Advertising Theory and Practice - Situation Analysis of The Smith Family 2017 Back to School Campaig

1. Introduction

According to the ACOSS/UNSW Report, among six Australian children and young people, there is at least one living in poverty (The Smith Australia, n.d.a). Therefore, many not-for-profit organisations dedicated to the benefits of children in Australia have been established. Founded in 1922 by five businessman with a goal of improving the lives of disadvantaged children in Australia, The Smith Family has grown into one of the largest Australian education-oriented charities (The Smith Family, n.d.a). With the belief that education is the crucial key to alleviate the disadvantage, the organisation provides support for the less fortunate children to participate in their education. The Smith Family has been running many campaigns to attract many target audiences to get involved in this good cause, one of them is the Back to School appeal. This report will analyse its Back to School 2017 campaign in terms of the product analysis and target audience analysis.

2. Product Analysis

2.1 Background information

In order to fully support the children mentally and educationally, the organisation offers 11 learning programs, namely Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, financial, numeracy, Work Experience, mentoring, arts, community, literacy, Learning for Life programs, and Learning Clubs. Particularly, The Smith Family delivers its Learning for Life programs across 94 Australian communities across all states and territories. Thanks to their holistic programs, over 174,000 children and families in need were estimated to have received support in 2018 (The Smith Family, n.d.a).

The driving-factor behind the success of The Smith Family is that there are over 1.1 million Australian children and young people living in poverty; hence, the need for the support from the society is high. Especially, the main goal of the organisation is to provide long-term support for them in terms of education, which makes The Smith Family different from other not-for-profit organisations that focuses on other subjects, namely the elderly and the disabled (The Smith Family, n.d.a).

2.2 Market leader and Key competitors

Specifically, The Smith Family operates in the Personal Welfare Services industry in Australia. This industry is concerned about social support services directly to clients, which includes aged-care assistance, disabilities assistance, adoption services, youth welfare and welfare counselling services. In fact, there are no major players in the industry as it mostly comprises of small players, 95% of which have fewer than 20 employees or are non-employing. The market leader in this industry is Little Company of Mary Health Care Limited whose market share is 2.0%-3.0%. Trading as Calvary, it is is a charitable Catholic non-profit organisation that provides services in aged-care centres, hospitals, and community (Munro-Smith, 2019).

The key competitors of The Smith Family are Mission Australia and Brotherhood of St Laurence. Mission Australia primarily helps children, families and teenagers, with an aim to prevent homelessness and improve employability and skills. Meanwhile, based in Victoria, the Brotherhood of St Laurence runs several programs to help the poor (Munro-Smith, 2019).

2.3 Brand Positioning and Impact on the campaign

Revenue-wise, The Smith Family only accounts for less than 1% in the market. This would have affected the advertising campaign as the market was already crowded with many not-for-profit organisations and charities that share the same values.

However, the most salient attribute of The Smith Family is its ability to use the emotional appeal through advertising campaigns. This could be utilised in brand positioning, which is the image that comes to the target audience’s mind and the related attributes they perceive. Therefore, positioning could be considered as a key factor in communicating the benefits the organisation posessses and differentiating it from other competitors (Belch et al, 2014).

Together with The Smith Family’s main goal of focusing on education for the disadvantaged young Australians, the unique brand positioning based on the emotional appeal could make the Back to School 2017 campaign effective by enabling the organisation to become the top of mind brand for the target audience when it comes to donating for a child’s better access to education.

2.4 Relevant theories

Various relevant theories are essential when considering to advertise this campaign effectively, which includes the Foote Cone & Belding Grid (FCB) and the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These theories could help the organisation better understand their product’s potential perception in the target audience’s eye. First, the Foote, Cone & Belding Grid planning model identifies whether the product is either of high or low involvement and whether the product is related to either the rational or emotional aspect (Belch et al, 2014). Because the campaign aims to arouse the emotions and change the attitudes of the target audience by focusing on visual images and large space advertisements, Back to School 2017 is an affective campaign which targets the audience’s feeling and high involvement. Furthermore, the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs could also be taken into consideration. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a central theory to understand the consumer motivations driven by their needs (Belch et al, 2014). The psychology behind the Back to School 2017 is to appeal to the target audience who associates themselves with the self-actualisation needs, which includes the appreciation for life, the realisation of individual’s inner peace, the discernment to view things in an objective manner and such (Stannard-Stockton, 2018).

2.5 Regulatory/ethical considerations

The Australian advertising industry is self-regulated. Thus, many associations, including the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), provide guidance for the advertising practitioners (Harker, Harker, & Volkov, 2001). Under the Code for Advertising and Marketing Communications to children, the Back to School campaign should consider several factors in order to make regulatory and ethical considerations. These include the themes in the advertisement (as the children’s characters and themes are used), the age of actors and characters (as the advertisement uses the actors and characters younger than 14 years old), and whether the advertisement is told from a child’s perspective (as the story tells through children’s eyes, possibly including personal reactions and expressions of the characters (ASB, n.d.).

2.0 Target Audience Analysis

2.1 Primary target audience

The market segmentation is a common framework utilised by marketers to divide the market into distinct groups that share common needs and have the potential to respond similarly to a marketing action (Belch et al, 2014). In relation to Back to School 2017, the campaign advertisement can use the geographic, demographic and psychographic segmentation to better understand its target audience.

2.1.1 Geographic

Considering the geographic of the target audience, they could live in metropolitan areas in Australia. As illustrated in Figure 3, people from New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland gathered the three highest amount of donation in the period of 2015-2016 (Philanthropy Australia, n.d.). Therefore, the target audience based in these locations could have a high potential of willingness to donate more for the Back to School 2017 Campaign.

2.1.2 Demographic

Age, income, and education are important when considering to choose a suitable target audience. The potential audience could be Generation X, who was born between 1965 and 1976 (Belch et al, 2014). They could potentially have a high income. Also, they have the privilege to enjoy a fully supported education who receive at least the high school education and over or they do not have the opportunity to access a fully supported education but still value education. This target audience would be likely to have a family and/or their own children at that age span, understand the importance of education, and have a stable financial status to donate for the campaign.

2.1.3 Psychographic

The target audience of the Back to School 2017 campaign could belong to the Conventional Family Life segment according to Roy Morgan (n.d.a). They value family and stability. In fact, as the target audience of this campaign continuously tries to improve the living standards of themselves and their family, they could possess the empathy to help the young Australians who are deprived of basic needs in their education.

2.1.4 Behavioural

The target audience for the Back to School campaign is likely to have a high brand loyalty status. After choosing a not-for-profit organisation to donate, they are likely to commit to donating in the long term. Once the brand loyalty status has been achieved, the advertising campaign can change the focus from acquisition to retention (Directive Group, n.d.).

2.2 Factors influencing the decision making of the target audience

There are both driving and restraining factors that influence the decision making of the target audience (Belch et al, 2014). First, by stating the huge number of more than 5,000 Australian children urgently need support, the adverting video captures the attention of the audience in the problem recognition step (The Smith Family, 2017). Then, while the audience searches for information and evaluates alternatives, various organisations identified as potential options for donation to children have to be considered, known as the evoked set (Belch et al, 2014). Hence, the target audience wants to know whether the organisation is trustworthy and transparent in the way they handle the donation (Jot Form, n.d.). In fact, The Smith Family and the advertising campaign could stand out to the target audience as they provide the financial report on the website (The Smith Family, n.d.b). Also, their decisions during this process could be negatively influenced by the reference groups, especially the family members who belong to the Traditional Family Life group (Roy Morgan, n.d.b). In the post-purchase evaluation, the audience’s satisfaction level could also be influenced by the difference between the performance and expectations attached to the organisation.

2.3 Key insight

All in all, the Back to School 2017 campaign utilises the emotional appeal. This advertising approach appeals to the target audience through emotional messages to cater for their social and psychological needs (Belch et al, 2014). This is illustrated in the advertising video and its description. The video utilised the 360-degree shot of camera to show the audience how the boy called Jake suffered from the deprivation of basic needs to school, such as a simple new pair of socks and a new schoolbag, and it led to him being felt isolated from his friends and falling behind his school work (The Smith Family, 2017). In accordance with the main goal of this campaign “end poverty, one student at a time”, The Smith Family has reinforced its meaning by creating a key insight in this campaign: a future-focussed appeal that demonstrated the life-changing benefits that the organisation could offer to make the young Australians deprived of fully supported education like Jake enjoy their education to the fullest (Marlin Communications, n.d.).