Social Marketing Campaign: "Safe Sex no Regrets"

In this social marketing campaign strategy the focus would be centered on adoption of safe sex aimed at discouraging violence against women. Violence against women is experienced through sex abuse and harassment, where men tend to force women into having unsafe sex practices, which are regrettable later for both partners. The perpetrators of this crime usually abuse women sexually, having the knowledge of a woman’s private part without her permission (Ford & Bowers 2009, p.94). A sex offender uses force and physical might to have sex with a woman who is not willing to have an unprotected sex. In many developing countries, women are physically battered at home to yield to the demands of men, who lure them into unsafe sex practices. One of the reasons that can be attributed to women experiencing sexual abuse and harassment during conflict is that women are traditionally seen as tools, and sex-objects, and are not permitted to advocate for safe sex (Lee & Kotler 2011, p. 59).

Definition of Safe Sex

According to Safe Sex, No Regrets website, safe sex can be defined as follows:

“Safe sex means doing things that will reduce your risk of getting a sexually transmitted infection, or an unplanned pregnancy and where you and your sexual partner feel safe and comfortable” (“Safe Sex No Regrets, (a)” 2011, par. 1).

It can also be defined as : “Safe sex means using condoms and water based lubricants  as well as a range of other things you can do during sex to help reduce the risk of catching or passing on STIs or HIV” (Safe Sex No Regrets, (a)” 2011, par. 2).

There are many effects and consequences that are brought about by unsafe sex, such sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The STIs include hepatitis B, syphilis, gonorrhea, HIV/AIDs, and unwanted pregnancies among others (Hastings 2007, p.29). They can, as well, come in form of rape cases among women. There are many gathered reports that show that there are rape cases that were experienced by the women in some areas. According to Mullins, such incidences stay in the scene for a long time due to the fact that many acts of violence against women are not punished (Mullins 1999, p.39). Besides, there are legislations in “the constitutions to prevent any accusation made for any crime that is committed in the war” (Maccoby1998, p.46). This is a loophole that enables soldiers and perpetrators to get away with this crime easily. This has been the reason why the women offenders continue to commit this crime without any fear of accusation.  Many women fear being rejected by their husbands and families (Rothschilds 1999, p.32).

The choice of this problem was appropriate one for the study, since unsafe sex practice propagated through domestic violence is a common issue that affects families globally. This is a problem that has both the social and economic costs, since the community and many families are destabilized. In addition, a lot of resources are channeled towards health care management of the unsafe sex propagated through domestic violence victims, as well as settling court cases on divorce and separation that come as a result of this problem (Shoquist & Stafford 2003, p.47). In fact, media campaigns have been tried through gender activist movements to sensitize people against unsafe sex propagated, which comes as a result of domestic violence, but very little has been achieved, thus a “fresh approach to this problem is required” (Rothschilds 1999, p.36). Therefore, social marketing campaign is the best technique for managing the problem of unsafe sex, which comes as a result of domestic violence.

Campaign Purpose

The main purpose of this social marketing campaign is to make sure that the unsafe sex propagated through domestic violence across the world is stopped, especially in the developing countries. Such violence has been witnessed to be on the increasing trend across the globe, since many cases are pending in law courts (Weinreich 2010, p.59). Therefore, information awareness about gender rights and equality is essential in every community so as to minimize unsafe sex as a result of domestic violence that negatively affects the stability of families, and, in certain cases, such incidences have led to loss of lives among individuals (Lefebvre 2011, p.58). Therefore, it is important to put in place social marketing campaign strategies to tackle this issue.

Campaign Focus

The main target of this social marketing campaign approach is to harness the existing approaches towards addressing unsafe sex propagated through domestic violence. The focus would be centered on thorough planning to make sure that the social marketing approach achieves its intended objective. This would not involve only taking advantage of the previous marketing strategies, but also making use of the current successful marketing campaigns that have been employed in addressing the issues of unsafe sex due to domestic violence. The use of the successful social marketing strategies are essential in the sense that they provide a basis on which successes as well as failures of  this research problem can be analyzed. In addition, this would provide a good ground to have detailed information about the target audience, market segmentation, innovative strategies, and cost effective strategies that can be applied in this social marketing unsafe sex because of domestic violence incidences campaign (Hoek & Jones 2011, p.34).

Situation (SWOT) Analysis

This incorporates the assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of this social marketing approach on unsafe sex due to domestic violence. The internal strengths associated with this campaign are the innovation and creativity in the use of marketing tools (Sehgal 2003, p.57). However, its weaknesses can be realized in the sense that this social marketing tool might need a lot of funding that the organization is not able to raise in order to support its activities in the long run. It is important to note that this campaign has important external opportunities, since other social marketing organizations are not strong enough to offer stiff competition, which might lead to “conflicting interests in the areas of operation” (Hoek & Jones 2011, p.35). However, there are external threats in the sense that online social marketing is currently overtaking the conventional methods of marketing, and once the campaign fails to incorporate the use of internet, it might not effectively deliver its intended objectives (Wymer 2011, p.24).

Target Market

This social marketing campaign targets women because they are the most vulnerable to unsafe sex propagated through domestic violence.

Objectives

This marketing campaign focuses on changing men’s behaviours and beliefs in women battering as a form of discipline. For instance, some customary laws permitted such practices as forms of punishments applied to women, but these practices are highly discouraged by this campaign that is intended to stop unsafe sex promoted by domestic violence against women, and this forms the main goal of the marketing campaign. However, the target audience might experience some barriers in adopting the intended behavior owing to cultural practices that are deeply rooted in some communities.

Key Benefits

The target audience would definitely benefit from this campaign in the sense that sexual abuse and harassments of women by their male counterparts could be reduced to some extent or even stopped. Discouraging unsafe sex due to domestic violence against women would be the key motivation to the targeted group of audience, since women would be no longer sexually abused. On the other hand, the community would also benefit because of peace and stability experienced in the society that result from lack of violence. This is because unsafe sex propagated through domestic violence does not destabilize families alone, but the whole community (Hastings & Angus 2011, p.46).

Analysis of Competing Behaviors

This can be witnessed in female rights campaign awareness programs that are locally based in the community. Under this program, the women are encouraged to organize for demonstrations against gender violence, and such behaviours are important to them, since they are given the opportunity to freely air their grievances against men (Faro 2003, p.39). However, these behaviours are associated with both the social and economic costs, since they might lead to women being rejected by their male counterparts. In addition, the economic costs are seen in the sense that these demonstrations would require some resources to execute the mission (Belz & Peattie 2009, p. 72).

Positioning Statement

This has been stated as follows:

“Whether you are into girls, guys or both, safe sex matters. If you are sexually active,    safe sex is the best way of protecting you and your sexual partners from STIs and unplanned pregnancies” (“Safe Sex No Regrets (b)” 2011, par. 3).

Product Design/Platform

The core products/services offered under this program are the literature materials on safe sex, domestic violence and women’s rights awareness. The actual products would be centered on women’s sexual abuse, female condoms, male condoms, dental dams, and the augmented products would be text information on family instability that comes as a result of divorce and separation incidences (Donovan 2011, p.18).

Price

This social marketing campaign would provide some incentives to women, since they could be given some allowances so as to help in mobilizing other women to join the network (Aral 2008, p.62). However, some disincentives could be witnessed in certain cases, when female leaders fail to properly account for the funds allocated to them, and in such instances they are made to pay back money with penalty. Though, this might appear to be a form of discouragement on their side, it is important for this campaign strategy, since all the funds will be properly accounted for and directed to the right purposes (Maccoby 1998, p. 63).

Place

The women will perform the desired behaviours both at home and workplaces. For instance, when a woman is confronted by a man at home, she would try to exercise her fundamental rights of gender equality to discourage any form of violence that might occur as a result of her attempt to advocate for safe sex. This would definitely discourage the man to engage in sexual abuse and violence. The phenomenon of this kind is common at night, especially when both partners came home from work (Hoek & Jones 2011, p.32).

Promotion

The key message communicated to women is that they should champion for their rights and freedom. Therefore, men should not encourage unsafe sex propagated through domestic violence against their female counterparts as means of settling disputes. This message would be delivered by women rights based organizations, and the sponsors for this campaign would involve the federal and state governments, as well as non-governmental organizations (Andreasen & Kotler 2008, p.15).

Moreover, this social marketing campaign approach would make use of creative strategies such as logos and visuals among others.

Conclusion

In general, this message slogan does not focus only on women, but it also draws some attention from the male counterparts, since they are the perpetrators of unsafe sex promoted through domestic violence against women in the society. The message helps in preventing sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies, especially among the teens. This message can be delivered through the internet, making use of social marketing sites such as facebook, LinkedIn, and skill pages among others.