Social Marketing Planning Exercise Report: Singapore Health Crisis

This report outlines a social marketing campaign designed to address the increasing health risks in Singapore, particularly concerning the lack of physical activity and rising obesity rates. The report identifies the issue, which includes a significant percentage of the population failing to meet recommended exercise levels, and targets students and adult workers as the primary audience. The campaign aims to reduce the percentage of individuals with insufficient physical activity and decrease the obesity rate through a detailed plan encompassing budget allocation, scope, and limitations. The report also addresses ethical considerations, evaluation methods, and provides recommendations for increasing awareness and participation. The plan includes strategies for addressing barriers such as institutional and psychological issues, misconceptions, and lack of participation, while emphasizing the importance of incentives and ethical marketing practices.

Running head: SOCIAL MARKETING PLANNING
Social Marketing Planning
Exercise
Student’s mane
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
1. Issue.............................................................................................................................................2
2. How big is the issue.....................................................................................................................2
3. Target audience............................................................................................................................2
4. Social marketing objective..........................................................................................................3
5. Social marketing planning...........................................................................................................3
6. Limitations...................................................................................................................................4
7. Ethics...........................................................................................................................................6
8. Evaluation....................................................................................................................................6
9. Recommendations........................................................................................................................7
10. Summary....................................................................................................................................8
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9

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1. Issue
Nowadays health risk for the people of Singapore has been increasing alarmingly because of a
number of reasons. In fact, the adults of the country were considered the most inactive among the
South Asian Nations. Daily exercises have a number of advantages for physical and mental
health. A number of researches exhibit the fact that the citizens of Singapore stood second
among the lists of the most five inactive nations. It is recommended that adults should spend at
least 150 minutes in moderate activity or 75 minutes in vigorous activity. However, it was found
that the people of Singapore could hardly achieve those targets of physical activities.
Approximately 34 per cent of men in the country failed to meet the target whereas 39 percent of
women of the country failed to do that. It was also found that about 40% of the people of
Singapore took physical exercise less than once a week.
2. How big is the issue
The issue was considered one of the series of issues because the lack of physical activities led the
people of Singapore towards a number of physical and mental illness. Level of Stress among the
people of Singapore was found to be considerably high. Employees were the worst sufferers of
this issue. 569 per cent of the workers of the country expressed the fact that stress was the issue
for which they had to suffer a lot (Subramaniam et al., 2016). So, it was really a big issue that
posed a serious threat to the mental and physical health of the people. Lack of physical may
impact the working efficiency of the Singaporean people in a negative way.
3. Target audience
Profile
The target audience of the campaign was the young population of the country. Among the young
population, students were targeted specifically. The adult population of the country was also
targeted in this campaign. In this segment, mostly employees and the workers were the target
population. The age group of the targeted young population was 10 to 18 years who studied in
schools. The age group of the adult population was between 18 to 55 years.
Motivation

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Physical exercise might affect the performance of the students. So, they were considered as the
target audience in this social marketing campaign. In order to perform better, a student should
maintain sound health. Lack of physical exercise might affect the performance of the workers in
an organization (Leung et al., 2018). The productivity of an organization might face challenges if
its workers face any physical and mental health-related issues. At the time of campaigning it was
found that busy lifestyle, lack of confidence, lack of motivation are the pivotal reasons for which
targeted audience did not show sufficient interest in physical activities.
4. Social marketing objective
The first objective of this campaign was to reduce the percentage associated with lack of
physical activities from 34% to 20%. Therefore, students and young people would be encouraged
to take sufficient physical activities.
The second objective of this campaign was to reduce the percentage of obesity from 24% to
15%. Obesity prevention was another aim of this social marketing campaign.
A number of studies have suggested the fact that a lkarge4 number of Singaporean people failed
to take sufficient physical exercise regularly. It was really a matter of grave concern because a
lack of physical exercise might lead the people towards various kinds of physical and mental
illness. In Singapore, about 34 % of men failed to take sufficient physical exercise. On the other
hand, 39 % of the Singaporean women failed to meet the target of doing either moderate physical
activity for 150 minutes or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activities in a week. This percentage
clearly indicated the fact that people were not paying sufficient attention to physical activities.
Therefore, one of the predominant objectives of the campaign was to reduce the percentage from
34% to 20%.
Lack of sufficient physical activities may lead to a number of health issues. Obesity is one of
them. In Singapore, Obesity rate could increase up to 15% within seven years. Obese people may
face a number of serious health hazards such as stroke, diabetes and so on. Therefore, reducing
the rate of obesity from 24% to 15% was the objective of this campaign.

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5. Social marketing planning
Budget
Budget is considered as an essential aspect of marketing planning. An effective marketing plan
and budget are essential to keep the entire team focused on the specific objectives. An ideal
budget should incorporate various kinds of the budget such as operational budget, promotional
budget, bonus and award related expenditure and so on. In order to run the campaign,
approximately 35% of the total budget was spent as an operational budget. Approximately 10%
of the total budget was spent on advertisements in various print and electronic media such as
televisions, radio, newspapers, and magazines and so on. About 25% of the total budget was
spent as a promotional cost. Furthermore, in order to make the social marketing plan successful,
bonus and award need to be given to the loyal participants. In this purpose, 30% of the total
budget was allocated.
b. Scope
In order to make the social marketing campaign a successful one, various scopes associated with
marketing need to be taken into account. Budgets can be allocated to provide cutting-edge
instruments to the people some that they can feel comfortable to take sufficient physical exercise.
Moreover, the campaigners have the option to collaborate with a number of medical care centers
in order to increase awareness among the people.
6. Limitations
Social marketing is considered one of the swiftly changing areas associated with marketing.
However, there are a number of barriers to this marketing campaign. They are discussed below
Barriers
Institutional and psychological barriers
Institutional barriers are one of the pivotal barriers of a social marketing campaign. An
origination may not spend sufficient budget in social marketing if they are not convinced about
favourable outcomes. Apart from institutional barriers, psychological barriers are also considered
one of the pivotal barriers associated with social marketing. While running this campaign,

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psychological barriers became extremely difficult to deal with. People who funded to run the
campaign became sceptical about the desired success. Sometimes, it became extremely difficult
for the campaigners to convince them.
Lack of sufficient experience
Lack of sufficient experience is another barrier to a social marketing campaign. Social marketing
needs a number of skills that a campaigner should possess in order to make the campaign a
successful one. For lack of experience, a campaigner may face a number of serious challenges to
implement the principles of social marketing campaigns. In order to carry out a social marketing
campaign effectively, an individual should exercise at least four times a week.
Misconceptions
Misconceptions about social marketing are considered one of the pivotal barriers of the social
marketing plan. The objective of the campaign was to decrease the percentage of people who did
not take sufficient physical exercised. Another objective of the campaign was to reduce the
percentage of obesity in Singapore. However, due to misconceptions doubts and fear may
emerge in the minds of the decision makers.
Confusions
Confusion is another reason for which social marketing may be impacted in a negative way
(Yahya & Mutarubukwa, 2017). Confusion between tactics and strategy was the common
problem faced by the campaigners. In order to ensure success in social marketing, it is tactics
that need to be aligned with the strategy. The strategy maker if this campaign faced this issue at
the initial level of running this campaign.
Lack of participation of the people
Since many people were not aware of this social marketing campaign, they were not willing to
participate in the campaign. In order to meet the objective of the campaign, people’s
participation at a large scale was necessary. For lack of enough participation, the campaigners
may face a number of difficulties. This was one of the most noticeable barriers of the social
marketing campaign.

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Incentives
In order to make the campaign a successful one, a number of initiatives were taken. As an
integral part of this campaign, an event was created to facilitate people to exercise under the
guidance of an expert trainer. In order to encourage people to take physical exercise, various
social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and so on were used profusely.
For attracting more and more people, attractive rewards were given to those people who took
part in the campaign regularly (Xia, Deshpande & Bonates, 2016).
7. Ethics
Marketing ethics are considered extremely crucial in order to carry out a successful social
marketing campaign. Ethical marketing predominantly focuses on fairness in operation,
responsibility, and honesty (Dees, 2017). A general guideline should be framed in order to
express the intention of the organization. While running the following social marketing
campaign, the campaigners followed a number of ethics related to social marketing.
Utmost care was taken to secure the relevant data that contains personal information about
people. In addition, endorsements were transparent and clear and privacy of the participants was
maintained strictly. The campaigners ran the entire campaign in compliance with the rules and
legislation of the government of Singapore. Transparency was maintained by the campaigners
while running the campaign. Moreover, honesty was an important factor associated with
marketing ethics. The campaigners had carried out a series of activities with greater
responsibility and honesty. While running the social marketing campaigns, the campaigners
stayed away from a number of negative factors such as religious, political, ethnic, and cultural
bias and so on. The campaigners co9mmunicated with the people politely and tried to prove them
correct information that they asked for.
8. Evaluation
Evaluation is regarded as a crucial aspect associated with marketing. It helps an organization
considerably to opt out those strategies that are ineffective. The objective of the following social
marketing planning was to reduce the percentage of people who were less interested in physical
exercises. Reducing the percentage of obese people was also an important objective of the

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campaign. In order to evaluate the following social marketing plan, at first, attention needs to be
paid on the objectives. In this social marketing campaign, the objective was well-thought and
clear. Specific objectives have helped the campaigners to focus on the core issues successfully.
Moreover, the leaders of the organizations have shown enough expertise in terms of allocating
budgets in order to make the social marketing campaign successful. The campaigners have used
various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and so on effectively in
order to make the Singaporeans aware of the negative impacts of lack of physical activities. In
order to eliminate various barriers associated with the campaign, the campaigners have adopted
various initiatives such as rewarding. For increasing the participation of the targeted audience,
the campaigners have provided the facility of taking physical activities under the guidance of an
expert for free of cost. This strategy is effective to involve more and more people in the
campaign.
9. Recommendations
Based on the present report following recommendations have been made:
Increasing awareness
In order to meet the objective, awareness about social marketing campaign needs to be increased.
Sometimes, a number of such campaigns fail for lack of awareness. Therefore, it is
recommended that the campaigners should develop a website that will contain necessary
information about the campaign, such as objectives, benefits, achievements and so on. Authentic
information needs to be provided in order to increase the trust of the people.
Eliminating misconceptions
In order to eliminate misconceptions among the people, the campaigners should communicate
with them effectively. They need to listen to people more and more in order to find out the root
from where misconceptions are emerging. If needed, they should talk to the people one by one in
order to address false notions about such campaigning.
Providing necessary training to the campaigners

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In order to increase the chance of success, the necessary skills should be provided to the
campaigners so that they can run the campaign effectively in order to meet the objective. A
number of programs should be organized where the campaigners can get adequate knowledge to
run the campaign. If a campaigner gets sufficient knowledge about the issue that they are going
to address, it may become quite easy for them to convince people to participate in the campaign.
10. Summary
The health hazards among the Singaporeans have been increasing day by day. Lack of sufficient
physical exercise is one of the pivotal reasons behind this issue. In the country, 34% of the total
men do not taker sufficient physical exercise whereas in the case of the women the percentage is
39%. The problem is regarded as a big issue because this may impact the efficiency of the people
in a negative way. The target audience of this campaign was the students and workers of the
country. The predominant reason behind their lack of interest in taking sufficient physical
exercises encompasses the lack of enough time, lack of enough confidence and lack of
motivation and so on. There are mainly two objectives behind this campaign. The first objective
is to reduce the percentage of the people who are less interested in sufficient physical activities
from 34% to 20%. The second objective was to decrease the percentage of obesity from 24% to
15% approximately. In order to make this campaign a successful one, effective marketing
planning has been carried out. The budget was segmented based on a number of aspects such as
operation budget, promotional budget, budget for bonus and awards and so on. The major
barriers of the social marketing campaign were institutional barriers, lack of experience,
misconceptions and confusions and so on. To ensure the success of the campaign, various social
media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube has been used effectively. While
campaigning, ethical factors were given top priority.

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Reference List
Dees, J. G. (2017). 1 The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. In Case studies in social
entrepreneurship and sustainability (pp. 34-42). Routledge.
Leung, Y. Y., Razak, H. R. B. A., Talaei, M., Ang, L. W., Yuan, J. M., & Koh, W. P. (2018).
Duration of physical activity, sitting, sleep and the risk of total knee replacement among
Chinese in Singapore, the Singapore Chinese Health Study. PloS one, 13(9), 54.
Subramaniam, M., Abdin, E., Sambasivam, R., Vaingankar, J. A., Picco, L., Pang, S., ... &
Chong, S. A. (2016). Prevalence of depression among older adults-results from the well-
being of the Singapore elderly study. Ann Acad Med Singapore, 45, 123-33.
Xia, Y., Deshpande, S., & Bonates, T. (2016). Effectiveness of social marketing interventions to
promote physical activity among adults: A systematic review. Journal of Physical
Activity and Health, 13(11), 1263-1274.
Yahya, M. M., & Mutarubukwa, P. A. (2017). The Role And Process Of Social Entrepreneurship
In A Developing Country: Case Studies From Dar-Es-Salaam And Mwanza,
Tanzania. Business Education Journal, 1(3), 23-55.