A Campaign about Anti-Premarital Sex
“Go Away Satan” Anti-Premarital Sex Campaign
Willing HU
Michigan State University
Problem Statement
Based upon my personal observations and research regarding premarital sex as well as my knowledge with regard to social marketing, I plan to do a campaign about anti premarital sex. I consider it an applicable social marketing campaign for the following reasons. Firstly, according to Kotler’s(1971) definition of social problem, a specific condition in society, which is viewed apprehensively, or distastefully by some of its members and which is thought to be susceptible to mitigation or elimination through collective effort, I think premarital sex falls into this category for it is indeed an apprehensive and distasteful issue given its prevalence and bad consequences it brings to adolescents and young adults. Secondly, as many abstinence-until-marriage education and programs being promoted within the society, the general public have already perceived the potential threat of sex before marriage, therefore, it’s not that hard for us to get their attention. In addition, with a series of solutions and intervention methods being proposed, I am pretty sure my campaign objectives, which aim at changing young adults’ behavior, are attainable. Finally, multiple commercial tools and techniques make the execution of my campaign available. In terms of my observations, when I was doing my undergraduate study in China, I observed that there was at least 60 percent of my classmates had experienced premarital sex during their college life. I didn’t regard it as a serious problem until some of my friends had been greatly affected by this issue. More specifically, one of my female friends contracted one kind of the sex-transmitted diseases (the STDs) after having sex with her boyfriend. Her life was totally messed up by the disease. Say, she spent a lot of time counseling doctors regarding her status, worried that her disease was incurable and hardly failed all her courses during that year. Another friend of mine also experienced a set of terrible consequences with premarital sex. Instead of contracting the STDs, she experienced the accidental pregnancies and both her mental state as well as physical state was badly affected by the abortion. According to my knowledge, sex is one of the most wonderful pleasure and precious gift designed and created by god. I assume that many people have already experienced the pleasing feeling of this gift from god; however, most of them may not be aware of the fact that this type of joy is only allowed to be enjoyed within the boundaries of marriage and have widely broadened its effect beyond marriage; surely there are many individuals who are well conscious of god’s calling but still choose to disobey him. The Bible makes clear the issue that premarital sex is something that we human beings should strongly against for. Premarital sex involves any kind of sexual contact prior to entering into a legal marriage relationship; there are, in general, two contexts for premarital sex, one is the “we love each other and are committed to each other, but just don’t want to wait to be married” sexual relationship, the other is the “casual sex.”(“Premarital sex-why are Christians so strongly against it?” n.d). The former type of premarital sex is usually accepted and practiced by many people for the idea that marriage is just a matter of time. By this logic, there’s no appropriate framework or requirements regarding the nature of the relationship between them. Stated another way, once it becomes acceptable, any exra-marital sex would also be accepted soon. As for the causal sex, there is no doubt the more one engages in it, the more he or she would lose of himself or herself. Moreover, if the Bible’s message on sex were obeyed, there would be far fewer sexually transmitted diseases, far fewer abortions, far fewer unwed mothers and unwanted pregnancies, and far fewer children growing up without both parents in their lives. Abstinence is God’s only policy when it comes to sex before marriage. Abstinence saves lives, protects babies, gives sexual relations the proper value, and, most importantly, honors God(“What does the Bible say about sex before marriage?” n.d). Aside from my personal observations and knowledge regarding sex before marriage, there are multiple statistics as well as research results suggest that premarital sex is something that need to be tackled immediately. Mike’s(2012) study finds that there is only 11% of modern 25-year-olds have not had premarital sex in the United States, and if higher ages are included, the percentage goes down to the 3% number. Mike(2012) also points out that 20% of the church members aged 25 or younger are married without ever having premarital sex. According to the Center for Disease Control’s 2009 data, nearly half of all high school students(46 percent) report already having had sexual intercourse, and one third of them report having had it in the previous three months(Elizabeth&Boulton, 2011). However, premarital sex is not a unique phenomenon in the United States, according to studies conducted by a Chinese sexologist Li Yinhe, figures from 1994 showed that only 40 percent of people had premarital sex, while the number was much lower back in 1989 at 15 percent (Zou Le, 2012). Even more shockingly, a report on the health of Chinese People’s Sex Life clearly shows that around 71.4 percent of the married couples have had premarital sex now, which is a 30 percent increase compared to statistics from 1994(Globaltimes.cn, 2012). The prevalence of premarital sex not only exists in some countries that widely tolerate this behavior like the United States and China but also lurks in other areas where sexuality is still perceived as taboo and any types of sexual activities outside marriage are not allowed such as Nepal. Regmi, Simkhada, and Teijlingen’s(2010) study finds the following: Evidence suggests that a significant proportion of young people in Nepal engage in premarital sexual activities. For example, a previous study carried out in Nepal reported that only 15% of young boys engaged in premarital sexual intercourse. Similarly, a factory study conducted in Kathmandu showed that 35% of unmarried boys and 16% unmarried girls have experienced sex. A recent study carried out among college students of Kathmandu has found that almost 40% of young men reported premarital sex. These findings highlight that young people in Nepal start sexual activities at an early age and also suggest that this trend of prevalence of premarital sex among adolescent and young people have been increasing noticeably. Along with the rapid growth of premarital sex in many areas of the world are its terrible consequences and a great deal of money as well as resources losses. Undoubtedly, premarital sex is highly likely to result in unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infection(STI) including HIV. The following are some findings with regard the unplanned pregnancies in the United States: in 2006, 49% of pregnancies were unintended-a slight increase from 48% in 2001; among women aged 19 years and yonger, more than 4 out of 5 pregnancies were unintended; the proportion of pregnancies that were unintended was highest among teens younger than age 15 years, at 98%; between 2001 and 2006, the proportion of pregnancies that were unintended declined from 89% to 79% among teens aged 15-17 years while increased from 79% to 83% among women aged 18 and 19 years and from 59% to 64% among women aged 20-24 years(“Unintended Pregnancy Prevention,” 2011). As for the sexually transmitted diseases(STDs), prevalence estimates suggest that young people aged 15-24 years acquire half of all new STDs and that 1 in 4 sexually active adolescent females have an STD, such as chlamydia or human papillomavirus (HPV) (“2012 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance,” n.d). More specifically, in 2012, 1,002,692 cases of chlamydial infection were reported among persons under 25 years of age, representing 70% of all reported chlamydia cases. Rates of reported chlamydial infection are highest among persons aged 15-19 years and 20-24 years. For instance, in 2012, women aged 20-24years had the highest rate of chlamydia (3,695.5 cases per 100,000 females) compared with any other age and sex group
(“2012 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance,” n.d). As all of these statistics indicate the severity of the consequences resulting from premarital sex, I then begin examining the efforts of countering its bad effects. According to Jayson’s(2006) report on USA Today, the federal government clarified its guidelines for millions of dollars in 2007 federal money to the states for abstinence-only programs. Also, by browsing some disease control websites like the www.cdc.gov, I notice there is plenty of information regarding STDs intervention and prevention programs, HIV and HPV testing programs and sex education on it. Therefore, I assume the United States has already spent lots of money fixing the problem of premarital sex. However, merely spending money on testing and curing the diseases is not sufficient to resolve the problem inherently. In order to effectively control the spread of STDs or the increasing rate of unplanned pregnancies, the government is supposed to allot time and resources supporting programs, which encourage adolescents and young adults to say no to sex before marriage. Unlike America, China performed really poor in terms of sex education and some intervention strategies. Several findings of a survey, released by the Global Times showed that 95.6% of those questioned had no correct knowledge of sexual and re-productive health, while 14.4 percent knew about HIV transmission and prevention (Fu Wen& Kang Juan, 2010). According to the survey, over 50 percent said they didn’t use contraceptive methods during their first sexual encounter, and, among females who had been sexually active, 21.3 percent became accidentally pregnant, of whom 91 percent resorted to abortion (Fu Wen& Kang Juan, 2010). Even though we do not know exactly how much money China have spent on fixing the issue of premarital sex, we could possibly assume that China doesn’t spend much on it based upon the finding of the survey mentioned above. If the issue of premarital sex could be addressed properly and successfully, the whole society is likely to benefit from it at the same time. Say, adolescents and young adults would no longer suffer from the threats of unplanned pregnancies and STDs; parents would have fewer worries towards their child; government would have much more budget to spend on other issues.
Target Population
As encouraging unmarried Chinese female undergraduate and graduate students who believe in Jesus Christ from the Lansing Chinese Christian Church specifically ranging from 18 to 26, to against the behavior of premarital sex would be the purpose of my campaign; this group of individuals obviously serves as my primary target. According to my survey, currently there are 43 eligible people in the Lansing Chinese Christian Church, which means my primary target audience would be 43 people. Firstly, individuals aging from 18 to 26 are more impulsive during that stage due to the less developed maturity either in their physical body or mental status; therefore, this age group is more likely to engage in sexual activities once they get tempted by a wide range of sexual stimulus. With insufficient knowledge of safe sex, they are easily to contract the sexually transmitted diseases or get pregnant, all of which are sufficient to tear their life apart heavily. Secondly, as the phenomenon of premarital sex largely exists among college students, specifically, underrate and graduate students, they should be paid significant attention to. Thirdly, according to Christianity, the behavior of premarital sex is not allowed for Christians. Finally, since there’s only one Chinese church in East Lansing which is Lansing Chinese Christian Church, most of the Chinese Jesus Christ followers would gather in the only Chinese church frequently, making it easy for me to target them. I would also choose unmarried Chinese female undergraduate and graduate students who claim to be Jesus Christ seekers from the Lansing Chinese Christian Church as my secondary target. My survey finds that there are 23 eligible individuals from the Church. Seekers are different from followers for they don’t fully trust in God. However, since they are willing to seek the truth of God and are able to patiently listen to the gospel, they are potential Christians. So from that sense, these seekers are very likely to buy into my philosophy. Approaches as how to reach those targets are required as soon as the target audience is identified. When it comes to communicating with target audience, segmentation is usually considered a perfect recommendation. Multiple marketing theories suggest that by appropriately segmenting your audience, marketers are able to get a deep understanding of customers’ wants and needs, effectively distribute different products to different segments and greatly maximize the use of available resources. Logically, this sound commercial marketing method also could be applied to the field of social marketing. For example, in this particular social marketing campaign, the purpose of using segmentation approach is to gain effectiveness of reaching the primary and secondary targets and efficiency of getting across the idea of anti premarital sex. There are many ways to segment targets, say, geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioral segmentation are the common methods when conducting a marketing segmentation strategy. Considering the target audience of my campaign, I intend to take demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioral segmentation as a combination when crafting the audience target strategy. Within a demographic segmentation, factors like age, gender, religion, education and nationality are supposed to be taken into account. As far as age is concerned, individuals aging from 18 to 26 are less likely to be fully aware of the bad consequences regarding premarital sex and the true meaning of sex. In that case, the intervention strategy that mainly focuses on the education of safe sex and the terrible results of premarital sex like unintended pregnancies and the STDs is supposed to be introduced. Meanwhile, instilling into them proper values with regard to marriage and true love would also be the major emphasis. In terms of gender, females would be more easily convinced by emotional messages such as a moving testimony from someone else that sharing a lot of similarities with them. In that scenario, a plausible argument with well-organized and rational evidence would appear less effective. So a message with emotional factors would be carefully considered. With regard to religions, religious people are inclined to base their decisions on their faith, so messages centered in scriptures from the Bible are more likely to please Christians. In addition, fear appeal method may not work for individuals with high education background due to the fact that this group of people is likely to make their decision after weighing the cons and pros of the issue; therefore messages with scientific justifications would better fit them. Finally, in terms of nationality, Facebook and Twitter may play a dominant role in delivering messages to Americans while RenRen and Weibo perhaps function well in spreading the message for Chinese. Thus in my campaign, RenRen and Weibo would be the primary social networking for message distributing. In contrast to demographic segmentation, a psychographic segmentation deals with social status, lifestyle and personality. Therefore, a comprehensive and deep research regarding the concerns, perceptions, motives, and reasons of engaging in premarital sex activities among the target audience is needed when conducting this kind of method. According to a survey conducted by Tsinghua Media Survey Lab at Tsinghua University, 33.7 percent of 1,013 respondents perceive sex as a basic need, which has nothing to do with morality (Wang Qingyun, 2012). Furthermore, Li Yinhe, a Chinese sexologist explains the growing increase in premarital sex within China: “First, the purpose of sex has changed. Giving birth is no longer the sole valid reason. Second, there is a strong desire for sex from adolescence, before people reach marriageable age, and adolescence tends to begin earlier nowadays. Also, when the crime of ‘hooliganism’ was removed from the Criminal Law in 1997, sex out of wedlock went from being a crime just a personal choice.”(Wang Qingyun, 2012). After talking with part of my primary and secondary targets regarding their views about sex, relationships and marriage, I find out that most of women regard sex as a catalyst or preservative for their relationship between them and their boyfriends. Some even think that sex is the best evidence to show the degree of love between the two people. Based upon the results above, I would carefully develop a campaign to correct their values about sex and love in order to help them establish a proper thinking pattern of sex. Another important segmentation I plan to use is behavioral segmentation, which is based upon attitudes. For instance, when targeting audience who are in the stage of contemplation, which means people aware that a problem exists and are seriously thinking about overcoming it but have not yet made a commitment to take action, a careful report of the weighing of the pros and cons of premarital sex and possible solutions to it should be prepared (Prochaska & DiClemente & Norcross, 1992). When targeting those remaining in the maintenance stage where people work to prevent relapse and consolidate the gains attained during action, interventions regarding stabilizing behavior change and avoiding relapse are required (Prochaska & DiClemente & Norcross, 1992). Assisted with demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioral segmentation, the idea of anti-premarital sex is likely to get effectively and efficiently spreaded.
Campaign Objectives
In general, premarital sex refers to sexual behaviors conducted by unmarried individuals. There are multiple definitions of sexual behaviors. Usually, sexual behaviors are regarded as penetrative sex, which is widely known as vaginal, anal or oral sexual activity. Strictly speaking, non-penetrative sex such as frottage, mutual masturbation, kissing and cuddling would also be included in the definition. However, upon at this time in my campaign, I would choose a broad definition of sexual behaviors as my targeted behavior. Put differently, the targeted behavior would be any types of penetrative sex, which is likely to result in pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases practiced by unmarried people. As mentioned in the target population part, my target audience consists of unmarried Chinese female undergraduate and graduate students who are either Christians or Seekers from the Chinese Lansing Church ranging from 18 to 26, my campaign goal is that my three-month campaign ends up with those among this group of individuals, who haven’t experience premarital sex before voluntarily rejecting the behavior of premarital sex and those who have already engaged in it voluntarily stopping the behavior. In order to achieve the goal, I intend to use the theory of reasoned action and the health belief model to have my targeted audience in favor of my campaign. The following are my specific objectives with respect to my campaign.
1. 60 percent target audiences tend to believe the fact that engaging in premarital sex would result in unplanned pregnancies during the three-month campaign.
2. 60 percent target audiences tend to believe the fact that engaging in premarital sex would lead to infections of the STDs during the three-month campaign.
3. 80 percent of the targeted audience would agree to the conclusion that males and females tend to feel less responsible for their marriage because of premarital sex. Examples of less responsible performances are low level of loyalty and trust between couples, less investments of emotional interactions, and a propensity of using divorce as a solution for the problems existed in marriage after the three-month campaign.
4. Among the Seekers being targeted, there would be 80 percent of the Seekers don’t accept the behavior of premarital sex after the three-month campaign.
5. Among the Christians being targeted, there would be 100 percent of the Christians don’t accept the behavior of premarital sex after the three-month campaign.
6. There would be 100% of the primary target audience would perceive premarital sex as a guilty pleasure after the three-month campaign.
7. There would be 50% of the secondary target audience would perceive premarital sex as a guilty pleasure after the three-month campaign.
8. The awareness of believing premarital sex as a serious problem among the target audience would be increased by 21% within three month.
9. There would be 100% of the primary target audience would regard premarital sex as a sexual temptation after the three-month campaign.
10. There would be 50% of the secondary target audience would regard premarital sex as a sexual temptation after the three-month campaign.
11. 80 percent of the targeted audience who consider premarital sex a sexual temptation would come to an agreement that they are able to overcome sexual temptation after the three-month campaign.
12. There would be 50% of the target audience would spread the message that all of us should be against premarital sex to their friends or classmates by posting or retweeting the campaign related message on their social network such as Weibo and Renren within the three-month campaign.
Intervention Strategy A social marketing campaign would be brilliantly crafted and carefully executed in order to achieve the objectives mentioned before. The name of the campaign would be “Go Away, Satan!” Also, the campaign would be last three months. As I plan to run the campaign in the Lansing Chinese Christian Church, I am supposed to get the church approve and support it. Therefore, before officially launching the campaign, I would firstly contact with the Lansing Chinese Christian Church and talk with those in charge of the church as well as the venue about my campaign. Regarding how to achieve the campaign objectives mentioned before, at the beginning of my campaign, I would make a 30-seconds ad centering on non-Christians’ responses towards a unmarried female Christian who is pregnant, hand out free T-shirts which are printed with three lies of premarital sex in the front as well as several scriptures regarding anti-premarital sex from the Bible in the back, and upload a ten-minite video regarding a male’s mindset of sex and love on Youtube, all of which, I guess would help achieve the objectives set before. Apart from that, I would also invite pastor Jiarong Peng to give a 30 minutes speech concerning the issue of premarital sex after the regular sermon on Sunday. Say, the first week’s speech would focus on the bad consequences of premarital sex; the speech topic for the second week would be dating and true love; the third week’s speech would concentrate on how to overcome sexual temptation. Then, for the next four weeks, there would be four Chinese female Christians to share their stories regarding their experiences of dealing with sexual temptation respectively. In the following three weeks, I would have a Chinese male atheist and two Chinese male Christians deliver speeches regarding their views towards love, sex and females respectively. Finally, I intend to hold two discussions during the remaining two weeks. The first discussion aims to collect the feedback from my target audience by listening to their feelings, thoughts and concerns with regard to the previous weeks’ speech. For the second discussion, the former guest speakers would be invited to participate in the conversation and answer the questions asked by the target audience. In addition, a certain amount of the book “Sex is Not the Problem (Lust is): Sexual Purity in a Lust-Saturated World,” which is in regards with suggestions of resisting premarital sex are prepared for the target audience in order to help them digest what they learn from the campaign and encourage them to dig more deeply after the campaign. The theory of reasoned action and the health belief model would be used to drive my strategy. More specifically, the product that I am going to sell is the behavior of saving sex for marriage. Firstly, the product is designed for unmarried female Christians and potential Christians. Secondly, in exchange for this product, customers need to go to church every week, attend bible study every week, read the bible as much as often and do prayers everyday. Obviously, the price of the product is way too cheap compared with its benefits consumers obtain. Thirdly, the benefits of the product would be a zero percent possibility of contracting the STDs, a zero percent possibility of being an unwed mother, a high possibility of happy marriage, a great experience of true love and a great way to honor god. One of the significant characteristics of the product is that there are no side effects of the product. Also, the benefits of the product are never short-term effects; once you purchase it, its benefits are likely to be valid for a lifetime.
In terms of the promotion of the product, there are exactly three messages that I would like to get across. The first message is that: it’s way easy for us to get the 20 percent of pleasure at the expense of 80 percent of happiness; be a wise woman and never sacrifice your 80 percent of happiness in exchange for the pleasure of premarital sex. The creation of this message is based upon the health belief model, which rests on individuals’ ability to weigh risk, benefits and barriers (Cohen, Shumate & Gold, 2007). For my campaign, the basic rule of applying this model is to instill a plentiful of perceived benefits of resisting premarital sex into the target audience and provide them with concrete steps to take action. In this message, the benefit of resisting premarital sex is obtaining 80 percent of happiness, the risk is losing the 80 percent of happiness, and the barrier is the lure of the 20 percent of pleasure. Event Marketing would be used to deliver the message. Say, I would invite the pastor from the Lansing Chinese Christian Church to give relevant speeches to the target audience. Contents such as the triangular model of love, the sticky note metaphor, and god’s purpose of designing sex would be covered in the speeches. According to the triangular model of love, both the husband and wife have an individual relationship with God as well as a close relationship with each other and if one of the spouses is growing closer to God and the other is not, the triangle’s shape gets out of balance, which suggests that the spiritual aspects of marriage is the most intimate part of marriage because out of it all other aspects of the relationship are developed (The Antioch Group Inc., 2004). According to the sticky note metaphor, the more often we engage in premarital sex, the less likely we are able to adhere to one relationship. According to the Bible, god designs sex and demands people to enjoy the pleasure of sex within marriage. Another part of event marketing would be four Chinese female Christians’ testimony sharing. For example, two of them focus on what they lose after engaging in premarital sex; the others mainly talk about what they obtain for refusing premarital sex. Before holding these speeches and testimony sharing, I would post the information on the Facebook, Weibo and RenRen, Which my target audiences use frequently. Also, a certain amount of flyers containing the speech and testimony information would be handed out ahead of time. Guided by the theory of reasoned action, I am luckily to come up with the second message, which is never claim to be a Christian if you let Satan dwells in your life. According to the theory of reasoned action, individuals are likely to take preventive recommendations towards a certain kind of behavior based upon their intentions of the behavior ether formed by their own knowledge and observations or influenced by other people’s perceptions (Cohen, Shumate & Gold, 2007). This theory provides me with two routes of persuasion, which are individual attitude and social norms. In this message, I use the social norms as the persuasion route. The message aims to remind Christians that being a Christians doesn’t mean to just say to others: “I am Christian,” it means obeying God’s discipline. In order to properly get across the message, I would make a 30-seconds ad centering on non-Christians’ responses towards two unmarried Christians engaging in premarital sex and hand out free T-shirts which are printed with three lies of premarital sex in the front as well as several scriptures regarding anti-premarital sex from the Bible in the back. In the ad, there are a man and a woman talking about their feelings after having sex with each other. Both of them are unmarried Christians. The man said to the woman: “how do you feel?” The woman said: “awesome!” However, three non-Christians heard their conversation. One said confusedly: “Wait, aren’t they Christians?” The second one cried loudly:” No way, are you kidding me, they are not Christians, definitely not!” The third person laughed and said to the other two: “Don’t make a fuss of them, probably there’s a new version of the Bible, wow, being a Christian is a cool thing, you know what, I’m gonna get baptized tomorrow” At the end of the ad, the message that never claim to be a Christian if you let Satan dwells in your life would appear in the screen in the form of subtitle. This ad uses a humor appeal to tell Christians how would other people perceive them if they don’t do what the Bible requires them to do. The ad would be uploaded to Youtube, Facebook and RenRen. In terms of the free T-shirt, the three lies in the front would be: the scriptures on sexual purity are outdated and archaic (Schutte, 2008), sex produces intimacy (Schutte, 2008), and sex helps you determine compatibility (Schutte, 2008). Also, the word “Lies” should be printed in large fonts. There would be four scriptures printed in the back on the T-shirt, which are Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous, Thessalonians 4:3-5 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to control his own body in honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it, and Corinthians 6:18-20 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Handing out these T-shirts serves two purposes, on the one hand, it reminds Christians not to challenge the Bible; on the other hand, it stimulates them to think about the lies; once they have doubts on them, they are likely to talk about them with the pastor. Thus, they are able to better understand the issue. Besides, these T-shirts are likely to attract many seekers or non-Christians to think about the issue. The last message I want to communicate with my target audience is that: If he requests to have sex with you, you are definitely not the one he wants to marry, he’s just not that into you This message is still based upon the theory of reasoned action. Unlike the second message, this one uses a different persuasion route, which is the individual attitude. In most of the cases, males are able to separate sex with love, which means they could have sex with women whom they don’t plan to develop a long-term relationship with. However, not every woman is able to discover this secret. On the contrary, a lot of females engage in premarital sex with a ridiculous illusion that the man would commit to them forever. As it is a common reason for females getting involved in premarital sex, I tend to help my target audience understand and detect males’ motives, purposes and thoughts about sex and love by making and uploading a ten-minite video regarding a male’s mindset of sex and love on Youtube, inviting three males, an atheist and two Christians, to share their opinions with my target audience, and holding a discussion to provide suggestions of overcoming sexual temptations. Firstly, in the video, there would be three characters, a man and two women. The man would describe one female whom he had sex with as his short-term girlfriend and the other whom he never had sex with his long-tern girlfriend. In the middle of the video, the man would tell you why he should do this and the video would end up with the following words: Are you his long-tern girlfriend or short-term girlfriend? Think about it. How do you know? The golden rule is that if he requests to have sex with you, you are definitely not the one he wants to marry, he’s just not that into you! Secondly, the three males’ testimony sharing would concentrate on their personal experience of dating. Finally, the discussion centering on a book, which is “Sex is Not the Problem (Lust is): Sexual Purity in a Lust-Saturated World,” would be held to motivate the target audience to resist premarital sex.
Campaign Evaluation
The purpose of doing the campaign evaluation is to determine whether our preset campaign objectives are met after the campaign and gain a wealth of experience to guide our future campaigns. A two-minite Pre-post survey questionnaire, five-minite phone interviews, and click through rate as well as social media comments monitoring would be used to test the achievement of the stated objectives. In order to encourage all of the target audience to complete the survey questionnaires, I would make the process of completing the survey as simple of possible. On one hand, the form of the questionnaire is simple, say, survey questions in relation to the relationship between premarital sex and the STDs, unplanned pregnancies, marriage are likely to be designed in the form of simple-choice questions with three choices. For example: “Is it true that engaging in premarital sex would result in unplanned pregnancies?” The three choices are “yes,” “no,” and “I don’t know.” Also, questions regarding acceptance and perceptions of premarital sex would be assessed through some open-ended questions. For example: “Do you accept the behavior of premarital sex and why?” ”Do you perceive premarital sex as a sexual temptation?” On the other, the questionnaire is likely to be completed in two minites. In order to make a comparison before and after the campaign, questions for the pre-survey questionnaire and the pro-survey questionnaire are the same. The pre-survey questionnaires would be handed out to the target audience when they attend the Lansing Chinese Christian Church one Sunday at the beginning of the campaign. And the pro-survey questionnaires would be given out to the same group of individuals after the campaign. Unlike the two-minite pre-post survey questionnaire, a five-minite phone interview would be used to assess the recipients’ ability to recall and understand the three campaign messages. The phone interview would be conducted after the campaign. In order to effectively conduct the interview, I would schedule a time with each target audience at their convenience before doing the interview. By asking them questions relating to the pastors’ gospel, the ad, the video, the T-shirts and the book, I am able to know whether the messages reach to them or not and whether the messages are decoded correctly by them or not. Finally, by monitoring the click through rate as well as the social media comments of the ad and the video being uploaded on YouTube, Facebook, Weibo and RenRen, I am likely to measure the impact of my campaign. More specifically, a high click through rate suggests the ad or the video has been viewed by many people; the tone of the social media comments suggests how much the audience like the campaign.
Campaign Budget Plan
The estimated campaign budget is $27,450.488.
Category
Estimated Quantity
Estimated Cost per Unit
Estimated Subtotal
Notes
Event
Number of Attendees
80
Meal (dinner, fruit and beverage, include tax)
$25.00
Number of Times
12
Meal Costs Subtotal
$24,000.00
Pastor
1
Speech
3
$60.00
$180.00
Guest Speakers
9
$15.00
$135.00
Venue
1
$0.00
Provided by the Lansing Chinese Christian Church
Event Costs Subtotal
$24,315.00
Promotions
T-shirts
80
$10.00
$800.00
Books
80
$7.22
$577.6
Flyers
$150.00
Survey Questionnaires
160
$0.05
$8.00
Advertising
Number of Characters
5
Performance Expenses
$15.00
Production
$0.00
Friends can help
Broadcasting
$0.00
Free social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Weibo and RenRen
Advertising Costs Subtotal
$75.00
Video
Number of Characters
3
Performance Expenses
$15.00
Production
$0.00
Friends can help
Broadcasting
$0.00
Free social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Weibo and RenRen
Video Costs Subtotal
$45.00
Promotion Costs Subtotal
$1,655.60
Additional Costs
Vehicle Costs
$1,299.888
Phone Charges
$180.00
Additional Costs Subtotal
$1,479.888
The Estimated Campaign Budget
$27,450.488
References
Elisia, L.C., Michelle, D. S., & Abby, G. (2007). Anti-Smoking Media Campaign Messages: Theory and Practice. Journal of Health Communication, 22, 91-102.
Elizabeth, Myer. B. and Matthew, Myer. B(2011). Sacramental Sex. Journal of the Christian Century, 128.6, 28-31.
Fu, Wen., Kang, Juan. (2010). Sex Education Failing Young People: Survey. Retrieved from http://www.globaltimes.cn/china/society/2010-05/528555.html
Globaltimes.cn.(2012). Topic April 9: Increase in Rate of Premarital Sex With New Generation. Retrieved from http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/703933/Topic-April-9-Increase-in-rate-of-pre-marital-sex-with-new-generation.aspx
Kotler, P. (1971). The Elements of Social Action. Journal of American Behavioral Scientist, 14, 691-715.
Mike. (2012). 4 Cool Statistics About Abstinence in the USA. Retrieved from http://waitingtillmarriage.org/4-cool-statistics-about-abstinence-in-the-usa/
Pramod, R. R., Padam, Simkhada, Edwin, R. T.(2010). There Are Too Many Naked Pictures Found in Papers and on The Net: Factors Encouraging Premarital Sex Among Young People of Nepal. Journal of Health Science Journal, 4, 169-181.
“Premarital sex – why are Christians so strongly against it.” (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.gotquestions.org/citation.html#ixzz2xMXn0a8G Prochaska, J. O., DiClemente, C. C., Norcross, J. C.(1992). In Search of How People Change. Journal of American Psychologist, 47, 1102-1114.
Shana, Schutte. (2008). Three Lies About Premarital Sex. Retrieved from http://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/christian_singles/being_single_and_faithful/three_lies_about_sex_before_marriage.aspx
Sharon, Jayson. (2006). Most Americans Have Had Premarital Sex, Study Finds. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-12-19-premarital-sex_x.htm
The Antioch Group Inc. (2004). The Triangular Model of Love. Retrieved from http://antiochgroup.com/resources/handouts/triangularModel.html
“2012 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance.” (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats12/adol.htm
“Unintened Pregnancy Prevenion.” (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/Reproductivehealth/UnintendedPregnancy/ Wang Qingyun. (2012). Premarital Sex Is Common, Survey Finds. Retrieved from http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-04/10/content_15011177.htm
“What does the Bible say about sex before marriage?” (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.gotquestions.org/sex-before-marriage.html Zou, Le.(2012). 70 Percent of People Have Pre-marital Sex: Study. Retrieved from http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/703862/70-pct-of-people-have-pre-marital-sex-study.aspx
References: Elisia, L.C., Michelle, D. S., & Abby, G. (2007). Anti-Smoking Media Campaign Messages: Theory and Practice. Journal of Health Communication, 22, 91-102. Elizabeth, Myer. B. and Matthew, Myer. B(2011). Sacramental Sex. Journal of the Christian Century, 128.6, 28-31. Fu, Wen., Kang, Juan. (2010). Sex Education Failing Young People: Survey. Retrieved from http://www.globaltimes.cn/china/society/2010-05/528555.html Globaltimes.cn.(2012) Kotler, P. (1971). The Elements of Social Action. Journal of American Behavioral Scientist, 14, 691-715. Mike. (2012). 4 Cool Statistics About Abstinence in the USA. Retrieved from http://waitingtillmarriage.org/4-cool-statistics-about-abstinence-in-the-usa/ Pramod, R Prochaska, J. O., DiClemente, C. C., Norcross, J. C.(1992). In Search of How People Change. Journal of American Psychologist, 47, 1102-1114. Shana, Schutte. (2008). Three Lies About Premarital Sex. Retrieved from http://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/christian_singles/being_single_and_faithful/three_lies_about_sex_before_marriage.aspx Sharon, Jayson The Antioch Group Inc. (2004). The Triangular Model of Love. Retrieved from http://antiochgroup.com/resources/handouts/triangularModel.html “2012 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance.” (n.d) Wang Qingyun. (2012). Premarital Sex Is Common, Survey Finds. Retrieved from http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-04/10/content_15011177.htm “What does the Bible say about sex before marriage?” (n.d) http://www.gotquestions.org/sex-before-marriage.html Zou, Le.(2012)
Willing HU
Michigan State University
Problem Statement
Based upon my personal observations and research regarding premarital sex as well as my knowledge with regard to social marketing, I plan to do a campaign about anti premarital sex. I consider it an applicable social marketing campaign for the following reasons. Firstly, according to Kotler’s(1971) definition of social problem, a specific condition in society, which is viewed apprehensively, or distastefully by some of its members and which is thought to be susceptible to mitigation or elimination through collective effort, I think premarital sex falls into this category for it is indeed an apprehensive and distasteful issue given its prevalence and bad consequences it brings to adolescents and young adults. Secondly, as many abstinence-until-marriage education and programs being promoted within the society, the general public have already perceived the potential threat of sex before marriage, therefore, it’s not that hard for us to get their attention. In addition, with a series of solutions and intervention methods being proposed, I am pretty sure my campaign objectives, which aim at changing young adults’ behavior, are attainable. Finally, multiple commercial tools and techniques make the execution of my campaign available. In terms of my observations, when I was doing my undergraduate study in China, I observed that there was at least 60 percent of my classmates had experienced premarital sex during their college life. I didn’t regard it as a serious problem until some of my friends had been greatly affected by this issue. More specifically, one of my female friends contracted one kind of the sex-transmitted diseases (the STDs) after having sex with her boyfriend. Her life was totally messed up by the disease. Say, she spent a lot of time counseling doctors regarding her status, worried that her disease was incurable and hardly failed all her courses during that year. Another friend of mine also experienced a set of terrible consequences with premarital sex. Instead of contracting the STDs, she experienced the accidental pregnancies and both her mental state as well as physical state was badly affected by the abortion. According to my knowledge, sex is one of the most wonderful pleasure and precious gift designed and created by god. I assume that many people have already experienced the pleasing feeling of this gift from god; however, most of them may not be aware of the fact that this type of joy is only allowed to be enjoyed within the boundaries of marriage and have widely broadened its effect beyond marriage; surely there are many individuals who are well conscious of god’s calling but still choose to disobey him. The Bible makes clear the issue that premarital sex is something that we human beings should strongly against for. Premarital sex involves any kind of sexual contact prior to entering into a legal marriage relationship; there are, in general, two contexts for premarital sex, one is the “we love each other and are committed to each other, but just don’t want to wait to be married” sexual relationship, the other is the “casual sex.”(“Premarital sex-why are Christians so strongly against it?” n.d). The former type of premarital sex is usually accepted and practiced by many people for the idea that marriage is just a matter of time. By this logic, there’s no appropriate framework or requirements regarding the nature of the relationship between them. Stated another way, once it becomes acceptable, any exra-marital sex would also be accepted soon. As for the causal sex, there is no doubt the more one engages in it, the more he or she would lose of himself or herself. Moreover, if the Bible’s message on sex were obeyed, there would be far fewer sexually transmitted diseases, far fewer abortions, far fewer unwed mothers and unwanted pregnancies, and far fewer children growing up without both parents in their lives. Abstinence is God’s only policy when it comes to sex before marriage. Abstinence saves lives, protects babies, gives sexual relations the proper value, and, most importantly, honors God(“What does the Bible say about sex before marriage?” n.d). Aside from my personal observations and knowledge regarding sex before marriage, there are multiple statistics as well as research results suggest that premarital sex is something that need to be tackled immediately. Mike’s(2012) study finds that there is only 11% of modern 25-year-olds have not had premarital sex in the United States, and if higher ages are included, the percentage goes down to the 3% number. Mike(2012) also points out that 20% of the church members aged 25 or younger are married without ever having premarital sex. According to the Center for Disease Control’s 2009 data, nearly half of all high school students(46 percent) report already having had sexual intercourse, and one third of them report having had it in the previous three months(Elizabeth&Boulton, 2011). However, premarital sex is not a unique phenomenon in the United States, according to studies conducted by a Chinese sexologist Li Yinhe, figures from 1994 showed that only 40 percent of people had premarital sex, while the number was much lower back in 1989 at 15 percent (Zou Le, 2012). Even more shockingly, a report on the health of Chinese People’s Sex Life clearly shows that around 71.4 percent of the married couples have had premarital sex now, which is a 30 percent increase compared to statistics from 1994(Globaltimes.cn, 2012). The prevalence of premarital sex not only exists in some countries that widely tolerate this behavior like the United States and China but also lurks in other areas where sexuality is still perceived as taboo and any types of sexual activities outside marriage are not allowed such as Nepal. Regmi, Simkhada, and Teijlingen’s(2010) study finds the following: Evidence suggests that a significant proportion of young people in Nepal engage in premarital sexual activities. For example, a previous study carried out in Nepal reported that only 15% of young boys engaged in premarital sexual intercourse. Similarly, a factory study conducted in Kathmandu showed that 35% of unmarried boys and 16% unmarried girls have experienced sex. A recent study carried out among college students of Kathmandu has found that almost 40% of young men reported premarital sex. These findings highlight that young people in Nepal start sexual activities at an early age and also suggest that this trend of prevalence of premarital sex among adolescent and young people have been increasing noticeably. Along with the rapid growth of premarital sex in many areas of the world are its terrible consequences and a great deal of money as well as resources losses. Undoubtedly, premarital sex is highly likely to result in unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infection(STI) including HIV. The following are some findings with regard the unplanned pregnancies in the United States: in 2006, 49% of pregnancies were unintended-a slight increase from 48% in 2001; among women aged 19 years and yonger, more than 4 out of 5 pregnancies were unintended; the proportion of pregnancies that were unintended was highest among teens younger than age 15 years, at 98%; between 2001 and 2006, the proportion of pregnancies that were unintended declined from 89% to 79% among teens aged 15-17 years while increased from 79% to 83% among women aged 18 and 19 years and from 59% to 64% among women aged 20-24 years(“Unintended Pregnancy Prevention,” 2011). As for the sexually transmitted diseases(STDs), prevalence estimates suggest that young people aged 15-24 years acquire half of all new STDs and that 1 in 4 sexually active adolescent females have an STD, such as chlamydia or human papillomavirus (HPV) (“2012 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance,” n.d). More specifically, in 2012, 1,002,692 cases of chlamydial infection were reported among persons under 25 years of age, representing 70% of all reported chlamydia cases. Rates of reported chlamydial infection are highest among persons aged 15-19 years and 20-24 years. For instance, in 2012, women aged 20-24years had the highest rate of chlamydia (3,695.5 cases per 100,000 females) compared with any other age and sex group
(“2012 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance,” n.d). As all of these statistics indicate the severity of the consequences resulting from premarital sex, I then begin examining the efforts of countering its bad effects. According to Jayson’s(2006) report on USA Today, the federal government clarified its guidelines for millions of dollars in 2007 federal money to the states for abstinence-only programs. Also, by browsing some disease control websites like the www.cdc.gov, I notice there is plenty of information regarding STDs intervention and prevention programs, HIV and HPV testing programs and sex education on it. Therefore, I assume the United States has already spent lots of money fixing the problem of premarital sex. However, merely spending money on testing and curing the diseases is not sufficient to resolve the problem inherently. In order to effectively control the spread of STDs or the increasing rate of unplanned pregnancies, the government is supposed to allot time and resources supporting programs, which encourage adolescents and young adults to say no to sex before marriage. Unlike America, China performed really poor in terms of sex education and some intervention strategies. Several findings of a survey, released by the Global Times showed that 95.6% of those questioned had no correct knowledge of sexual and re-productive health, while 14.4 percent knew about HIV transmission and prevention (Fu Wen& Kang Juan, 2010). According to the survey, over 50 percent said they didn’t use contraceptive methods during their first sexual encounter, and, among females who had been sexually active, 21.3 percent became accidentally pregnant, of whom 91 percent resorted to abortion (Fu Wen& Kang Juan, 2010). Even though we do not know exactly how much money China have spent on fixing the issue of premarital sex, we could possibly assume that China doesn’t spend much on it based upon the finding of the survey mentioned above. If the issue of premarital sex could be addressed properly and successfully, the whole society is likely to benefit from it at the same time. Say, adolescents and young adults would no longer suffer from the threats of unplanned pregnancies and STDs; parents would have fewer worries towards their child; government would have much more budget to spend on other issues.
Target Population
As encouraging unmarried Chinese female undergraduate and graduate students who believe in Jesus Christ from the Lansing Chinese Christian Church specifically ranging from 18 to 26, to against the behavior of premarital sex would be the purpose of my campaign; this group of individuals obviously serves as my primary target. According to my survey, currently there are 43 eligible people in the Lansing Chinese Christian Church, which means my primary target audience would be 43 people. Firstly, individuals aging from 18 to 26 are more impulsive during that stage due to the less developed maturity either in their physical body or mental status; therefore, this age group is more likely to engage in sexual activities once they get tempted by a wide range of sexual stimulus. With insufficient knowledge of safe sex, they are easily to contract the sexually transmitted diseases or get pregnant, all of which are sufficient to tear their life apart heavily. Secondly, as the phenomenon of premarital sex largely exists among college students, specifically, underrate and graduate students, they should be paid significant attention to. Thirdly, according to Christianity, the behavior of premarital sex is not allowed for Christians. Finally, since there’s only one Chinese church in East Lansing which is Lansing Chinese Christian Church, most of the Chinese Jesus Christ followers would gather in the only Chinese church frequently, making it easy for me to target them. I would also choose unmarried Chinese female undergraduate and graduate students who claim to be Jesus Christ seekers from the Lansing Chinese Christian Church as my secondary target. My survey finds that there are 23 eligible individuals from the Church. Seekers are different from followers for they don’t fully trust in God. However, since they are willing to seek the truth of God and are able to patiently listen to the gospel, they are potential Christians. So from that sense, these seekers are very likely to buy into my philosophy. Approaches as how to reach those targets are required as soon as the target audience is identified. When it comes to communicating with target audience, segmentation is usually considered a perfect recommendation. Multiple marketing theories suggest that by appropriately segmenting your audience, marketers are able to get a deep understanding of customers’ wants and needs, effectively distribute different products to different segments and greatly maximize the use of available resources. Logically, this sound commercial marketing method also could be applied to the field of social marketing. For example, in this particular social marketing campaign, the purpose of using segmentation approach is to gain effectiveness of reaching the primary and secondary targets and efficiency of getting across the idea of anti premarital sex. There are many ways to segment targets, say, geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioral segmentation are the common methods when conducting a marketing segmentation strategy. Considering the target audience of my campaign, I intend to take demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioral segmentation as a combination when crafting the audience target strategy. Within a demographic segmentation, factors like age, gender, religion, education and nationality are supposed to be taken into account. As far as age is concerned, individuals aging from 18 to 26 are less likely to be fully aware of the bad consequences regarding premarital sex and the true meaning of sex. In that case, the intervention strategy that mainly focuses on the education of safe sex and the terrible results of premarital sex like unintended pregnancies and the STDs is supposed to be introduced. Meanwhile, instilling into them proper values with regard to marriage and true love would also be the major emphasis. In terms of gender, females would be more easily convinced by emotional messages such as a moving testimony from someone else that sharing a lot of similarities with them. In that scenario, a plausible argument with well-organized and rational evidence would appear less effective. So a message with emotional factors would be carefully considered. With regard to religions, religious people are inclined to base their decisions on their faith, so messages centered in scriptures from the Bible are more likely to please Christians. In addition, fear appeal method may not work for individuals with high education background due to the fact that this group of people is likely to make their decision after weighing the cons and pros of the issue; therefore messages with scientific justifications would better fit them. Finally, in terms of nationality, Facebook and Twitter may play a dominant role in delivering messages to Americans while RenRen and Weibo perhaps function well in spreading the message for Chinese. Thus in my campaign, RenRen and Weibo would be the primary social networking for message distributing. In contrast to demographic segmentation, a psychographic segmentation deals with social status, lifestyle and personality. Therefore, a comprehensive and deep research regarding the concerns, perceptions, motives, and reasons of engaging in premarital sex activities among the target audience is needed when conducting this kind of method. According to a survey conducted by Tsinghua Media Survey Lab at Tsinghua University, 33.7 percent of 1,013 respondents perceive sex as a basic need, which has nothing to do with morality (Wang Qingyun, 2012). Furthermore, Li Yinhe, a Chinese sexologist explains the growing increase in premarital sex within China: “First, the purpose of sex has changed. Giving birth is no longer the sole valid reason. Second, there is a strong desire for sex from adolescence, before people reach marriageable age, and adolescence tends to begin earlier nowadays. Also, when the crime of ‘hooliganism’ was removed from the Criminal Law in 1997, sex out of wedlock went from being a crime just a personal choice.”(Wang Qingyun, 2012). After talking with part of my primary and secondary targets regarding their views about sex, relationships and marriage, I find out that most of women regard sex as a catalyst or preservative for their relationship between them and their boyfriends. Some even think that sex is the best evidence to show the degree of love between the two people. Based upon the results above, I would carefully develop a campaign to correct their values about sex and love in order to help them establish a proper thinking pattern of sex. Another important segmentation I plan to use is behavioral segmentation, which is based upon attitudes. For instance, when targeting audience who are in the stage of contemplation, which means people aware that a problem exists and are seriously thinking about overcoming it but have not yet made a commitment to take action, a careful report of the weighing of the pros and cons of premarital sex and possible solutions to it should be prepared (Prochaska & DiClemente & Norcross, 1992). When targeting those remaining in the maintenance stage where people work to prevent relapse and consolidate the gains attained during action, interventions regarding stabilizing behavior change and avoiding relapse are required (Prochaska & DiClemente & Norcross, 1992). Assisted with demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioral segmentation, the idea of anti-premarital sex is likely to get effectively and efficiently spreaded.
Campaign Objectives
In general, premarital sex refers to sexual behaviors conducted by unmarried individuals. There are multiple definitions of sexual behaviors. Usually, sexual behaviors are regarded as penetrative sex, which is widely known as vaginal, anal or oral sexual activity. Strictly speaking, non-penetrative sex such as frottage, mutual masturbation, kissing and cuddling would also be included in the definition. However, upon at this time in my campaign, I would choose a broad definition of sexual behaviors as my targeted behavior. Put differently, the targeted behavior would be any types of penetrative sex, which is likely to result in pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases practiced by unmarried people. As mentioned in the target population part, my target audience consists of unmarried Chinese female undergraduate and graduate students who are either Christians or Seekers from the Chinese Lansing Church ranging from 18 to 26, my campaign goal is that my three-month campaign ends up with those among this group of individuals, who haven’t experience premarital sex before voluntarily rejecting the behavior of premarital sex and those who have already engaged in it voluntarily stopping the behavior. In order to achieve the goal, I intend to use the theory of reasoned action and the health belief model to have my targeted audience in favor of my campaign. The following are my specific objectives with respect to my campaign.
1. 60 percent target audiences tend to believe the fact that engaging in premarital sex would result in unplanned pregnancies during the three-month campaign.
2. 60 percent target audiences tend to believe the fact that engaging in premarital sex would lead to infections of the STDs during the three-month campaign.
3. 80 percent of the targeted audience would agree to the conclusion that males and females tend to feel less responsible for their marriage because of premarital sex. Examples of less responsible performances are low level of loyalty and trust between couples, less investments of emotional interactions, and a propensity of using divorce as a solution for the problems existed in marriage after the three-month campaign.
4. Among the Seekers being targeted, there would be 80 percent of the Seekers don’t accept the behavior of premarital sex after the three-month campaign.
5. Among the Christians being targeted, there would be 100 percent of the Christians don’t accept the behavior of premarital sex after the three-month campaign.
6. There would be 100% of the primary target audience would perceive premarital sex as a guilty pleasure after the three-month campaign.
7. There would be 50% of the secondary target audience would perceive premarital sex as a guilty pleasure after the three-month campaign.
8. The awareness of believing premarital sex as a serious problem among the target audience would be increased by 21% within three month.
9. There would be 100% of the primary target audience would regard premarital sex as a sexual temptation after the three-month campaign.
10. There would be 50% of the secondary target audience would regard premarital sex as a sexual temptation after the three-month campaign.
11. 80 percent of the targeted audience who consider premarital sex a sexual temptation would come to an agreement that they are able to overcome sexual temptation after the three-month campaign.
12. There would be 50% of the target audience would spread the message that all of us should be against premarital sex to their friends or classmates by posting or retweeting the campaign related message on their social network such as Weibo and Renren within the three-month campaign.
Intervention Strategy A social marketing campaign would be brilliantly crafted and carefully executed in order to achieve the objectives mentioned before. The name of the campaign would be “Go Away, Satan!” Also, the campaign would be last three months. As I plan to run the campaign in the Lansing Chinese Christian Church, I am supposed to get the church approve and support it. Therefore, before officially launching the campaign, I would firstly contact with the Lansing Chinese Christian Church and talk with those in charge of the church as well as the venue about my campaign. Regarding how to achieve the campaign objectives mentioned before, at the beginning of my campaign, I would make a 30-seconds ad centering on non-Christians’ responses towards a unmarried female Christian who is pregnant, hand out free T-shirts which are printed with three lies of premarital sex in the front as well as several scriptures regarding anti-premarital sex from the Bible in the back, and upload a ten-minite video regarding a male’s mindset of sex and love on Youtube, all of which, I guess would help achieve the objectives set before. Apart from that, I would also invite pastor Jiarong Peng to give a 30 minutes speech concerning the issue of premarital sex after the regular sermon on Sunday. Say, the first week’s speech would focus on the bad consequences of premarital sex; the speech topic for the second week would be dating and true love; the third week’s speech would concentrate on how to overcome sexual temptation. Then, for the next four weeks, there would be four Chinese female Christians to share their stories regarding their experiences of dealing with sexual temptation respectively. In the following three weeks, I would have a Chinese male atheist and two Chinese male Christians deliver speeches regarding their views towards love, sex and females respectively. Finally, I intend to hold two discussions during the remaining two weeks. The first discussion aims to collect the feedback from my target audience by listening to their feelings, thoughts and concerns with regard to the previous weeks’ speech. For the second discussion, the former guest speakers would be invited to participate in the conversation and answer the questions asked by the target audience. In addition, a certain amount of the book “Sex is Not the Problem (Lust is): Sexual Purity in a Lust-Saturated World,” which is in regards with suggestions of resisting premarital sex are prepared for the target audience in order to help them digest what they learn from the campaign and encourage them to dig more deeply after the campaign. The theory of reasoned action and the health belief model would be used to drive my strategy. More specifically, the product that I am going to sell is the behavior of saving sex for marriage. Firstly, the product is designed for unmarried female Christians and potential Christians. Secondly, in exchange for this product, customers need to go to church every week, attend bible study every week, read the bible as much as often and do prayers everyday. Obviously, the price of the product is way too cheap compared with its benefits consumers obtain. Thirdly, the benefits of the product would be a zero percent possibility of contracting the STDs, a zero percent possibility of being an unwed mother, a high possibility of happy marriage, a great experience of true love and a great way to honor god. One of the significant characteristics of the product is that there are no side effects of the product. Also, the benefits of the product are never short-term effects; once you purchase it, its benefits are likely to be valid for a lifetime.
In terms of the promotion of the product, there are exactly three messages that I would like to get across. The first message is that: it’s way easy for us to get the 20 percent of pleasure at the expense of 80 percent of happiness; be a wise woman and never sacrifice your 80 percent of happiness in exchange for the pleasure of premarital sex. The creation of this message is based upon the health belief model, which rests on individuals’ ability to weigh risk, benefits and barriers (Cohen, Shumate & Gold, 2007). For my campaign, the basic rule of applying this model is to instill a plentiful of perceived benefits of resisting premarital sex into the target audience and provide them with concrete steps to take action. In this message, the benefit of resisting premarital sex is obtaining 80 percent of happiness, the risk is losing the 80 percent of happiness, and the barrier is the lure of the 20 percent of pleasure. Event Marketing would be used to deliver the message. Say, I would invite the pastor from the Lansing Chinese Christian Church to give relevant speeches to the target audience. Contents such as the triangular model of love, the sticky note metaphor, and god’s purpose of designing sex would be covered in the speeches. According to the triangular model of love, both the husband and wife have an individual relationship with God as well as a close relationship with each other and if one of the spouses is growing closer to God and the other is not, the triangle’s shape gets out of balance, which suggests that the spiritual aspects of marriage is the most intimate part of marriage because out of it all other aspects of the relationship are developed (The Antioch Group Inc., 2004). According to the sticky note metaphor, the more often we engage in premarital sex, the less likely we are able to adhere to one relationship. According to the Bible, god designs sex and demands people to enjoy the pleasure of sex within marriage. Another part of event marketing would be four Chinese female Christians’ testimony sharing. For example, two of them focus on what they lose after engaging in premarital sex; the others mainly talk about what they obtain for refusing premarital sex. Before holding these speeches and testimony sharing, I would post the information on the Facebook, Weibo and RenRen, Which my target audiences use frequently. Also, a certain amount of flyers containing the speech and testimony information would be handed out ahead of time. Guided by the theory of reasoned action, I am luckily to come up with the second message, which is never claim to be a Christian if you let Satan dwells in your life. According to the theory of reasoned action, individuals are likely to take preventive recommendations towards a certain kind of behavior based upon their intentions of the behavior ether formed by their own knowledge and observations or influenced by other people’s perceptions (Cohen, Shumate & Gold, 2007). This theory provides me with two routes of persuasion, which are individual attitude and social norms. In this message, I use the social norms as the persuasion route. The message aims to remind Christians that being a Christians doesn’t mean to just say to others: “I am Christian,” it means obeying God’s discipline. In order to properly get across the message, I would make a 30-seconds ad centering on non-Christians’ responses towards two unmarried Christians engaging in premarital sex and hand out free T-shirts which are printed with three lies of premarital sex in the front as well as several scriptures regarding anti-premarital sex from the Bible in the back. In the ad, there are a man and a woman talking about their feelings after having sex with each other. Both of them are unmarried Christians. The man said to the woman: “how do you feel?” The woman said: “awesome!” However, three non-Christians heard their conversation. One said confusedly: “Wait, aren’t they Christians?” The second one cried loudly:” No way, are you kidding me, they are not Christians, definitely not!” The third person laughed and said to the other two: “Don’t make a fuss of them, probably there’s a new version of the Bible, wow, being a Christian is a cool thing, you know what, I’m gonna get baptized tomorrow” At the end of the ad, the message that never claim to be a Christian if you let Satan dwells in your life would appear in the screen in the form of subtitle. This ad uses a humor appeal to tell Christians how would other people perceive them if they don’t do what the Bible requires them to do. The ad would be uploaded to Youtube, Facebook and RenRen. In terms of the free T-shirt, the three lies in the front would be: the scriptures on sexual purity are outdated and archaic (Schutte, 2008), sex produces intimacy (Schutte, 2008), and sex helps you determine compatibility (Schutte, 2008). Also, the word “Lies” should be printed in large fonts. There would be four scriptures printed in the back on the T-shirt, which are Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous, Thessalonians 4:3-5 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to control his own body in honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it, and Corinthians 6:18-20 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Handing out these T-shirts serves two purposes, on the one hand, it reminds Christians not to challenge the Bible; on the other hand, it stimulates them to think about the lies; once they have doubts on them, they are likely to talk about them with the pastor. Thus, they are able to better understand the issue. Besides, these T-shirts are likely to attract many seekers or non-Christians to think about the issue. The last message I want to communicate with my target audience is that: If he requests to have sex with you, you are definitely not the one he wants to marry, he’s just not that into you This message is still based upon the theory of reasoned action. Unlike the second message, this one uses a different persuasion route, which is the individual attitude. In most of the cases, males are able to separate sex with love, which means they could have sex with women whom they don’t plan to develop a long-term relationship with. However, not every woman is able to discover this secret. On the contrary, a lot of females engage in premarital sex with a ridiculous illusion that the man would commit to them forever. As it is a common reason for females getting involved in premarital sex, I tend to help my target audience understand and detect males’ motives, purposes and thoughts about sex and love by making and uploading a ten-minite video regarding a male’s mindset of sex and love on Youtube, inviting three males, an atheist and two Christians, to share their opinions with my target audience, and holding a discussion to provide suggestions of overcoming sexual temptations. Firstly, in the video, there would be three characters, a man and two women. The man would describe one female whom he had sex with as his short-term girlfriend and the other whom he never had sex with his long-tern girlfriend. In the middle of the video, the man would tell you why he should do this and the video would end up with the following words: Are you his long-tern girlfriend or short-term girlfriend? Think about it. How do you know? The golden rule is that if he requests to have sex with you, you are definitely not the one he wants to marry, he’s just not that into you! Secondly, the three males’ testimony sharing would concentrate on their personal experience of dating. Finally, the discussion centering on a book, which is “Sex is Not the Problem (Lust is): Sexual Purity in a Lust-Saturated World,” would be held to motivate the target audience to resist premarital sex.
Campaign Evaluation
The purpose of doing the campaign evaluation is to determine whether our preset campaign objectives are met after the campaign and gain a wealth of experience to guide our future campaigns. A two-minite Pre-post survey questionnaire, five-minite phone interviews, and click through rate as well as social media comments monitoring would be used to test the achievement of the stated objectives. In order to encourage all of the target audience to complete the survey questionnaires, I would make the process of completing the survey as simple of possible. On one hand, the form of the questionnaire is simple, say, survey questions in relation to the relationship between premarital sex and the STDs, unplanned pregnancies, marriage are likely to be designed in the form of simple-choice questions with three choices. For example: “Is it true that engaging in premarital sex would result in unplanned pregnancies?” The three choices are “yes,” “no,” and “I don’t know.” Also, questions regarding acceptance and perceptions of premarital sex would be assessed through some open-ended questions. For example: “Do you accept the behavior of premarital sex and why?” ”Do you perceive premarital sex as a sexual temptation?” On the other, the questionnaire is likely to be completed in two minites. In order to make a comparison before and after the campaign, questions for the pre-survey questionnaire and the pro-survey questionnaire are the same. The pre-survey questionnaires would be handed out to the target audience when they attend the Lansing Chinese Christian Church one Sunday at the beginning of the campaign. And the pro-survey questionnaires would be given out to the same group of individuals after the campaign. Unlike the two-minite pre-post survey questionnaire, a five-minite phone interview would be used to assess the recipients’ ability to recall and understand the three campaign messages. The phone interview would be conducted after the campaign. In order to effectively conduct the interview, I would schedule a time with each target audience at their convenience before doing the interview. By asking them questions relating to the pastors’ gospel, the ad, the video, the T-shirts and the book, I am able to know whether the messages reach to them or not and whether the messages are decoded correctly by them or not. Finally, by monitoring the click through rate as well as the social media comments of the ad and the video being uploaded on YouTube, Facebook, Weibo and RenRen, I am likely to measure the impact of my campaign. More specifically, a high click through rate suggests the ad or the video has been viewed by many people; the tone of the social media comments suggests how much the audience like the campaign.
Campaign Budget Plan
The estimated campaign budget is $27,450.488.
Category
Estimated Quantity
Estimated Cost per Unit
Estimated Subtotal
Notes
Event
Number of Attendees
80
Meal (dinner, fruit and beverage, include tax)
$25.00
Number of Times
12
Meal Costs Subtotal
$24,000.00
Pastor
1
Speech
3
$60.00
$180.00
Guest Speakers
9
$15.00
$135.00
Venue
1
$0.00
Provided by the Lansing Chinese Christian Church
Event Costs Subtotal
$24,315.00
Promotions
T-shirts
80
$10.00
$800.00
Books
80
$7.22
$577.6
Flyers
$150.00
Survey Questionnaires
160
$0.05
$8.00
Advertising
Number of Characters
5
Performance Expenses
$15.00
Production
$0.00
Friends can help
Broadcasting
$0.00
Free social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Weibo and RenRen
Advertising Costs Subtotal
$75.00
Video
Number of Characters
3
Performance Expenses
$15.00
Production
$0.00
Friends can help
Broadcasting
$0.00
Free social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Weibo and RenRen
Video Costs Subtotal
$45.00
Promotion Costs Subtotal
$1,655.60
Additional Costs
Vehicle Costs
$1,299.888
Phone Charges
$180.00
Additional Costs Subtotal
$1,479.888
The Estimated Campaign Budget
$27,450.488
References
Elisia, L.C., Michelle, D. S., & Abby, G. (2007). Anti-Smoking Media Campaign Messages: Theory and Practice. Journal of Health Communication, 22, 91-102.
Elizabeth, Myer. B. and Matthew, Myer. B(2011). Sacramental Sex. Journal of the Christian Century, 128.6, 28-31.
Fu, Wen., Kang, Juan. (2010). Sex Education Failing Young People: Survey. Retrieved from http://www.globaltimes.cn/china/society/2010-05/528555.html
Globaltimes.cn.(2012). Topic April 9: Increase in Rate of Premarital Sex With New Generation. Retrieved from http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/703933/Topic-April-9-Increase-in-rate-of-pre-marital-sex-with-new-generation.aspx
Kotler, P. (1971). The Elements of Social Action. Journal of American Behavioral Scientist, 14, 691-715.
Mike. (2012). 4 Cool Statistics About Abstinence in the USA. Retrieved from http://waitingtillmarriage.org/4-cool-statistics-about-abstinence-in-the-usa/
Pramod, R. R., Padam, Simkhada, Edwin, R. T.(2010). There Are Too Many Naked Pictures Found in Papers and on The Net: Factors Encouraging Premarital Sex Among Young People of Nepal. Journal of Health Science Journal, 4, 169-181.
“Premarital sex – why are Christians so strongly against it.” (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.gotquestions.org/citation.html#ixzz2xMXn0a8G Prochaska, J. O., DiClemente, C. C., Norcross, J. C.(1992). In Search of How People Change. Journal of American Psychologist, 47, 1102-1114.
Shana, Schutte. (2008). Three Lies About Premarital Sex. Retrieved from http://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/christian_singles/being_single_and_faithful/three_lies_about_sex_before_marriage.aspx
Sharon, Jayson. (2006). Most Americans Have Had Premarital Sex, Study Finds. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-12-19-premarital-sex_x.htm
The Antioch Group Inc. (2004). The Triangular Model of Love. Retrieved from http://antiochgroup.com/resources/handouts/triangularModel.html
“2012 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance.” (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats12/adol.htm
“Unintened Pregnancy Prevenion.” (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/Reproductivehealth/UnintendedPregnancy/ Wang Qingyun. (2012). Premarital Sex Is Common, Survey Finds. Retrieved from http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-04/10/content_15011177.htm
“What does the Bible say about sex before marriage?” (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.gotquestions.org/sex-before-marriage.html Zou, Le.(2012). 70 Percent of People Have Pre-marital Sex: Study. Retrieved from http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/703862/70-pct-of-people-have-pre-marital-sex-study.aspx
References: Elisia, L.C., Michelle, D. S., & Abby, G. (2007). Anti-Smoking Media Campaign Messages: Theory and Practice. Journal of Health Communication, 22, 91-102. Elizabeth, Myer. B. and Matthew, Myer. B(2011). Sacramental Sex. Journal of the Christian Century, 128.6, 28-31. Fu, Wen., Kang, Juan. (2010). Sex Education Failing Young People: Survey. Retrieved from http://www.globaltimes.cn/china/society/2010-05/528555.html Globaltimes.cn.(2012) Kotler, P. (1971). The Elements of Social Action. Journal of American Behavioral Scientist, 14, 691-715. Mike. (2012). 4 Cool Statistics About Abstinence in the USA. Retrieved from http://waitingtillmarriage.org/4-cool-statistics-about-abstinence-in-the-usa/ Pramod, R Prochaska, J. O., DiClemente, C. C., Norcross, J. C.(1992). In Search of How People Change. Journal of American Psychologist, 47, 1102-1114. Shana, Schutte. (2008). Three Lies About Premarital Sex. Retrieved from http://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/christian_singles/being_single_and_faithful/three_lies_about_sex_before_marriage.aspx Sharon, Jayson The Antioch Group Inc. (2004). The Triangular Model of Love. Retrieved from http://antiochgroup.com/resources/handouts/triangularModel.html “2012 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance.” (n.d) Wang Qingyun. (2012). Premarital Sex Is Common, Survey Finds. Retrieved from http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-04/10/content_15011177.htm “What does the Bible say about sex before marriage?” (n.d) http://www.gotquestions.org/sex-before-marriage.html Zou, Le.(2012)
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