Promoting Healthy Eating Habits of Young School Age Children - Assignment Example

ASSIGNMENT 1. You are the marketing director of a non-profit organization focused on promoting healthy eating habits of young school age children. How would you do this? As a marketing director of a non-profit organization focussed on promoting healthy eating habits of young school aged children I would go about promoting healthy eating habits in young school aged children by reaching the children through various means of advertising. Advertising is, according to the Encarta Dictionary, making known publicly about an event or sale of product in a newspaper, radio, television, or internet. These are forums where information can be passed on to persuade their viewers. In today’s world, there is no better way to reach an audience than to advertise through one of the media (2007). The functions of advertisement cannot be overemphasized. There are 3 possible functions of advertisement. These functions include; identification, communication, and induction functions (advertising effects…). The identification function of advertisement tries to present the product as unique and unbeatable. It gives the product an identity that is distinct (advertising effects…). In this case I am trying to promote healthy eating habits in young school aged children. I would identify good eating habits and try to make it pleasing to the children. Children love playing, so whatever one tries to inculcate into them must be fun to them. I would identify the fun part and marry it with my ideas then present it to the children. Communication is considered in word web dictionary as information transmission (2007). When one advertises he/she transmit information to a second party. In this case, I would find way of communicating to the children – one way or the other. As earlier stated, children love to play, to communicate to children; one would have to present the information in such a way that I would sound like fun to children. As I earlier stated, ‘I would identify the fun part and marry it with my ideas then present it to the children’, this, in itself, is a method of communicating to the children. To induce is to motivate to do something. I would try as much as possible persuade, influence, convince and encourage the children to imbibe healthy eating habits. To induce the habit, I would have to involve their parent in the campaign. Parents are ones who have more access to their children compared to me, involving them would help in the induction of the practice. Armed with this knowledge, the next thing to do is to device a method of advertisement to promote healthy eating habits in the young school aged children. Although newspaper, radio, television, and internet are the well-known media to advertise, I would use some additional methods to propagate my message. There are four major ways I can reach out to these children. a. Create children programs to promote healthy eating habits. This involves children play programs that would educate the children about healthy eating habits b. Go to school to educate children about healthy eating habits. c. Advice parent about healthy eating habits through the newspaper, radio, television, and internet. d. Go from house to house to advice parents with school aged children about healthy eating habits. 2. Would you ever use spam as an e-mail strategy to promote a fundraising effect for the cancer society. Why or why not? Yes, I would. I would use spam as an e-mail strategy to promote a fundraising effect for the cancer society – it is a means to an end. One of the functions of advertisement is to communicate (advertising effects…). So, though most recipients consider them as malicious, I believe that a handful of them would glance to wonder what the message might be and there goes my audience. In ‘Benefits of Spam’, Mike Grunch states that the effect of spamming is in the reiterating many times and in a large number of times. According to him, spams are made in sure a way as to trigger a quick response from the recipient. This is encouraged by the provision of a link leading to the desire website. But the problem is, most people see spam as been ineffective and useless. The spammer knows this so he/she decides to send them in bulk believing that someday, there would be a conditional reflex in the mind of the recipient. This is a situation where the recipient decides to pay little attention to the spam before deleting it. Sometimes, this action could result in buying the interest of the recipient, thereby, triggering a response (Mike Grunch). The negative side of the spam is, most people see spam as been malicious and deceptive. Spam can be seen as a treat to the security of your personal computer. In ‘Spam as a Threat to Your Personal Security’, Mike Grunch states that spam, of recent, has become very unsafe to both computer and user. He went further to add that sometime these unknown senders could sneak in a virus which could damage your system. Back in the old days, viruses used to come as .exe or .com file, but these days, viruses can disguise themselves and appear in any form. They could even hide in an mp3 or movie downloaded from the internet. Now, the big question would be why do I still choose it as an option for promote a fundraising effect for the cancer society? As I earlier mentioned, ‘it is a means to an end’. Spam, as malicious as it may look, still catches the attention of some of its recipients. By the way, to further catch my audience there are a list of things I would do. These things are: Because I know that many recipients have it in their minds that these emails are system generated and therefore delete it before they read it, I would send my emails from a recognizable address. I will always make sure that when sending my e-mails I would put the addresses in the BCC provision for addresses not the To or CC provision for addresses. When e-mails are sent through the To or CC provision of addresses, the recipients also see the number of e-mails you send. I will also make sure to do a lot of research for my subject line. With a good subject line I can catch and grab the attention of the recipient to read the e-mail (Marketing & How to be…). 3. You have been recruited by the actress Julia Roberts to head a new charity that she is funding with $10 million of her own money and a further $ 10 million from friends and business associates. How would you set up the charitable foundation to ensure that it secures more funds in the future? The first thing I would do is that, I would examine the finances, which in this case is $20 million. On my own, I would try to break it down on the essential things to be done in the foundation. These essential things include; opening an account, paper work, employment of staff. I would see if the funds I have would be able to stand these essential things and still leave me some change, which in this it definitely would. The second thing I would do is that I would communicate with Julia Roberts to find out her opinion on her choice of a cause for the charity organization. Since she is my employer I would have to take others from her and I would have to seek her opinion first. The cause is very important because it is the focus of the foundation. It helps to give the foundation an identity. The cause could be animal welfare, women’s right, children’s right. I would make sure that my attention and focus are directed towards the cause she would choose. This also includes my short-term and long-term projects. I would also compose a mission statement that is centred around my cause for charitable fundraising (Staff Contributor). The third thing I would do is, I would try as much as possible to connect with other or major groups that are charitable foundations. I would do this because; setting up a charitable foundation is no easy task, so I would have to learn from those in the market. From them, I would learn more about the ways I could increase the extents of my charity. They could also assist me with other mechanisms, utilities, back-up systems that could aid me come in contact with more people and, possibly, gather additional assistance (Staff Contributor). The fourth thing I would do is, I would maximize all my resources so as to help me gain more resources. I would do this because no one has an unlimited resource and the money be given to me to manage serves as a stepping stone to the future of the foundation. I would issue out handbills, notices and advertisements. I would also try to bring in online donors, or better still connect with shopping outlet to catch more attention. All these I would do to aid the foundation acquire more funds and volunteers to do charity work and help the organisation (Staff Contributor). The fifth would be, locate all the places, avenues and ways with which I can use to acquire help. Just as I need money, so do I need people too. I would need volunteers to give me their skills, effort and time. The more I can get people who are will to help the better for me(Staff Contributor). After all these I would do a documentation compliance with the federal and state laws, enrol with the state that is of Julia Roberts’ desire as a charity foundation, then organise a structure that ensure all aspects of the foundation’s operation are taken care of (Staff Contributor). Reference “Advertising Effects - The Functions of Advertising, Advertising and Psychology, How Advertising Works, Getting Attention, Processing Information, Information Evaluation” 26 October 2010, . Encarta Dictionaries, 2007 “Marketing & How to be successful in Bulk Email Marketing?” 26 October 2010, . Mike Grunch. “Benefits of Spam” 26 October 2010, . Mike Grunch. “Spam as a Threat to Your Personal Security” 26 October 2010, . Staff Contributor. “Starting a Charity Foundation: Do Charity Work” 26 October 2010, . Word Web Dictionary, 2007 Read More