Introduction

In this unit I am investigating a non-profit business called Mind Charity. Its purpose is to build awareness of mental health and to be aimed at schools in Sutton in Key Stage 4 and 5 (Sixth form).

About this unit

  • I will look at how promotional activities, advertising and personal selling, that are carried out by non-profit business, such as the Mind charity.

  • I will investigate how Mind charity combine promotional activities into a promotional mix and how this is vital for Mind Charity

  • I will consider how promotional activities are designed for Mind to alter customer attitudes.

  • I will consider how the cost of the promotional activities affects the final choice of promotional mix.

How I will be assessed

  • I need to explain the main objectives of the Mind Charity and the promotional activities that are available and the characteristics to the targeted market.

  • I need to explain how I will achieve the objectives of Mind charity by setting promotional mixes and timings and costs of promotional activities

  • I need to analyse the findings of research to develop a plan and meet the customer needs of the Mind charity, by the customer attitudes, using the AIDA model, and other available business resources.

  • I need to evaluate the suitability of my plan for the Mind charity for the promotional mix by the ability to achieve the Mind charity’s objectives, the customer attitudes, and the cost of the promotional activities.

About Mind

Mind is the leading mental health charity in England and Wales. Mind helps to create a better life for everyone with experience of mental distress by;

  • advancing the views, needs and ambitions of people with mental health problems
  • challenging discrimination and promoting inclusion
  • influencing policy through campaigning and education
  • inspiring the development of quality services which reflect expressed need and diversity
  • achieving equal rights through campaigning and education

These aims of Mind Charity are accomplished, by providing help lines, Mind networks, campaigns, publications and donations.

The help-line provides confidential help on a range of mental health issues. Mind charity also provides a special legal service to the public, lawyers, and mental health workers.

Mind has a network of over 200 local Mind associations throughout England and Wales. These offer supported housing, crisis help lines, drop-in centres, counselling, befriending, advocacy, employment and training schemes.

Campaigns help to improve the lives of people with mental health problems, and developing and advising on the health and local authorities, government, the public, and the mental health community care. Mind will make sure that those directly affected have their voices heard.

Mind produces a wide range of ‘Understanding..’ booklets including ones such as anxiety, depression and schizophrenia. They also include a ‘How to..’ series on how to cope and strategies for living. There are over 100 publications on the Mind site. Mind also publishes a ‘Open Mind’ national mental health magazine.

Donations are important for Mind charity to be able to fund their work. This can be done by sponsored events, visiting a local Mind shop, and by becoming a member of Mind.

Aims and Objectives

Mind’s Overall Charity Vision

Young Mind’s Charity Vision, Mission and Values

I will try to achieve this vision in Sutton through this project and to formulate aims and objectives to make sure these visions, missions, and values are achieved.  

Importance of Objectives

Setting objectives are important; it focuses the company on specific aims over a period of time and can motivate staff to meet the objectives set.

Objectives

  1. Raising awareness of different types of mental health issues amongst teenagers.
  2. Provide information on exact nature of mental health issues and deconstruct existing stereotypes to teenagers
  3. Provide information on services of help available to people suffering from mental health issues to teenagers.

1. Raising awareness of different types of mental health issues amongst teenagers.

I am aiming to raise awareness amongst teenagers between 13 and 18 years old, in Sutton schools. I am aiming my awareness of mental health issues at teenagers because most teenagers are unaware of mental health issues. Many mental health problems are unknown by teenagers. Many don’t know what anxiety or depression is, by raising awareness this will help teenagers understand of different types of mental health issues, and to be able to give them a chance to support Mind charity. Teenagers are more likely to understand the mental health issues better at their school through education, in either assembly or a PSHE lesson.

This is an educational aim to broaden teenager’s knowledge led by a trained professional. This aim will be explaining factual information about mental health issues rather than false information that is provided by the media.

Teenagers are likely to encounter people with mental health issues and it is important for both that they know all facts. They can both be prepared to deal with and adapt to the situation.

The Young Minds schools outreach service

It’s also important when schools help to try and raise awareness of mental health issues, that the school has some support from mental health charity such as Young Mind Charity. Young Mind provides a service to make sure staff and youth groups to understand how to be much aware of children and young people’s mental health. They offer visits to schools, provide workshops, and support tutorials, health days, and PSHE lessons.

Why it’s important to raise awareness

The Young Minds Charity work scheme work in schools and other community organisations helps reduce stigma, and improve the long-term life chances of individual children. It helps children and families to have the confidence to ask for help earlier. It also helps adults and parents spot signs a child or young person is in distress much earlier. This will prevent them spiraling into a situation that becomes increasingly difficult to recover from.  One in 10 children and young people in Britain suffer from behavioural, mental or emotional disorders that require some form of professional intervention. By raising awareness of mental health and depression with young people and adults who are involved in their lives, this will help stop the stigma surrounding mental health issues

2. Provide information on exact nature of mental health issues and de construct existing stereotypes to teenagers.

There is a lot of information on different natures of mental health issues and to provide information on the most common mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and schizophrenia. This would help educate teenagers on the nature of the mental health issues that affect a person’s everyday life, and how not to stereotype the different mental health issues in order to help the person overcome their mental health issue problems.

People with mental health problems usually suffer as they are being discriminated and prejudice by other people. This aim is to change the prejudice and discrimination towards people with mental health problems for the next generation.

Educate teenagers on exact nature of mental health issues at school, as they are often obliged as one captive audience to listen to a person who is talking about mental health issues, and has a better understanding. Also, by de-constructing existing stereotypes, such as schizophrenia – as a number of people think schizophrenia is a condition where people have two personalities. However, schizophrenia is split from reality rather than split from personality.

There are many common misconceptions surrounding mental health and mental illnesses. Many of the myths still perpetuate fear, stigma, and discrimination around mental health. The following misconceptions are some of the myths that young adults hear about often:

  1. Myth: People with mental illness are violent and dangerous.
    Fact: The risk of being killed by a stranger with a severe mental health problem is roughly 1:10,000,000.
  2. Myth: Once you’ve had a mental illness, you never recover

Fact: People can and do recover from mental illness. Medications, psychological interventions, a strong support network and alternative therapy treatments from cognitive behavioural therapy to improved diet and exercise habits are also very effective in leading to a complete recovery

3. Provide information on services of help available to people suffering from mental health issues to teenagers.

To provide information on different services of help, such as phone lines, websites, therapy etc., to people who suffer from mental health issues specifically to teenagers and for those around or close to the mental health patient. This would help a range of people who suffer from different mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and schizophrenia.

The right information should be available and accessible in how to help mental health issues specifically for the exact nature of mental health issues. This should be accessible to teenagers where they can easily access the information, from doctors and internet sites. The language and tone of the information should be understandable to teenagers, so not to use many mental health terms.

The service of Young Mind provides to help de-stigmatise mental illness, and also to improve young people’s mental health through the scheme.

Summary

The objectives above will need to be met using an integrated mix of promotional activity. I am now going to explore the promotional activities that can help Mind charity to create mental health awareness amongst teenagers, and to see which one is most beneficial. I will also find out the costs of the promotional activity for the charity’s budget.

I feel these objectives are important because teenagers are unaware of mental health issues. This will provide teenagers in education at the prime level to adult hood will be beneficial to be aware of the nature of different mental health issues and allow them to de construct stereotypes such as schizophrenia. Every teenager is able to benefit from knowledge of mental health and to the deconstruction of stereotypes, in especially helping the next generation.

The aims and objectives have been created to achieve Mind’s overall vision. It is important that all aims are directed to Charity’s overall vision, so all parts of the organisation are working together.



Promotional Activities Explained

Brochures/Leaflets

The leaflets will be informative about different natures of mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and schizophrenia. The leaflets will also give possible ways for teenagers to get help when having a mental health issues, e.g. clinics, phone lines, and walk-in clinics. The brochures and leaflets will be both handed out in the local high street of Sutton to young people, as well as to Sutton schools in order to gain awareness of young people to both Mind charity and mental health issues. The Mind member designing the leaflet must be aware of the language used within the leaflets, and ensuring they will understand what the teenagers read about mental health issues.  

Mind Charity does not have much of a budget for promotional activities as it is a non-profit business, but leaflets are a good way of raising awareness of mental health issues. They are not that expensive compared to television and radio broadcasting, and this will be discussed later in portfolio. The leaflets will provide the main information of how to get help, and the different natures of mental health. Mind charity must think about releasing different types of leaflets explaining for the specific mental health issues, such as one leaflet explaining anorexia.

The disadvantage to giving out brochures and leaflets to teenagers in the Sutton area, are the teenagers are likely to cause litter for the environment. Teenagers littering environment shows they are not interested in informative leaflets. The leaflets need to gain their attention for at least 5 seconds by either attracting attention to something emotive or informative about relevant mental health issues related to teenagers.

Mind Charity has a published a new booklet for young people and those with them to help them recognise the signs of mental distress. Mind’s new booklet ‘My name is Pete’ presents young people with accessible information about psychosis and its symptoms and how to manage them when they arise. It has been a produced in a comic book style so to relate to young people, and has also been narrated by a young person who has been in mental distress. The booklet is useful for teachers and will be able to relate to how the young person is feeling when distressed.

Posters

Posters can be informative about how to get help within the Sutton area specifically for teenagers about mental health issues. The posters will be posted around the Sutton schools, and within the Sutton area, where most teenagers go to such as youth clubs, Odeon cinema, and Sutton bowling. This is to persuade the teenagers to be aware of mental health issues.

Posters can be emotive in order to gain attention of mental health awareness. For example, Child abuse NSPCC use emotive posters in order to gain awareness of child abuse. Emotive posters are likely to gain attention from teenagers. This will have a semantic effect, so they can react and be able to be aware of the issues around mental health.

Posters can provide the main information on where to get help, how to get help, and why they should get help. The different outlets for help will be on the posters – and more information can be made through a phone number and a website, which will also be on the poster. Posters can use bright colours and bold titles in order to attract attention of teenagers. The posters are mainly in school or youth clubs – places where to learn and observe so they are most likely to read about mental health awareness. The places are where teenagers are likely to go so are a captive audience.

Posters may not attract teenagers, because they are too busy to look or not interested in mental health. The posters may be too vandalised - for teenagers to be able to see what the poster says.

Mind Charity need to have a series of posters. The series can be either a story line of a child with mental health issues, which will engage the teenager wanting to know more about the subject. A series of different children will explain the specific types of mental illness to give the teenager's more of an understanding.

Television & Radio

Television can provide visual images, and show moving images how it affects different people. Giving an insight of each common nature of mental health, this will give more detail. The documentary or advert should be on when teenagers are mostly likely to watch television or listen to radio. For example when Hollyoaks/Eastenders etc is on, these can involve story lines to explain how mental illnesses can affect a person's life.

The television and radio will be able to reach a mass audience of teenagers and adults. This is an advantage as this could be raising awareness of mental health towards both teenagers and adults. This also creates visual image of Mind charity, and to see if they are doing good work.

Although television is a good way of advertising, it may too expensive for a charity like Mind. The mental health issues can be easily be stereotyped, if not giving the factual information rather than the false information about the exact nature of mental health issues.

NSPCC adverts on television, as a purpose to protect children – their mission is to end child abuse full stop. The child abuse adverts are made to raise awareness of the problem of child cruelty and abuse. The advert is very emotive (picture) and is being powerful in creating awareness. This can be done in relation to Mind charity – by adverts on television and to raise awareness of mental health issues through emotive adverts. These adverts can be done by television and radio.

Free Gift

The free gift such as a wristband and stickers provide interest to create awareness of mental health issues. The free gift doesn’t provide information on the exact nature of different mental health issues,because for example a pen is too tiny to provide information but a leaflet can be handed out at the same time. The free gift may get vandalised or thrown away, showing the teenager is not interested in creating awareness for mental health charity. However if the free gift is of use /fashion then it maybe kept. If the free gift has a name/website on it then by mere exposure people who use it and friends are likely to see it. The 'mere exposure effect' states that the more a name or brand is in public eye the more favourable the reaction attitude towards it.

The rubber wristbands are available in different colours to represent different charities. The trend started with a yellow band which is inscribed with ‘livestrong’ and was set up by American cyclist Lance Armstong to raise awareness of cancer. For Mind charity to raise awareness of mental health there should be a specific colour or number of colours on the wrist band in order to gain awareness among young people.

The showing support of charities amongst young people is high compared to when there was only the traditional charity pins. Young people may only be wearing them for a fashion statement but if it increases awareness of the charity, it is obviously a good thing.

Join now!

Magazines

Magazines can provide visual images through adverts to create awareness of mental health issues and provide help lines for teenagers. Mind Charity must advertise in magazines that teenagers read, such as sugar, vogue etc. and boys’ magazines such as FHM.

Teenagers will read alone when reading magazines, so will intake more information in the magazine – so will understand more about mental health issues, if information is in the magazine. Magazines can contain celebrities who suffer from mental illness, such as Stephen Fry (Bipolar) and Geri Halliwell (Depression) and this can help decrease stigma within the teenagers.

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