Task

You are required to choose a contemporary social issue on which to base your assignment.

This issue should already be the subject of social marketing campaigns and interventions and may be within any relevant social marketing context where there is already a clear emphasis on achieving behavioural change for both individual and societal benefits to be accrued.

You are advised to take plenty of time to research a number of potential social marketing issues before making your final choice and consult your lecturer if in any doubt about the suitability of your choice of context. Collect as much information as possible on your chosen focus in order to allow you to make your appraisal as complete and as detailed as possible.

Your report should make use of appropriate frameworks and mechanisms from the module and include the following:

oAn analysis of the social issue
oA critical evaluation of a current, contemporary intervention designed to address the social issue
oAn appraisal of the outcomes of the chosen intervention
oA proposed change or modification to any aspect(s) of chosen intervention plan as a result of your appraisal in order to consolidate its efforts to address the social issue

Expectations – and answers to some of your frequently asked questions

oMy expectations are high.

oYour answer can only be as good as your research. The more you read and research the greater your potential to produce a piece of work of excellent quality.

oAt this level I would expect an assignment of these characteristics to be resourced thoroughly and this should be evidenced by approximately 30 entries in the final references list.

oIt should be demonstrated how each referenced resource has contributed to the work. That is, you cannot just add a long list of references at the back of the work – they need to be used and referred to inside the report too!

As a consequence of the above, good quality answers tend to result from consistent research over an extended period of time – not last minute reading.

You are required to choose and use your own example – a social issue – to demonstrate your in-depth understanding of how social issues affect the target audience and society as a whole and appraise how those issues are currently being addressed by the analysis of a single intervention.

You may find it useful (and necessary) to critique your chosen example from the perspective of other similar interventions which are more successful (or less) in dealing with social issues.

oYou are NOT expected to contact any organisations; this work should use secondary sources of information.

Tables, figures and illustrations may be included when appropriate and will not affect the word count.
Any examples of your chosen intervention which you feel are relevant and wish to evaluate (e.g. marketing communications, policy documents, testimonial evidence etc) can be included in a single appendix, which must be properly and neatly ordered and catalogued. Please note the appendix is not compulsory and if included it must be directly referred to in your appraisal of the social issue and the performance of the intervention.
Format for the submitted work

The assignment will be submitted as a report and be presented in polished and professional manner complete with a contents page, with each section clearly identified and a final references section. The standard conventions of report writing will be followed, including the overall presentation of the work and the use and inclusion of supporting references and quotations within the text when appropriate. University policy regarding the use and format of supporting references within the text and the presentation of the final references section must be followed. The maximum word count will be 3000 words +/- 10%.

Weighting

This assignment carries a weighting of 100% for the Social Marketing module.

In order to obtain higher grades students should consider the following:

the ability to demonstrate creativity and critical analysis in the provision of original solutions

the ability to demonstrate greater depth of knowledge and understanding through wide reading and varied research activities and the appropriateness of theory for understanding and developing feasible responses to real social problems.