Communication Objective and the key product attribute

Communication Objective:
During last week’s lecture, I thought my communication objective would be top-of-mind awareness, then I thought it was information, then I thought it was image/attitude, then behavioral! I was so confused about which one fit my marketing objective and source of volume. But then figure 10.2 in the Big Picture helped. So because I’m planning on doing acquisition/stimulate demand, my options have narrowed to awareness or information objective. But because American Cancer Society already has a lot of brand awareness, we can focus on information.

Key product attribute:
I will focus on search attributes of Relay for Life because I’m doing acquisition/stimulate demand. Also I believe Relay for Life can acquire head loyals, and information and stats are important for this group.

STP

Key competitors: National Breast Cancer Foundation, Susan G. Comen for the Cure, Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Main Variable (cost of entry): I am not sure what my MV would be… maybe self-gratification about community involvement. What is a word for gratification in taking action in one’s community? Or accessibility to reliable information? Or quality of information? Or efficient distribution of funds? Or social support… any thoughts?
Dynamic Variable: Maybe the DV is “focus” since organizations like Susan G. Comen focus on breast cancer and ACS doesn’t focus on one type of cancer. But is focus a benefit that customers desire?
Target Audience definition: I described a potential customer in the earlier section. This female college student is a moderately involved student on campus who does well in school. She wants to volunteer with student organizations but school work is her top priority so she wants to only volunteer for a few organizations that she believes does the most for the community and doesn’t take much of her time. She has had a few relatives with cancer and one with Alzheimer’s Disease. Her parents donate $10 to $30 once a year to Relay for Life to remember those relatives who passed away due to cancer.
5 box positioning statement:
Current Behavior: Does not participate in Relay for Life
Current belief: There’s not much I can do to help those with cancer
Desired Behavior: Participate in Relay for Life every year.
Desired Belief: I can do something to help those fighting cancer.
Consumer Proposition: ACS provides different opportunities for people to who want to help others fight cancer.

Marketing Plan Re-done!

After all the valuable critique I got from last week about my marketing plan, I’ve tweeked some things here and there.
The FE will still be American Cancer Society because I would like Relay for Life to be closely associated with ACS.
The core competence of ACS (FE) is: skill at resource distribution. Resources could include funding or health information or support services.
The goal, time frame and category definition will be the same as below.
I think the current customer definition—anyone touched by cancer—is too broad. I think the ideal customer would be someone who regularly participates in Relay for Life, which automatically makes them a donor (registration cost for the event is $10), and fundraises money on top of their registration fee. Of course people who donate to ACS without participating in Relay for Life are important donors as well; however, what I had in mind was a donor who is more active in the organization.
More about the customer…
I was thinking of focusing my campaign on college campuses because a lot of colleges and universities host Relay for Life events. So the lifecourse of my ideal customer is someone who registers for Relay for Life for the first time and is moved enough to register every year for Relay and encourages other people to participate. So these are really head loyals. They see the merit in participating in this event, and they can think of a list of reasons why they choose to participate every year. Hopefully these head loyals will eventually turn into heart loyals and continue to donate to ACS just because ACS is the best at what they do!
Back to the marketing plan…
The marketing objective is still to acquire new participants for Relay for Life.
The source of volume is still stimulating demand because it wouldn’t be appropriate for the category leader in cancer awareness to try to steal share from Susan G. Comen, for example.
The 4 B’s analysis: Are the “bodies” we will be serving the donors or the beneficiaries? I think it is the donors (our customers). The “belief” is that ACS does a lot to raise awareness about cancer. The “behavior” we want from the donors is participation in Relay. The “benefit” that comes from doing this behavior is the feeling like you actively did something to help people struggling with cancer.
Does this sound better?

Marketing Plan Draft: Part 1 and 2

I reconsidered the core competence of ACS's Relay for Life. Using the Big Picture approach, we want the core competence to be broad enough that it can be dynamic and not be limited. Figuring out what the core competence is is the same as asking: what business are we in? If you ask Motorola what business they are in, is it the cell phone business? That's very limited, while if they say they are in the information business, they have the opportunity to expand to pda's and other things.

In order to not limit ACS in what they can do in the future, I'm changing the core competence to something more dynamic (See below).

Fundamental Entity:

The fundamental entity is American Cancer Society. This is the umbrella brand that we are using for all our events, including Relay for Life.

Core Competence:

The core competence of Relay for Life is to create a compassionate environment for those touched by cancer.

Goal:

Our goal is to increase the total number of registered participants in all Relay for Life events by 10%.

Time Frame:

In one year the total number of registered participants will be assessed, starting from the first early registration date, ending at the end of the summer of 2011 after all scheduled Relay for Life events have taken place.

Category Definition:

American Cancer Society is in the business of raising awareness about cancer.

Customer Definition:

Our customers include anyone touched by cancer.

Marketing Objective:

Our marketing objective is to acquire new participants.

Source of Volume:

American Cancer Society is a well-known brand and is most likely the category leader. So the source of volume will come from stimulating primary demand.

4 B’s analysis:

The “bodies” we will be serving are anyone touched by cancer. The “beliefs” are that there is something that can be done to help others who have been touched by cancer. The “behaviors” include registering for Relay for Life. The “benefit” of doing this is to increase awareness about different types of cancer. Then if we increase awareness about different types of cancer, we are serving those who are at risk for cancer. The belief is that if we increase awareness about cancer, we will prevent future cases. The desired behavior is increased monetary support to American Cancer Society. The benefit would be more funds to sustain support services, cancer research and advocacy work.

Core competence?

What is the core competence of American Cancer Society (ACS)? American Cancer Society's core competence is to fight cancer! (I think...) How do they fight cancer--by providing support services, introducing people to support networks, educating the public about risk factors for certain cancers and supplying research grants for cancer research. Is this organization doing good? I think yes! ACS is does not do fundraisers such as Relay for Life to make a profit but to continue providing services to those who struggle with cancer.
Watch this Relay for Life commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcEXixnkXiY&NR=1

ACS-Relay for Life

I've participated in American Cancer Society's Relay for Life since high school. Specifically the student groups on my college campus that advertised Relay for Life have always used an education-based approach (did you know that this many people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year) or a competitive approach (let's be the student group that raises the most money because of the recognition we can gain for the group). I want to take a different approach to this...