Samenvatting

Nowadays, modern societal trends and technologies enable us to live our lives with comfort and fun. On the one hand, these developments enhance quality of life, on the other hand there are downsides related to our health and happiness. Therefore, in our current society, it is necessary that parents consciously deal with an increasing sedentary and inactive lifestyle of their children, which affects their physical and mental well-being.

Furthermore, the position of physical education at (primary) schools has become weaker, because of cuts by municipalities and the Dutch govern-ment. Therefore, more and more young children (2-6 years old) are overweight and less physically developed.

The KNGU has the opportunity to manifest itself as a socially involved organization, by stimulating solutions to the issue described above. The KNGU needs to adapt to these trends and relatively new circumstances in family situations, such as more working mothers or more single parent families. This requires a new vision and strategy, in which the KNGU has the opportunity to fulfill an important role for society. As a partner within the governmental prevention program ‘Alles is Gezondheid’, the KNGU could tackle today’s problem, since the organization offers a tailored solution: preschool gymnastics. This will increase the number of KNGU’s members and strengthen KNGU’s position in the competitive market of sports.

However, first the organization needed to understand what parents’ wishes, needs and demands are. This leaded to KNGU’s problem, which is that the organization lacked an understanding of parents’ motives for enrolling their children in preschool gymnastics. Therefore the Central Research Question is: What is the information need of the parents to convince them to enroll their children in preschool gymnastics? The objective of this final paper is to increase the number of members (in the ages of 2-6 years) with 5% in one year, by the means of a tailored communications strategy in line with the organization’s values and policies.

In order to influence parents’ behavior, the principles of the Fogg Model of Behavior apply. A certain level of motivation, sufficient ability and a trigger, are three essential factors for behavior. An analysis of literature related to these three factors has revealed that motivation can be based on intrinsic or extrinsic motives, the perceived ability is based on sports-values and beliefs and finally, a tailored communication strategy to a specific target audience is most likely to trigger a certain behavior: enrolling their children in preschool gymnastics.

For the recommendation, insights gained in several layers of research have been combined. The communication strategy illustrates possibilities for the KNGU to increase the number of members and manifest itself as a socially involved organization, by optimizing Fogg’s behavior factors. The strategy contours the needs and objectives for this vision and it could form the basis to adapt KNGU’s communication efforts to new standards of the Dutch culture of sports and being active (bewegingscultuur).

The plan is based on a theoretical foundation and a thorough understanding of the target audience. The in-depth research indicates how Fogg’s factors affect parent’s behavior. In the first place, most parents are intrinsically motivated, when behavior is related to health and sports. Secondly, a difference in parents’ level of awareness, motivation and interests has been found between active (67%) and non-active (33%) parents (in sports). Thirdly, in parents’ decision-making processes limiting factors play a crucial role.

The designed communication plan combines the most important principles of triggering parents’ intrinsic motivation. In the first place, the parents' most important value is addressed: wishing the best for their children. Secondly, their perceived ability is framed and optimized and thirdly, the communication strategy is based on a critical analysis of communication theories, in which efforts are made on an individual level as well as on an environmental level, beliefs are shaped and the message is tailored to a specific target audience. When the plan is successfully implemented, it is expected that parents will more often be motivated to enroll their young children in preschool gymnastics.