Social Marketing for Visually Impaired

The assignment delves into the development of a social marketing plan specifically targeted at visually impaired individuals. The aim is to enhance their self-esteem, encourage them to express themselves, and promote inclusivity within society. The plan emphasizes leveraging social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, collaborating with celebrities to create inspirational content, and utilizing data analytics for monitoring and evaluation.

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ASSIGNMENT 2
(Literature Review and Social Marketing Plan)
BLINDNESS AND EMPLOYABILITY
INDIVIDUAL
SUB CODE MKT3SEM
NAME of SUB SOCIAL MARKETING
ID 18820100
NAME Xuecan Ren
WORD COUNT 1500

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Table of Contents
PART A (LITERATURE REVIEW)..............................................................................................2
Define the research problem and background of the problem.....................................................2
Supporting literatures’ analysis, justification of the knowledge gap and future work................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................4
Reference.........................................................................................................................................4
PART B (Social Marketing Plan for DiD)......................................................................................5
Identification and analysis of the social marketing problem / issue............................................5
Analysis of the social marketing environment, upstream and policy issues................................5
Choice of appropriate theories for application.............................................................................6
Development of the social marketing planning process..............................................................6
Segmentation and Targeting.....................................................................................................6
Positioning................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations for implementing and evaluating the social marketing approach..................7
Monitoring and evaluation...........................................................................................................8
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

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PART A (LITERATURE REVIEW)
The research problem and the background of the problem
The problem concerns the issue of employment for visually impaired persons. Those that
can see have prejudiced against people living with blindness. In every part of a society, we see
people with disabilities fail to achieve their full potential because of how a society perceives
them. For instance, blind people have failed to benefit from equal access to education and the
labour market. Activities such as the first Dialogue in the Dark exhibitions found in Germany,
was started as one way for supporting the disabled people with impaired visions. However, one
greater issue is how to influence and support the employment for visually impaired persons.
Furthermore, while the international network is found in almost more than 32 countries,
Analysis, justification of the knowledge gap and future work
Several studies have focused on understanding the aspect of employment for visually
impaired persons. One of the studies is the recent research conducted by Cavenaugh and Giesen
(2012). The article sought to explore and synthesize different studies that look as the
interventions that have been undertaken in order to achieve an improvement in the employability
and employment outcome among visually impaired youths. The findings from the review
identified different studies that focus on interventions that can assist in improvements in
employability among the youths that have visual impairment. Similarly, Zahoor & Qureshi
(2017) discuss interventions with capability to enhance employability skills and self-constructs
help to predict successful employment among youths that have visual impairment. However, the
finding also showed that no research on intervention led to employment.

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The second article by Goertz, et al (2010) sought conduct a systematic review of
literature in order to understand a number of factors that relate to employment of visually
impaired persons. The findings from Zahoor & Qureshi (2017) qualitative analysis shows that
factors that determine participation in labour force includes body functions and structures,
activities and participation, environmental factors, and personal factors. In the first factor for
example, the findings showed contradictory results concerning the relationship between the
degree of a visual loss and participation in the labour force. Furthermore, the findings revealed
that persons that have low levels of vision had trouble on hobbies and work than those with total
blindness. The findings about activities and participation only showed some limitations. Besides,
the findings revealed that prior employment and some changes within objectives of career had a
positive association with vocational rehabilitation.
Conclusion
The review of literature review above shows that visually impaired persons experience a
major problem of securing employment. As indicated in the one of the article, is that the level of
participation and functions and structures of their bodies determine the disorder of this group.
They find themselves unable to participate in activities such as learning and education. The
marketing plan will become the best approach to create awareness, increased participation, and
acceptance among other people in societies.

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Reference
Alan, R. (2010). Redefining Social Marketing with Contemporary Commercial Marketing
Definitions Stephen Dann. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 63, Issue 2; pages 147
Bualar, T. (2015). Employer dilemma over disability employment policy in Thailand. Journal of
Public Affairs (14723891), 15(3), 231-236
Cavenaugh, B., Giesen, J. M. (2012). A systematic review of transition interviews affecting the
employability of youths with visual impairments. Journal of Visual Impairment &
Blindness; Jul 2012; 106, 7;
Goertz, Yvonne H Hvan Lierop, Brigitte A G, Houkes, Inge. N, Frans J N. (2010). Factors
related to the employment of visually impaired persons: A systematic literature review.
Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, July 2010
Zahoor, S. Z., & Qureshi, I. H. (2017). Social Media Marketing and Brand Equity: A Literature
Review. IUP Journal of Marketing Management, 16(1), 47-64.

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PART B (Social Marketing Plan for DiD)
Identification and analysis of the social marketing problem
Visually impaired persons continue to experience the social marketing problem when
they fail to find jobs. Unlike other people in a society, this group tend to experience challenges
that put them off the society. For example, education and communication training (Goertz, et al.
2010) are factors that influence this group to participate in labour force. Similarly, a study by
Heera (2016) has found that unemployment rate among those with visual impairment has
remained relatively higher than the unemployment level for working groups. Factors that higher
them in participating actively just as other groups can be found in an International Clarification
of Functioning (ICF) model. For example, the model covers the functioning of their bodies,
participation, activities, and external environment. Hence, a majority of them feel prejudiced
upon by the other population in a society.
Analysis of the social marketing environment, upstream and policy issues
Stakeholder Analysis
The marketing plan will consider the importance of a number of stakeholders. For
example, in order to become successful, the plan will depend on community-based organisation
(CBOs), celebrities, and visually impaired persons. The CBOs play a vital role when it comes to
creating of first contact with different groups that need assistance. The fact that visually impaired
persons might feel prejudiced against by other groups in a society, they only feel safe when

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interacting with the authorities in their groups. The success of our marketing plan will see an
increase in the number of such groups come forward to record their problems.
Second, celebrities also serve an important group in the marketing process. Celebrities
are people that are known in our societies because of their contribution, their characters,
behaviors, and the way of thinking. Their participation in the marketing plan will be a sure way
of attracting a considerable large number of people including potential employers. When people
consider them as people who associate with visually impaired persons, it will be easier for the
community to start communicating, educating, and showing them the right way.
Choice of appropriate theories for application
The theory of application in this plan will cover the International Classification of
Functioning theory developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The theory applies
well to the problem of unemployment among visually impaired persons. For example, the theory
shows that factors that differentiate this group from the rest in a society includes disorder that
depends on the functioning and structures of the body. The second factor involves the level at
which people are willing to participate in different learning and employment activities. While the
above are internal, two external factors will depend on the environment and personal factors.
Therefore, while using the above theory, the marketing plan will focus on creating an
awareness of what the group can do that others cannot do. Even though this group is likely to
feel prejudiced against by other members found in society, it is through marketing that will
remind them to use the functioning and structures of their bodies to participate in communication
and learning activities. Of course, any potential employer that would like to employ those
seeking employment irrespective of the status of the body in terms of structures and functionality

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will depend on whether the person can express oneself through communication. This will also
extent to whether the person has succeeded in learning new skills and abilities such as time
management, interpersonal skills and among other important aspects that relate to employability
(Gewurtz, Langan & Shand, 2016).
Development of the social marketing planning process
Segmentation and Targeting
Proper marketing would require segmentation of the market based on their
lifestyles, demographic, psychographic, and geographic. For example, while using geographic
process, the process will look at the location of customers and their regions. Furthermore, the
process to use demographic will focus on age, gender, occupation, and socio-economic factors of
visually impaired persons. Third, the planning process will also involve the behaviors of visually
impaired persons in terms of how often they use tools of employment and their loyalty status.
Positioning
Positioning strategy will play a critical role. The fact visually impaired persons
have some disabilities, they should not be considered as people who cannot accomplish anything.
This will be a way of prejudice. Doing this will make them see prejudiced and hence, start to lose
their self-esteem. Therefore, the best approach will be to use celebrities, well-informed
personalities, and policy makers. This approach will help deliver a message in the most
appropriate way. In addition, the already visually impaired persons that have undergone training
will help in delivering informative messages. This approach will make in natural and realistic.
Just as explained by Stolarczyk (2016), is that use of people without any knowledge about visual
impairment, could lead to this group developing low esteem.

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Recommendations for implementing and evaluating the social marketing approach.
Appropriate implementation of the social marketing plan will require that we adopt a
social media tools. Chanthinok, Ussahawanitichakit & Jhundra-indra 2015) outline that
businesses now depend on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and among other tools when
they want to create awareness in the market. For example, the marketing department in liaison
with the communication department will create good accounts with above-mentioned tools
(Vejačka, 2017). Besides, it will not be all about opening up accounts, but that we shall talk to
celebrities to share their stories. Evans (2008) recommends that the best way to do this could be a
creation of a small inspirational video that talks about the need to embrace everyone in a society,
the need to accept those considered visually impaired persons.
Celebrities will create videos that explain to the targeted groups the need for them to develop
high self-esteem, express their feelings and share the same with those around them. This
approach will target at getting visually impaired persons to acknowledge that they also have
talents just in the same way as other groups.
Monitoring and evaluation
We shall monitor the marketing plan while looking at the statistics. The statistics will be
collected from schools, police station areas, churches, or schools for visually impaired persons
(McCabe, 2017). This approach will help identify the number of people that will have managed
to come out and show their talents to others.

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Reference
Chanthinok, K., Ussahawanitichakit, P., & Jhundra-indra, P. (2015). Social media marketing
strategy and marketing outcomes: a conceptual framework. Allied Academies
International Conference: Proceedings Of The Academy Of Marketing Studies (AMS),
20(2), 35-52.
DeCoster, D., & Naatus, M. K. (2017). Experiential Learning in Digital Marketing: A Library
Social Media Takeover. Business Education Innovation Journal, 9(1), 84-88.
Evans, D. (2008). Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day. Indianapolis, Ind: Sybex.
Gewurtz, R. E., Langan, S., & Shand, D. (2016). Hiring people with disabilities: A scoping
review. Work, 54(1), 135-148.
Heera, S. (2016). Employers’ perspective towards people with disabilities. South East Asian
Journal of Management, 10(1), 54-74.
Hemphill, E., & Kulik, C. T. (2016). Help Wanted People with Disabilities and Recruitment
Advertising. Journal of Employment Counseling, 53(2), 71-85
McCabe, M. B. (2017). Social media marketing strategies for career advancement: an analysis of
LinkedIn. Journal of Business & Behavioral Sciences, 29(1), 85-99.
Stolarczyk, P. (2016). Equality of chances for people with disabilities in the labour market. Acta
Scientiarum Polonorum. Oeconomia, 15(2), 139-149.
Vejačka, M. (2017). Social media marketing in comparison with other forms of marketing in the
Slovak banking sector. Trziste / Market, 29(1), 23-38. doi:10.22598/mt/2017.29.1.23