Graduate Research Papers

Availability

Open Access Graduate Research Paper

Abstract

The National Program for Playground Safety is a nonprofit organization looking to enhance its communication with its publics. To accomplish this task, a documented communication plan was needed. The purpose of this paper was to develop a comprehensive communication plan for the National Program for Playground Safety to effectively communicate information about playground safety to its publics. The general findings from the literature indicated that a social marketing campaign attempting to change behavior would more likely be successful if the organization's target audience understood the problem and cared about it. The literature also suggested that a social marketing campaign would have a better chance at success if it were waged as a commercial product campaign, using both publicity and advertising as communication tools. From this information, a five point step was developed that would help the National Program for Playground Safety identify each of their target audiences and address the specific needs of each. The five-step plan includes: 1) identifying key publics; 2) market research; 3) social cognitive changes; 4) action changes; and 5) behavioral changes. Scarce resources on the part of the National Program for Playground Safety made it necessary for this communication plan to employ the use of free publicity and cause-related marketing techniques, whereby corporations sponsor the message in an attempt to create a profit for themselves. The researcher acknowledged that the lack of an intensive advertising campaign weakened this communication plan, but recommended that grants be procured to implement such an endeavor.

Year of Submission

1997

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Susan Hudson

Comments

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Date Original

1997

Object Description

1 PDF file (90 pages)

Language

en

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