Reset

Having come to a conclusion that I should have reached several weeks ago, I am in need of fundamentally altering the Big Picture that I have thus far created. It seems that nothing in the behavioral change campaign I designed had anything to do with TFA's core competence. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but...

I think I have two options here.
1. Keep the same basic structure and change the Fundamental Entity to New York Public Schools
2. Keep TFA as the FE and change the goals of the marketing strategy to something like corps member recruitment, which would be more in line with TFA's competencies and model for change

Frankly, I think it would be easier to keep TFA and go with the recruitment campaign. Having invested a good deal of creative thought already on how to mount a campaign directed at schoolchildren, however, I am going to change my FE and hope that I can make some sense out of the rest of the campaign.

Section 3 of the Big Picture

· Segmentation:

o Behavioral: inner city school children missing more than 10 but less than 40 days of school/year

o Aspirational: students’ desires for respect/security

o MV: Learning

o DV: Respect -- education will get you the admiration of peers

· Target audience definition: John

o 6^th grader, NYC

o Rides the subway to school

o Thinks that being “cool” is most important thing in life

§ Wears branded clothing designed for urban youth

§ Gets haircut biweekly to keep looking sharp

§ Has posters of sports celebrities in his bedroom at home

§ Hobbies include listening to pop music, watching television (reality shows and sports) and playing basketball

§ Saves most of his allowance to buy products that enhance image with peers such as music, clothing, and video games, but is conscientiously frugal elsewhere

· Is currently saving up for new pair of Air-Jordans after hearing a classmate extol the virtues of the shoe

o Eats most meals at home but is occasionally treated to McDonald’s with family

o Goes to school because parents require it/potential of getting caught if he skips

§ Sometimes enjoys school, but most of the time is bored

§ Has trouble articulating what the benefits of an education are, but knows it is important to parents/other influential adults

· Positioning: School is a route to power, wealth, and respect

o 5 box positioning statement

§ Current belief: education is not a priority

§ Current Do: skip school and de-prioritize studies

§ Proposition: education is a means to success, respect, and security

§ Desired Belief: education is “cool”

§ Desired Do: Attend class, study, and improve test scores

o Image – ‘Heart’ campaign using surrogates/compelling images to re-brand education and achievement as “cool”

Some Revisions

I've re-thought my Source of Volume and decided that a Stimulate Demand strategy is more effective and allows me to identify my category more effectively as inner city education.

Doing so should permit me to construct a marketing strategy that more accurately represents the competitive landscape in trying to convince kids that education is a top priority.

I also revised TFA's core competence a bit, including as one of their competences skill at database development and analysis leading to a strategic asset of improved process design and augmented insights about how to boost test scores.

While the campaign I am outlining makes sense for TFA to pursue, on some level I am outlining a campaign for TFA on behalf of the education system in general. This realization leads me to question whether my fundamental entity might need to be expanded.

Fitting the pieces together for the Big Picture

Teach For America: I selected the educational reform organization for a variety of reasons: it's an issue I care about; I'm familiar with the organization after an internship with its corporate headquarters last summer; and it's a national level organization that has been much discussed/praised/criticized, resulting in a nice body of research.

Following is a draft of the first two sections of the big picture framework as it pertains to the social marketing plan I am creating for TFA. There are some issues remaining to be worked out. First among these is the category designation -- I am unsure yet whether to define the category as educational reform (TFA as market leader) or broaden the category definition to include other demands on students' time and attention so that I can couch TFA as a competitor seeking to steal share.

Any and all feedback is most welcome!

Big Picture Framework

Section 1

· Business Objective: Boost achievement scores in lower income inner-city school districts

· Fundamental Entity: Teach For America (Alternative considered: TFA recruiting team with goal of getting the most talented corps members)

· Core Competence: Human Resources – developing pipeline of talented college graduates committed to teaching in under-achieving school districts

· Goal: Increase achievement scores in reading and math for students engaged in primary education in low-income inner-city school districts by 20%

· Time Frame: 3 years

Section 2

· Category Definition: Inner-city education – may have to broaden?

· Customer Definition: Primary school students

· Marketing Objective: Retention –students are obligated to attend primary school (truancy aside), so they are familiar with the product, but TFA needs to boost frequency of interaction as well as depth of engagement. The key acquisition goal is to get students to buy-in to the time and effort expended at school to improve performance. While TFA might be the market leader in education reform, it lags behind competitors like sports and entertainment when it comes to buy-in from students.

· Source of Volume: Steal Share – TFA should approach competitors like sports, drugs, and entertainment as market leaders and seek to steal mind share away from these activities.

· 4 B’s:

o Bodies: number of students in a given school system

o Beliefs: Current: education is not a priority -- Proposition: education is a means to success, respect, and security -- Desired: education is “cool”

o Behaviors: students go from ignoring homework and skipping class to paying attention and studying for standardized tests. They commit themselves to learning and raise test scores in reading and math.

o Benefits:

§ Students: improved life prospects – earning potential, security, respect among peers, power over life direction

§ Society: Fewer dollars spent on social safety net programs, lower crime, improved economy

Introduction

This blog will catalog my experiences as I generate a social marketing plan for an organization yet to be determined. Content will include challenges faced, solutions discovered, and any key learnings along the way.