Essay in Social Marketing: Change 4 Life and Obesity Crisis

Social marketing is a technique which has been in use for quite some time, and it has proven to be very vital in its application across many platforms. To shade some light on what social marketing refers to, it is the systematic application of the learned marketing skills and concepts aimed at attaining some specific behavioral goals on an individual or a group of people for a social or public goal. This whole description can be summarized in simple terms by describing the entire social marketing process as a way of bringing change.

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Change 4 life has adhered to the principle of social marketing and stuck with it since it is the most effective way to bring change rather than just informing the public about obesity and its effects. As it is evident in cluster 1 group of mums who portray the traits of being well informed about obesity and how it is affecting their children: but they persist with the same lifestyle to avoid being judged and facing scrutiny about their parental skills. It has been noted that despite awareness generated all around; it usually does not reflect directly on good practices being upheld (Brewis and Gartin, 2006)

It is because of this, offering advice has become somehow a normal norm amongst individuals, and it is becoming an infamous method of passing information to a population. According to statistics provided by different organizations, they show that the recent trends in the number of individuals diagnosed with obesity have risen rapidly despite the information and advice being made available to the public. Statistics show an increase from 9.6% to 14.9% of children being diagnosed with obesity from 1995 to 2003. It further goes on to show that for adults the prevalence of individuals diagnosed with obesity has grown from 13.2% to 23.6% for men between the year 1993 and 2004 and for women it is slightly lower rising from 16.4% to 23.8% in 2005. This is a slight increase in the prevalence of obesity when we consider the general population. The above data was registered by Health Survey in England.

This rise is despite the efforts of other established organization before and after change 4 Life and there is a high risk of the numbers rising if proper awareness is not conducted amongst individual families being affected. It is also important to note that whereas some cultural beliefs and practices are being upheld, our bodies are going through the agony of embracing the drastic lifestyle changes that have come up in the 21st century (Prentice, 2001). Another reason to why offering advice' is undermining when it comes to behavioral change is because people do not relate what they hear and see to their current situation according to studies carried out. The numbers reveal that only a staggering 4% of a parent can believe that their children are obese. This is a shadow of the greater population who neglect the signs and consequences of obesity. A worrying fact is that also a small group believes and relates obesity to other health-related diseases that may come as a matter of obesity. Such diseases include cancer that has proved to be a life-threatening disease for a long time. Statistics indicate that only 6% of parents believe there is a link between obesity and cancer. The other group ignores and dont work towards attaining a healthier life and daily practices. It has also been noted through conducted studies that a group of youths blamed their busy lifestyle and what they termed as an irregular occurrence of activities that led to them choosing unhealthy diets despite being aware of its effects (Kearney and McElhone, 1999).

Social marketing hence goes forward to re-enforce the advertised advice instead of just putting the word known to the public. Offering advice has proved to be important in the past, but it is of no use if the targeted audience does not act upon the advice. Research has shown that there is a need to rephrase the advice depending on the targeted individual, family or group to be effective in conveying the message home. Change 4 Life can effectively use social marketing to help educate children on nutrient-rich diets instead of unhealthy lifestyles. Notably, this is contrary to what survey has indicated that a huge percentage of advertisements aired on television for children usually contain unhealthy diets and junk food (Lewis and Hill, 1998). It is also through this platform that they can try and alter the mentality of children who tend to associate themselves to their peers depending on the diet they take as one of the many social class dividers (Brich, 1980)

Social Marketing can, in turn, be beneficial to the associated Change 4 Life program and in turn, increase its monetary value and direct influence to individuals. When it comes to profit then the balance between cost incurred and benefits acquired must then be checked to achieve a profit. It must be put to keen consideration the activities of the company through proper planning to make sure the costs are decreased, and the benefits, on the other hand, are increased. The program through social marketing has developed a network of awareness that has helped keep parents informed about their children's welfare and obesity status effectively (Jeffrey et al., 2005)

Since its main aim is to bring change through social marketing, it is vital that they improve on service delivery and how they go through their daily businesses. It might prove to be costly to support individuals keen to attain their needs and to develop a very good understanding of their terms. While Change 4 Life is keen on changing dietary value, an important point to note is the lust that comes when an individual is deprived off something; mental reflex tend to attract the individual towards it (Benton, 2004)

Some of the costs incurred are like data collection which can be done through three ways which are industrial scale data collection, monitoring of the marketing activities taking place whereby we also look at the impact a resolution has and if there is intent for change and aiming for a fast academic response by tracking a specified subset of the entire population under scrutiny. This might prove to be difficult with the current 21st-century lifestyle proving to be more hurting towards human health and in turn, fires the spread of obesity amongst the population.

There has been a lot of literature that has been unraveled in the recent past about the trends of obesity levels that have been put together by the World Health Organization. As such, this has been done through keen observation and resources being compiled with the sole aim of data gathering and analysis. Another way Change 4 Life group will be forced to spend through marketing and advertisements put all across social media and also billboards and physical signposts. As a way of gathering information and spreading the word about obesity levels, the posters and advertisements will be vital in putting the word out there. Some of the barriers of healthy living in a family are marketer' oriented regarding limited parental awareness since they lack information and also the lack of piled pressure on parents when it comes to the issue of dietary control.

It can also deem to be completely costly when it comes to approaching media platforms for advertisement spaces. Notably, this will force a budget to be put aside when it comes to spreading of information across all platforms and a wide population in general. There might be need of persuading and rewarding individuals which will force for some input to put across the message to the public and gather attention.

The individuals interested in following up on the Change 4 Life program incur the costs of following their periodic emails and editorials that are frequently being published for registered individuals. Research states that it is also difficult for low-income families to make proper meal choices in spite of information gathered and conveyed by Change 4 Life programs (James et al., 1997)

Well in change 4 Life they consider the long-term benefits when it comes to considering the state of your health for generations to come. When an individual leads a healthy life, they can prolong their life and avoid succumbing to obesity oriented diseases like cancer. Some of the diseases are terminal, and awareness on an early stage about obesity might prove to be vital to individuals or a family. A good example is where the young age group of individuals might start experiencing the wide effects of obesity at a later stage that started as overweight problems, and it has proved to be difficult to curb the later consequences (Wardle et al., 2006).

Another benefit one might gain the chance to do research with Change 4 Life and help in designing a sustainable planning method to try and eradicate obesity amongst family members. Notably, this at times has forced the affected clusters to go against the current social norms on trending food patterns, and dietary values gained which they have actively been using to determine what their diet will contain (Wansink, 2004).

When it comes to the issue of partnership, it important to monitor on the intervention of policies stated for implementation. Change 4 Life has made it a point to actively engage other sectors to help in its policy application from grass root level across the population. The partnerships involved in Change 4 Life are cross government alignment partnerships like DfT and Defra, commercial partnerships who are involved in themed promotional activities that Change 4 Life undertake like ADSA and TESCO and finally a partnership involving NGOs who are mainly focused at providing research and content. They are also vital when it comes to generating professional networks and bringing together volunteers who can be very good at advertising activities all around.

Types of partnerships under Change 4 Life include successfully merged government agencies and departments with programs, partners who are actively supporting the Change 4 Life periodical calendar when it comes to sponsoring and marketing and finally partnerships re-enforced by local activity. The above-named types of partnerships, in the long run, tend to affect the way the audience will get information relayed as fast as possible and aid in the funding of projects aimed at spreading Change 4 Life initiatives. Their activities tend to affect the behavioral, environmental and cultural activities that may alter the trends of rising numbers of obese individuals around. The reverse trends can cause a big impact when it comes to the view of global health challenges.

These partnerships can aid in the control over work and family ties and in the long term assist in improving food decisions (Abu Sabha and Achterberg, 1997). Looking at the benefits of partnerships with private and public institutions and individuals, in the long term it assists in the development of good relations plus it helps focus on designing better interventions while working alongside other professions.

It is crucial to note that through the application of all the named means, advertising awareness reached a high of 85% in May with logo recognition of Change 4 Life reaching 86% of the target. Through the Change 4 Life program, there has been an increased awareness on dietary intake with improved healthy diets put in place. Also, the percentage of mums aware of their childrens nutrition value has risen through Change 4 Life initiatives. Subsequently, the programs rolled out by Change 4 Life are effective in that they help in increasing the childrens activity levels which in turn has proved to help in dietary control (Prentice and Jebb, 2004). It is evident that apart from Change 4 Life program, the next initiative that hit the ground this hard was VERB campaign th...