Situation Analysis on the college-level binge drinking campaign

SWOT analysis

 Strengths – Binge drinking is a very dangerous and addictive activity and the campaign

should be received well by the general public because of its obvious benefit to the

community. The “Center for Disease Control and Prevention” - (CDC), say’s that the

proportion of current drinkers that binge is highest in the 18- to 20-year-old group (51%),

which fits our demographic well. Well-to-do college kids who don’t binge drink, once

educated on the potential hazards, will be a good source of peer influence to their friends

and coleeges to resist binge drinking.

 Weaknesses – Binge drinking is not taken seriously enough for most college students to

notice it and take action to stop it. According to the “Center for Disease Control and

Prevention” (CDC), binge drinking is not performed by those who are alcohol dependent.

This means that a lot of people might not take binge drinking seriously at all and just

contribute it to “some kids having a good time”. Alcohol dependence seems to stir up

people’s emotions more because it IS an addiction and not just a once and again habit.

The definition of binge drinking alone is a joke to most college students; “The National

Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern of

drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent

or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks, and when women

consume 4 or more drinks, in about 2 hours.” This statistic basically says that unless
 you’re a social drinker who enjoys sipping on an alcoholic beverage and having less that

1 beverage per half hour, then you ARE a binge drinker. This goes to say that many,

many college students would not even think to CONSIDER themselves binge drinkers or

any of their friends and colleges for that matter.

 Opportunities – As a Rebuttal to the weaknesses, the CDC states that although the

binger might not be Alcohol dependent, statistics show that 92% of adults who drink

excessively, have binge drunken in the last 30 days, so the heavy drinkers are bingers but

the bingers aren’t necessarily the heavy drinkers. The CDC states that the prevalence of

binge drinking among men is two times the prevalence among women; this will help us

narrow down our demographic and focus more on targeting men with this particular

campaign. Also stated is the staggering statistic that binge drinkers are 14 times more

likely to report alcohol-impaired driving than non-binge drinkers. An interesting statistic

that combats some of our campaigns threats is that 90% of the alcohol consumed by

youth under the age of 21 years in the United States is in the form of binge drinks, so it is

those who cannot even legally drink yet that are drinking the fastest and succumbing to

binge drinking. Many of the angles that our campaign can target as well are post binge

drinking related issues such as these provided by the CDC - Unintentional injuries (e.g.,

car crashes, falls, burns, drowning), Intentional injuries (e.g., firearm injuries, sexual

assault, domestic violence), Alcohol poisoning, Sexually transmitted diseases,

Unintended pregnancy, Children born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, high blood

pressure, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases, Liver disease, Neurological damage,

Sexual dysfunction and Poor control of diabetes.

  Threats – This is a campaign that many people have seen or heard of before and is not

usually adhered to well by our young target demographic. The college kids that partake in

binge drinking see nothing wrong with it and many of the campaign’s efforts go

unnoticed or even mimicked, we have the daunting task of coming up with a message that

our target audience can relate to. The CDC shows that 75% of binge drinkers are actually

over the age of 25 which hurts our campaign a lot being that we are targeting college

students, AND according to The “U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education

Sciences”- (IES), over 70% of college students are under the age of 25.

Summary of SWOT, Identity of Target Audience and Key Stakeholders

The first step of analyzing the SWOT is to find our target demographic that we need to

bombard with the message that binge drinking is a really bad idea. From the information

provided it seems that most of the binge drinkers in the united states are actually over 25 and out

of college. This threat to our campaign can actually be an opportunity to focus in and narrow

down all of our campain efforts on the binge drinkers of whom we are truly concerned with; the

college students.
 With only 25% of the binge drinking population being under 25 years of age and only

70% of those actually being in college too, we have already narrowed down our target audience

greatly. The statistics show that the 18 – 20 years of age group is a great place to start with this

campaign, which is very interesting because they shouldn’t even be drinking yet and this

provides us with a accessory to our campaign; the fact that it is illegal for them to drink in the

first place. Binge drinking is not illegal, but underage drinking is, and if we were to cut out

underage drinking completely it would knock out over half of our binge drinking populous which

is why we will concentrate a great deal of time and energy on this aspect.

A campaign that targets men and things that a man can relate to is a must. 66% of binge

drinkers are men and this is a great place to put marketing effort into. The campaign cannot

solely focus on men binge drinking because a lot of times men go out and binge drink because

the ladies are out there as well, so we have to put more emphasis on the male target audience but

not leave out the female portion.

The campaign needs be a year long and target 18 -20 year old college students being 66%

male in and around most major universities and college campuses in the U.S. and focusing on

finding a new “hip- youthful- yet dire” message to relay while strongly emphasizing the simple

fact that is already illegal for them to be drinking in the first place and that there are severe

penalties provided by the law. The campaign also needs to include the post binge drinking

behaviors and health problems to help strengthen our message not only to the target audience but

also to those whom we hit with the message that are actually of legal age to drink and the legality

issues are of no concern to them. The binge drinker personality is one of a reckless sort and very

machismo, the way we relay this campaign needs to reflect that in almost every message we get

out to the public with strong words and a no BS attitude.

 Pamphlets with statistics such as the ones aforementioned and the post binging behaviors

should be mass-mailed to households with college students and also to teachers and

councilors at universities, urging them to take a minute and inform students of the risks of

underage and binge drinking. The Universities have on record addresses of all current

students and once informed of the laws involvement should be willing to help fight

towards a good cause. A budget of $1 ½ million can be provided for the cost of the

mailings to as many households in major DMA’s such as Houston, LA, new York as

made possible by the budget.

 A famous athlete such as Brett Favre, Michael Jordan, or Tracey Mcgrady can be a

campaign relay vehicle in which we can launch informative and entertaining public

speakings to inform and persuade students to at least “Think before they-(You) Drink”,

and to actually know what binge drinking is. The athlete can be the attraction draw to the

show, but a slick talker, such as a sales person should be on hand to actually do most of

the talking and Q n A. These events should be 8 times throughout the year long

campaign, during the current school-year. With a budget of $2 million, 8 shows should

not be a problem.

 Campuses nation-wide need to have the messages posted from head to toe on their school

grounds and surrounding areas. The target demographic is college students and what

better place to find college students than on a university campus. Posters, flyers, campus

newspapers, ads on in-school TV’s and most student use computer screens can be used to
 constantly pound the message into the student’s memory. Nation wide 4 million dollar

budget. This is our main vehicle and needs to get the message across that we mean

business and

 Local law enforcement needs to be informed of the campaign and a “step-up” of

awareness in minor consumption of alcohol needs to be advertised whether or not

actually adhered to by the local law agency. It needs to be re-enforced by the police and

re-iterated by the campaign that underage drinking is illegal and binge drinking is

dangerous. Small costs are actually associated with this aspect; it is mostly just getting

the law enforcement to back the campaign. $500,000 for related expenses.

 Local alcohol vending stores and restaurants need to be targeted and informed about the

campaign and the police’s support. They need to be better informed on how to spot fake

ID’s with informative ID pamphlets and the possibility of police designed underage-fake

ID minor stings, in which a minor attempts to buy alcohol with a fake ID or not and if he

succeeds the establishment is severly fined and possibly have their alcohol license’s

revoked. Posters on all of the stores are a must so it gets the message across “Don’t even

Try to Buy,. if your underage”. $2 million budget for posters, designers, pamphlet and

organizers time.

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The campaign will not use traditional Tv, magazine and Radio spots at all. This goes out

to too many people whom we are not concerned with and is a huge waste of our budget.
 The whole campaign will be a year long and focus on, in, and around places that college

student congregate such as schools and local stores and restaurants. The message is

simple; for those who are under 21 it’s plain and simple against the law to drink and you

will get caught and for both the under and over 21 crowd of college binge drinkers, binge

drinking is extremely dangerous and it will hurt you or someone you know in one way or

another, so stop. The posters, Ads, and other eye catching paraphernalia will ring the

same tone as far as print but the copy will have different animations and graphics as to

appeal as wide of a variety of college students as possible and not to be overlooked as

some already looked at previously in the year. The budget will be split evenly for the

events and the months that they are being used in. Summer and Winter breaks will not get

a lot of attention as the kids are hard to reach and valuable budget money will be wasted,

so only minimal effort will be maintained.

January All year long During School UT All year long During school
February All year long During School Texas state All year long During school
March All year long During School USC All year long During school
April All year long During School Florida state All year long During school
May All year long During School OU All year long During school
June All year long Summer break Summer break All year long Summer break
July All year long Summer break Summer break All year long Summer break
August All year long Summer break Summer break All year long Summer break
September All year long During School PENN state All year long During school
October All year long During School UTEP All year long During school
November All year long During School NYU All year long During school
December All year long Winter break Winter break All year long Winter break
Posters Pamphlets Speakings Law stores