Hawaii Living Reef Program: Strategic Plan

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Introduction

The Hawaii living reef program aims at sensitizing the communities living in the island of the importance of conserving the coral reefs. In order to achieve this, it has been found that social marketing of the island should be given necessary priority. There are several ways in which social marketing could be explained or defined. This paper explores the situation analysis of Hawaii coral reef conservation program.

Assignment Definition

The Hawaii’s Living Reef program aims at creating public awareness on the importance of the living coral reef ecosystem and its contribution to the Hawaii lifestyle (Coral Reef Outreach Network, 2005). This may not be possible without proper social marketing strategies which will assist in the analysis and general outline of the project at hand. This marketing strategy should be targeted towards influencing voluntary behavioral change. This will in turn benefit the residents themselves since the conservation of the coral reefs will provide sustainable solution to the challenges facing the coral reefs.

Audience segmentation and Behavioral patterns

In marketing and creating awareness for the coral reefs, a procedure involving the identification of small workable groups which will steer the process of conservation is required. From such groups, well directed programs can then be formulated. A unit behavioral pattern involving these groups is then analyzed. These audience segments are categorized in terms of their behavioral characteristics. Some of the barriers noted include bad behavior such as feeding the fish. This will interfere with the natural setting and aquatic lifestyle of these animals. In some cases, wrong kind of foodstuff can be given out leading to their deaths. Another bad behavior is pollution which originates from land (Coral Reef Outreach Network, 2005). Poor land use practices which has led erosion of sediments to the waters is a big problem. Also, over exploitation of the reefs through extensive fishing programs and sometimes use of unacceptable ways of fishing is negative attribute towards the living reef program. Acceptable behavioral pattern will include the opposite o f all the aforementioned traits.

Hawaiian Heritage attitudes and Competition

An outstanding attribute in the process of conserving the coral reefs is competition. However, this may not be effective enough if the Hawaiian heritage Attitudes towards reef conservation is not put into mind. Basically, the coral reefs form an important cultural aspect of the residents of Hawaii Island. For this reason, this cultural aspect form part of the competition which entails the general behavioral responses arising from the Hawaii residents against what is expected of them. In this case, the target audience who are Hawaiian residents may be having some unacceptable behaviors which compete with the expectations of the conservation process (Brown et al. 2004). It may be a tough challenge trying to change the practices which these residents are accustomed to. Another competition may also arise from individual persons and other corporate organizations that have options to the proposals being put forward to conserve the coral reefs. In a factual marketing approach, such competitors ought to be tackled decisively and firmly but being cautious enough not to cause any form of friction and resentment from the residents. Moreover, the tactics and alternatives offered b y these possible competitors should be equally addressed. An important point to note here is that there will always be competition in the promotion of the coral reefs.

The Green Attitudes and Ecotourism Benefits

The spectacular scenery of Hawaii Island alongside the continual effort by the government and other non-governmental organizations to make the reef green has indeed facilitated ecotourism in the island. Tourists are attracted by the beautiful landscape of the island. Besides, sport tourism has dominated the island like surfing and snorkeling. During the process of social marketing, the Hawaiian residents need to be assured of the benefits they are likely to get once they adopt the coral reef conservation strategy (Brown et al. 2004). The change of behavior to match that of the conservation policy should be accepted by the community which co-exists with the coral reefs. This concept should be applied by awarding the target audience what they really need in order to change their behavior and perception towards the process of conservation. The current market environment of the living coral reef is dominated by stiff competition from several reefs around the world. Many of these reefs receive financial backing from the government which increases their leverage in the market. Many of those countries with such reefs especially The Great Barrier Reef in Australia have intensified their marketing campaigns. All these countries are aiming at marketing their countries as the preferred choice of destination. This has posed serious competition from Hawaii’s Living Reef program which is determined to position itself as a global leader in living reef conservancy and as a formidable tourist destination in the world. In order to comprehend the market dynamics which are being geared towards protecting the coral reefs, a rigorous market research has to be conducted. This will enhance better appreciation of the Hawaiian residents in terms of their values and characteristics.

The social marketing strategy

Social marketing will aim at reaching out the target audience in a variety of ways which will not only be appealing but also strategic. To begin with, coining out a strategic plan is important. This will ensure sustainable social marketing for the Hawaii Living reef program. In this plan, the community should be involved and finally, social marketing will not be complete without evaluating results achieved after some given period of time. A follow on the possible successes made against failures is imperative. In cases where success was not achieved, a re-design of the social marketing model is required.

Intervention plans that will enhance positive behavior will have to be developed. For instance, tracking down of the weekly or monthly activities of the conservation programs is essential. The use of written documentaries as well as a telephone line which interested audiences can call any time is necessary. Besides, a social marketing plan should be able to identify the progress made so far.

Communication messages

The manner in which the Hawaiian residents will be reached with the message of conservation will make the difference in the entire coral reef conservation process. This mainly involves how promotional activities can be conducted with much ease. The choice of right channels of communication will impart the right message of coral reef conservation among the residents (Jokiel et al. 2004). These conservation messages may be disseminated through one-on-one interaction with the residents, small well organized groups, public rallies and the mass media.

Coral reef regulation strategies

There have been a series of local steps being taken as part of the process of conserving the coral reefs. This has to do with adoption of certain procedures and values that will be of great need in the conservation process. These strategies have first of all focused on pollution that takes place on land. Pollution research on land has established that runoff to the ocean is the worst challenge emanating from land facing the coral reefs. Some of the organizations involved in the Hawaii reef protection and regulation program include Hawaii State Department of Health, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S Fish and Wildlife service. These organizations and government departments are working towards enforcing laws that will see the reef protected. This is one of the major social marketing plans that can be used to evaluate as well as set u regulation in the conservation process. As much as the policy framework has the mandate of engaging the residents in adopting positive behavior change, residents and other target audiences cannot be compelled to change their culture and norms. Behavior change should be more of a voluntary process than a form of coercion (Allan, 1995). Policy formulators ought to understand that policy standing alone cannot constitute promotional services. For this reason, any form of policy adopted should focus on ways and means of accelerating positive change.

Target audience

This refers to the group of residents, businesses, corporate organizations that are intended to be reached out with the message of conservation the coral reefs. The target audience ought to be influence beyond any reasonable doubt on the need to transform their current norms to the expected ones (Jokiel et al. 2004). To achieve this, marketing campaigns and promotional ads should be case-specific and finely addressed to the right audience. The Living Reef program along the promotional campaign was directed towards the residents of the island. These are the major stakeholders in the reef conservancy program. This is because to ensure success in any of the conservancy and marketing efforts, they had to be incorporated into the program (The Nature Conservancy, 2009). This required the program initiators to inculcate the ownership of the program alongside the intended strategies. And as mentioned earlier, the reef occupies a special place in the lives of the native residents. Yet another target audience is the tourists who would be reached through promotional campaigns A sizeable proportion of the business in Hawaii is directly and indirectly dependent on the proceeds from tourism. Thus their input is crucial in the development of the tourist industry and also to sponsor efforts towards the conservation of the coral reefs. The state authorities which are involved in formulation of policies and regulation are also an important target group owing to the prime position they occupy in the society. It is through their support that the program has been able to achieve unprecedented levels of success (Allan, 1995). There are also a number of interest groups which include environmental activists who were also targeted by the program. Their input for a long time has been very valuable in the running of the industry. From the above analysis, it is important that the challenges that are likely to be encountered by the Hawaii Living Reef Program are adequately addressed. To begin with, the most important communication tool that can be utilized is a website. This would serve as a resource center. It would also assist in mobilizing of resources by disseminating valuable information to the stakeholders

Effect of Recession

Recession which has been coupled with economic slow down is one of the factors which might work against the conservation program. For this reason, it is quite important to develop simple but effective working mechanisms. For instance, simple materials should be developed to be used in the awareness campaign. There is need for the information to be easy and simple to the target audience. In order to gain relative support from the community and other notable target audiences, the operating symbol has to be approved alongside timeline and well harmonized communication system to be developed for the Hawaii Living Reef Program (Brown et al., 2004). To begin with, the program was developed in such a way that it would enhance awareness. In addition to this, there was need to practice conservation process which would ensure the success of the program. Individual persons and small organized groups were to be very instrumental in the spreading the news about conservation and protection of the coral reefs.

Conclusion

The situation analysis of the Hawaii coral reef conservation program depicts a lot to do with the need of identifying the main marketing tools that can be subjected in the process of disseminating the right message to the target audience. In so doing, relevant market research should be conducted before embarking on the actual intervention programs for the conservation and protection of the coral reefs.

Reference

Allan R. A. (1995). Marketing Social Change: Changing Behavior to promote health, social development and the environment, San Francisco: Josse-Bass Brown EK, Cox EF, Tissot B, Jokiel PL, Rodgers KS, Smith WR and Coles SL (2004).

Development of benthic sampling methods for the Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (CRAMP) in Hawaii’s Pacific Science 7: 145-158 Coral Reef Outreach Network, (2005). Hawaii living reef program.

Coral Reef Outreach Network, (2005). Hawaii living reef program. Web.

Jokiel PL, Brown EK, Friedlander A, Rodgers, SK and Smith, WR (2004). Hawaii’s Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program: Spatial Patterns and Temporal Dynamics in Reef Coral Communities. Pacific Science 58: 159-174.

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