Active Detroit: some plans according to Big Picture frame

-Michigan Department of Community Health has a great program called “Michigan StepsUp!” which helps people in the state of Michigan to sustain/improve their health by taking a step-by-step approach mentioned in the website. These steps include : 1. Move more 2. Eat better 3. Don’t smoke. I think it will be a great program to model Active Detroit. Michigan StepsUp! targets MI population of all ages and specifies a specific approach to be taken for each stakeholder such as schools, communities, companies etc. I found this website after I wrote my second blog posting – and was thinking… ooo this is what I was looking for! Now I have some kind of program that I can model my program after. Of course, because Active Detroit is the program which focuses on the exercise part of health and wellness promotion, and it is for Detroit rather than the entire Michigan, so I would make many modifications/applications to the model. But Active Detroit is going to be government sponsored, government-run program ( Detroit department of Health and Wellness Promotion with the joint effort of Michigan Department of Community Health), and thus I might be able to get some good help finding some funding sources or creating some sports events etc.

With that finding and some other research on the web, below is how Big Picture frame will fit into Active Detroit.

Fundamental entity :

City of Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion with the joint effort of Michigan Department of Community Health

Notes:

I said “the joint effort of Michigan Department of Community Health” because I was thinking it might be useful to get some more funding later in the planning stage if the program is jointly set by the state and city government. They are both governments anyways.. and I am not even sure how those funding and hierarchy system works for US government yet – but for now, I will say that they are joint effort of the Detroit and MI state government. The bottomline is that this program is a government program, and will have the “brand name” of Active Detroit.

Core Competency:

I was thinking in terms of what is government good at? What are some advantages that government programs have compared to some private programs? Etc.

For this particular program, I think government has good skill at human resources management and awareness building. Once Active Detroit starts, lots of people from many different occupations such as teachers, community workers, company workers, doctors etc. will be able to work together to meet the goal of the government. Because this program utilizes resources from many different areas, it will be good at straight marketing via various means and quickly build awareness among people of all ages.

Organizational Objective:

*What business ?

Benefit category is health and wellness promotion (so.. public health?)

Beneficiaries will be all Detroit residents whose ages range from 7 to 65 (from elementary school kids to all adult population except seniors)

*Goal?

# of beneficiaries served:

The number of the target population mentioned earlier estimates up to about 750,000 people

Dollars raised:

Not sure yet… how would I figure out roughly how much it will cost? …

Behaviors changed:

More exercising/ playing more sports among Detroit residents for better health

(and thus reduce going to the hospital for treating diabetes/obesity )

*Time frame ?

I don’t want to make it too short because it might take some time to change people’s behaviors. 5 years maybe?

June 2010 to June 2015

#2 - some thoughts based on 4Ps

Detroit demographic

Age Detroit MI

17 or younger		259,449		2,512,663		73,131,688
18-24		79,144		898,593		26,295,690
25-44		226,341		2,718,251		82,023,068
45-64		186,688		2,541,574		72,167,164
65+		84,434		1,194,502		34,760,527
Average age (years)		33.70		36.64		36.40

I first divided Target audience according to different age groups :

17 or younger – mostly elementary, middle, high school kids

18-24 – college students, workers

25-44 – workers – maybe look into what are popular jobs held by this age groups in Detroit

45-64 – maybe look into what are popular jobs held by this age groups in Detroit

65 over: Though it might not be entirely true for some seniors, I thought that seniors tend to be sick / hard to move and more reluctant to changes, so did not included in this particular project

Also because there are so many people in Detroit right now who lost their jobs, I was wondering if I should target this group who do not have a job

what would be the advantage for this group to exercise

if I do target them, how?

Tool	Key marketing question	Ideas
Product	--Behavioral offer made to target --how appealing is the offer
Price	--costs that the target adopters have to bear and barriers to be overcome --how affordable is it?	Psychological/ Cultural/Social : *economic depression, job loss, *The Place to exercise should be free preferably – so run somewhere outside rather than paying for the gym *what is the motivation? (researches have shown that gym buddy / regular group exercise help people exercise more than doing it individually Behavioral : *Where to exercise ? *How are we going to define “exercise”? *time constraint for students, workers … Practical : *considering the fact that Detroit is not considered as the safest city, where will be the good place in the neighborhood to exercise / be safe? Physical : *How to promote the right way of exercising? *What kind of exercise am I going to promote? Running? Walking? Biking? – very feasible Tennis? Squash? – need rackets, can be feasible (renting out. From community centers etc) Dance? Boxing? – need teachers but feasible Working out? - need to go to the gym Mountain climbing? – not enough mountains here winter sports? football, basketball, baseball etc. golf ? Financial *how are we going to find funding for the promotion efforts? Specific government funding Community centers – govt, donation Public schools Universities Hospitals? Gym? Non-profit organizations NGOs Corporate firms related to exercising– nike, adidas… *estimation? –maybe look for some former similar efforts and have some idea how much it will cost
Place	--channels by which the change is promoted --places in which change is supported and encouraged --how readily available is it?	*Should be different depending on different age groups: 17 or under – public school 18 – 24 – universities, gyms, work places 25- 44 – work places, gyms, hospitals 45 -64 – work places, gyms, hospitals 65 over : N/A , *also, community centers, media, NPO/NGO etc. affecting all ages
Promotion	--the means by which the change is promoted to the target --how well known and appreciated is it?	Still thinking …

#1

Marketing Plan :

First, I wrote down my current interests / experiences which might help me plan this project :

Chronic disease management
Global Health (East Asia)
Behavioral change
Policy intervention
Internship experience in Diabetes management

Having heard a lot of good things about Centers for Disease Control and prevention offices in China (their success stories about reducing smoking rates, prevention efforts for CVD and diabetes etc.),

I was thinking about doing some kind of social marketing project on chronic disease management in China. Since I am interested in health policies in East Asian nations, it would be a good idea.

So I went to their website and found out that their English web is not as thorough and specific as their chinese web. I was a little worried that I won’t be able to find enough information with my elementary chinese skills....

Maybe I will just do something in the US…. I live in Michigan now…

and I know that Detroit is one of the most obese city in the US,

why don’t I do something for Detroit?

Finally, I decided that I will utilize social marketing to reduce the rate of obesity in the city of Detroit (and thus further reduce the rate of diabetes and other chronic diseases). When I was doing an internship in Japan three years ago, I worked for diabetes management for Japanese corporate workers with nutritional focus such as promoting healthy diet. I don’t want to do the same thing, so this time, I will promote exercise.
So here comes my plan – Active Detroit Project :)