Marketing

[pic] Consumer Behaviour Coursework Assignment: Consumer Attitudes towards Drink-driving in the UK Name: Marilena Savva ID: @00182902 TABLE OF CONTENTS: Introduction ………………………………………………………………….3 Theory of Reasoned Action………………………………………………….4 ➢ Evaluation of Campaign “Personal Consequences” ………………………5 ▪ Campaign communication………………..…………………………….. 5 ▪ Attitudes towards drinking and driving..……………………………… 6 ▪ Campaign awareness:…………………………………………………... 6 ▪ Perceived acceptability of drinking and driving……………………….7 ▪ Driving Status…………………………………………………………….7 ▪ Other Facts………………………………………………………………..7 ➢ Marketing as contributing Factor in reduction of alcohol………………...8 ➢ Evaluation of Social Marketing Campaigns………………………………..9 ➢ Comparison of Personal Consequences with Australian campaign……..10 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...11 References…………………………………………………………………...12 Introduction: In this report there will be an evaluation of the Department for Transport’s campaign called “Personal Consequences” which is related to drinking and driving. Moreover, there will be an examination of attitudes among young males in the UK towards drink driving. Drawing on several attitudes models and key concepts of attitude theory, there will be an evaluation of the effectiveness of the campaign. Furthermore, an examination and comparison of similar campaigns will be made in order to examine if they can make the difference and help in the reduction of social problems like drink driving. In addition, there will be a discussion about social marketing role and how useful can be those kinds of campaigns. “Personal Consequences” is a campaign launched by the Departments for Transport and runs two main drink and driving related campaigns every year since 2000. The first campaign is in summer and the second at Christmas. Several media are used in order to increase the awareness of the personal consequences of drink driving conviction and encourage the believing that one or two drinks before driving are actually a lot and also “to build the social stigma around drink and driving.” (Dft, 2009) THINK! works with local authorities and many other associates to deliver those messages through the press, TV, cinema, radio and other media. It has also gone into sports sponsorships with the Rugby Football League and the English Football League to allow it to get messages across a wider audience using a celebrity based approach (Road Safety Awards, 2010). The key messages for the campaign are “THINK! Don’t drink and drive”, if you get convicted of drink driving is a criminal action and the punishment is losing your car license for 12 months. The main target audience for the campaign is young males. Theory of Reasoned Action Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) proposed an attitude guide behavior which had been expressed in a comprehensive attitude-behavior model, the Theory of Reasoned Action. According to the theory, the instant determinant of behavior is an individual‘s intention to perform it. Intention, in sequence, is determined by attitude towards the behavior and subjective norm regarding performance of the behavior. Other variables might influence intentions and behavior only by influencing attitude and subjective norm or their relative weights (Callaghan, 1997). A good example is alcohol result expectancies are identical with behavioral beliefs. This model has been used several times to predict drinking behaviors. The theory was developed to both predict and explain behaviors of social implication that are under a person's volitional and non volitional behaviors. Situational factors such as physical location, attendance of others, thoughts and feelings about using alcohol are likely to be significant in the young people decision to use alcohol (Marcoux, 1997). Attitude to the behavior is defined as the person’s positive or negative feelings about performing a behavior. It is determined during an evaluation of one's attitudes concerning the consequences occurring from an action and an evaluation of the appeal of these consequences (Eagly, 1993). According to Martinic (2004) dealing with risk is a subject of day-to-day decision making. On a personal level, managing risk does not necessarily mean reducing it. “The Theory of Reasoned action can share an underlying premise that health intentions stem from a desire to avoid potential negative outcomes through cognitive appraisals’’ (Cismaru,2009). It is also containing a cost benefit section in which the costs of taking a preventive action are contrast with the anticipated benefits of taking that action. Evaluation of Campaign “Personal Consequences” Drink driving is define as driving under the influence of alcohol and is the act of operating a vehicle after consuming alcohol. It is a criminal offense in most countries. The government is a key player in managing and communicating risk. One of the principle roles of government is to ensure the safety of its citizens and to protect them from outside forces and threats. Sometimes we call this procedure social marketing. According to Elder (2004), the mass media campaigns were usually carefully planned, performed and attained sufficient audience contact, resulting to significantly reducing the number of alcohol-related crushes. The previous year the Department for Transport had been awarded as the “Most outstanding radio ad” from Radio Advertising Awards. The judges recognized the ability of the ad to create boundaries and with the use of challenging and powerful approaches, they succeeded to deliver their message to the listener, fact that has been appreciated from the audience. The evaluation of the campaign will be mainly based on the Report of the Department of Transport which had been done in July 2009, and by taking into consideration additional relevant sources. i) Campaign communication: A 52% of young males bear in mind the advertisement “Moment of Doubt». That means that more than one out of two young males had seen the advertisement and four out of ten young males consider the consequences associated with drink driving. This fact might have an impact on their drinking habits before driving. An increased percentage of young males reported that they agree with the above statements, comparing with previous reports. That means that the campaigns at the moment still have an impact on the attitude of young males. A small percentage of young males reported that had been tired watching the specific TV advertisement. This may be an alert for the DFT to change the advertisement to something new. ii) Attitudes towards drinking and driving: A percentage of 78% of the target group agreed with the statement: “One or two drinks would make you more likely to have an accident” but unfortunately this is less than in previous reports which was around 90%. One out of two young males disagreed that it is safe to drive with one drink and a 74% disagree for two drinks. Young males know the consequences of driving after two pints, but only half of them find it extremely unacceptable. The TV advertisement “Moment of Doubt” still is been recognized by a 91% of young males as was in previous reports. This means that there are no creating key messages and these are seen as less fresh information that as the beginning of the campaign, and it may be time to refresh the message. iii) Campaign awareness: In 2009 there was an increase in the percentage of those who had seen or heard about the campaign. A 96% of responders said that they were aware of the campaign from several sources like TV ad, radio ad, TV news and many others. This is a huge percentage considering that more than 9 out of 10 had seen or heard something about the campaign. And the positive in this part is that the young males had the higher percentage of awareness. However, the validity and reliability of this result is questioned since it was only a small percentage of responders. This may not be a representative sample of the population. A 35% of young males said something that was related to the campaign of truth but could not specifically remember the TV ad “Moment of Doubt». When young males prompted to recognize the “Moment of Doubt” a 91% recognized the TV ad. The radio ad of the campaign succeeded an increase from all previous years with one to three young males recognizing the ad when they prompted to. The Poster ads had also an increase but the 11% is not a large percentage in general. iv) Perceived acceptability of drinking and driving In almost of the previous topics we have seen an increase in percentage relating the drink driving. In the latest report though the topic whether or not is acceptable to drive while you had drink two pints the percentage had a decrease. A 51% of young males were less likely to find this behavior extremely unacceptable. This means that almost one out of two young males is considering drinking two pints and driving not so bad. Among the young male drivers a 64% of them believe that if they drink the will get caught by the police v)Driving status One in two young males drivers are consuming alcohol once a week or more often. Two in ten never drank alcohol and 2% never drank home. As we have seen this is a huge percentage among the young males. vi) Other Facts: Some argue that the “Moment of Doubt” communicates the personal rather than the extreme consequences of Drink Driving. In our target group the percentage of young males agree that they will get caught went from 57% to 75%.Drinking and driving is a fact across an extensive range of age groups however young men aged 17-29,are more likely to be involved in both casualties and positive breathe tests following a collision. That’s why Government's latest drink drive campaigns aims to target this group.  Over one quarter of young males where driving while over the limit’ in the previous year. According to some statistics there was a decrease in positive breath tests from the previous year, and also a decrease in positive breath tests over the past five years. Police said: "Over the last five years we have seen a gradual reduction in the percentage of people testing positive for alcohol over the Christmas period.” Marketing as contributing Factor in reduction of alcohol: Burn et al (1993) suggest that if the objective is to decrease young people’s involvement in drinking activities, the task is to influence their perceptions of the risks and benefits associated with alcohol use. It is necessary to help young individuals to realize that activities like drink driving are unacceptable and needless in order to influence their perception of the risk involved in those actions. Marketing role is to apply a cost effective campaigns that influence risk attitudes towards drinking and have an effect on behavioral change. According to Kotler (1989) the mixture of marketing principles with social psychological theory can accomplish goals involving attitudinal or behavior change. In order to motivate young people it is necessary to not only provide them with sufficient information about such risks such alcohol but to focus particularly on increasing their sense of personal threat. Some argue that when there are national campaigns about the dangers of alcohol must come from highly credible sources (for example famous people who stop drinking) must communicate personal destitution, must be shown in a realistic way and must be repeated often. The campaign “Personal Consequences” as we said at the beginning gone into sports sponsorships with the Rugby Football League and the English Football League to allow it to get messages across to a wider audience using a celebrity based approach. Evaluation of Social Marketing Campaigns: According to Elder (2004) there are several aspects within a campaign that can influence their effectiveness. The first one is the message content. In the campaign that we are investigating the messages include: arrest and legal consequences, lose of job and house. The second aspect is the message delivery. The campaign to be effective must have a target audience which is exposed to mass media in order to comprehend the message. The third aspect is the message pretesting. It will guarantee that the target group will focus to and understand the specific messages presented. From the other hand emphasizing social consequences may be more effective than emphasizing physical consequences because they arouse less fear (Smith and Stutts 2003). Enforcement of drinking and driving laws has had as a result the overall reduction in drunk driving among college students. Many other authors who investigate the specific topic argue that generally the promotion of a safe ride programs is many areas had as a results of reduces drink driving. According to Murry et al. (1993) an evaluation whether a paid advertisement campaign for example “Personal Consequences» had an effect in reducing young male drinking driving show with the help of surveys that had reduced drinking and driving behavior as a results of the reduction of deadly accidents. It is important for every government to implement such programs first of all for the reduction of deaths cause by drink driving. In addition considerable economic costs result from drunk driving, including the direct costs of health care, property damage, motor vehicle repair, emergency attendance, and death (WHO, 2007). Other costs include increased law enforcement, social costs, imprisonment, compensation payments, unemployment, health and disability insurance, and loss of productivity in the workplace from injury or premature death.(Cimaru,2009) Comparison of Personal Consequences with Australian campaign: A research performed by Cismaru and Lavack (2009) show that “personal consequences” drink driving campaign is motivating especially young men. In contrast with alcohol related crash in personal consequences theme young men argue that is more realistic to use protection motivation theory(PMT) like crash scenes and is more likely to happen to them. The way that they choose to communicate the message, trough TV Ad, radio, online, advertising in pubs, is more likely to persuade all drivers to avoid drink driving. Aims to convince all drivers, with a particular focus on young male drivers aged 17-29 years that a drink drive conviction has the potential to ruin their life by highlighting a mixture of the legal and personal consequences (Cismaru, 2009) .The main focus that the “Personal Consequences” has on the PMT variables of severity. The Australian campaign is focus on the PMT variables of vulnerability and severity but in a way that shows the affect of alcohol in individual’s brain functions like judgment and ability to drive or react in a short time. The focus of this campaign is in human costs and the ability of operating a vehicle. “The effectiveness of fear-based campaigns is the subject of a long-standing controversy. Some level of anxiety arousal is generally seen as a desirable motivator (Elder.2004)”In the British campaign it can be said that there is a fear of losing their job been arrested it might be more realistic to them than understanding how their brain works after the consumption of alcohol and as Elder said it might create some anxiety and fear that is an effective way to avoid drink driving. Conclusion: According to National Statistics there was a decrease in fatal accidents from 560 in 2007, 460 in 2008.Attitudes have been shifted as well since the percentage of drivers who strongly agree that it is unsafe to drive after two pints went from 60% to 67% According to Cismaru (2009) many of the drink driving campaigns emphasize the Protection Motivation Theory variables believed to activate behavioral change. As we mentioned in the “Personal Consequences” campaign of DFT, is mainly focus on the severity. Even though the variables used in the campaign that it may argue that are promoting anxiety and fear, social marketing campaigns should also provide specific advice about how to avoid drunk driving. “Since perceived self-efficacy is the most important determinant of behavior change”, make young people experience that they can actually pursue the recommendations should be one of the main objectives of any anti-drunk driving campaign. The “Personal Consequences” campaign seems to face a lot of recognition among young males and as is said it may create some awareness to them about the social consequences of drinking and driving. References: 1. Britannica: Effectiveness of a social norms marketing campaign on a university campus: Available online: http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/38213168/EFFECTIVENESS-OF-A-SOCIAL-NORMS-MARKETING-CAMPAIGN-ON-A-UNIVERSITY-CAMPUS .[Accessed 13/03/2010] 2. Burns, W.J.., Hampson, S.E., Severson, H.H. & Slovic, P. (1993) Alcohol-Related Risk Taking Among Teenagers: An Investigation of Contributing Factors and a Discussion of How Marketing Principles Can Help, Advances in Consumer Research, 20, 183- 187. 3. Cismaru, M. & Lavack, A.M. (2009) Social marketing campaigns aimed at preventing drunk driving: A review and recommendations, International Marketing Review, 26/3, 292-311 4. Department for Transport: www.dft.gov.uk/think/, [Accessed 10/03/2010] 5. Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. 6. Elder, R.W., Shults, R.A., Sleet, D.A., Nichols, J.L., Thompson, R.S. and Rajab, W. (2004),“Effectiveness of mass media campaigns for reducing drinking and driving and alcohol-involved crashes: a systematic review”, American Journal of Preventive Medicine,Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 57-65 7. Martinic.M, Leigh.B, (2004), Reasonable risk: alcohol in perspective, Series on alcohol in society, International Center for Alcohol Policies series on alcohol society, Routledge 8. Road Safety Awards, 2010, Available at : http://www.roadsafetyawards.com/international/default.aspx ,[Accessed 14/03/2010] 9. South Manchester Reported: http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk/news/s/1189775_police_claim_drinkdrive_campaign_success,[Accessed 10/03/2010] 10. Wall.A.M, Hinson.R.E, Mckee.S, (1998), Alcohol Outcome Expectancies, Attitudes toward Drinking and Theory of Planned Behavior, Vol.59, 1998. Available from: http://www.questia.com.  [Accessed 17/03/2010] 11. WHO (2007), “Alcohol and injury in emergency departments”, World Health Organization, available at: www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/alcohol_injury_summary.pdf [accessed 19/03/2009].