HLTH 634

IPV Marketing Plan

I.

Executive Overview
Levitation is a medium-size multi-award winning public relations firm that specializes in
strategic health communications campaigns for civilian government health agencies and
Defense and Intelligence organizations. Some of our key clients include the Department of
Health and Human Services, including the US Food and Drug Administration, National
Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Army, the Navy and the
Air Force. We are qualified to take on the task of creating a marketing plan for our client
because we understand the unique challenges and parameters that government organizations
face and design plans that are not cookie cutter but rather specific to the client. We specialize
in research and market analysis, education and advocacy programs, material development
and production, and media relations. Weve worked with the United States Army National
Guard to build a comprehensive public relations campaign which included involving
stakeholders and regional leaders to recruit and retain eligible candidates in over 12 states.
The priority population at risk for my intervention is 18-25 year old male active duty
Army service members and their spouses who have had mild to moderate experiences with
intimate partner violence (IPV) formerly known as domestic violence. This at risk population
is generally newly married (1-2) years, the male service member is generally an enlisted
junior soldier grade E-4 and below, and the young couple are raising their first child together.
Military employment also results in a unique set of challenges that may stress the family
system. More specifically, military service requires frequent transfers to sometimes undesired
locations, separation from extended family members, uncertainty about future assignments,
varying schedules, long hours, strenuous training and physically-demanding jobs, and fears
for the military member's safety.1 These stress factors can aggravate and disrupt family life
allowing IPV which includes physical, sexual, and psychological maltreatment of one partner
against another to manifest. IPV is a national, social and health problem which is endured by
hundreds of thousands of individuals and families every year in both civilian and military
populations. Unfortunately, the topic of IPV has been asymmetrical with significantly more
attention being paid to male to female IPV rather than female to male IPV despite statistical
research that proves the high rates of female to male IPV.2 Male active duty soldiers who are
have been victims of spouse abuse are hypothesized to have a proclivity for enduring adverse
health outcomes such as mental health and substance abuse disorders than male active-duty
soldiers who never been involved in an documented incident for spouse abuse as either the
victim or perpetrator.3
The goal of my intervention program, Detriggering IPV, is aimed at increasing
awareness, knowledge and tactics how to combat physical and emotional intimate personal
violence through the use of co-joint therapy due to the fact that bi-partner violence is more
common than male to female violence. The intervention will have two primary components.
The first component of my intervention will target my primary audience which is 18-25 year
old male active duty Army service members and their spouses who have had mild to
moderate experiences with IPV. The secondary audience of my intervention will be for all
Army couples regardless of age or history of IPV. Education will be primary tool which will
be utilized to bring IPV into the forefront as an issue that needs to be degendered.
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The objectives of my intervention program are: (1) By October 2017, the Army will begin
mandatory IPV education for all active duty personnel and their spouses. (2) Increase the number
of Army couples by 35% in my primary target audience that get enrolled with the Armys FAP
into the intensive 10 week co-joint therapy that are presently experiencing IPV. The benefits of
my campaign is the increase in awareness of IPV for all Army personnel and their families,
positive image of the Army which is actively taking a stance to combat a problem affecting its
members, and for the priority risk group being able to obtain the help that need to tackle the
problem of IPV together as a family unit. The barriers include convincing military leaders that
IPV prevention is worth launching an educational campaign, being labeled as a victim especially
for male victims, and fear of the negative consequences which lead to the destruction of the
service members career ranging from reassignment to discharge.
Our short term goal is to have 14 couples enrolled into a double blind randomized clinical
trial (RTC) in which we will try to determine which co-joint treatment option works best for
couples dealing with IPV: Strength at Home-Couples (SAH-C) or supportive therapy (ST).
Through an aggressive promotion and advertising campaign, we look to begin recruiting
participants in January of 2016 with hopes of obtaining our recruitment goal by August of 2016.
The evaluative tools that will be used at baseline and then reassessed 6 months later are the 6
-item Quality of Marriage Index (QMI), the 12-item Physical Assault subscale of the revised
Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2), and the 8-item Psychological Aggression subscale.4 We are
aiming for an improvement in the scores which should show a decrease in IPV related incidences
from baseline to post-test 6 months later. After two consecutive post-test assessments, we would
like to determine which treatment option worked better and figure out what needs to be modified.
Our long term goal is for the Army to begin mandatory IPV education for all active duty
personnel and their spouses by October 2017. The timeline was pushed from 2016 to 2017 to
allow more time for military leaders to make a decision about making IPV education mandatory
and planning a course for its implementation. Once IPV education is made mandatory, we will
use a survey which is commonly done in most units for mandatory training such as suicide
prevention and sexual harassment and assault. The survey will be designed usually about 50 to
70 questions to test the knowledge level of a unit and the commander is given the results to
analyze the strengths and weakness of their unit regarding the topic. If the results are abysmal,
recurrent training could be implemented.
II.

The Customers (Market Review)

The primary intended target audience for my intervention is 18-25 year old male active duty
Army service members and their spouses who have had mild to moderate experiences with
Intimate partner violence (IPV) formerly known as domestic violence. This at risk population is
generally newly married (1-2) years, the male service member is generally an enlisted junior
soldier grade E-4 and below, and the young couple are raising their first child together. The
primary audience behavioral characteristics include recalcitrance towards changing a preexisting behavior because this audience by in large doesnt feel the urgency to adopt a new health
behavior; procrastination plays a major role in decision making. With regards to health related
activities, this audience boasts binge drinking, possibly the abuse of other substances, and the
engagement of risky health-related behaviors. On the positive side this audience readily seeks

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information through internet media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and heavily relies on search
engines such as Google to find information for them.
The military attracts members from a diverse background. While U.S. citizenship is generally a
requirement for being eligible to join, service members are comprised of all different cultures
and also marry spouses from different countries other than their native country due to overseas
tours. English is the language in which military members need to be proficient in and for reading
ability in general most of the material is between a 8th and 10th grade reading level. Religion is a
private matter and not a significant factor in this primary target audience as it might have been 10
to 20 years ago. Christianity is still the dominant religion of most service members with a
growing acceptance of other forms of religion. Being in the military for my primary target
audience is for many a proud tradition; they hail from large families from which serve or have
served in one of the branches of the military. Duty, honor, and respect are values that my primary
target audience embrace and joined the military so that they could experience new adventures.
The image of military has changed significantly since 2005 and the eligibility requirements to
join have toughened dramatically especially with regards to moral character. With that being said
my primary target audience might have had to sacrifice friendships and relationships to ensure
that they didnt do anything that might prevent them from joining the military. In regards to
activities, my primary target audience enjoys activities such as hunting, fishing, and of course
playing countless hours of video games such as Call of Duty.
The demographic of my primary target audience is truly a unique population. The
servicemembers of my primary audience are employed in a variety of military occupation
specialties (MOS) ranging from infantry to food service specialists but regardless of the
occupation enlisted service members receive the same income based on grade. My primary
audience is junior listed which means generally their take home base pay after taxes doesnt
exceed $2000 a month; however, they receive a generous benefit package. The benefit package
includes inexpensive health insurance for the service member and their family, a tax free housing
allowance, and a variety of educational and discount benefits. For military spouses it is difficult
to have a career because of the servicemembers commitment to the military which requires
changing assignments. As a result of this dilemma, part-time employment is often common. The
active duty servicemember of my primary audience has completed a high school education and
may have done some college. The military spouse of my primary audience has also generally
completed high school or GED equivalent and may have done some college and maybe currently
enrolled in some kind of educational program as the Army offers educational spouse assistance
programs. With regards to family status of my primary target audience, generally the young
couple is raising a toddler together and maybe expecting another child in the very near future.
The economical situation might be strained as in the military there is no overtime and depending
on MOS it might be difficult to procure a second job due to long hours and changing schedules
for training and work.
The physical makeup of my primary target audience is predominately White, Black and
Hispanic males and females between the ages of 18 to 25. Depending on the MOS, the
servicemember might have significant exposure to health risks especially in a deployed
environment. The medical condition of my primary target audience is generally fairly well due to
the activity levels and health screenings which are mandated by the military however there are
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frequent physical injuries in my primary target audience. Those servicemembers who have had a
traumatic deployment or have problems adapting to military life also might suffer from PTSD or
develop a drinking problem which causes them to be enrolled into a substance abuse program.
The psychographic composition of my primary audience is strong sense of wanting to
belong to a team in which can make an impact on society. While people living in civilian society
depending on their job or whether they even have a job can remain individualistic, being in the
military requires self-sacrifice at times despite their individual pursuits and goals. The duty and
obligation of the military comes before everything even family at times. In terms of beliefs and
values my primary audience is largely being influenced by the values that the military wants to
them to uphold. If they dont uphold these values, they will find their life extremely difficult.
Self-efficacy is a trait that is often developed in my primary audience if he or she is a
servicemember because of their military training which is geared towards the successful mastery
of tasks to perform a mission. The tasks are repeated over and over again until it becomes almost
similar to muscle memory building confidence in ones ability to perform even under duress.
My intended secondary target audience is Army couples regardless of age or history of
IPV. This audience tends to be older about 26 years old and up and have been in the military
longer or transferred into the military from other backgrounds and obtained higher levels of
education and rank than my primary audience.
III.

The Product (Product Review)

My service is a two-pronged intervention program called Detriggering IPV which is aimed at

increasing awareness, knowledge and tactics how to combat physical and emotional intimate
personal violence through the use of co-joint therapy due to the fact that bi-partner violence is
more common than male to female violence. The intervention will have two primary
components. The first component of my intervention will target my primary audience which is
18-25 year old male active duty service members and their spouses who have had mild to
moderate experiences with IPV. The secondary audience of my intervention will be for all Army
couples regardless of age or history of IPV. The intervention program is unique because unlike
the Domestic Violence campaign that the Army already has this one focuses more on the male
victims of spousal abuse and attempts to degender the issue of IPV in an effort to find creative
solutions to combat the problem. For the part of my intervention that deals with my primary
audience, at baseline couples that enter the program will be enrolled into a double blind
randomized clinical trial (RTC) in which we will try to determine which co-joint treatment
option works best for couples dealing with IPV. The first option is Strength at Home-Couples
(SAH-C) program was developed through a collaborative agreement with the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in response to the need for a military-specific IPV prevention program.
This program is more regimented and emphasizes a high level of active intervention by the
therapists administering the program. The advantage of this option is that the therapists are
extremely involved but on the other hand the environment is rigidly controlled almost military
style in nature which could turn off participants. The other option is supportive therapy (ST)
which contains most of the same elements as the SAH-C option, however; the therapist are not as
involved and act in more collaborative effort to address the topics and issues that group members
choose spontaneously through helpful group interactions.4 The advantage in this option is that the
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process is more flexible and perhaps more dynamic unfortunately this option might lack the
structure or discipline that is needed for people to be accountable for their behaviors and take
the program seriously. The Armys Family Advocacy Program is charged with executing the
educational training as well as collecting the data from the clinical trial which will be reported to
the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.

IV.

Strategies

The literal message that my company is trying to portray is that men can be victims of the IPV
and that they shouldnt be afraid to seek help. The meta-message is that IPV whether it is
physical, emotional or sexual can have adverse mental and health side effects which are
augmented in male victims. The unique selling point is that the treatment of the adverse mental
and health side effects of IPV is long-term and expensive resulting in billions of dollars being
spent each year in the United States alone. The cost of our voluntary intervention program is free
for active duty members and their spouses and our service could potentially save an active duty
servicemembers career.
The features and services that we will emphasize is dramatic reduction in IPV incidents for
couples struggling to deal with this problem. Many perpetrators of IPV might have been victims
of IPV in a prior relationship, our intervention program will give them tools needed to break the
cycle. Our intervention program meets the need for our primary target audience because we are
focusing on the audience with the highest prevalence of IPV in an effort to determine which
treatment option is the most effective for this cohort 18 to 25 year olds before proceeding to
other cohorts.
The price of our intervention program is free for active duty members and their spouses;
ultimately it will be the government, stakeholders and the taxpayers who will pay for this
program. The program will cost less than a million dollars a year to implement but its cheaper
than the loss of employment from discharging a military member as well as all the health care
resources utilized for treating the long-term adverse mental and health side effects of IPV.
We want our service to be promoted as a benefit that active duty members and their families
receive for their service in the military; we take care of our own. If they were civilians, they
would have to find a service to help them with the problem of IPV which probably wouldnt be
covered by their employer. The primary audience might end up having to pay for the service as
non-profit organizations can only do so much to help civilians due to personnel and budget
constraints. With regards to promoting our product, the most effective forms of media outreach
will be public service announcements on American Forces Network as well as advertisements in
the forms of flyers, brochures, and posters at Yellow Ribbon events as well as in the lobbies of
military companies bulletin boards. We will also utilize newspapers such as The Army Times
and the Kaiserslautern American for the local KMCC area in effort to publish stories about the
issue of IPV. The AFN Eagle radio station is also another great source for getting our FAP
domestic violence program managers and victim advocacy specialists to talk about the topic of
IPV. Since being in Germany most of the radio stations are in German and AFN Eagle is the only
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English speaking radio station in the KMCC area, we can capitalize on time spent commuting.
The key times would between 0830 to 0900 and 1630 to 1730 to reach our primary audience.

V.

BUDGET

The total amount budgeted for the January 1 to December 30, 2016 period is $680,600.
A. PERSONNEL (The total budget for salary expenses is $525,000. All salaries are based upon
a 12-month project period)
FAP Domestic Violence Prevention Manager $70,000.00
FAP executive assistant $55,000.00
FAP Victim Advocate Coordinator $55,000.00
Intervention Therapists (4) $240,000.00
Clinical Trial Research Assistant $45,000.00
Clinical Trial Program Coordinator $60,000
B. FRINGE BENEFITS
All the personnel positions are full-time and the employees will receive all the benefits that
civilian employees of the government obtain such as comprehensive healthcare and dental
insurance ($130,000.00)
C. TRAVEL
At times we will have events at different installations in an effort to reach more of the KMCC
community. Some of the installations are up to 1.5 hours distance from the main site office in
Pulaski Barracks.
Local $3,500.00
Per Diem and lodging $2500.00
Total Travel $6,000.00
D. OUT OF POCKET (Total $19,600)

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Activity/Marketing Materials
Media Kit $1500.00
Media Expenses
Radio $3,000.00
Television $5,500.00
Print $500.00
Miscellaneous
Office supplies $2000.00
Research and Market Analysis $3, 5000.00
Advertising Costs $3,600.00

References
1.

Klostermann K, Mignone T, et al. Intimate Partner Violence in the

Military: Treatment considerations. Aggression and Violent Behavior. 2012; 17(1):
53-58. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2011.09.004. Accessed December 10, 2015.

2.

Straus MA. Thirty years of denying the evidence on gender

symmetry in partner violence: Implications for prevention and treatment. Partner
Abuse. 2010; 1(3):332-362. Last Accessed December 10, 2015.

3.

McCarroll JE, Fan ZB, Bell NS. Alcohol use in nonmutual and
mutual domestic violence in the U.S. army: 1998-2004. Violence and Victims.
2009; 24(3): 364-79. DOI: 10.1891/0886-6708.24.3.364. Last Accessed
December 10, 2015.

4.

Taft CT, Howard J, Monson CM, Walling SM, et al. Strength at

home intervention to prevent conflict and violence in military couples: Pilot
findings. Partner Abuse.2014;5(1): 41-57. Last Accessed December 10, 2015.

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