Social marketing campaign to reduce crime in South Africa

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.

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.

7.4 Campaign channels

The campaign will rely upon leaflet, newspaper, media, social network like facebook, twitter, blogs on the campaign website. These have been evaluated to be the best means of reaching out the people in the slum areas since they are not expensive to access for the people and are readily accessible. There will be a campaign page open for the facebook and the twitter where there will be updates and campaign proceedings posted for all to give their contributions and reactions.

The media like TV and radio are also common modes of the slum dwellers to be updated and hence there will be creative adverts that will correspond to the stage of the campaign. These will be used to update the target audience as well as encouraging those not yet in the campaign to join. Once an individual joins the Stop Crime campaign, he or she will have an email address where they can be regularly updated on the happenings and any news about the campaign as well as the activities.

8.0 Evaluation and monitoring plan

There will be a statistical monitoring of the progress made by the members of the Stop Crime group in a half yearly basis. There will be a check on the criminal indictments and the trends that they take after one joins the group. There will also be the economic progress of each individual in terms of the gross income that is reliable after being inculcated into the entrepreneur training sessions of the campaign.

There will be community supervisors who will walk from member to member in a span of six months looking at the progress. If there is a member who might be involved in crime then there will be evaluation of the crime and the possible propelling catalysts.

9.0 Budget and Funding sources

The entire campaign will need $33.2 million so as to be able to set up the various offices and buy the needed vehicles and the materials to be used. This will be in the initial year; the subsequent years will require an average of $20 million to sustain the campaign in carrying out its activities and churning out new initiatives among the targeted population.

The main donors who will be looked upon are for the actualization of the project will be the Government of South Africa particularly the ministry of youth affairs, the UN-HABITAT and the USAID. There will be proposals passed to the above named bodies and the campaign committee will have several meetings with the representatives of these bodies so as to discuss the possibility of further finding at the end of each funding period.

10.0 Implementation of the campaign plan

Once the adequate funding has bee sourced, there will be immediate embarking on the building of the structures and purchasing of at least a car for each centre that will be used to carryout the activities of the campaign. The building and purchasing of the organization property will go hand in hand with the interviews for the recruitment of the team that will guide the campaign from the local community. Once the recruitment is done, there will be thorough training of the staff for three months before the official commencement of the campaign. There will be a briefing of the concerned government body about the activities of the campaign and get the necessary permission and certifications.