Promotional Mix of Open Family Australia - Paper Example

Australias not-for-profit industry is vast and is experiencing a steady growth of around 4 percent per annum. Open Family Australia is a social service charity organization that offers assistance to homeless people in the form of shelter, food, employment, and clothing. Its efforts also target young people who are facing social risks. Open Family Australias activities are guided by the fact that Australia has an unemployment problem which means that many youths could have problems accessing meaningful employment. With regards to volunteer recruitment, the countrys population is aging, and this means that there are fewer young people to recruit. That is why this assessment seeks to develop marketing strategies that can capture the interest of the youth population in the city of Melbourne.

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Youth from the city of Melbourne have been selected because of logistical convenience since Open Family Australia offers its services only in Melbourne and Sydney. Also, having a specific target allows for marketing activities to be concentrated in one region. Further, assessment one makes the assumption that the older people in Melbourne are less likely to be available for time-consuming charity activities as compared to the youth. Moreover, OFA hopes to attract the young people in Melbourne using its Mobile Youth Outreach program because it provides youthful persons with exposure and experience which they may use for self-development.

Promotional Mix

Background Statistics

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011), only 36 percent of the people in the country engaged in voluntary activities in the year 2010. This means that over sixty percent of Australians can be targeted to add to the pool of existing volunteers. Furthermore, the statistics show that middle-aged individuals are more likely to volunteer as compared to the youth and the elderly. Specifically, people between the ages of 35 and 74 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). The marketing strategy for Open Family Australia aims at encouraging people aged between 18 and 25 to volunteer. Notably, this segment of the population represents between 21 and 32 percent of the overall volunteer numbers.

Additionally, a majority of the volunteers either have full-time or part-time employment at a rate of 38 and 44 percent respectively. Hence, the youth could be less likely to be employed due to educational engagements. Targeting volunteers between the ages of 18 and 25 makes a lot of sense because of figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011), show that less than half of the volunteers worked for more than one organization. Therefore, targeting the existing volunteers (who belong to the middle age bracket) would be more challenging. As such, it would be better to get the younger volunteers who do not have commitments to other organizations.

Open Family Australias (OFAs) Marketing Mix and Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy

A report by Adams (2009), states that the youth are willing to volunteer in social activities since they have a high degree of enthusiasm. However, the report says that there is a lack of information availability. Information on volunteering opportunities and the benefits of volunteering are not readily availed to the youth. Thus, the information disconnect between the community-oriented organizations and the youth reduce the number of young people joining charity activities. Adams (2009), recommends that non-profit agencies should market themselves to the young people to tap into the segments labor potential. She adds that these marketing initiatives should be tailor-made for the youth.

In this promotion strategy, OFAs volunteering opportunity is what is being offered to the target populace (the youth). Thus, OFA will have to examine itself as a product and determine whether it is appropriate or suitable for the youth. Basically, OFA will assess its relevance to the youth. By doing so, the entity can make necessary changes. For instance, information on their website shows that they do not have a department that deals with youth applications (Open Family Australia, 2017). As such, creating a youth volunteers division could be an ideal step. Research by Sarker et al., (2012) shows that a persuasive message can be key to a marketing campaigns success. For instance, the marketing effort could be accompanied by a catchy phrase such as, Be a leader. Volunteer!

Additionally, OFA needs to do an examination of what its competitors are offering. As seen in the previous assignment, OFA has competition from entities such as the Red Cross who have a similar youth program. However, OFA could differentiate itself by promoting its youth division as one that is by the youth and for the youth. This would mean allowing the new recruits to have a degree of autonomy in their operations. Statistics from OFA show that over 32,000 people living in the streets are between the ages of 12 and 24 (Open Family Australia, 2017). Thus, having a division managed by young people could be a good thing for OFA since the victims of homelessness, and other social risks are likely to relate better with their age peers than with older individuals.

Moreover, OFAs marketing strategy should reflect what it can do for the volunteers. Pope et al., (2009) indicate that when organizations are looking for volunteers, they should do so with a quid pro quo attitude. Failure to address the needs of volunteers could diminish their interest in voluntary work. For instance, volunteers could desire flexible working hours, post-work recommendations or even a more engaging workplace. Further, statistics from Trading Economics (2017), show that the unemployment rate in Australia is still significantly high. This provides OFA with an opportunity to portray its volunteer program as an employment opportunity for the volunteers. Engaging in volunteer work can provide volunteers with an occupation albeit one that offers no wages. In the research by Haug and Gaskins (2012), the Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) organizations made use of self-sponsored events to create employment for its volunteers. For instance, the agencies would organize car washes, bake sales, and other revenue generating activities. The earnings from these operations would then go on to pay for the volunteers upkeep and uniforms.

The element of price is not applicable in the case of OFA since it is not selling itself to the youth. However, there will be cost implications on the side of the volunteers and OFA. The marketing campaign will not come free since various marketing channels will charge a fee. However, the marketing campaigns should not come at the expense of OFAs core function which is helping the youth at risk and the homeless. Also, the cost implications to the volunteers goes hand in hand with the location. OFAs marketing campaign will be targeting the youth from Melbourne. As seen in the previous assessment, logistical reasons do not allow OFA from marketing itself to young people beyond Melbourne. Also, location is important because the charity organization has a limited number of branches where potential volunteers can sign up.

Lastly, OFA has to consider the people element of its marketing campaign. This brings up the question of whether to perform in-house marketing or to outsource its marketing operations. OFA needs the right person or persons to communicate its values to the youth. OFA will have to assess whether it has the internal capacity to carry out a promotional campaign or an outside specialist will do the same job (perhaps even better than they would have done). At times a mix of both can be ideal (Kid and Yazdanifard, 2015). OFA has to consider the cost versus returns implications.

Marketing initiatives by OFA have to be relevant and appealing to the targeted demographic group. E-marketing is cost effective marketing option for the charity agency. E-marketing allows OFA to make use of targeted advertisements on sites such as Google and Bing (Baldassarre, 2014). This is a push strategy. Social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter can also help OFA to employ push strategies based on a potential volunteers browsing patterns. On the other hand, OFAs e-marketing can use a pull strategy whereby internet users who are searching for volunteer work can be shown OFAs website by the search engine or social media platform. Ideally, cross-channel marketing can create better awareness (Baldassarre, 2014). It involves advertising on several online platforms such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Online marketing channels are cost effective and can be tailored to specific demographics (Baldassarre, 2014).

Moreover, OFA can employ traditional channels of advertising such as television, print, and radio. However, a 2015 Media Consumer Survey report by Deloitte on Australians shows that the youth are less likely to read print publications as compared to online newspapers. Further, the same demographic group is less likely to listen to traditional radio. On the positive side, television stations attract on average 50 percent of youth (Deloitte, 2015). Notably, a traditional media option like television is costlier than all other online platforms.

A study by Haug and Gaskins (2012) the charity organization realized success through direct marketing where they participated or held events where they could give audiences a real-life perspective of what it means to be an EMT and to explain to the youth why volunteering is beneficial. Such direct marketing techniques can apply guerrilla marketing techniques which create a buzz about an organization and get people talking about it. This strategy also enhances the spread of information through the word of mouth which according to the Deloitte (2015) survey is the most influential source of information when it comes to purchasing decisions.

Likely challenges to OFAs IMC

Management support is essential in implementing OFAs IMC since they are the ones who allocate resources for the marketing program. As such, OFAs marketing department has to ensure that the top management is on board with the IMC plan. Further, OFA could run into challenges if they fail to accommodate the needs of the volunteers in their organizational strategy. Pope et al., (2009) note that when charity agencies fail to consider the volunteers needs, the volunteers can become demoralized.

Ethical Considerations

The philosophy of ethical marketing aims at ensuring that entities promote themselves in a responsible, fair, and truthful manner (Stewart, 2015). Thus, OFA should not disseminate information that it knows is untrue or non-existent in its volunteer program. Further, when performing targeted marketing, OFA should ensure that it does not acquire a potential volunteers information through dubious means. Also, OFAs marketing campaign should fully disclose the details of its volunteer program to all prospective volunteers. Full disclosure allows potential volunteers to make informed decisions when choosing to work for OFA.

Conclusion and Implications

OFA has its niche in the charity service industry since it is one of the few organizations offering services specializing in helping homeless people and youth facing social risks. The significant number of unemployed youth means that OFA services will continue to be relevant. OFAs target population (made of people between the ages of 18 and 25) is widely unexploited when it comes to volunteering activities. This means that OFA will have a large pool of individuals to choose from considering that fewer than half of the current volunteers can devote themselves to more than one charity organization. Also, OFAs target po...