CO 407

The Spirit of Homecoming

Ciara Crossey
Ta’Shaun Dorsey
Wanda Rosario

May 3, 2016
Content
2 Situation Analysis
5 Objectives
7 Creative Brief
8 Audience
9 Strategies
11 Tactics
14 Budget
15 Planning Calendar
16 Measurement
17 Media Kit
27 Appendix
Situation
Analysis

The situation analysis is an overview of the current

situation the John Carroll University Homecoming
committee is facing. The John Carroll University
Homecoming committee is trying to revamp their
activities and marketing for Homecoming week in an
effort to draw more community members to events and
have an overall higher turnout with more successful
events.

The situation analysis includes analysis of previous

Homecoming week activities, analysis of previous
marketing plans, analysis of the current demographic,
analysis of the Homecoming week activities that the
John Carroll community would like to see included in
years to come, as well as research on the Homecoming
festivities of colleges and universities of similar locations,
size, and student population as John Carroll.

Analysis of Previous John Carroll Homecomings

In order to gain an understanding of where we need to

go, we must first understand where we are coming
from. Data about previous John Carroll Homecoming
and Spirit Week activities was collected through a
survey sent out to the student body. This survey was
distributed to a wide array of students through social
media, email, and text message. After the survey had
been open for an appropriate amount of time, the
results were collected and analyzed. The following was
found in response to the questions asked about past
homecomings at John Carroll. The weighted average
likelihood of a person to attend the Pep rally, on a scale
of 1 to 10, was a 2.44.
When asked the rate the “spirit of Homecoming” at John Carroll in
previous years, the average weighted response was a 3.24 out of 10.
The most highly ranked activity during Homecoming week was the
Late Night Bingo and Breakfast, while the lowest ranking activity was
the Pep rally. The overall Homecoming 2015 experience was a
weighted of 3.67 out of 10. These scores indicate what needs to be
done to improve JCU Homecoming week. See Appendix A for more
details.

Analysis of Previous Marketing Plans

The survey also looked at past use of marketing plans and
strategies to promote Homecoming at John Carroll. These strategies
were examined for their effectiveness at informing and drawing in
members of the John Carroll community to attend Homecoming
week activities. After consulting with Lisa Ramsey, it was decided that
the JCU Homecoming website is to be the main point of contact for
any information related to Homecoming week. Previous marketing
plans included postcards sent out in the mail, email blasts, and on-
campus advertising in the forms of banners, flyers, posters, and word
of mouth and giveaways in the student center. It was agreed that
these types of marketing have been somewhat effective, but
revamping them and adding a social media aspect is necessary in
order to draw in more people.

Analysis of Wants of the Community

The survey conducted also analyzed what people in the John
Carroll community would like to see for Homecoming week. The
survey offered various options and asked community members to rate
how likely they were to attend an event if said options existed. It also
provided a comments section for community members to submit any
additions they would like to see at John Carroll Homecoming week
activities. Most of the answers included more free food, more
entertainment, better advertising, and more live music and activities.
Community members also responded saying that they would be more
likely to attend if there was a more readily available itinerary and they
knew exactly what was happening, when, and where in an easier
format. This can be mixed through our improved marketing plan and
our use of social media when marketing.

Analysis of Homecoming at Universities Similar to John Carroll

Secondary research was also conducted to determine the
Homecoming week activities and marketing tactics utilized by
universities similar in size and location to John Carroll. It was
discovered that other schools tend to have similar events that we
have as well, such as the tailgate parties, the pep rallies, and the
homecoming football game. But in our secondary research, we saw
that other universities also have their own traditions as well. For
example, just down the street from JCU, Notre Dame College has their
unique events when it comes to their homecoming. For example, the
list of events at their homecoming was the following: games for the
alumni, a clam bake, and even a bonfire to add to their list of
festivities. Wilmington College also has their own events that may be
interesting and unique to their respective for their university, such as
an ice cream social and a lip sync battle. The marketing used to
promote their events is by the following: they use different social
media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and
promote within the school with events such as tables, banners,
posters, free items (like what JCU does when they give out free t shirts
and other merchandise).
Objectives

The goals of the new marketing plan will vary in

degree, but the overall objective is clearly to improve
the attendance rate at the Pep rally and tailgate during
John Carroll University’s Homecoming week. This will be
accomplished through an improved marketing plan as
well as improved events throughout the week. In order
to achieve our goals, we must first recognize and
complete objectives that will aid in the development
and implementation of our decisions.

The objectives of this marketing plan, which has been

established in order to increase the attendance at John
Carroll University’s Homecoming week festivities through
improved events are as follows:

 To create a fun and exciting atmosphere for the

Pep rally

 To encourage more members of the John Carroll

community to attend the pre-Homecoming
football game tailgate

 To effectively advertise for the aforementioned

events through creative and innovative marketing
strategies.

The goals outlined in our marketing plan are

simple. In order to improve attendance at John
Carroll University Homecoming week, we need to
create a fun and exciting atmosphere that draws
community in for the Pep Rally and tailgate, which
will be accomplished through improved events,
giveaways, and free food. We also need to
effectively advertise for these events by coming
up with new and creative ways of marketing,
through both traditional and nontraditional forms. By accomplishing
these objectives, we are sure to have a higher attendance rate at John
Carroll University’s Homecoming week festivities and help the members
of the John Carroll community celebrate their love of their school.
Creative Brief

Why are we advertising? We would like to emphasize the spirit of John Carroll
University homecoming through the implementation of
improved and exciting events for Homecoming and Spirit
Week because we recognize that Homecoming week at
John Carroll University is not as widely celebrated as it has
the potential to be.

To whom are we talking? We are gearing our communication toward the John
Carroll and University Heights Communities (including
students, alumni, families and partners/donors).

What do they currently They think that John Carroll University could use a lot more
think? school spirit when it comes to Homecoming and Spirit
Week.

What would we like them to We would like the John Carroll University community to
think? celebrate their school spirit and recognize all of the
wonderful events that are put on during Homecoming and
Spirit Week.

What is the most persuasive That John Carroll University actually does have school spirit
idea we can convey? and the members of the community really do love their
school.

Why should they believe it?
Are there any creative
guidelines or mandatories?
They should believe it because anyone that knows John
Carroll knows that the members of this community are truly
proud of their school as is evident through their dedication
to the mission and the school’s identity.
Utilizing the JCU Homecoming website.

Tone of voice? Energetic, upbeat, and inclusive.

Audience

The primary audience consists of those who are directly

affected by homecoming. We would like to target the
students and parents of the John Carroll University
community. Homecoming and Family Weekend is that time
of year where alumni and current student can join together
for a common purpose. There are events available for every
age group and everyone is celebrating John Carroll. It is
also the time of the year where new students are finally
settled into their college life and are able to invite their
parents and show them the life they have created for
themselves. For that reason our plan, plans on targeting
those directly connected to John Carroll life.

Our secondary audience would be the community that

surrounds the John Carroll campus. Members of this
community are intertwined with the campus and are avidly
involved in its events. Making sure they are included is an
important part of the homecoming process. With this
information we have two different demographic groups,
which are described in detail below.

Audience A: Women and Men

Ages 16 - 24
Undergraduate or Graduate students
Occupation: Student
Geographic: Cleveland area

Audience B: Women and Men

Ages 25+
Alumni, Parents, or Community members
Occupation: Varies
Geographic: National
Strategies

In order to effectively achieve our objectives, strategies

on how to do so are imperative. The strategies we have
developed are based off of our client’s specific needs and
interests. An effort has been made to incorporate already
existing methods which the client would like to keep. The
strategies we have developed to accomplish our objectives
are as follows:

To create a fun and exciting atmosphere for the Pep rally

 Through improved events, giveaways, and a more

centralized location.

 By encouraging community members to attend

through more effective advertising and enticing
offers.

To encourage more members of the John Carroll

community to attend the pre-Homecoming football game
tailgate

 Through the use of creative marketing strategies,

more free food, and more events to draw people in.

 By securing more on-campus organizations to show

support and more off-campus JCU community
partners to attend.

To effectively advertise for the aforementioned events

through creative and innovative marketing strategies

 Through the utilization of traditional and

nontraditional media outlets

 Through partnerships with on-campus student

organizations to draw in students and community
members
These strategies will be used in order to achieve our objectives. We
have made an effort to work with the client to keep strategies in place
which the client would like to have or feel have been most effective.
The strategies listed above will be implemented through our tactics in
order to create a memorable and enjoyable Homecoming 2016 for the
John Carroll University community.
Tactics

In order to achieve our objectives, we must develop tactics

that will be used to implement our strategies in the most
effective manner. These tactics have been developed
after much research on the target audience and
brainstorming sessions with the client at hand. We will
accomplish the objectives listed through the execution of
the strategies developed by utilizing the following tactics:

1. To create a fun and exciting atmosphere for the Pep rally

 Through improved events, giveaways, and a more
centralized location.
 Improved events include having members of the
JCU fall sports teams on hand, in uniform, to show the
support of the Athletic Department at the Pep Rally.

 Giveaways include offering free, exclusive, JCU

Homecoming 2016 tee shirts to the first 200 students
to arrive at the Pep Rally. Other giveaways could
include randomly distributing JCU foam fingers, spirit
towels, and sunglasses as the community members
engage in the Pep Rally.

 A more centralized location would be the Kulas

Auditorium following the comedian the Thursday
night of Spirit Week. The idea would be to have JCU
community members, specifically students, attend
the comedian (an already popular event) and then
immediately follow with the Pep Rally and end with
food trucks and giveaways outside on Admin Drive.

 By encouraging community members to attend

through more effective advertising and enticing offers.
 More effective advertising would include a
snapchat filter for the Pep Rally, as well as a
Snapchat account for JCU Homecoming to which
 students could send their snaps and have them added to the
story.

 Other forms of more effective advertising would be to have

athletes promote the event to their friends, large banners around
campus, and social media blasts.

 Enticing offers would include the promise of free food trucks,

opportunities to get autographs or take pictures with JCU football
head coach Tom Arth, and chances to win large prizes by
attending Homecoming week festivities and checking in with an
SUPB representative.

2. To encourage more members of the John Carroll community to attend the

pre-Homecoming football game tailgate
 Through the use of creative marketing strategies, more free food, and
more events to draw people in.

 Creative marketing strategies would include the use of traditional

and nontraditional media, including but not limited to email
blasts, banners, advertising through clubs, teams, and
organizations, and social media.

 More free food, such as food trucks like East Coast Custard, Donut
Lab, and SnoCones, food that is quick and easy to pass out, in an
effort to avoid long lines, which may deter people from waiting
around, as well as food that is appropriate for the football game,
such as hotdog toss-outs.

 More events to draw people in would include games, such as

cornhole and CanJam, set up along South Belvoir, random
giveaways for members who check in and enter their names with
a member of SUPB, and prizes for school spirit.

 By securing more on-campus organizations to show support and more

off-campus JCU community partners to attend
 Partnering with organizations like Greek Life, organizations and
clubs, and teams. Allowing them to host booths where they can
have games, merchandise, etc.

 Offering incentives for on-campus clubs that participate, like the

opportunity to secure more funding further down the line, if they
take part in the tailgate festivities.
  Reaching out to businesses owned by JCU Alumni (Guys Pizza,
Your Truly, etc.) to see if they would be interested in participating
in the tailgate, through food booths, etc. as a way to draw in the
alumni community.

3. To effectively advertise for the aforementioned events through creative

and innovative marketing strategies
 Through the utilization of traditional and nontraditional media outlets.

 Nontraditional media outlets include social media and guerilla

marketing tactics.

 Traditional media would include standard posters, signs,

postcards, email blasts, etc.

 Work with SUPB to create Homecoming 2016 marketing tactics

that can be advertised at other SUPB events earlier in the year,
like Streak Week.

 Through partnerships with on-campus student organizations to draw in

students and community members
 Work with Greek Life, clubs and organizations, and teams to hold
contests seeing who has the largest attendance at tailgate.

 Encourage organizations to advertise for the tailgate during their

meetings and offer incentives for groups who participate.

 Work with Residence Life to encourage RAs and residents to

attend tailgate event through programming and marketing on
floors.
Budget

Our budget is to include the materials needed to

promote homecoming and get more people involved. For
that reason we split the budget down into simple
categories of “incentives”, “information”, and “events”.
Our entire budget for the weekend is estimated at $10,000.
With our plan we want to make sure that everyone feels as
though they can participate in homecoming events. Every
event that we have specified earlier in the plan will do just
that. 20% of our budget goes to purchasing incentivizing
items that would draw people to our events. 30% of our
budget will go towards pre-planned activities, making sure
that they are, for the most part, free and that everyone is
able to partake.

Communication is also important and that is why we

want to spend the majority of our budget on the
“information” area. 45% of the budget will go towards
communication efforts. A well promoted event is bound
to draw in a great crowd. We used different forms of
research to gather as much information about how
students feel about homecoming. We want to make sure
that our promotional items and communication efforts are
relatable to everyone in our target audience. Our main
target audience is constantly using social media and the
internet to retrieve their intel. However, parents and older
adults might consume marketing advertisements through
non-digital forms. With that in mind, we want to cover all
media mediums and reach everyone within our target
audience. Please see Appendix B for the specific details.
Planning
Calendar

It takes much preparation for setting up homecoming

weekend. However, in our planning calendar the bulk of
the work takes place in September and October.

 April: Nominations for Homecoming Court

 May/June: Choosing the comedian for the comedy

event

 August: Advertising for events, make designs for the t

shirt

 September: More advertising for events, sell tickets for

the homecoming dance, have tables and small
events to promote the event, send out the coupons
for discounted JCU merchandise to JCU parents and
alumni to be able to buy spirit wear merchandise at
the JCU bookstore, voting for homecoming court,
print media

 October: More promoting of the homecoming

weekend, have the Pep Rally to get people pumped
up for the football game, have the sale at the store
before the Pep Rally, homecoming game, tailgate
party, Inside JCU, Lobovision (TV ads), Tours of
Cleveland, Alumni and family events, Sunday mass
and brunch
Measurement

In order to evaluate the progress of our marketing plan,

we must measure the success of our objectives. Below is
how we plan on measuring the success of each
objective within our plan.

 Situation Analysis: To look closely at the big picture

and to take every detail into consideration.
 Tools needed: research of past events,
research of other universities

 Objectives: To discuss and explain all of the ways

that one will go about our situations and ideas for
homecoming weekend.
 Tools needed: List of ideas, along with
research from situation analysis

 Audience: To plan to aim at certain group

members and certain people.
 Tools needed: Social media outlets, word of
mouth, etc.

 Tactics: To create objectives and goals to

complete tasks and to improve number of
attendance
 Tools needed: outline of objectives

 Planning Calendar: To set up a timeline of when

and what will be done by each month.
 Tools needed: Calendar/a list of the months

 Budget: To devise how said budget will be spent

where it is within the budget.
 Tool needed: Financial sheets, receipts for
anything bought or purchased, etc.
 Media Kit

Marketing and research was conducted to develop and launch new ideas for JCU
homecoming 2016. Findings from research and surveys have made it apparent that
homecoming needed to be reimagined and redeveloped. Our advertising efforts
have been aligned to mirror the styles and trends of young adults today.

Following this page, you will find materials created by our advertisement company,
CWT Marketing, which will be combined into a media kit.

The purpose of this media kit is to convey to the media approved messages that are
both current and accurate. This pre-packaged set of promotional materials of will be
distributed to members of the media for promotional use.

Enclosed:

 Press Release

 Piktochart

 T-Shirt designs

 Newspaper Ad

 Social Media Content

o Account images
o Snapchat filters

 Event Poster
I. Press Release

Carroll News
1 John Carroll Blvd
University Heights, OH 44118
440-622-5237
carrollnews@jcu.edu

JCU SUPB To Plan Biggest Homecoming Weekend Ever

University Heights: In the Fall 2016 Semester at John Carroll University, the annual
Homecoming and Family Weekend will be held. This event is known to bring not only students
but family and friends from the community together for the weekend long events that will be
held on all three days.
Every year, The Homecoming and Family Weekend is aimed to bring everyone together in
excitement for the school and the sports that are a big part of the university. Several activities
that are scheduled every year are the following: homecoming dance for current students at a
location to be determined, a special guest that will kick off the weekend (examples of past
special guests: B.J Novak from “The Office, Tim Meadows from the movie “Mean Girl” and
“Saturday Night Live”, and Dave Coulier from “Full House”). A few other events held on that
weekend are tours of Cleveland, game nights for returning alumni, and of course, sports events
such as the football game/tailgate party, soccer game, and alumni games for certain sports such
as softball and lacrosse. All of these events are held all over campus except for the the tours of
Cleveland that will be held in different spots of popular tourists attractions in Cleveland.
One new tactic that will help with the goal of the planning committee this year is to try outlets
that are used every year to reach the students and family/friends. Some examples of this are the
following: banners, social media, and ads on airplay such as WJCU. One new strategy that will
be presented this year is to have a sale on all spirited items that have JCUs logo on it at the
bookstore and items similar to it. Along with this, there will be coupons to be used at the JCU
bookstore and online at JCUbookstore.com. Another strategy to be presented this year is a filter
that will be used with the popular app called Snapchat that will be of use at the events; the spirit
day filter for spirit day on Friday and a game day filter for the homecoming football game on
Saturday.

John Carroll University hopes to see everyone there to partake in the best and most anticipated
time of the year.
II. Piktochart
III. T-shirt designs
IV. Newspaper Ad
 Appendix

Here you find Appendix A and Appendix B.