Instructions - Essay Example

Part 3: Promotion Requirement Objective: -6 pages (double spaced 12 pt. font) -describe in detail the promotion you will use to launch your new positioning to the new/current segment. -may include additional pages with imagery Given the organization, target, and positioning, what promotion makes sense? This is your chance to be creative. Think about all of the various types of promotions and marketing communication types and vehicles available to you. Your promotion could be anything: a particular price promotion and/or free gift campaign, sponsoring or putting on an event, a 360 media campaign around a particular message, whatever you can think of.

However, make sure you can justify your decision and show that it makes sense for THIS organization, THIS target, and THIS positioning. What will your promotion include? What media makes sense to use – for this target, for this organization? Include a budget. How much money is necessary for this? Be reasonable – consider the size of the organization and what you think they are capable of. Note: Overall you will be evaluated on your creativity how realistic it is (in terms of budget, etc) Most importantly: how appropriate are your ideas given the organization, target and positioning.

You must JUSTIFY your decisions. Tell me WHY it makes sense to do what you are doing. This portion will be graded as follows (a possible 30 points): 15 points – Quality of the promotional campaign How creative is your idea? Did you think outside the box? How realistic it is? Would the organization seriously consider this campaign or is it completely unrealistic for them? Did you use the information available to you from the course on various type of communications, campaigns, etc. 10 points – Fit with the organization, target, positioning Are you able to justify your decisions and explain to me why these make sense for this campaign in particular 5 points – Quality of the writing Spelling errors, grammatical errors, typos.

Essay Rather than using media to promote itself, Florida Christian School should make use of the resources it already has. After a focus group discussion with parents whose children currently attend the school, it seems that the best promotion for the school would be hosting more events for potential parents so that they can get a better idea of the services the school offers. Media sources do not seem to benefit the school much because most parents have never heard of the school through media advertisements, but rather through word of mouth.

The other issue with using media advertisements that even if they did work to make people aware of the school other problems may exists; even if parents made effort to come and see the school, they may be turned off by its appearance, and might not appreciate the positive attributes of the school. Unfortunately, many people make decisions based on first impressions, and the school’s campus is not the prettiest or well-kept, which may be the primary reason why parents do not admit their children to the school.

The main problem is not making parents aware of the school, but persuading them to send their children there. While the school must still depend on parents to spread word of the school, amongst friends and family for promotion, the school can also take matters into their own hands and enhance potential parents experience when they come visiting the school. Instead of solely providing tours to students and faculty members, the school needs to make an effort to make the school look as clean as possible during these tours and give potential parents the opportunity to get to know the school.

First, to help in promoting itself, the school needs to work on its appearance. While it is understandable that it cannot renovate its buildings it can however, repaint the chipping paint, blow away dried leaves, fix pot holes in the road, scrape gum off the floor, fix the dilapidated bathrooms, and just make it more presentable for people coming to look at it. This will help in creating a parents’ first impressions and therefore will allow the school to further persuade them to become a part of the Florida Christian School family.

Most important the major form of promotion for FCS is hosting of events for prospective parents such as, invitations to athletic games and fine arts performances, open houses and tours led by current parents instead of just students and faculty members, having parents sit in on some classes, and hosting luncheons or fairs for the parents and their children to attend. In order to gain a better understanding of the school’s positive family-oriented atmosphere and its ability to further children’s relationship with God and knowledge of Biblical stories.

Inviting parents to games allows them not only to see the athletic coaches and the children’s performance, but it gives them a chance to witness the school’s spirit, and interact with parents and students attending the games; this will give them time to talk to other parents and find out more about the school in a charming atmosphere. Similarly, with fine arts performances, parents will also be able to see the school’s ability to prepare its students for such activities and the professionalism of the school at such events; however, it will also give the parents’ time to ask current parents and students questions and gain some insight on the school’s extracurricular activities.

While, open houses and tours that are presently offered by the school are still useful, the school needs to expand these events to include parents. Students may offer personal accounts of the school, but parents might not think their opinions are reliable, and similarly, faculty members will have a biased opinion of the school, making parents weary; however, if current parents are present, they can contribute additional supportive thoughts and opinions, while providing more believable information.

Parents in the focus group seemed enthusiastic about the school and revealed the benefits of the school in a manner that is more memorable than just going on a school tour. When going on the school tour, instead of just having parents walk around the school and “peeking” into classrooms, it may be more beneficial for them to actually sit through some of the classes, so they can see the academic services provided by the school. Some parents may not be interested in this; however, solely peeking into a classroom not only disturbs the students, but also does not give the parents any information of classroom size or teacher’s abilities.

Allowing them to sit in a class, will give them a chance to better evaluate whether FCS is a school where they will be pleased if their children attend. Finally, having potential parents attend events like luncheons or the fair at the school, will provide them with an opportunity to interact with parents, faculty members, and students; they can see whether their children are comfortable with other children attending the fairs, they can talk with parents and get a taste of the family-oriented vibe, they can learn how FCS manages to teach children about God and help them develop a better relationship with him.

Such interactive activities will help the school promote its services and highlight the benefits it has to offer. Parents can easily access factual information and they can receive this information on the website or through the tours, but to really make the parents appreciate the services of FCS they must have more interaction with parents who already send their children there. As for the costs of such a promotion, the most expensive portion would be the cleaning up of the school. The school will definitely need to invest some of its funds into the maintenance of the school.

Painting the school and fixing the bathrooms will be expensive but things like scraping gum off the sidewalk, blowing dried leaves, and keeping up a clean environment should be part of the maintenance workers’ job. Fortunately, the major part of the promotion is also the least expensive. The school does not need to spend much money, but rather make better use of its resources. For example, they should set up a page on their website for prospective parents giving dates and explanations of the events available, and encouraging them to attend sporting games, and fine arts activities.

Once the parents reach the school, it needs to have current parents who are willing to take time off to help promote the school. According to the parents in the focus group, they think it would be simple to recruit parents to help with such activities. Overall FCS should try to promote itself as an inexpensive Christian based school with excelling academics, athletics, fine arts, and the best method to promote this image is through more interactive events for possible parents so that they are aware of what the school offers.