LifeSign Lesson Plan
Application of Marketing Principles to the Prevention and Treatment of Youth Tobacco Cessation
In November of 1997, under a grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), PICS, Inc. embarked on a product marketing and development
project aimed at repositioning its LifeSign Stop Smoking Program for teens and young adults. To accomplish this task, PICS elicited the help of students at Herndon High School in Herndon, Virginia. The students were immersed in a nine-week program the objective of which was to develop the first smoking cessation program designed specifically for adolescent smokers. Students gained first hand experience in various areas of marketing including: advertising, writing and performing in television and radio commercials; designing packaging and support material; and developing promotional campaigns targeted toward teens who smoke.
Midway through the Herndon High project it became evident that a second and equally important benefit to the students was the anti-smoking message being delivered in a uniquely effective way. Through involving the students in the repositioning of a smoking cessation program, subtle messages of the dangers of smoking were picked up.
As a result of its success, the program was expanded to four additional high schools in Northern Virginia, involving over 3,000 teens, as part of developing a lesson plan that serves the dual purpose of teaching a strong marketing lesson while delivering an anti-smoking prevention message.
With the help of all the schools and all of the students we can now present a program that helps both teens who are thinking about smoking as well as those that have become addicted to cigarettes.
Lesson Plan Overview
Goals:
This Lesson Plan is designed to impart valuable marketing principles as well as to influence students attitudes towards tobacco use. The primary goal is to teach 9th – 12th grade students the marketing principles involved in repositioning a consumer product from one target group of consumers to another. In this case, the product is the LifeSign Stop Smoking Computer which will be repositioned to target teens rather than the adult smoking population. The second goal is to positively affect students’ attitudes towards smoking. The objective is to deliver an anti-tobacco message in a non-judgmental manner so that initiation of smoking in those who do not smoke is averted and current users are encouraged to quit. Cumulatively the students will learn essential marketing principles while simultaneously discovering reasons to join the fight against tobacco use.
Curriculum Overview:
Through this lesson plan knowledge of repositioning an existing product from one target consumer group to another will be engendered in students through hands-on, real-life activities. The program will be an opportunity for the students to change the appearance of LifeSign and develop an advertising campaign that is appealing to teenagers. Modifications to the presentation of LifeSign will be accomplished by developing packaging, modifying the look of the monitor, as well as altering the appearance of the program guide. The advertising campaign requires developing television commercials, print advertisements, and an Internet site. The final versions of all of these repositioning tasks must be forwarded to PICS, Inc. so that they can be review and possibly incorporated into the national advertising campaign for LifeSign for Teens and Young Adults.
This lesson plan is divided into seven lessons. The average time to complete all of the lessons is 13.5 hours.
Support and Materials Provided:
This lesson plan includes almost the entire collection of materials that are required to conduct the lessons as well as support services from PICS, Inc.
Materials:
There are numerous tangible and intangible benefits that your school will derive from participating in this project. Clearly, the students gain experience with a hands-on real-life marketing project through which they will learn the principles of repositioning and advertising a product. The students and faculty will also receive a subtle yet effective anti-tobacco message and reinforce the school’s commitment to being drug free. With the increase awareness of smoking and its detrimental effects the entire school will be primed for the initiation of tobacco cessation programs.
Aside from the many benefits to the school the results of the work done by the students, if used in a national campaign, may help other teens to quit smoking. In this manner your school is rewarded with the knowledge that it has helped others.
This project is ideal to use in conjunction with high school DECA chapters for use in DECA competition. In 1998 a team from Virginia used the lesson plan as part of a creative marketing research project. The resulting presentation scored in the top 10 percent of entries at the national DECA competition in Denver, Colorado. Combining such a relevant topic as teenage smoking cessation with a national event such as the DECA competition, both students and teachers can hope to gain local and national attention for their work.
This sort of hands on experience will also give teachers a great recruiting tool to attract the best students to their marketing classes. In addition there is no need to worry about finding the time to analyze the data collected from each class because PICS, Inc. will analyze the data and furnish you with all the results and statistics. PICS, Inc. will also provide a toll free number and Internet support to answer any questions you may have while using the lesson plan.
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Testimonials:
Don Coghlan - Herndon High School Marketing Education Coordinator
"There were two reasons for getting my class involved, one is that it gave my students the opportunity to put their hands around a real product and figure out how to market it. And, two they were taught the dangers of tobacco use in a non-judgmental way."
Jay Walker - Robinson Secondary School Marketing - Teacher - Coordinator
"The lesson plan brings the text book to life. It gives the students a better idea of the research and behind the scenes work required for a marketing campaign."
Bryan Holland - Chantilly High School Marketing Coordinator
"The students really appreciated the fact that their ideas were taken serious and they were treated like adults. They truly felt like they were the Marketing Department for LifeSign and the decisions that they made today, impact the future. They came to class with the purpose and that purpose was to showcase their "untapped" knowledge of marketing to teenagers. The LifeSign project turned my classroom into a marketing laboratory where the hypothesis that was created will hopefully be tested in the months to come."
Bonnie Thompson - George C. Marshall High School Coordinator, Office Education
"The LifeSign project created a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in my students, unlike ant other project I have been involved in."
Nikki - Student at Herndon High School
"This has been both a learning and a fun experience. I didn't realize how big of a problem smoking among teens was and am excited to be a part of the solution."
Paul - Student at Chantilly High School
"It was a good experience learning how to develop and market a product. I really learned a lot and hope a lot of other people will get involved in things like this."
Ben - Student at George C. Marshall High School
"LifeSign was a great experience. It was interesting to learn how to market a product and I know a lot more of the effects tobacco has on teenagers."
Mike - Student at Robinson High School
"I think LifeSign is a good idea, because there are way too many teens smoking and I feel it is a growing problem in our nation. LifeSign is a good start on cutting down on this problem."
The issue of underage smoking has plagued educators, parents and government officials for years with no solution. In the past, tobacco companies have deliberately focused their marketing towards teens in order to get them "hooked" at an early age. This has resulted in 3,000 new underage smokers a day with 1,000 of these smokers predicted to die early due to smoking related diseases. Recently tobacco companies have been subject to an enormous number of lawsuits brought by states, organizations and individuals charging tobacco companies with blame for health related problems due to smoking. The industry has even developed a national settlement agreement that was taken before Congress in hope of receiving immunity from all class action lawsuits in exchange for a cash settlement and other agreements. With impending tobacco regulations, teen smoking is a top priority among lawmakers.
Many of the current proposed solutions to underage smoking deal with the prevention of teen tobacco use. There has been very little done in terms of developing smoking cessation programs for teens. Most people believe that because teenagers have not smoked for a long period of time, they are not that addicted and can simply quit. In reality teenagers go through the same withdrawal symptoms as adults. Currently teenagers are not, however, allowed to use the patch or gum to stop smoking, leaving them with cold turkey as the only method to quit. Unfortunately, this option is also the least effective way for anyone to stop smoking. There seems to be no alternatives for teens to turn to with their addiction.
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