M - School, Pause Being a part of the M-School program requires you to come up with a product idea for how to solve a problem for the better of the community. This assignment was named our “Marketing for Good Campaign”. When thinking of an issue to address, my group decided to tackle something that was not considered conventional. Other groups were tackling issues of waste, politics, and environment. Stress and anxiety was a common factor in the lives of people our age and it is the number one cause for mental illness. We conducted a survey and found out that 9 out of 10 people are stressed on daily basis and rated that stress as a 7 or above on a 10 point scale. In furthering our research, we spoke with therapists at the Student Psychological Services Department at LMU and were told that the number one cause to physical and mental illnesses is unrelieved stress. We all deal with stress and are expected to be able to manage it, but we are never told how exactly to do so. We do not address our stress or anxiety until it is already too late. We only look for solutions once it has already left a permanent impact. We are also constantly indulging in unhealthy ways to help distract us from our stress and this actually worsens it in the long run. It is known that students tend to overindulge in partying, drugs, and alcohol. We are only engaging in activities that only distract us from the real problem. Stress is going nowhere and is a part of life, so it is crucial we learn how to properly address it. Mindfulness and the idea of stress relief are upcoming topics, but they’re still seen as unrelatable to college students. Many individuals do not care to make time for a yoga session or to meditate, thinking that it’s a waste of time when really the benefits are unbelievable. After these insights, my group decided to create a brand called Pause, where we taught students about mindfulness and different techniques to help them cope with stress eleven minutes at time. (pause symbol - 11) Pause aimed to help students through a promise of taking eleven mindful minutes a day for three weeks to help alleviate the everyday stressors. We focused on promoting techniques for stress relief in three main ways being exercise, unplugging, and power breathing. To become a part of the movement or promise, one would contribute a donation to the Institute of Mental Health through one of our members and would receive a “Pause” bracelet. The bracelet served that idea of tying a string to your finger as a constant reminder to encourage students to take their eleven. However, this alone is not enough. We also gamified the campaign by placing incentives within each of the three activities. If a student attended a fitness class at the LMU gym, they would receive a charm to attach onto their bracelet. If a student submitted a photo or description of how they spent their eleven minutes, they would also receive another charm. We had two main events, a yoga class and a stress relief disruption in the library. If students attended our yoga event we would also award them with charms. At the end of our three week challenge, each charm would count as an entry into our raffle where students could win spa cards, soulcycle tickets, and massages. We had hoped that by the end of the three weeks students would have created a habit of taking time to properly manage their stress. Going into the project, I never understood how hard it is to try to get people to do something or just how hard it is to start a form of business. People are so hesitant to act in a certain way when they are asked to do so. We had to really strategize to be something that people wanted to do. Since mindfulness already had such a negative stigma, we decided to gamify our challenge which did help produce results. According to our survey results, students who were exposed to Pause rated their stress at a five on a ten point scale. Eighty percent of students said they would definitely recommend our brand to family or friends. We were able to reduce stress in student’s lives by thirty percent and hopefully left a lasting impact on these individuals lives. Nine things that the hardest projects I have taken on in college have taught me...
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