Felicia Fort- MBA

The Power of Social Marketing

ICE BUCKET CHALLENGEICE BUCKET CHALLENGE

MBA APPROACH

How does this relate to MBA Program

❖ Professors at business schools across the country are "reaching for real life examples to teach old school business practices in an effort to engage students" – (CNBC, 2014)

❖ Professors at Notre Dame College of Business – "this is a perfect example of a viral campaign of how technology can influence business“- (New York Times, 2014)

❖ This kind of viral marketing technique resonates with the students found in today’s MBA program- because students are sensitive to the community around them and keen to factor the concept of ‘giving back‘ (Kaplan, 2014)

BACKGROUND

❖ ALS- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s) disease (Pagnini, 2013)

❖ Jean- Martin Charcot, 19th Century pioneer was the first to describe the illness (Pagnini, 2013).

❖ Disease affects the brainstem (Pagnini, 2013)

❖ Increasing weakness leading to death by respiratory insufficiency (Pagnini, 2013)

❖ Mean age of onset for ALS is 55-65 years (Pagnini, 2013)

Pagnini, F. (2013). Psychological wellbeing and quality of life in als. 148.

Information Technology❖ Computers already play a prominent role in many aspects of

our lives, from transportation and communication to personal bookkeeping and entertainment (Simon & Schuster, 1999); (Gardner, 2009)

❖ Computers will permit a degree of individualism (Gardner, 2009)

❖ Computer technology puts all the information in the world at one’s fingertip (Gardner, 2009)

❖ Data mining software uses advanced pattern recognition algorithms to sift through large amounts of data to assist in discovering previously unknown strategic business information.

Simon, F., & Schuster, P. (1999). The Disciplined Mind: What All Students Should Understand

Gardner, H. (2009). TECHNOLOGY REMAKES THE SCHOOLS.

How did the challenge start?

❖ Chris Kennedy was nominated by a friend without a cause.

❖ Jeanette Senechia husband is suffering from ALS was nominated and wanted to support her husband Anthony Senechia who is affected by the disease.

❖ The first video was posted July 15, 2014.

Integrated Marketing Strategies

❖ A video campaign should elicit some type of reaction.

❖ Part of what makes a message compelling is emotional resonance.

❖ The 2 strongest emotions are anger and humor

❖ It was the celebrity participation that mitigated any hesitation.

Celebrity endorsements. Celebrities are likely to increase the amount of attention given to an advertisement (Burns, 2012).

Communication Strategies

❖ Anytime you have a word of mouth marketing campaign where you’re turning over control of the brand message to individuals, you run the risk of losing control of the message.

❖ The overall message was to raise money.

Management & Leadership Strategy

❖ Each bucket challenge included a call to action as the person in the video nominated three people, and managed a 24 hour period to accept

Global Operations Strategy

❖ New research projects across the country dedicated to solving ALS disease, have begun to receive millions of dollars in additional funding due to social marketing approach

Financial Decision Strategy❖ 2014 ALS Association received a total of $115 million

(July-Aug)

❖ 2013 ALS Association received a total of $1.9 Million (July- Aug)

Quantitative Methods Strategy ❖ Initial Projects – the sequencing of the

genes of 15,000 people with ALS- control group

❖ Developing gene therapy that might reduce the spread of the disease through the body

❖ Analysis of covariance — a statistical method that can be used to statistically equate groups that differ on a pretest or some other variable (Taylor, B. (2011).Management Science)

Economics Strategy

❖ Since the Ice Bucket Challenge there has been a high demand of people donating to the cause.

❖ Newly collected contact info from people (1.3 million) donating to the organization ALSA for the first time

Human Resources Strategy

❖ The number of research centers have tripled

❖ The amount annually that is spent on research tripled

❖ Recruiting more researchers

References Burns, 2012 Pagnini Taylor, B. (2009). Management Science. 11th Ed. CNBC