the USAID and even the government of S.A.

The campaign will aloes be boosted by the fact that there are various willing volunteers mainly from USA and Canada who are willing to join the campaign once it kicks off for two months respectively with and aim of ensuring that the crime rate is reduced to the bare minimum.

2.5 External threats

The most imminent external threat is the fact that some factions from outside the poorer shanties that the campaign is going to concentrate upon to manipulate the crime in and by people from these areas as an enterprise where they mint money and use the youths in these regions to settle scores with political rivals.

3.0 Target Audience

The prime focus of the campaign is the poorer population living in the various shanties in the country. It is noted that the population of the people dwelling in the biggest slum Soweto is 1,695,047 as shown by Geo Names, (2010) shown by MongaBay.com (2010).

A study that was conducted by ISS in 2002 in Meadowlands, a section of Soweto, indicated that there was an increase in crime and the crimes were characteristically committed by the people living within the shanties and not outsiders as earlier presumed (Patrick Burton, 2003). There is also a noticeable violent crime that are committed like burglary, carjacking, theft and such like as compared to the white collar crimes in these areas. The crimes are concentrated in the shanties and occasionally the racial crimes spread out of the shanties into the richer neighborhoods. The economic status of the region is not one that can adequately support an average lifestyle of an individual and most of the people that the campaign targets live below the poverty line. This also means that large portions of them don't have internet access in their houses, though the majorities have access to TVs or radio.

The slum areas have been the prime focus of the government and the international bodies with a vision of elevating the status of the slums to better economic standards. This is viewed to be measure towards decreasing the crime rates and improving the lifestyle of the residents. According to Zweli Mokgata (2011), there is an ever increasing sprouting of bigger malls and investments that are coming up in the Soweto region which are boosting the area economically. This indicates that Soweto just like other shanties are undergoing a rapid change economically as well as socially.

4.0 Campaign Objectives and goals

4.1 Behavior objective

The Stop Crime campaign targets at ensuring that there is a change in the dependency upon crime as a lifestyle and way of eking life in the country in the next 15 years. There is a targeted reduction by at least half the population indicating change of behavior in the next 8 years and turning to other legitimate activities as a way of earning a living.

4.2 Knowledge objective

The campaign is targeted at having at least half the population living in the shanties get equipped with the knowledge of the evils of crime and the various ways to avoid falling into crime and how to guide the young generation with the crime avoidance knowledge. The campaign will also seek to impact the target population with the knowledge on the alternative ways of earning a living that are more beneficial and legal. This will be the prime focus of the campaign in the initial 3 years upon commencement.

4.3 Belief objective

The campaign is predominantly concerned with the ultimate change of belief system concerning crime in the poorer areas of S.A. since just stopping the crime will not be lasting if the belief system of the people is left constant. The campaign looks at impacting the communities in the target population by the 15 years window period to change their belief system concerning crime and be the campaigners against crime themselves. This will have a profound effect on the entire society since the young children will grow up knowing that crime is not the way to go and everyone is a human being who needs care and consideration not being subjected to criminal activities.

5.0 Target audience analysis

5.1 Barriers to the target audience

There are various barriers that are foreseeable to the target population including;

Physical barriers include the threats that the participants are bound to face from those who benefit from the crimes especially drug related crimes and the racially inclined crime. As seen earlier, there are those who take advantage of the racially motivated crimes to thrive politically.

There will also be psychological barriers that the participants will face such as the urge to go back to the criminal life, as well as the coercion by those who will have not yet abandoned the criminal lifestyle. The uncertainty that the target population that will be intending to walk out of criminal life will go through can as well sprout. The campaign has put in place measures to help encourage these willing people to successfully cross from crime to legitimate lifestyle.

The issue of awareness will also be a challenge since there is bound to be a vast majority who are not aware of the alternative lifestyle away from crime. This is precipitated from the fact that they were born in a criminal environment that has no social obligations to upholding the rule of law. The campaign will aim at creating the social awareness and opening up the minds of the audience to a larger perspective about life outside crime.

5.2 Benefits to the target groups

Being that there will be a large social awareness campaign as well as alternative means of livelihood taught to the target audience, they will benefit from engaging in socio-economic activities that will generate income for them as well as the education programs from the young children that will help keep the children off criminal lifestyle and mould them to become greater people in the society than grow into criminals.

The society at large will also benefit since the campaign will help reduce the crime rate in the shanties as well as the richer neighborhoods, making every person a humane being and caring to each other.

5.3 Competing alternatives

There will be competing alternative without a doubt like the choice to remain in crime and get off with wealth faster which most of the time leads people to serving long jail terms or even shot to death on extreme cases.

There will also be the other population which will choose to continue with the investing in crime and encourage more recruits into their criminal gangs with promises of better lifestyle and security, which is a principle against the campaign's vision.

6.0 Crafting desired positioning in crime prevention

The campaign is targeted at reduction in crime as well as uplifting the economic status of the people living in the slum areas. The campaign dubbed Stop Crime-Be a Human First is bent on taking a social perspective to crime and crime prevention. It will ensure that the people living in the targeted areas see the sense in crime avoidance and hence participate in the prevention and education of the younger generation on the cons of crime engagement. The ultimate goal is achievement of a crime free society, where the dwellers participate in the tackling of crimes and encouraging each other in self-reliance in the society.

7.0 Marketing strategy

7.1 Product platform

The Stop Crime campaign as a social product will be availed to the targeted population in a manner that will enable them to identify with it. This will be done through including this campaign among other NGOs and government initiatives that have been rolled out hitherto and received good response and results. The campaign will heavily borrow from the view and opinion of the people living in the shanties so as to identify with them

The campaign will also uphold the highest possible standards of the social activities as allowed in S.A. As this will make it relevant and permissible in the country (Idris Moote, 2008). The campaign will also be formatted to include the locals in the entire period so that when the campaign comes to an end after 15 years, there will be a generation that is ready and prepared to build upon the foundations of the campaign to further the social movement established.

7.2 Social Incentives

The incentives that will be majorly used are the volunteer support in terms of allowances and the sponsorship for high school education for the identified needy cases in the society. There will also be enterprise education rolled out to the people who will choose to leave crime life and join the campaign so that they are able to propel their lives independently.

7.3 Campaign offices location

There will be location of offices in various parts of the shanties and Soweto being the largest will have seven offices at various locations. It is at these offices that the educational training facilities will be located for training people in different entrepreneurship ventures to keep them off crimes. The offices will be located at points that are easy to access and within the slums so that the people can have the sense of belonging and being part of the entire project rather than a project that is imposed on them from outside.