Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Internet User stats from Hawaii
Per Internet world stats, on Nov. 17 2010
http://www.internetworldstats.com/america.htm
1. Hawaii had an estimated population of 1,308,789 persons which is .4% of U.S. market in comparison to California which is 12% of the total country population or Alaska which has only .2% of the population.
2. In Hawaii there are 1,081,506 persons who use the internet either at work or at home or 82.6% penetration compared to 53.5% in Mississippi and 90.1 in New Hampshire. Good thing we aren’t trying to get Mississippi with their 40% Obesity rate into our program!
3. 597,100 persons in Hawaii use Facebook as of this date or 45.6% penetration. This compares to District of Columbia with 260.1% and 24.2% in Delaware. Good thing we’re not marketing a Facebook product in Delaware?
http://www.internetworldstats.com/america.htm
1. Hawaii had an estimated population of 1,308,789 persons which is .4% of U.S. market in comparison to California which is 12% of the total country population or Alaska which has only .2% of the population.
2. In Hawaii there are 1,081,506 persons who use the internet either at work or at home or 82.6% penetration compared to 53.5% in Mississippi and 90.1 in New Hampshire. Good thing we aren’t trying to get Mississippi with their 40% Obesity rate into our program!
3. 597,100 persons in Hawaii use Facebook as of this date or 45.6% penetration. This compares to District of Columbia with 260.1% and 24.2% in Delaware. Good thing we’re not marketing a Facebook product in Delaware?
Content comments to Bob and others-emarketer articles
Hi Team and especially Bob. Thanks Bob for posting these very insightful articles on content. I finally took the time to read them carefully. I’ve taken out the jewels which resonate with me and posted them here.
Why Content is Key to Marketing Strategy
By Kathy Sacks on February 16, 2011-Adapted by Bevin to fit our product.
I took advantage of a direct example on home decorating content and changed the subject to Health and Obesity below.
‘Say you develop and sell information used by persons you want to lead a healthier life, want to lose weight. You feature a downloadable report on your website that visitors opt-in for called Top Ten Exercises for Reducing Stomach Fat. When someone downloads the report, your marketing automation system sends a sequence of emails that speaks to benefits that persons with Obesity needs seek out when looking for alternative lifestyles, which drives them to a live product demo (Hot Hula) on the website. On the other hand, you have another report, or perhaps a blog post titled, “2011 Forecast for your Hawaiian Live, Life, Aloha”. This content is more brand awareness and thought leadership-oriented since the actual website can’t help people lose weight unless they are attracted to the content and actually change their lifestyle in a meaningful way. You’ll see traffic increase as it potentially attracts people to your sales funnel, and more importantly the quality of your leads improve because those who are educating themselves and consuming your content are more interested than the casual tire kickers.’
Dramatic Difference in Approach to Social Media Metrics:
Feb. 8, 2011
“Asked about social media activities with the highest ROI based on older metrics with less of a focus on the bottom line. CMO’s were most likely to say they did not know the return from any channel other than their company’s online community. Even (most popular) Facebook and ratings and reviews, the two top venues with significant ROI failed to win over more than about 15% of respondents. It remains to be seen whether CMO’s evolving focus will lead to a shift in which venues are perceived to be the most valuable, or what other changes might be in store in the social media marketing landscape.
Big Opportunities Behind Online Health Research
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
80% of online Americans are health info seekers
When the Pew Internet & American Life Project surveys US internet users about the most common online activities, the usual suspects come out on top: Using email and search engines are the most common things people do online. But No. 3 may be more of a surprise—looking for information about health.
That pattern held across every age group. Overall, four in five internet users have researched health info on the web, or 59% of all US adults.
Most online health info seekers were looking to learn about specific health-related topics. About two-thirds searched for info about particular diseases or medical problems, and more than half researched specific treatments or procedures.
What Makes Facebook Fan Pages Successful? January 28, 2011.
About using Facebook as a marketing tool: “It’s about making sure that we do our job every day to give those fans some sort of meaningful value.” Starbucks CEO says “Having 10 million people on a Facebook who like us would be useless if we did nothing with it.”
Why Content is Key to Marketing Strategy
By Kathy Sacks on February 16, 2011-Adapted by Bevin to fit our product.
I took advantage of a direct example on home decorating content and changed the subject to Health and Obesity below.
‘Say you develop and sell information used by persons you want to lead a healthier life, want to lose weight. You feature a downloadable report on your website that visitors opt-in for called Top Ten Exercises for Reducing Stomach Fat. When someone downloads the report, your marketing automation system sends a sequence of emails that speaks to benefits that persons with Obesity needs seek out when looking for alternative lifestyles, which drives them to a live product demo (Hot Hula) on the website. On the other hand, you have another report, or perhaps a blog post titled, “2011 Forecast for your Hawaiian Live, Life, Aloha”. This content is more brand awareness and thought leadership-oriented since the actual website can’t help people lose weight unless they are attracted to the content and actually change their lifestyle in a meaningful way. You’ll see traffic increase as it potentially attracts people to your sales funnel, and more importantly the quality of your leads improve because those who are educating themselves and consuming your content are more interested than the casual tire kickers.’
Dramatic Difference in Approach to Social Media Metrics:
Feb. 8, 2011
“Asked about social media activities with the highest ROI based on older metrics with less of a focus on the bottom line. CMO’s were most likely to say they did not know the return from any channel other than their company’s online community. Even (most popular) Facebook and ratings and reviews, the two top venues with significant ROI failed to win over more than about 15% of respondents. It remains to be seen whether CMO’s evolving focus will lead to a shift in which venues are perceived to be the most valuable, or what other changes might be in store in the social media marketing landscape.
Big Opportunities Behind Online Health Research
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
80% of online Americans are health info seekers
When the Pew Internet & American Life Project surveys US internet users about the most common online activities, the usual suspects come out on top: Using email and search engines are the most common things people do online. But No. 3 may be more of a surprise—looking for information about health.
That pattern held across every age group. Overall, four in five internet users have researched health info on the web, or 59% of all US adults.
Most online health info seekers were looking to learn about specific health-related topics. About two-thirds searched for info about particular diseases or medical problems, and more than half researched specific treatments or procedures.
What Makes Facebook Fan Pages Successful? January 28, 2011.
About using Facebook as a marketing tool: “It’s about making sure that we do our job every day to give those fans some sort of meaningful value.” Starbucks CEO says “Having 10 million people on a Facebook who like us would be useless if we did nothing with it.”
Social Media ramping up-Need your help and input please.
In response to Prof. Boritzer's email today, I am sending you all links to my new facebook group "Bevin's MKT 400 Facebook group." This is a private group which is limited to the PHBM team and I am asking each of you to search for the name on facebook and then ask me to be your friend. I don't know how to add or find each of you on facebook and then ask you to be my friend without asking you to join my normal facebook postings-which are littered with family and photos of animals and kids. Trying to keep this separate from my other life.
I think if you request membership in my group then I will just add you there? If anyone can tell me a better way to do this, I would appreciate the help?? Thank you in advance. Not sure how to link you to a private facebook group at all.
My linkedin name is Bevin Parker-Evans. My twitter account is @songaid.
Hope you guys post your information this weekend so I can get on your lists as well. I've already connected all to Prof. Boritzer, now need to add my PHBM team. Trying to do this quickly as this is a weekend assignment! Off to bed. Having a sleepless evening.
I think if you request membership in my group then I will just add you there? If anyone can tell me a better way to do this, I would appreciate the help?? Thank you in advance. Not sure how to link you to a private facebook group at all.
My linkedin name is Bevin Parker-Evans. My twitter account is @songaid.
Hope you guys post your information this weekend so I can get on your lists as well. I've already connected all to Prof. Boritzer, now need to add my PHBM team. Trying to do this quickly as this is a weekend assignment! Off to bed. Having a sleepless evening.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Moving on to Content-and Goals
Moving on to Goals and Objectives. Great meeting Sunday. Thanks everyone for the input. I m excited about the next step.
Bob-Love the new content post. I'm studying up on what a good website content is and learning everyday. Thanks for this post.
Here is a great website found today: It might be a possibility to link our e-marketing to this website as a great TOOL.
http://hawaiifoods.hawaii.edu/links.asp.
You can look up any food found in Hawaii and get the recipes for it and find the nutritional facts. We may be able to use it as a “link” or better later on.
Goals and Objectives: Random thoughts about our Goals and Objectives.
Time Allotment: Good idea Daniela of a 6 month assessable goal after our targeted launch date. I’m still wondering too if 5000 (2%) users in 6 months is a good target or if Bob is right….we will only hit 500? It would be nice to know the amount of internet users in Hawaii or the amount of users who dial in health industry in Hawaii per day.
Non-profit structure: Also, I went to the YMCA Oahu website and couldn’t find any non-company-related links on this website except corporate sponsors so I’m wondering if, because of public funding, outside links are limited for legal reasons and/or simply for competitive reasons? Alana and Jared, what is required for us to be able to link to someone like YMCA? Do they need to approve us?
Just wondering what the rules (limits and liabilities) of e-marketing are when funding is not-for-profit. I think that since we all agree one of our weaknesses is not understanding non-profit business, we can do outreach to friends and family about some of the reasons for and limitations.
User numbers: Looking for any kind of metrics here-for example, the YMCA of Oahu –provides many types of brick and mortar services including fitness and health classes. They had a total budget (2009) in the range of 26 million and their expenses for exercise classes was under 7 million which included paying for hundreds of teachers/coaches. The user count for the fitness classes was approximately 21,500 persons in Oahu. As one of the largest fitness class providers in Hawaii, this seems like a good start for indexing exercise class usage.
They also reported 100,000 in t-shirt and gear sales-or about $5.00 per user. They took in about 4 million in other sales (camp, rental fees, other) 5.5 million in govt. grants, 1.5 million in other grants, 18 million in service revenue (dues, fees, exercise classes etc…) 1 million in contributions and $35,000 in fundraising. I thought this was an interesting report in terms of how much money there is in this type of business. As for expenses, they had 780,000 in administration and board member fees. Looks like my guess of 140,000-240,000 for four person administration may be on the high side. Perhaps two administrators can work ½ time and salaries will be smaller than first estimated.
Legal restrictions: I guess I will be reading more about Non-profit legal terms. I was happy to be reminded that if we intend to be a non-profit, we will have to follow the federal tax exempt rules regarding monetizing and collecting funds.
Fund raising: I did find two sources today which indicated that there is no such thing as fundraising in the typical way for Obesity as the public perception of Obesity is very negative and most people do not see this as a disease but as the fault of the person afflicted. Even people working in medicine have been polled as saying the Obese are less competent, unattractive, lazy, slothful and have no self-control. The only group to gain fundraising monies are groups involved in Childhood Obesity.
Bob-Love the new content post. I'm studying up on what a good website content is and learning everyday. Thanks for this post.
Here is a great website found today: It might be a possibility to link our e-marketing to this website as a great TOOL.
http://hawaiifoods.hawaii.edu/links.asp.
You can look up any food found in Hawaii and get the recipes for it and find the nutritional facts. We may be able to use it as a “link” or better later on.
Goals and Objectives: Random thoughts about our Goals and Objectives.
Time Allotment: Good idea Daniela of a 6 month assessable goal after our targeted launch date. I’m still wondering too if 5000 (2%) users in 6 months is a good target or if Bob is right….we will only hit 500? It would be nice to know the amount of internet users in Hawaii or the amount of users who dial in health industry in Hawaii per day.
Non-profit structure: Also, I went to the YMCA Oahu website and couldn’t find any non-company-related links on this website except corporate sponsors so I’m wondering if, because of public funding, outside links are limited for legal reasons and/or simply for competitive reasons? Alana and Jared, what is required for us to be able to link to someone like YMCA? Do they need to approve us?
Just wondering what the rules (limits and liabilities) of e-marketing are when funding is not-for-profit. I think that since we all agree one of our weaknesses is not understanding non-profit business, we can do outreach to friends and family about some of the reasons for and limitations.
User numbers: Looking for any kind of metrics here-for example, the YMCA of Oahu –provides many types of brick and mortar services including fitness and health classes. They had a total budget (2009) in the range of 26 million and their expenses for exercise classes was under 7 million which included paying for hundreds of teachers/coaches. The user count for the fitness classes was approximately 21,500 persons in Oahu. As one of the largest fitness class providers in Hawaii, this seems like a good start for indexing exercise class usage.
They also reported 100,000 in t-shirt and gear sales-or about $5.00 per user. They took in about 4 million in other sales (camp, rental fees, other) 5.5 million in govt. grants, 1.5 million in other grants, 18 million in service revenue (dues, fees, exercise classes etc…) 1 million in contributions and $35,000 in fundraising. I thought this was an interesting report in terms of how much money there is in this type of business. As for expenses, they had 780,000 in administration and board member fees. Looks like my guess of 140,000-240,000 for four person administration may be on the high side. Perhaps two administrators can work ½ time and salaries will be smaller than first estimated.
Legal restrictions: I guess I will be reading more about Non-profit legal terms. I was happy to be reminded that if we intend to be a non-profit, we will have to follow the federal tax exempt rules regarding monetizing and collecting funds.
Fund raising: I did find two sources today which indicated that there is no such thing as fundraising in the typical way for Obesity as the public perception of Obesity is very negative and most people do not see this as a disease but as the fault of the person afflicted. Even people working in medicine have been polled as saying the Obese are less competent, unattractive, lazy, slothful and have no self-control. The only group to gain fundraising monies are groups involved in Childhood Obesity.
Friday, February 18, 2011
OBESITY STATISTICS
Shawna: Thanks for your comments. FYI, my SWOT platform on Behavior Mod. In the Obese population is probably not the direction that our team is headed. I knew I was taking a chance in getting off track a bit, but I was trying out a new idea for the financial end of our project. I think your ideas are probably much more along the lines of what Jared and Bob are headed.
Hopefully the purpose of this assignment was to help each of us to get "real" and to find the specifics in our marketing plan and how to pay for it. I explored the possibility of getting govt. support and that means tackling the medical costs of Obesity because that is where govt. and private business are heavily vested.. Jared and you are exploring the advertising side of financing this project and that may solve all of our financial needs for an Obesity reduction program. Two different business plans alltogether! And as you have read in my specifics, my finances are almost unreal and unattainable, but my exercise was valid for me!!
On another note: For all the statistic freaks in our group, here are some facts about Obesity in Hawaii. Our current statewide population is estimated to be around 1,340,674 persons statewide (2010 census results not out). This is based on a 6.8% growth rate per year or approximately 91,166 new persons every year. If this is true, then the counties are divided into rough round numbers like this: Honolulu-1,000,000 Hawaii-150,000 Kauai 60,000 Maui 140,000. With a 17.8% Obese population (defined by having BMI 30% -Body Mass Index or greater) then the total population in Hawaii which defines our Obese market is 238,640 persons with a growth rate (using the 6.8% figure) of 16,227 new customers per year.
However, if you divide that up by county, you begin to see that our outer island dollars disappear for services quickly. Honolulu accounts for 178,000 persons in our target market whereas Kauai accounts for only 10,680 persons. 10,000 clients is a valuable goal, but it will take the same number of marketing dollars to run a program on Kauai as it will on Oahu.
Need is another matter. Rural outer islands have less access to programs, gyms, healthy foods, food and nutrition coaches, preventative medicine physicians, exercise coaches, places to exercise than people who live on Oahu.
I would be interested to find out if the rate of Obesity were higher on the outer islands than on Oahu??
My gawd...our Borders just closed here on Kauai and we have only that one bookstore, so pretty soon we won't even have access to fitness books and DVDs. Yikes.
Now, my next quest is to find out how many people are just overweight (more than 25% BMI) in Hawaii and also to look at the ages of the overweight and obese populations. I'm trying to figure out how many users we need to have a successful user rate.
For example if children under 16 account for half of the above numbers??? Then our target is much smaller than we think. If 1/3 of them are over 65 years, then our target "active market" is even smaller yet.
Ok, more later. Sorry to overwhelm everyone today, but I'm on a roll. Tomorrow and Sunday I am virtually unavailable except for the small window at 11:00 on Sunday. The rest of the day is booked. In fact, if our time changes much for our conference, right or left, I probably can't participate on SKYPE on Sunday.
Hopefully the purpose of this assignment was to help each of us to get "real" and to find the specifics in our marketing plan and how to pay for it. I explored the possibility of getting govt. support and that means tackling the medical costs of Obesity because that is where govt. and private business are heavily vested.. Jared and you are exploring the advertising side of financing this project and that may solve all of our financial needs for an Obesity reduction program. Two different business plans alltogether! And as you have read in my specifics, my finances are almost unreal and unattainable, but my exercise was valid for me!!
On another note: For all the statistic freaks in our group, here are some facts about Obesity in Hawaii. Our current statewide population is estimated to be around 1,340,674 persons statewide (2010 census results not out). This is based on a 6.8% growth rate per year or approximately 91,166 new persons every year. If this is true, then the counties are divided into rough round numbers like this: Honolulu-1,000,000 Hawaii-150,000 Kauai 60,000 Maui 140,000. With a 17.8% Obese population (defined by having BMI 30% -Body Mass Index or greater) then the total population in Hawaii which defines our Obese market is 238,640 persons with a growth rate (using the 6.8% figure) of 16,227 new customers per year.
However, if you divide that up by county, you begin to see that our outer island dollars disappear for services quickly. Honolulu accounts for 178,000 persons in our target market whereas Kauai accounts for only 10,680 persons. 10,000 clients is a valuable goal, but it will take the same number of marketing dollars to run a program on Kauai as it will on Oahu.
Need is another matter. Rural outer islands have less access to programs, gyms, healthy foods, food and nutrition coaches, preventative medicine physicians, exercise coaches, places to exercise than people who live on Oahu.
I would be interested to find out if the rate of Obesity were higher on the outer islands than on Oahu??
My gawd...our Borders just closed here on Kauai and we have only that one bookstore, so pretty soon we won't even have access to fitness books and DVDs. Yikes.
Now, my next quest is to find out how many people are just overweight (more than 25% BMI) in Hawaii and also to look at the ages of the overweight and obese populations. I'm trying to figure out how many users we need to have a successful user rate.
For example if children under 16 account for half of the above numbers??? Then our target is much smaller than we think. If 1/3 of them are over 65 years, then our target "active market" is even smaller yet.
Ok, more later. Sorry to overwhelm everyone today, but I'm on a roll. Tomorrow and Sunday I am virtually unavailable except for the small window at 11:00 on Sunday. The rest of the day is booked. In fact, if our time changes much for our conference, right or left, I probably can't participate on SKYPE on Sunday.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
SWOT and 4 P's assignment-PHBM E-marketing plan
STRENGTHS:
Description of E-marketing plan: The Live Life Aloha Business is a Public Health Policy platform located in Hawaii and geared for the Hawaiian market struggling with Obesity. Emphasizing local climate, tropical allure and culture we bring Breath (Ha) and energetic aerobic lifestyles back into everyday Hawaiian life. Supporting wellness with a local twist we emphasize neighborhood ties and cultural availability with multi-cultural wellness modems featuring indigenous local food tips and preventative medicine.
Mission Statement:
Live Life Aloha sustains our local population with community and an everyday path towards fitness for your life and for your Hawaiian lifestyle. Lose weight right now and Live Life Aloha.
Internal strengths:
Our tech savvy staff is familiar with the internet and social media and has experience with event planning, marketing experience and computer programs calculated to present the best e-marketing plan supported by public funds and fitness products forward to the target marketplace. Familiar with Hawaii and its sense of place, this staff is the right mix of student, business people and overachievers who are willing to please and will give good customer satisfaction.
Most importantly the Staff Members bring a lot to the table: Using their own words and words of others-lest we forget what a dynamic team we have!
• Bob Steiff: This team project is important to me and I want to get the best grade possible. A driven Type A personality. I have been told that I expect too much.
• Brandy Franco: I'm great with organizing, power points, & communicating...I also have very few classes this semester, so my attention will totally be focused. Familiar with Facebook and Wiggio.
• Jared Masuda: Agree completely with you Bob. Google docs is easy to set up. Per Bob… “I believe (Jared) is experienced where we are going because he is in the capstone phase of ABIT. At least I know he can provide us with valuable insights.”
• Shawna Martin: I agree with you (Bob) because I also believe this team project is very important. I feel that I will meet your expectations and work hard to get the job done. I also want to help the team succeed.
• Alana D’Andrea: I agree with everyone, I am all about getting projects done on time and having quality work put into every assignment, with every group member participating equally. I check my email daily and am always on laulima. I am happy with any team members who want to succeed and are willing to participate. I know I have worked with Bob in a team project before and I thought we did great. Can’t wait to get started :)
• Danielle Konstantinos: Volunteered to be a leader! I am studying business through UHWO. I also currently manage MediSpa Maui (Health Organization!), Dr. Stolley and Dr. Martins office. I truly believe in preventative care and this is why I would like to be on the Obesity Reduction team. Has worked with event planning –check out her conference.
• Bevin Parker-Evans: I've worked on lots of teams in my professional life, so I've already checked my ego at the door. I'm very confident about my power point skills, have had some flash instruction and played with web design a little.
External Strengths:
1. The general population is more aware of health and nutrition than ever before.
2. There are many good examples of fitness programs which are working.
3. The state of Hawaii’s largest health groups already offer fitness and wellness programs which are similar so the target population may have already encountered information which supports our program.
4. Hawaiian citizens have cultural pride, weather and homogeneous love of the outdoors.
Internal weakness:
Lack of Education and Compassion. The team may not necessarily relate to the target? I’m only guessing about this. I’m throwing this concept out because if this team is typical, they are probably much younger and probably more fit than our target population ….possibly aged 18-26? It may be hard to understand Obesity unless your family or you suffers from it. Older participants may understand better, have children, and lead more sedentary lives. Age helps only because once you enter the work force it’s easier to sit more and exercise less and if you have kids, it is probably very difficult to eat correctly and/or lose weight. “Hmmm.hmmmm,”…she demurred from her office desk where her butt grew exponentially as she wrote.
I believe that we all probably need to begin to find out what we can about the Hawaiian Obese population to be able to understand our target market. I did my homework today and have shifted my focus. I’ve enclosed the link to the 24-page White paper written by a graduate student named Brooke Evans (Thank you Brooke for doing my research for me) on the subject of Public Health Policy of Hawaii Obesity at
http://www.publicpolicycenter.hawaii.edu/images/PDF/Obesity%20White%20Paper.pdf
If we suffer from educational elitism, youthful lack sensitivity or cultural misunderstandings, I believe we will fail at our task. Understanding the base population, we will gain public support and will not distance ourselves from the core population. If public health policy is our goal, and this is presumed, then we must first understand what motivates a person who may be disproportionately non-active, does not attend health classes and most likely does not have the money, interest, education or motivation necessary to start a fitness program.
It is my opinion (like Jared) that finding the target population and getting them into and using the program is probably going to be our biggest challenge. Unlike Jared, I do not believe that most of these people are capable of social media and/or computer use. See the White Paper details below.
External Weaknesses:
1. Public funding sources for development of the project were limited and the budget was low in 2008 and 2009 for Hawaii.
2. The Local Public Health Projects in Hawaii are inexperienced in dealing with problems of the Obese.
3. The cultural differences in Hawaii may somehow interfere with our mission statement.
Macro-Environment
External opportunities:
• Because of the concerns of citizens toward this topic, the development of a project that related
to health in Hawaii for the Hawaii target market could be perceived as interesting and remarkable. See Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move public policy program for National intent. www.letsmove.gov/
• New technology and organizational solutions had been developed which may make it easier to reach persons who would normally not be available to marketing outreach at all.
• Public health crisis and cost of health concerning the Obese population in Hawaii may enable us to have public funding from either the state economic outreach programs and/or Quest.
• Seek out advice and cooperation with well known preventative medicine and local nutrition expert Dr. Terry Shintani’s work on Obesity in the Native population. Who knows, we may be able to tap into his market and work simultaneously with his program or patients and /or use his materials as guidelines and Bible for our nutrition leads. See his website for ideas.
http://wn.com/Terry_Shintani
• The increasing cost of health care to government and to private business is one area which we can use as an opportunity. If we can incentivise businesses to cooperate in our program and/or get public funding to incentivise individuals, we may have a way to steer persons to our website or social media programs, i.e.…let employees use business computers to participate and if they participate at work and actually prove weight loss, they are given bonuses, days off, gym memberships, weight watchers membership etc….OR, have participants sign up at work and if they prove membership in gyms, weight loss programs to their bosses, they are given some kind of monthly allowances for those programs. The same could be said of public welfare or Qwest programs who might offer computer time to the identified target person and/or given the program as a mandatory compulsion for completion in a work-training or medical procedure. For instance, Qwest might offer lap-belt weight reduction surgery if the patient first exhibits real interest and motivation by first losing 20 lbs. in our program. Lap belt surgery is reported to work well for weight loss only in motivated patients and it is proven that a person, who loses weight, can prevent disease and more health care cost rise. The cost of this surgery is said to be going down in the next 5 years from $10,000 per patient to $2,500.00 per patient.
External threats:
1. Competition is either through the local health insurance groups, public programs such as: and our private practitioners like Dr. Terry Shintani.
2. Most citizens are skeptical about any public health policy and it is not adhered to unless there is a threat and/or some outer pressure or compulsion to comply, i.e.…non coverage of your insurance policy unless you participate.
3. The public health policy route gives us very little funding in the time of economic upheaval. The plight of the Obese will not be a sympathetic cause for fund raising. Children and teens would do better when appealing to the masses for funds. vending machines and thought they
4. Getting, keeping, reporting current accurate information which is not litigious.
5. Litigation
6. Privacy of customers
7. Anonymity of customers which is an entirely different issue than privacy. It means that shame must be erased in a small rural community where everyone knows everyone else. Large support groups in big cities work. Try going to an Obesity Anonymous or Weight Watchers meeting or on Kauai??? On Maui? Not so anonymous I think.
The Four P’s
Product-
• Our product is Obesity Behavior Modification in Public Health in the state of Hawaii. We will make an ecommerce plan which uses technology, computers, the internet, web-based programs and social media and mobile technology to accomplish our behavior changes. Our product will be unique to the Global Obesity Market, because we will target the “at risk” populations in Hawaii which are unique in their behavior, activity levels, climate, lifestyle, nutrition availability and food preparation practices.
• Use safe, healthy, quality, free or nominal exercise programs and food choices. Backed by a well-known program of nutrition and fitness levels??
• Sell quality health goods, books and clothing from third party representatives such as Amazon.com and 10-15% commission will be used not for profit but for website and social media management fees.
• Our warranty may include a Doctor or Nutritionist on staff or on the board of Directors and our social media and websites will include legal scrutiny. These members may have literature or products or rules our website must follow.
• Third Party users: May provide rules and regulations we will have to conform to.
Price
USERS
• Primary User: The Obese market. The price for the primary user will be free or paid for by a third party. The costs of the program management will be born by public health, government social and/or economic programs or by Quest, the state health program and advertising dollars.
• Entrepreneur User-Fitness coaches will also pay us nominally for their placement on the websites and for the social media management. This fee will be low-cost such as $5.00 per month and shall be not for profit and will be listed only for program management fees. The screening registration and payment of fees by teachers/trainers/coaches will vest the users but will not guarantee usage in the program in order that we keep the quality and safety in the highest predictable margins of success. There could be a discounted price for persons who teach more than one class or more than one type of activity.
• Third Party Users: Private Business and Public Health or Government program such as Quest –Obligatory participants in the program will pay the website management team a consulting cost either one-time or per patient. Businesses could sponsor tennis teams or paddling teams for persons identified as Overweight or Obese. They could pay for their own team’s uniform and sponsor activities with healthy snacks or group meetings with nutritional advice. They could market their promotions on their own networks. There could be a volume discount for these users.
• We would monetize all of our websites and social media with advertising and with an On-line store through Amazon.com direct sales-Sales of fitness/health books, exercise DVD’s and exercise equipment such as yoga mats, hula practice skirts, paddles from Hawaii, paddling boards, boogie boards or other fitness articles which fit our marketing plan. All click-through sales would lead to 6-10% consignment from Amazon depending on the POS. Advertising dollar goals would be to sell at least half of our total cost or $1,200,000 in annual sales in order to gain a minimum of $120,000 of our annual budget.
MANAGEMENT COST:
STAFF:
Website Manager- 40 hours per week-
Social Media Director-40 hours per week
Retail Sales Manager-40 hours per week
OFFICE COST:
Newsletters would be E-mailed out. Staff would work at home. Office costs would include four computers with internet and DSL services and software management. Any postage/shipping costs would be included in home office expenses or per diem wages. As another option, staff could agree to work as full time consultants, free agents, independent of benefits.
Even at the lowest level of Hawaii salary price structure, this cost would be at minimum $140,000 annually and in realistic and sustainable wages with benefits, probably more in the range of $240,000 annually.
No inventory or shipping costs. Purchases to maintain marketing materials and computer maintenance would have to be budgeted for.
Place-Hawaii
Product must be current and revolving and new
Product must be relevant to all users.
No warehouse or brick and mortar place is necessary.
Staff could work at home for the first five years.
Sales persons could meet at places of user businesses.
Coordination could be by email and skype meetings.
Business would keep track of payments by third party users and advertising income.
In addition Business would keep track of opportunities for clients
Give Enterpreneurial clients limitless expression to expand and grow.
No inventory necessary.
Provide primary users with the appropriate means to measure and change behavior
Provide private businesses and govt. third party users cost metrics versus their cost savings
Provide entrepreneurial users place to market their wares in an environment of potential growth
Provide advertisers opportunity for sales.
Unique Mystery and Allure of Hawaii and it’s culture for potential universal and global appeal-Growth
Promotion
Name, Branding and Logo should reflect all of the above.
Mission statement should reflect all of the above and be targeted to all user markets.
Sales and Marketing to Govt. agencies, Entrepreneur Coaches and to Third Party users will be primary
Keeping the business relavent and current will be essential
Targeting our Hawaii market is keeping the mission statement in mind when making primary decisions.
Marketing to press and to the public at large will be just as essential as to our primary and other users.
Keeping name in the public eye will mean more than just press releases, promotional events, contests.
MKT Budget will have to be done in combination with other users, entrepreneurial and private business.
Summary of the White Paper in case you don’t want to read 24 more pages:
Graduate Student Brooke Evans- UH Manoa wrote : Obesity in Hawaii. It is really required reading in my opinion because it taps into ideas that some of us may not be thinking of. For instance, if I am reading this correctly, Obesity in Hawaii is at about 18% when the national average is 12% and the childhood obesity factor is twice the national average. While Caucasians, Japanese, Asians or Other racial groups including Filipinos account for most of the obese (63%), the Native Hawaiian population alone, counts for 37% of all Hawaii Obesity. This may mean that our target market has to address this group which is disproportionately in poverty, hungry (defined by food insecure), has inadequate nutrition on a daily basis and has a high quantity of poor or lack of preventative medicine and advice.
http://www.publicpolicycenter.hawaii.edu/images/PDF/Obesity%20White%20Paper.pdf
Please read through 24 pages. My summary analysis boils down to getting the Hawaii state government and Qwest involved in public support to change attitudes by mandating and funding this through the state programs and/or by Qwest since the target market is very involved with public support and Qwest.
These programs would provide the users and we would have all of their contact information and we could input it into the computer for them. Having access to internet and/or social media may not be possible, but linking these persons to public access to computers may be possible.
Micro-Environment
Description of E-marketing plan: The Live Life Aloha Business is a Public Health Policy platform located in Hawaii and geared for the Hawaiian market struggling with Obesity. Emphasizing local climate, tropical allure and culture we bring Breath (Ha) and energetic aerobic lifestyles back into everyday Hawaiian life. Supporting wellness with a local twist we emphasize neighborhood ties and cultural availability with multi-cultural wellness modems featuring indigenous local food tips and preventative medicine.
Mission Statement:
Live Life Aloha sustains our local population with community and an everyday path towards fitness for your life and for your Hawaiian lifestyle. Lose weight right now and Live Life Aloha.
Internal strengths:
Our tech savvy staff is familiar with the internet and social media and has experience with event planning, marketing experience and computer programs calculated to present the best e-marketing plan supported by public funds and fitness products forward to the target marketplace. Familiar with Hawaii and its sense of place, this staff is the right mix of student, business people and overachievers who are willing to please and will give good customer satisfaction.
Most importantly the Staff Members bring a lot to the table: Using their own words and words of others-lest we forget what a dynamic team we have!
• Bob Steiff: This team project is important to me and I want to get the best grade possible. A driven Type A personality. I have been told that I expect too much.
• Brandy Franco: I'm great with organizing, power points, & communicating...I also have very few classes this semester, so my attention will totally be focused. Familiar with Facebook and Wiggio.
• Jared Masuda: Agree completely with you Bob. Google docs is easy to set up. Per Bob… “I believe (Jared) is experienced where we are going because he is in the capstone phase of ABIT. At least I know he can provide us with valuable insights.”
• Shawna Martin: I agree with you (Bob) because I also believe this team project is very important. I feel that I will meet your expectations and work hard to get the job done. I also want to help the team succeed.
• Alana D’Andrea: I agree with everyone, I am all about getting projects done on time and having quality work put into every assignment, with every group member participating equally. I check my email daily and am always on laulima. I am happy with any team members who want to succeed and are willing to participate. I know I have worked with Bob in a team project before and I thought we did great. Can’t wait to get started :)
• Danielle Konstantinos: Volunteered to be a leader! I am studying business through UHWO. I also currently manage MediSpa Maui (Health Organization!), Dr. Stolley and Dr. Martins office. I truly believe in preventative care and this is why I would like to be on the Obesity Reduction team. Has worked with event planning –check out her conference.
• Bevin Parker-Evans: I've worked on lots of teams in my professional life, so I've already checked my ego at the door. I'm very confident about my power point skills, have had some flash instruction and played with web design a little.
External Strengths:
1. The general population is more aware of health and nutrition than ever before.
2. There are many good examples of fitness programs which are working.
3. The state of Hawaii’s largest health groups already offer fitness and wellness programs which are similar so the target population may have already encountered information which supports our program.
4. Hawaiian citizens have cultural pride, weather and homogeneous love of the outdoors.
Internal weakness:
Lack of Education and Compassion. The team may not necessarily relate to the target? I’m only guessing about this. I’m throwing this concept out because if this team is typical, they are probably much younger and probably more fit than our target population ….possibly aged 18-26? It may be hard to understand Obesity unless your family or you suffers from it. Older participants may understand better, have children, and lead more sedentary lives. Age helps only because once you enter the work force it’s easier to sit more and exercise less and if you have kids, it is probably very difficult to eat correctly and/or lose weight. “Hmmm.hmmmm,”…she demurred from her office desk where her butt grew exponentially as she wrote.
I believe that we all probably need to begin to find out what we can about the Hawaiian Obese population to be able to understand our target market. I did my homework today and have shifted my focus. I’ve enclosed the link to the 24-page White paper written by a graduate student named Brooke Evans (Thank you Brooke for doing my research for me) on the subject of Public Health Policy of Hawaii Obesity at
http://www.publicpolicycenter.hawaii.edu/images/PDF/Obesity%20White%20Paper.pdf
If we suffer from educational elitism, youthful lack sensitivity or cultural misunderstandings, I believe we will fail at our task. Understanding the base population, we will gain public support and will not distance ourselves from the core population. If public health policy is our goal, and this is presumed, then we must first understand what motivates a person who may be disproportionately non-active, does not attend health classes and most likely does not have the money, interest, education or motivation necessary to start a fitness program.
It is my opinion (like Jared) that finding the target population and getting them into and using the program is probably going to be our biggest challenge. Unlike Jared, I do not believe that most of these people are capable of social media and/or computer use. See the White Paper details below.
External Weaknesses:
1. Public funding sources for development of the project were limited and the budget was low in 2008 and 2009 for Hawaii.
2. The Local Public Health Projects in Hawaii are inexperienced in dealing with problems of the Obese.
3. The cultural differences in Hawaii may somehow interfere with our mission statement.
Macro-Environment
External opportunities:
• Because of the concerns of citizens toward this topic, the development of a project that related
to health in Hawaii for the Hawaii target market could be perceived as interesting and remarkable. See Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move public policy program for National intent. www.letsmove.gov/
• New technology and organizational solutions had been developed which may make it easier to reach persons who would normally not be available to marketing outreach at all.
• Public health crisis and cost of health concerning the Obese population in Hawaii may enable us to have public funding from either the state economic outreach programs and/or Quest.
• Seek out advice and cooperation with well known preventative medicine and local nutrition expert Dr. Terry Shintani’s work on Obesity in the Native population. Who knows, we may be able to tap into his market and work simultaneously with his program or patients and /or use his materials as guidelines and Bible for our nutrition leads. See his website for ideas.
http://wn.com/Terry_Shintani
• The increasing cost of health care to government and to private business is one area which we can use as an opportunity. If we can incentivise businesses to cooperate in our program and/or get public funding to incentivise individuals, we may have a way to steer persons to our website or social media programs, i.e.…let employees use business computers to participate and if they participate at work and actually prove weight loss, they are given bonuses, days off, gym memberships, weight watchers membership etc….OR, have participants sign up at work and if they prove membership in gyms, weight loss programs to their bosses, they are given some kind of monthly allowances for those programs. The same could be said of public welfare or Qwest programs who might offer computer time to the identified target person and/or given the program as a mandatory compulsion for completion in a work-training or medical procedure. For instance, Qwest might offer lap-belt weight reduction surgery if the patient first exhibits real interest and motivation by first losing 20 lbs. in our program. Lap belt surgery is reported to work well for weight loss only in motivated patients and it is proven that a person, who loses weight, can prevent disease and more health care cost rise. The cost of this surgery is said to be going down in the next 5 years from $10,000 per patient to $2,500.00 per patient.
External threats:
1. Competition is either through the local health insurance groups, public programs such as: and our private practitioners like Dr. Terry Shintani.
2. Most citizens are skeptical about any public health policy and it is not adhered to unless there is a threat and/or some outer pressure or compulsion to comply, i.e.…non coverage of your insurance policy unless you participate.
3. The public health policy route gives us very little funding in the time of economic upheaval. The plight of the Obese will not be a sympathetic cause for fund raising. Children and teens would do better when appealing to the masses for funds. vending machines and thought they
4. Getting, keeping, reporting current accurate information which is not litigious.
5. Litigation
6. Privacy of customers
7. Anonymity of customers which is an entirely different issue than privacy. It means that shame must be erased in a small rural community where everyone knows everyone else. Large support groups in big cities work. Try going to an Obesity Anonymous or Weight Watchers meeting or on Kauai??? On Maui? Not so anonymous I think.
The Four P’s
Product-
• Our product is Obesity Behavior Modification in Public Health in the state of Hawaii. We will make an ecommerce plan which uses technology, computers, the internet, web-based programs and social media and mobile technology to accomplish our behavior changes. Our product will be unique to the Global Obesity Market, because we will target the “at risk” populations in Hawaii which are unique in their behavior, activity levels, climate, lifestyle, nutrition availability and food preparation practices.
• Use safe, healthy, quality, free or nominal exercise programs and food choices. Backed by a well-known program of nutrition and fitness levels??
• Sell quality health goods, books and clothing from third party representatives such as Amazon.com and 10-15% commission will be used not for profit but for website and social media management fees.
• Our warranty may include a Doctor or Nutritionist on staff or on the board of Directors and our social media and websites will include legal scrutiny. These members may have literature or products or rules our website must follow.
• Third Party users: May provide rules and regulations we will have to conform to.
Price
USERS
• Primary User: The Obese market. The price for the primary user will be free or paid for by a third party. The costs of the program management will be born by public health, government social and/or economic programs or by Quest, the state health program and advertising dollars.
• Entrepreneur User-Fitness coaches will also pay us nominally for their placement on the websites and for the social media management. This fee will be low-cost such as $5.00 per month and shall be not for profit and will be listed only for program management fees. The screening registration and payment of fees by teachers/trainers/coaches will vest the users but will not guarantee usage in the program in order that we keep the quality and safety in the highest predictable margins of success. There could be a discounted price for persons who teach more than one class or more than one type of activity.
• Third Party Users: Private Business and Public Health or Government program such as Quest –Obligatory participants in the program will pay the website management team a consulting cost either one-time or per patient. Businesses could sponsor tennis teams or paddling teams for persons identified as Overweight or Obese. They could pay for their own team’s uniform and sponsor activities with healthy snacks or group meetings with nutritional advice. They could market their promotions on their own networks. There could be a volume discount for these users.
• We would monetize all of our websites and social media with advertising and with an On-line store through Amazon.com direct sales-Sales of fitness/health books, exercise DVD’s and exercise equipment such as yoga mats, hula practice skirts, paddles from Hawaii, paddling boards, boogie boards or other fitness articles which fit our marketing plan. All click-through sales would lead to 6-10% consignment from Amazon depending on the POS. Advertising dollar goals would be to sell at least half of our total cost or $1,200,000 in annual sales in order to gain a minimum of $120,000 of our annual budget.
MANAGEMENT COST:
STAFF:
Website Manager- 40 hours per week-
Social Media Director-40 hours per week
Retail Sales Manager-40 hours per week
OFFICE COST:
Newsletters would be E-mailed out. Staff would work at home. Office costs would include four computers with internet and DSL services and software management. Any postage/shipping costs would be included in home office expenses or per diem wages. As another option, staff could agree to work as full time consultants, free agents, independent of benefits.
Even at the lowest level of Hawaii salary price structure, this cost would be at minimum $140,000 annually and in realistic and sustainable wages with benefits, probably more in the range of $240,000 annually.
No inventory or shipping costs. Purchases to maintain marketing materials and computer maintenance would have to be budgeted for.
Place-Hawaii
Product must be current and revolving and new
Product must be relevant to all users.
No warehouse or brick and mortar place is necessary.
Staff could work at home for the first five years.
Sales persons could meet at places of user businesses.
Coordination could be by email and skype meetings.
Business would keep track of payments by third party users and advertising income.
In addition Business would keep track of opportunities for clients
Give Enterpreneurial clients limitless expression to expand and grow.
No inventory necessary.
Provide primary users with the appropriate means to measure and change behavior
Provide private businesses and govt. third party users cost metrics versus their cost savings
Provide entrepreneurial users place to market their wares in an environment of potential growth
Provide advertisers opportunity for sales.
Unique Mystery and Allure of Hawaii and it’s culture for potential universal and global appeal-Growth
Promotion
Name, Branding and Logo should reflect all of the above.
Mission statement should reflect all of the above and be targeted to all user markets.
Sales and Marketing to Govt. agencies, Entrepreneur Coaches and to Third Party users will be primary
Keeping the business relavent and current will be essential
Targeting our Hawaii market is keeping the mission statement in mind when making primary decisions.
Marketing to press and to the public at large will be just as essential as to our primary and other users.
Keeping name in the public eye will mean more than just press releases, promotional events, contests.
MKT Budget will have to be done in combination with other users, entrepreneurial and private business.
Summary of the White Paper in case you don’t want to read 24 more pages:
Graduate Student Brooke Evans- UH Manoa wrote : Obesity in Hawaii. It is really required reading in my opinion because it taps into ideas that some of us may not be thinking of. For instance, if I am reading this correctly, Obesity in Hawaii is at about 18% when the national average is 12% and the childhood obesity factor is twice the national average. While Caucasians, Japanese, Asians or Other racial groups including Filipinos account for most of the obese (63%), the Native Hawaiian population alone, counts for 37% of all Hawaii Obesity. This may mean that our target market has to address this group which is disproportionately in poverty, hungry (defined by food insecure), has inadequate nutrition on a daily basis and has a high quantity of poor or lack of preventative medicine and advice.
http://www.publicpolicycenter.hawaii.edu/images/PDF/Obesity%20White%20Paper.pdf
Please read through 24 pages. My summary analysis boils down to getting the Hawaii state government and Qwest involved in public support to change attitudes by mandating and funding this through the state programs and/or by Qwest since the target market is very involved with public support and Qwest.
These programs would provide the users and we would have all of their contact information and we could input it into the computer for them. Having access to internet and/or social media may not be possible, but linking these persons to public access to computers may be possible.
Micro-Environment
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Social Mediums
I wanted to log this so that I didn't forget about it for our marketing project from the revenue performance.com for travel industry. I'm wondering if there is also a list of social mediums specifically targeted for the health industry?
Social Mediums Include:
• Photo Sharing: Flickr
• Social Networking Communities: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Video Sharing: YouTube
• Wikis: Wikimapia, WikiTravel,Wikipedia
• Social Bookmarking: Delicious, StumbleUpon
• Social New Sites: Digg
• Message Boards: Tripadvisor, Traveler Network
Social Mediums Include:
• Photo Sharing: Flickr
• Social Networking Communities: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Video Sharing: YouTube
• Wikis: Wikimapia, WikiTravel,Wikipedia
• Social Bookmarking: Delicious, StumbleUpon
• Social New Sites: Digg
• Message Boards: Tripadvisor, Traveler Network
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Brandy is tapping into our market!!
Oh yeah Brandy. I see what you mean with this you-tube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjFSkDpjnwM
of Hot Hula Fitness! So ideal for our market. That is awesome. My heart is with Hawaii and this video made me want to get up in my hula gear and dance, dance, dance!
Let's stick with Hawaii culture as our market and take what we can from the other websites which are out there. I like the sparkteens.com site but sticking with Hawaii makes our marketing plan so tarketed and "authentic."
This video is so righteous! If you guys haven't seen this video well get on over there for some inspiration. This should be our demo for the presentation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjFSkDpjnwM
of Hot Hula Fitness! So ideal for our market. That is awesome. My heart is with Hawaii and this video made me want to get up in my hula gear and dance, dance, dance!
Let's stick with Hawaii culture as our market and take what we can from the other websites which are out there. I like the sparkteens.com site but sticking with Hawaii makes our marketing plan so tarketed and "authentic."
This video is so righteous! If you guys haven't seen this video well get on over there for some inspiration. This should be our demo for the presentation.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Check out Sparkteens.com
ALL ABOUT SPARKTEENS.COM
In looking over creating a Behaviour Modification in the Public Health realm this weekend, I followed many links suggested by our PHBM team. Many websites cost money to enroll or were member-related. I found a great website that had so many of the possibilities of a great fitness website, that I think it will spur me to think of how the social media fits in and how advertising may fit in as well. I really liked the store and the retail potential for our non-profit organization which has to raise funds to run a marketing plan.
The website is called www.sparkteens.com and it is completely FREE for users. It is designed as a healthy zone for teens. You will find teens who want to build muscles, lose weight and who are concerned about eating disorders. It is not only a forum, it has many tools to track a “healthy lifestyle” and the emphasis is on community. There are adult coaches available for “real life problems” as well.
The only hitch is ....in order to see this website, you have to list your birthdate as somewhere in between 1992 and 1997 in order to participate. So you have to pretend to be a teen. After you check out all the features, you can easily delete your account. It is pretty simple to get on and off.
I love this website because it does everything we've been talking about.
Community: Lets you build your own webpage/profile (using your own colors!!) and collect "friends" with common goals or interests. Join a "team" which has common likes such as rock and roll team, all guys’ team, pet lover’s team, etc...teams meant to encourage teens to talk to each other. Each team has an adult coach to moderate the discussions. There are “rules” of discussion
Fitness Tracker: You can build in your own fitness routine or search through 10-20 minute workout videos (many videos available) for daily choices. FT records calories burned and hours logged.
Nutrition Tracker: Choose between pre-set likes and dislikes and the website creates menu choices for you, or log your daily food intake and it will log your calories eaten or nutrition gained depending on your personal settings. There are meal plans, recipe choices and even shopping lists.
Measurement Tracker: Keeps track of your body measurements.
Content: Has articles on participants success stories, teen issues such as puberty, acne, anorexia, obesity, soccer and dating which may relate to health issues. Coach’s participation articles about new information available to teens.
Blog writing: You can start a blog telling about your journey or just writing about anything you wish.
Rewards: Every time you fill in a tracker or update your fitness levels you win POINTS and this translates to motivational trophies. You can talk to friends and add friends to your webpage and earn points in that way also. In other words you are encouraged to reach out and find community and talk to others about your goals.
Much more: I didn’t have time to explore all of the tools and pages. There was so much that was interesting, I earned about 90 points just clicking around and adding different selections for my webpage. I almost earned a trophy before logging out and I found it to be a fun and easy to navigate website which was very well thought out. I think Michelle Obama needs to use this forum for her message. This one really has potential to reach kids.
I showed it to my 13 year old son today and even though he doesn’t have a weight issue, he signed up and is now recording his daily sit-ups and basketball activity to earn POINTS. He loved the videos on weight training and has already connected with a “girl” who is anorexic in Sweden! Wow! Not sure what you do with the points you earn, but the kids seem to like accruing them and bragging about them, so it is definitely working for some of the kids. Plus the stories are very inspirational.
Thanks for reading….check it out for yourself.
Bevin
In looking over creating a Behaviour Modification in the Public Health realm this weekend, I followed many links suggested by our PHBM team. Many websites cost money to enroll or were member-related. I found a great website that had so many of the possibilities of a great fitness website, that I think it will spur me to think of how the social media fits in and how advertising may fit in as well. I really liked the store and the retail potential for our non-profit organization which has to raise funds to run a marketing plan.
The website is called www.sparkteens.com and it is completely FREE for users. It is designed as a healthy zone for teens. You will find teens who want to build muscles, lose weight and who are concerned about eating disorders. It is not only a forum, it has many tools to track a “healthy lifestyle” and the emphasis is on community. There are adult coaches available for “real life problems” as well.
The only hitch is ....in order to see this website, you have to list your birthdate as somewhere in between 1992 and 1997 in order to participate. So you have to pretend to be a teen. After you check out all the features, you can easily delete your account. It is pretty simple to get on and off.
I love this website because it does everything we've been talking about.
Community: Lets you build your own webpage/profile (using your own colors!!) and collect "friends" with common goals or interests. Join a "team" which has common likes such as rock and roll team, all guys’ team, pet lover’s team, etc...teams meant to encourage teens to talk to each other. Each team has an adult coach to moderate the discussions. There are “rules” of discussion
Fitness Tracker: You can build in your own fitness routine or search through 10-20 minute workout videos (many videos available) for daily choices. FT records calories burned and hours logged.
Nutrition Tracker: Choose between pre-set likes and dislikes and the website creates menu choices for you, or log your daily food intake and it will log your calories eaten or nutrition gained depending on your personal settings. There are meal plans, recipe choices and even shopping lists.
Measurement Tracker: Keeps track of your body measurements.
Content: Has articles on participants success stories, teen issues such as puberty, acne, anorexia, obesity, soccer and dating which may relate to health issues. Coach’s participation articles about new information available to teens.
Blog writing: You can start a blog telling about your journey or just writing about anything you wish.
Rewards: Every time you fill in a tracker or update your fitness levels you win POINTS and this translates to motivational trophies. You can talk to friends and add friends to your webpage and earn points in that way also. In other words you are encouraged to reach out and find community and talk to others about your goals.
Much more: I didn’t have time to explore all of the tools and pages. There was so much that was interesting, I earned about 90 points just clicking around and adding different selections for my webpage. I almost earned a trophy before logging out and I found it to be a fun and easy to navigate website which was very well thought out. I think Michelle Obama needs to use this forum for her message. This one really has potential to reach kids.
I showed it to my 13 year old son today and even though he doesn’t have a weight issue, he signed up and is now recording his daily sit-ups and basketball activity to earn POINTS. He loved the videos on weight training and has already connected with a “girl” who is anorexic in Sweden! Wow! Not sure what you do with the points you earn, but the kids seem to like accruing them and bragging about them, so it is definitely working for some of the kids. Plus the stories are very inspirational.
Thanks for reading….check it out for yourself.
Bevin
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