I need 3000 words Marketing Plan

Attachment 1:

MARKETING PLAN 

SCARF Refugee Support

Executive Summary 

Albert Einstein once said, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”. The co-founders of SCARF (Strategic Community Assistance to Refugee Families) were not going to let evil dawn upon the first Sudanese refugee family they befriended in Illawarra and that’s the story of their humble beginnings back in 2003. SCARF is an Illawarra based charity organization that helps refugees rebuild their lives through timely targeted programs in every aspect of need ranging from fundamental practical applications to psycho-social interventions. 

This report was commissioned to revamp the existing marketing plan for the charity organization. The focus of the plan is to let the target audience see the organization through their internal culture which is ‘friendly’, yet maintaining their core mission of humanitarian welfare, clear. The initial research highlighted that SCARF currently serves 1700 refugees hailing from 14 nationalities around the globe, who they refer to as ‘community members’ . Their point of differentiation from other NGO’s is that they try to “fill the gaps” of resettlement through a friendship-based support thus creating a safe space for everyone involved with it. Analyzing their social media platforms, it was clear that the most focus needed to be on establishing a stronger media presence and to gain more traction on their website by redirecting people’s attention to the volunteer sign up page, the donation page and the SCARF Shop. Research also revealed the unreliability of sustaining the organization through crowd funding. This report is an attempt to re-strategize their existing systems through permutation-combination which includes programs such as conducting awareness rallies, diverse monetary pathways for consistent funding, on-site volunteer recruitment, increasing diversity of merchandise and better channels to sell them. The marketing objective, strategy, required actionables and a coherent budget has been formulated in order to practically actualize it.

 Understanding the Marketing Environment  

This report has taken a proactive stance on the various aspects of the marketing environment by developing strategies to modify the environment and use its malleability to the advantage of the organization. (Armstrong et al., 2017 pp 91) To understand the macro-environment better, this report has used PESTLE analysis as a tool. It has been chosen over the typical SWOT analysis as it encompasses the most impacting factors in the general running of an NGO like SCARF. 

 Political forces

One of the international endeavors started in order to ensure that refugees and asylum-seekers worldwide are heard, supported and given special care and attention to is Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program (Immi.homeaffairs.gov.au.2019). Australia’s highly structured immigration system takes in 13000 humanitarian entrants, annually, under this program. There are routes in the system for immigrants with diverse entry points which include those who have entered the country illegally and those who were refused immigration clearance. They can be granted the Safe Haven Enterprise Visa or a Temporary Protection Visa (Immi.homeaffairs.gov.au. 2019).

Complying with Australian Tax policies, SCARF receives a tax exemption as it meets the requirements of a ‘Community service organization’. Even still, they are obliged to pay GST on all purchases made through the SCARF Shop and can apply for GST concessions (Ato.gov.au.2019)

SCARF also maintains associations’ with political figures and collaborate with them in promoting its work. Some of the redeemed personalities include Lord mayor Gordon Bradbery AM, who is the reigning Mayor of the city of Wollongong and Hon Sharon Bird MP who is the current elected Federal Member for Cunningham.

 Economical forces

The Census data 2016 revealed that the average weekly income for a household in the NSW region was $1486. (Quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au.2019). And the weekly expenditure on good and services was a little over $1500 (Abs.gov.au. 2019). This data reiterates the minimal disposable income of the residents and the unreliability of crowd funding for an NGO like SCARF. According to the 2018 financial report published by SCARF it is revealed that they received their highest monetary funding through Grants which constituted for $282,571 and $29,266 through community fundraising, this indicates that here needs to be government interventions to steadily maintain their operations. (Acncpubfilesprodstorage.blob.core.windows.net.2019).

 Donations are the second highest source of revenue, which means the next focus must be on getting donors who are willing to invest in the cause and maintaining donors who can be reliable in the long run. Community fundraising events, in spite of its mass appeal and audience reach, requires ample investment and the money raised post event usually breaks even. Hence to maintain a steady flow of resources, grants and donors seem to be the best option. They also have ‘SCARF shop’ where they sell merchandize created by the community members and the proceedings goes to the families.

 
Acnc.gov.au. (2019).  

Social factors

According to the 2016 Census, the population in Illawarra stands at a total of 293,494. The pie chart below represents 3 possible volunteer demographics:

1. Keeping in mind the physical health and mental maturity to deal with sensitive situations, and the capability to maintain consistent, long term support to the community members, the ideal volunteering age for an environment like SCARF would be between 15-60 years of age. In Illawarra region this estimates to 170,269 individuals. (Quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au.2019)

ii. Volunteers at SCARF require an array of technical and behavioral skills in order to effectively run programs such as tutoring, mentoring programs, adult education, etc. Keeping this in mind, people who have attained secondary education and above seem like a suitable demographic to help out with SCARF’s programs involving people of varying age groups. In Illawarra this educational demographic constitutes to 231,705 people. (Quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au.2019)

iii. Since the refugees come from vulnerable backgrounds, being able to provide consistent care and support is the most essential element of any program. This being said, to be able to find volunteers who are willing to give this kind of time commitment, is crucial. The census report has revealed that there are roughly 54,331 people who reported being in the labor force and are 15 years and above, who are either unemployed or work under 35hrs per week. A fair assumption can be made of their time availability as compared to full-time workers, or those who work over 35 hours a week. (Quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au.2019)

The community members associated with SCARF hail predominantly from 14 nationalities Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Palestine, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Togo. It is an amalgamation of culture, ethnicity and lifestyles.

Technological forces 

With regard to the use of technology, SCARF hasn’t completely tapped into the virality of social media. SCARF has a website feature that allows refugees to enroll themselves and their families into the program. This makes SCARF much more approachable and accessible rather than going through government intermediaries.

The NGO created a Twitter account, back in 2013, and has a ‘follower’ count of just 97 people. Their Instagram has been in use since 2016 but has become fairly active only in recent times. They regularly update themselves on Facebook, even so, it is only focused on upcoming events organized by SCARF. With the kind of transformational work that they are doing and the global impact they are able to create, their social media can be heavily exploited by capturing effectual and inspiring candid pictures and auto-biographical write-ups of the experiences of the community members and volunteer as well. The Instagram and Twitter features of hashtags can be made to use in their advantage as well and can be made ‘trending’ Eg: #itcouldhavebeenyou #anotherbrother #intercommunityUNITY #ScarfTurf #goodwill #embraceit #scarsofmankind #refugeelivesmatter #everyrefugeematters.

Legal Factors 

As on December 2018, Australia’s contribution towards refugee resettlement over a 10 year period starting from January 2009, would be ranked 25th overall at a global scale (ReliefWeb 2019). As the data reveals, the generous intake of refugees to Australia causes distress in the field of employment. Secure jobs, speeds up the integration process and makes “long term settlement viable” (Welcomingcities.org.au. 2019). There are several issues in the facet of job-seeking, primarily lack of paper work, since most of the refugees flee without carrying paperwork or it may have gotten misplaced in previous settlements. For refugees to go back to their previous lifestyle especially those that worked in professional settings such as doctors and engineers are difficult despite the paper-work as the Australian government is reluctant to accept their experience. And re-learning is an expensive affair with better opportunities in cities, which means they would have to move out of their current regional areas (Abc.net.au.2019). Another facet is the lack of fluency in the English language and the inhibition of employers to take in refugees who don’t understand the language.

Regarding discrimination, it is unlawful on the grounds of several attributes including but not limited to gender, race, and disability in terms of education o employability. There are several anti-discriminatory laws enforcing them (Ag.gov.au.2019). Under the FW Act, there are pricey penalties for corporates and individuals who contravene these protections (Fair Work Ombudsman. 2019).

    Marketing Objective 

The main purpose of SCARF is to create a community for the refugees and help them re-settle into their new lives and provide exposure to better opportunities both socially and economically. The organization runs on ‘good-faith’, they do not charge the community members to avail their services. Hence utmost importance from a marketing perspective is to obtain a steady influx of cash and to leave an impact about the issue on the minds of the target audience.

Budget Allocation

Market Strategy Area of expenditure Expenditure

Referral Schemes

i. Printing banners, standees and posters

ii. Circulating advertisement on magazines and newspapers

  $300 ($14 each)

              $15,000

On-site recruitment

 Projector (in case the Uni/School doesn’t have) $54

Glocal Turf i. Advertisement on print media

ii. Airing ads on Radio

iii. Collapsible table

iv. Tablecloth

v. Packaging materials

vi. Cash float

vii. Display signs/banners

viii. Collaterals for stitching scarves $15000

$200

$300 ($15 each)

        $120 ($6 each)

$300

  $200

 $300 ($14 each)

                $200

Focus on membership

Hand-made cards and ethnic treats $600 ($3 each member)

Product development

Designing and manufacturing new products

$3000

Reporting and Tracking action items

To substantiate the effectiveness of the suggested marketing plan, it is necessary to track and compare the current performance with the planned strategies. A monitoring process needs to be put in place for the various strategies to effectively actualize. These processes include, but are not restricted to the following;

• Consistent follow-up with MNC’s and philanthropic foundations through close tie-ups with ACCSR

• Setting up a PR Team with 2-3 members.

                -Focused on finding influencers willing to collaborate

       -Create a publicity kit that the influencers can read through to promote well-informed content.

                -Find supermarkets and local stores willing to display and sell SCARF merchandise

                -Capturing and designing content to go up on social media sites once a week, at least

• Use web analytics to track the number of people redirected to the webpage by using the QR code.

• Send anonymous and randomly selected feedback questionnaires to target audience to understand their views on webpage and merchandise quality and impact

• Get timely feedback from SCARF members as well as the psychology and education students in order to find ways to make the collaboration more effective for both parties.

• Host bi-monthly meetings with other NGO’s working in similar sectors; make detailed report of the minutes.

• Set a timeline to manage the execution of ‘Glocal Turf’

• Post event; create highlights, images and write-ups to publicize the impact of the rally.

• Creating and maintaining a SCARF dashboard, that is able to track all results from online or on-site strategies provides actionable intelligent data, which can be used to create further strategies (Since 2003, SMDP is Your USA Digital Marketing Agency Partner 2019).

• There are several analytics tools such as the ‘Google analytics’ which shows varied data such as website visitors, time spent on each page, etc.

References

Abc.net.au. (2019). What it's like for refugees trying to find work in regional Australia - ABC Life. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/life/refugees-trying-to-find-work-in-regional-australia/11224666 [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].

Abs.gov.au. (2019). 6530.0 - Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results, 2015-16. [online] Available at: https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/6530.0Main%20Features42015-16?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=6530.0&issue=2015-16&num=&view= [Accessed 21 Sep. 2019].

Accr.org.au. (2019). Current Resolutions – Australasian Center for Corporate Responsiblity. [online] Available at: https://accr.org.au/shareholder-action/current-resolutions/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019].

Acnc.gov.au. (2019). Scarf Incorporated | Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. [online] Available at: https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/53d2901505bd3885886c31543b83c2b0 [Accessed 21 Sep. 2019].

Acncpubfilesprodstorage.blob.core.windows.net. (2019). [online] Available at: https://acncpubfilesprodstorage.blob.core.windows.net/public/7e80f520-39af-e811-a95e-000d3ad24c60-4a7d9e69-7e93-43c2-972f-0ad82292f383-Financial%20Report-24d71cf9-c043-e911-a970-000d3ad24077-SCARF_Audited_Financials_2017-18.pdf [Accessed 21 Sep. 2019].

Ag.gov.au. (2019). Australia’s anti-discrimination law | Attorney-General's Department. [online] Available at: https://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtections/HumanRights/Pages/Australias-Anti-Discrimination-Law.aspx [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].

Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., Volkov, M. and Kotler, P. (2017). Principles of Marketing. 7th ed. P.Ed Australia, p.91.

Ato.gov.au. (2019). Types of income tax exempt organisations. [online] Available at: https://www.ato.gov.au/Non-profit/Your-organisation/Do-you-have-to-pay-income-tax-/Types-of-income-tax-exempt-organisations/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2019].

Fair Work Ombudsman. (2019). Welcome to the Fair Work Ombudsman website. [online] Available at: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides/fact-sheets/rights-and-obligations/workplace-discrimination [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].

Immi.homeaffairs.gov.au. (2019). Get protection after arriving. [online] Available at: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/refugee-and-humanitarian-program/about-the-program/seek-protection-in-australia [Accessed 23 Sep. 2019].

Immi.homeaffairs.gov.au. (2019). Refugee and humanitarian program. [online] Available at: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/refugee-and-humanitarian-program/about-the-program/overview [Accessed 23 Sep. 2019].

Linkedin.com. (2019). The true impact of Corporate Social Responsibility. [online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/true-impact-corporate-social-responsibility-carmen-garcia [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019].

Philanthropy.org.au. (2019). Directory of Funders ›› Philanthropy Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.philanthropy.org.au/seek-funding/Directory-of-funders/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019].

Phillips, Katherine & Northcraft, Gregory & Neale, Margaret. (2006). Surface-Level Diversity and Decision-Making in Groups: When Does Deep-Level Similarity Help?. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations - GROUP PROCESS INTERGROUP RELA. 9. 467-482. 10.1177/1368430206067557.

ReliefWeb. (2019). An analysis of UNHCR’s 2018 Global Refugee Statistics: How generous is Australia’s Refugee Program compared to other countries? - Australia. [online] Available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/australia/analysis-unhcr-s-2018-global-refugee-statistics-how-generous-australia-s-refugee [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].

Since 2003, SMDP is Your USA Digital Marketing Agency Partner. (2019). How to Track Marketing Campaigns – The Top 5 “Must - Haves”. [online] Available at: https://smdigitalpartners.com/how-to-track-marketing-campaigns-the-top-5-must-haves/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].

Welcomingcities.org.au. (2019). [online] Available at: https://welcomingcities.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/WelcomingRegions_Summary.pdf [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019].

Quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au. (2019). 2016 Census QuickStats: Illawarra. [online] Available at: https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/107?opendocument#targetText=In%20the%202016%20Census%2C%20there,up%202.8%25%20of%20the%20population.&targetText=The%20median%20age%20of%20people,Level%204)%20was%2039%20years. [Accessed 20 Sep. 2019].