Brief Marketing Plan Executive Overview The Early Reading coalition was established to address the literacy concern

in our community by increasing early exposure to reading for children age 6 months to 5 years old. The coalition is qualify to address this public health concern because of its extensive knowledge in literacy, early literacy skills and the health impact of illiteracy. The coalition is comprise of local pediatricians, university faculty members and members from the Windham Board of Education. Currently, Willimantic school children scores 20 points below the state average on the Connecticut Reading Mastery test.1 In 2011, 28 percent of the adult population in Willimantic had attained less that a high school education compared to the state average of 10 percent.2 Not being able to read can limit an individuals ability to function and succeed in society. The propose intervention is to increase a childs chance to succeed in school by exposing them to reading early in life. Children who were read to by a parent daily do better in school and this advantage continues when they became adults. Public service announcement encouraging parent to reads to their children and posters and brochures will be placed in local physician offices to promote early reading activity activity. The heath communication program seeks to initially increase in the number of parents who are aware of the advantage of reading to their children and the relative ease of accomplishing this task. The long-term goal of the program is to increase the number of parents who read to their children by 10 percent. The Customers (Market Review) The targeted audience is parents of children age six months to five years old. This health communication seeks to reach families at all income level and educational background. Specifically, parents and guardians who are interested in helping their children succeed in school and later as adults but are unaware of the various ways in which to accomplish this. Secondary audience includes people who are planning to become parents as well as parents of younger age children and expectant mothers. New and expectant parents can acquire the necessary tools to engage in reading with their children once their children have reach the appropriate age. This will allow the program to impact children in the future and may increase the sustainability of the health message. Health care workers, teachers and day care personnel and local librarians are also secondary audience because they can directly influence a parent reading to their children and can also provide the intended activity. For example, a daycare worker or librarian

can read to a child, which would accomplish the objective of having the child being read to. The Product (Product Review) The product of this health communication is education to increase the number of parents who reads to their children. The health communication product will increase parents knowledge of the benefits to their family of reading daily to their young children. The product minimal investment, 10 to 30 minutes per day, and ease of implementing are unique characteristics for a health promotion program that will increase its acceptance by its target audience. Strategies The product that the health communication will promote is the time the parent child unit preforms the intended activity, which will encourage them to develop a close connection with each other. A close connection to ones child is a desire of most new parents and therefore will be a unique selling point because the health communication is providing a means to accomplish an end result that most parents desire. The health communication also meets the need of parents to assist their children succeed in school and during adulthood. In addition to bonding with their child, most parents also want to secure their child future success. One of the advantage of this health communication is the price of the product, which is relatively small. The cost of spending time reading with ones child is the only commitment that parents have to make. Books to read can be borrowed free of cost from the local library. Also many books are available in digital format for free and some primary care providers provide books for free through the Reach Out and Read Program. The health communication product will be promoted through the local primary care providers in the format of posters and brochures depicting parents reading to their children with English and Spanish caption. Also, the four local radio stations, including the University of Connecticut and Eastern Connecticut State University radio stations, will carry public service announcements for a three months period. Finally, television advertisement will be broadcast on the local television station. These advertisement will be in Spanish and English and will be produce with the assistance of the University of Connecticut communication department. Budget Budget Summery Line Item Description Personnel Fringe Cost $110,000 $25,300

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8

Travel Materials Supplies Printing Advertisement Total Cost

$2,000 $4,000 $2,000 $2,000 $0 $145,300

Budget Narrative 1. 2 Personnel with 100% time commitment to project salary------$55,000 Two full time staff to work with partners of advertisement development, distribution of brochure and replacements as needed. They will also be conducting the surveys. 2. Fringe benefit for personnel at 23% of salary -----------------------$12,650 3. Travel expenses to meet with partners and distribute materials--$2,000 4: Materials for posters and television advertisement----------------$4,000 5: Supplies ( pen, papers)------------------------------------------------$2,000 6. Printing of 1000 brochures and 10 to 20 posters -------------------$2,000 7. Donated advertisement creation, air time and promotion --------- $0

References: 1. Connecticut Mastery Test results. Connecticut board of education website. http://solutions1.emetric.net/cmtpublic/CMTCode/Report.aspx. Published 2013. Accessed February 9, 2014 2. Willimantic, Connecticut. City Data website. http://www.citydata.com/city/Willimantic-Connecticut.html. Published 2013. Accessed March 2, 2014