Binge Drinking at Bryant University

April 22, 2015

Kirsty Beauchesne (000424455), Justin Brickman (000508191), Marisa Paul (000438414),
Taylor Waters (000453264)

Over the years, at Bryant University, there have been a repeated number of reported
transports, the act of transporting someone to the hospital for consuming a dangerous amount of
alcohol which may result in alcohol poisoning. College transports have become part of the

college culture and have a negative effect on students both mentally and physically, as well as the
entire Bryant Community.
The purpose of our Marketing Plan is to reduce the number transports by ten percent in
one year ,thus, limiting the amount of binge drinking on campus, consuming more than four
drinks within a two hour span. We planned to accomplish this goal by creating an integrated
marketing plan with a Think Before You Drink Campaign, that spreads throughout the Bryant
Community. Think Before You Drink Campaign encourages students to pledge to stop binge
drinking in order to find success somewhere else in there life. The hashtag, #THINKB4UDRINK
will be a symbol of our campaign that will translate to our target market through social media.
Our goal is to encourage Bryant University to get involved with our movement prior to our Up
all Night Event, where students will participate in various activities instead of binge drinking.
Our promotions follow one after another in order to keep the students attention throughout our
whole campaign and to spread awareness of the harmful effects of binge drinking.
We have completed our marketing plan, however, the process of our campaign does not
start until the following year. Throughout the duration of this process we have learned that
changing a behavior becomes quite difficult when said behavior is embedded in the college
culture. Since Bryant is a small school. established norms and values remain primarily consistent
throughout the entire student body, resulting in students conforming to what others do rather than
being individuals. It is hard to change the atmosphere of any aspect of Bryant University.
As the marketing department of Bryant University, we have determined that binge
drinking is a behavior that needs our attention. We came to this conclusion by collecting
extensive primary and secondary research to assess the incidence and severity of this problem
within our campus. From there, we developed a social marketing plan with an intended impact of

reducing binge drinking among college students. Binge drinking, consuming more than 4 drinks
within a two hour span, was determined to be a problem when evaluating the results of our
surveys. We had participants who attended Bryant University answer questions related to their
personal experiences with binge drinking, their opinions of the behavior and to disclose various
demographic information. From this data we found that a large percentage of participants, 85%,
personally engaged in binge drinking during this semester and 95% know others who do so at
least once a week. In addition to those startling statistics, we also gathered that 40% of these
students knew someone personally who has been hospitalized for alcohol poisoning at least once
this semester. This primary data clearly shows that binge drinking is a frequent, dangerous
activity that students are partaking in. In regards to important demographic information that we
collected, 57% of our participants were involved in club or varsity sports and 93% currently
attend Bryant. In conclusion, we determined that our target market for this plan should be
undergraduate students at Bryant University who are involved in a club or varsity sport on
campus, which we call student-athletes. The focus of our plan being to reduce the number of
Bryant students in our target market who participate in binge drinking by 10% within one year.
Though the use of the primary data collected with our survey, we were able to perform
some statistical tests to see if the information found was statistically significant or not. The first
question that we tested was, Binge drinking is cool. Indicate your level of agreement with this
statement. We decided to look into the relationship between males and females with this
question. Out of our 58 respondents, 20 were males and 38 females. If answered with #1 the
respondent strongly agreed with the statement or on the other side #5 meant strongly disagreed.
We decided to perform a F test which is, ... a value you get when you run an ANOVA test or a
regression analysis to find out if the means between two populations are significantly different,

(www.statisticshowto.com). We found that F(1,56)=6.970, p<.05, meaning that men think it is

cool to binge drink while females find it uncool to participate in this behavior and that there is a
very small chance that this relationship occurred by chance.
The next question on our survey that we tested was, Binge drinking is a dangerous
behavior. Indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with this statement. With the same
number of respondents, males and females we performed a T test this time. This test is an
analysis in which the means of two groups are compared to determine if the information is
statistically significant. We found the means for both genders, males 3.65 and females 3.74 and
overall 3.30. Our final result was M=3.70, t(57)=3.80, p<.01. Which means that overall males
and females both agree that binge drinking is not a dangerous behavior.
The last statistical test we performed was on the question, In the last 20 days how often
have you participated in binge drinking (consumed more than 4 drinks within a two hour span)?
One drink being considered one beer, one 1.5 ounce shot of alcohol or one 5 ounce glass of
wine. With this question we decided to compare year in college to frequency of binge drinking.
Out of our 58 participants we had 6 freshman, 35 sophomores, 9 juniors and 8 seniors. The
means respectively are 3.33, 3.17, 3.11 and 2.63. Therefore it appears that seniors are doing a lot
less binge drinking than freshman are. Although, due to the fact that we have a small sample size
we are unaware if this information is completely reliable. Although, we still found that it was an
interesting statistical finding.
Before creating and implanting a Marketing Plan, it is important to analyze the internal
and external environment of our organization. Bryant University is a well-known business school
that already has many useful resources, of which we can take advantage. As an institution that
highlights their focus on innovation, the faculty, students and staff are constantly open to new

ideas that could improve the university. Bryant Universitys Office of Engagement thrives on the
1opportunity to aid students in changing a detrimen

behavior, and would help fund the steps

needed to execute the marketing plan. Another strength of Bryant University is the student-run
programs which focus on drinking responsibly. HEAL, for example, is an on-campus
organization that devotes their time towards informing and creating awareness regarding the
effects of alcohol abuse, as well as promoting the importance of monitoring the amount of
alcohol they consume. This organization could be used as a resource for our plan by gaining their
support and cooperating to inform students about the dangers of alcohol poisoning. Bryant at
Night, another organization, hosts events on weekend nights to give students alternative activities
to partake in instead of going out and drinking. It would be beneficial to form a relationship with
this organization to highlight the many options students have on weekends besides engaging in
heavy drinking .We could plan an event together to promote our Think Before You Drink, antibinge drinking, campaign that we have created. In addition to those groups on campus, Alcohol
Edu is a program which has a similar purpose as us and it could be a strong tool for
implementing our plan. This course has been mandatory for incoming Bryant students to
complete before they move into school and again during their second semester of freshman year.
According to an article featured in BU Today, over a three year period, campus students found
the frequency of drinking and transports has decreased, compared to those students who did not
complete an Alcohol Edu course. The past success with this program gives us hope that similar
results can be duplicated at Bryant in the future. The biggest resource of our university is
President Ronald Machtley, who dedicates his time toward improving behaviors and conditions
on campus and would provide strong administrative support for our projects goal. Although
Bryant University provides funding for new organizations and programs on campus, in the last

few years the amount of money provided to students to complete these events has been decreased
sufficiently. It will be difficult to implement our plan with a lack of monetary support from the
university. In addition, the money given to students is usually provided after an organization is
formed and approved by Bryants Organization Board, which can take significant time. In
addition, another weakness of Bryant University is the lack of consequences students have when
breaking the rules and drinking obsessively. From observations, the Department of Public Safety
handles heavy drinking scenarios differently depending on the officer and the particular situation.
The lack of consistently with officers, and the department as a whole, can be viewed as a
weakness of the university and has led to many students not taking this department seriously.
Though Bryants numerous clubs and organizations provide great outlets for students and
promote campus involvement, there is a constant problem regarding a lack of space to hold
events and meetings. This weakness,makes it extremely difficult for these groups to establish
their ideas and have success because they are not provided one of the most crucial resources, a
constant location.
At Bryant University, the five environmental trends that have been identified can be seen
as a threat or opportunity to our goal. Technology is an environmental force that has been
determined to be an opportunity for our marketing plan. According to College Explorer, on
average, college students spend 3.6 hours a day with their cell phones and smartphones This is
seen as an opportunity because we plan to promote our campaign and engage students through
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. Social Media sites are easily accessible through cell
phone use and will help us attract college students to our campaign. Next, there are currently 300
clubs at Bryant University and 10 are specifically focused on alcohol or substance abuse. This
competitive environmental force is seen as an opportunity for us to build upon the

resources/information that is already available to Bryant students and use connections with these
groups to establish a strong alliance and reinforce these messages. Bryant University bases their
organization off their own Organizational Policy and Resource Guide. In this guide, it states that
Bryant University prohibits the unlawful possession, use, or distribution of illicit drugs and
alcohol by students and employees on its property or as part of any of its activities.This
regulatory force is an opportunity for our campaign since it corresponds directly with Bryant
University rules and supports our goal in reducing the amount of binge drinking. Socially,
students at college feel as if drinking needs to be significant part of their college experience.
Tailgating, the act of hosting or attending a social gathering at which an informal meal is served
from the back of a parked vehicle, has increased at sporting events over the years. According to
an article written by ESPN, beer drinking is a common site at tailgate parties outside of college
stadiums and attendance of games is reduced if drinking is prevented. In addition, according to
John Hopkins University Drinking Studies, the average age to start drinking is thirteen and the
average student entering college is 17 or 18. There is a significant amount time from when
someone starts drinking and developing drinking habits before entering college. These trends are
threats that have been created through college culture. People feel as if they have to drink to have
fun, even at events which sole purpose is to entertain such as sporting events. It is difficult to
change behavior that was started at such a young age. Last, according to the National Institute on
Drug Abuse, if someone drinks obsessively and is taken to the hospital, the average medical bill
is $1,500. This environmental trend is an opportunity to our campaign because the fear of having
to pay such a high medical bill may result in students drinking responsibly.
Since our group has decided to limit the prevalence of binge drinking on campus, it is
both ethical and our social responsibility to do so. An article written by the Hartford Courant

reports that most medical transports from colleges to hospitals is in result to alcohol abuse are
freshman students. This often occurs because these students are away from home for the first
time and have freedom they don't necessarily know how to handle it . Since in most scenarios
freshman are under twenty one, it is illegal for them to be consuming alcohol. Our campaign
encourages students to drink responsibly or eliminate drinking in their life in order to strive and
achieve something greater than themselves. If our campaign prevents less freshman students
from needing hospital assistance in the future, we are eliminating the illegal act. Binge drinking
is very harmful to someones body short term and long term. Short term, one becomes
dehydrated , weak, and has trouble eating for the next few days. However long term is more
severe. The frequent act of binge drinking results in liver and pancreatic cancer, gout, high blood
pressure, and overall wear and tear on your body. In addition, the person who is transported to
the hospital finds themselves having to pay a hefty bill (on average $1,500 ) due to their
irresponsible behavior. If we are able to reduce binge drinking and influence behavior that
recommends students to conduct themselves properly, than we are enforcing ethical behavior. It
is our social responsibility to look out for fellow students and reduce habits that can harm or
even kill them. Not only is the consequences of binge drinking harmful to someone's body, it is
harmful to that persons reputation as well as the schools. We want Bryant to remain the
prestigious school that it is, and not a small business school who loves to drink. It is our goal to
influence, change, or prevent behavior that is detrimental to our Bryant Community.
The primary target market is undergraduate business students at Bryant University who
are involved in a club or varsity sport on campus. The size of our market can be determined
through utilizing the four segmentation bases; geographic, demographic, psychographic and
behavioral. Within the geographic base, our entire target market must be a student at Bryant

University. According to Bryant, there are 3,454 students that we will have the opportunity to
teach about binge drinking. Within the demographic base, we have decided that most students on
campus at this time fall into the Generation Z cohort. Which means that they were born late
1990s and this generation will be graduating from college in the next couple of years. According
to an article in the New York Times called, Make Way for Generation Z we have learned that
besides their obvious love for technology, Gen Zers are becoming more independent as well as
health conscious. Which would mean that they would love to learn about healthy ways of
consuming alcohol in order to stay in their best shape possible. Also among the demographic
base, our target market consists of full-time undergraduate students which consists of 3,287
students, according to our website. For the psychographic base our target is people who surround
themselves with habitual binge drinkers which may be hard to get a particular statistic or easily
determine as an outsider. Although, this may become clear through viewing social media sites or
through giving more surveys out. The last segmentation base is behavioral in which we
determined our target market would be involved in a club or varsity sport. Bryant offers 22
varsity sports and 13 club sports according to their website, in which we determined to place our
focus on.

Basis of Segmentation

Segmentation Variables

Geographic

Attend Bryant University

Demographic

Generation Z
Full-time undergraduate student

Psychographic

Surround self with habitual binge drinkers

Behavioral

Involved in either a club or varsity sport

We want undergraduate business students at Bryant University, who are involved in a

varsity or club sport on campus to eliminate binge drinking from their lives and learn to view
drinking in moderation as healthier for their minds and bodies. According to our survey, 59% of
the participants binge drink at least once a week, and 57% of the participants are part of a Bryant
sport or club. Our goal is to reduce the number of Bryant student-athletes participating in binge
drinking by 10 % within one year. Our success can be measured by taking a survey at the end of
the year and comparing the findings to our first. Though these results can be partially inaccurate
or biased, we believe the surveys are the most suitable way to monitor our success. Rather than
binge drink, we would like to see student-athletes stop drinking alcohol or drink in careful
moderation.
Binge drinking is a risky and dangerous behavior. This is true for all participants,
however especially for our target market. Since college students are usually 17-21 years old,
their bodies and brains are still developing. Therefore, the harmful effects associated with binge
drinking can have detrimental effects on their growth. According to the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, many factors could influence how alcohol negatively impacts the
brain. Some of these factors include how old the person is, their level of education, gender, and
family history with alcohol. In addition to brain damage, binge drinking can also lead to alcohol
poisoning, liver or kidney damage, and a physical dependence on alcohol (www.cdc.gov). We
believe that the most common reasons that people drink heavy are to fit in with friends, deal with
stress, and cope with a life events. Once these dangerous effects resulting from the competitive
behavior are made clear to our target market they will be more likely to participate in the
behavior that we are asking of them.

There are many benefits for the individuals who do not participate in binge drinking.
Some of these benefits include increased overall health, a reduced risk of cancer and a lower
chance of obesity. Other benefits are better sleep, a sharper brain and an improved social life
(www.buzzle.com). The results from a study conducted by the staff of New Scientist examined
10 participants,who considered themselves normal drinkers, before and after 5 weeks abstinent
from alcohol. These findings significantly show the health impact that drinking can have on
overall health. Not only did those who didnt drink report that they had improved sleep,
concentration and work performance, but their liver fat percentage fell by 15-20%. This is
important because, as the article explains, the liver plays a role in over 500 processes vital for
functions as diverse as digesting food, detoxification and hormone balance.
(www.newscientist.com)
National surveys acquired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
show that about 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by young people under the age of 21 is in
the form of binge drinking. Therefore, it is easy to assume that there are many barriers that
influence this group to binge drink. A few of these include media pressure, peer pressure and
college expectations in culture and stress. Peer pressure occurs when students at Bryant want to
be accepted by others and they feel that drinking is the cool thing to do. Media pressure is around
these students constantly. In the forms of television, movies, music and additional
advertisements. In addition to those pressures, college culture also plays a big role in influencing
students to binge drink. Students acquire their expectations of alcohol consumption from media
portrayals of university life, their actual surroundings and friends activities. Lastly, stress plays a
major role in heavy drinking on campus. Since Bryant University is one of the top business
schools in the nation (USA Today), we believe many students turn to alcohol as an escape from

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their hectic workload. In addition to assignments; sports, relationships, and part time jobs also
add to the stress of this audience. These influencing factors show there can be many barriers and,
in their opinion, benefits to the competitive behavior which influence the lack of students
currently willing to resist binge drinking.
The integrated marketing communication plan that we have created involves all aspects
of promotion and a consistent theme throughout, to stop binge drinking. We have defined binge
drinking as consuming more than 4 drinks within a two hour span. Our target audience,
undergraduate student athletes at Bryant University, will benefit from ceasing this behavior
physically, mentally and financially (as explained above). We plan to launch an anti-binge
drinking campaign titled Think Before You Drink, on the Bryant University campus. This
campaign will consist of a video, an event, giveaway prizes and much more. The video will
feature Bryant students pledging to think before they drink and not participate in binge drinking
while highlighting their personal benefits from abstaining from the competing behavior. The goal
of this video will be to show various students making our pledge and therefore encourage the
community to come together to stop binge drinking. We will encourage groups on campus, like
HEAL and Health Services, to join our campaign and promote our cause since we have similar
goals.
In addition to the video, we will also be organizing an event through a collaboration with
Bryant At Night, which puts on night events to give students alternatives to drinking on the
weekends. This event will take place in mid-April, in which we will ask students to spend a
Saturday night through Sunday morning (6 pm- 6 am) together and participate in various
activities, including physically signing a board with their name to pledge, all without alcohol.
They will give their time to show their commitment to their pledge to abstain from binge

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drinking. Throughout the event we will be giving out Think Before You Drink free
memorabilia (t shirts, water bottles, bracelets, etc) as incentives to attend. In addition to printed
prizes, we will be collecting gifts cards for events around the area and giving those as free
giveaways as well. These gift cards will be another way for us to promote students learning about
the alternative activities in the Smithfield area to partake in instead of heavy drinking, like ice
skating or going to a movie. We will encourage students throughout this time period (beginning
with the launch of the video, therefore the campaign) to respond on social media using the
hashtag #THINKB4UDRINK to publicize their pledge and/or make videos similar to ours where
they vocalize their commitment. We will especially focus on sports teams at this time and
encourage them to make these response videos. That is because they play a large role in our
campus socially and make up our entire target market. We will also use social media (Facebook,
Twitter, Youtube and Instagram) to promote our event, as well as flyers around campus and our
school paper.
We will begin promotion for this campaign to create a buzz a month before the launch of
the video and continue to do heavily through the date of the up all night event. The costs
associating in our integrated communication plan will be as follows: time spent on making the
video, getting volunteers and promoting and the cost of the prizes, camera used and necessary
video editing software. We will try to get as much of our costs covered by donations and refrain
from paying salaries by recruiting volunteers to make the videos and control our social media
activity. Our main goal being to promote our target market to stop participating in binge drinking
and to come together and think before they drink. Not only will achieving this mission benefit
our target market in various ways, but it will also have many cost savings for Bryant University.
For example they may be able to reduce the number of DPS officers necessary on weekends and

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also maintenance personnel needed for cleaning up campus and fixing items broken during
intoxicated accidents. In a larger scale, the universitys reputation will improve and so may our
reputation with the town of Smithfield.

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Summary of survey :
1. In the last 20 days how often have you participated in binge drinking (consumed
more than 4 drinks within a two hour span)? One drink being considered one beer, one
1.5 ounce shot of alcohol or one 5 ounce glass of wine.
20%= once or twice semester 27%= 2 times a week 32%= once a week

2. How often do people you know binge drink?

18%= once a week 43%= twice a week 36%= 3 or more times a week

3. How often does someone you know become hospitalized for alcohol poisoning?
39% = once or twice semester
61%= never

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4. How often are you hospitalized for alcohol poisoning?

5. Binge drinking (as defined above) is cool.

Indicate your level of agreement with this statement.
neutral= 51% disagree= 25%

6. Binge drinking is a dangerous behavior.

Indicate your level of agreement with this statement.
Strongly Agree= 20% Agree= 55% Neutral = 21%

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7. What university do you attend?

8. Which college does your major fall under?

9. Which on-campus activities are you a part of?

18%= varsity 39%= club
23%= org
4%= greek

13%= none

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10. What is your home state?

11. What grade are you in?

12. What is your gender?

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Things that need to be cited

http://www.statisticshowto.com/f-statistic/
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/binge-drinking.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129502.600-our-liver-vacation-is-a-dry-january-reallyworth-it.html?page=1#.VT1JBiFVikr
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/features/12-health-risks-of-chronic-heavydrinking?page=3
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/drug-related-hospital-emergency-room-visits
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2958043/
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11392186/colleges-turning-beer-sales-stadiumsalternative-revenue-stream
http://policies.bryant.edu/general.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/jobs/make-way-for-generation-z.html

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ENVIRONMENTAL
FORCE

TREND

OPPORTUNITY/THREAT

Social

Tailgating at
sporting events has
increased(ESPN)
The average
age someone starts
drinking is 13 (John
Hopkins College
Study)

Threat- It is difficult to
change established college
culture

Economic

According to the
National Institute on
Drug Abuse, if
someone drinks
obsessively and is
taken to the hospital,
the average medical

Opportunity- The fear of

paying such a high medical
bill will encourage students
to drink more responsibly.

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bill is $1,500
Technology

According to College
Explorer, on average,
college students spend
3.6 hours a day with
their cell phones and
smartphones

Opportunity- social media

sites are easily assessable by
cellphone use which we will
use to gain awareness of our
campaign.

Competition

There are currently

300 clubs at Bryant
University and 10 are
specifically focused
on alcohol or
substance abuse

Opportunity- We can build

on the resources/information
that is already available to
Bryant students

Regulation

Bryant University
prohibits the unlawful
possession, use, or
distribution of illicit
drugs and alcohol by
students and
employees on its
property or as part of
any of its activities

Opportunity- Corresponds
and supports our goal in
limiting binge drinking

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