Integrated Marketing Communications Plan Book

Prepared By:
Kierstyn Jones
Megan Thwaites
Lexi Glidden
Eric Trabert
LeeAnn Wood
Table of Contents
1 - Executive Summary
1 - Situational Analysis
6 - Swot Analysis
7 - Analysis of Research
8 - Target Market Profle
9 - Media Objective and Strategy
13 - Budget
15 - Creative Execution
Executive Summary
Through an increase in overall marketing efforts, Yorktown High School stands to see an increase in enrollment
rates for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years. With the recent closing of a nearby school, Yorktown
has the unique opportunity to target a large number of families looking for a new school to attend. They also
have the credentials to position themselves as leading in the feld of education. This integrated marketing
communications plan details how to use effective strategies and tactics, both through traditional and digital
mediums, to reach the targeted audience.
Situation Analysis
Environmental Analysis:
There are many cultural, economic, social and political factors that affect Yorktown school district and their
ability to attract new families to the area.
The cultural trends can be broken down into two distinct sections, separated into both diversity and the cultural
environment in which we live.
Diversity is a major factor to be considered by a school district. America has been considered a melting pot or a
salad bowl. Both of these descriptions point to the fact that there are many different cultures represented in our
population. Each culture has different values and needs that should be addressed.
Diversity is also considered to be a positive in the learning environment. It can be argued that students learn
better in a culturally diverse setting. Yorktown should consider attracting a diverse group of students and need
to address how to best reach these different audiences.
American culture is always striving to be better and to learn more. We value success and continually climbing
upward to reach our full potential. Yorktown needs to position itself as a school that can help students reach
their full potential and properly prepare students for college or the job market after school.
Economic trends play into this fnal point about culture. There is a highly competitive job market, which means
that a good education is the foundation to a successful future. It is not just enough to offer the classes and
extracurricular, but they have to be the highest quality to prepare students for their post-secondary education
life.
Due to the local economy, Muncie Southside Schools closed down. This opens up the opportunity to absorb
some of those students into Yorktowns school system. If they can position themselves as the best school system
in the area, those families would be more likely to choose them over their other options.
High costs of living elsewhere, such as the Indianapolis area, could also drive families to move farther north and
send their students to a good school in an area where they can live more comfortably and commute to work.
There are a lot of social attractions to the areas around Muncie. Ball State University and Downtown Muncie
offer a wide variety of attractions that could draw people from outside the community into this area. These
include Emens Auditorium, the Muncie Civic Theatre, Muncie Downtown, the Muncie Childrens Museum and
more.
The political environment of Muncie and their school systems could push people away and into Yorktown. With
the closing of schools and the recent vote to try to end bus pick up to certain areas, families might be looking at
other school systems with more favorable policies and less strife.
1
Company Analysis:
Mission Statement:
Yorktown High School provides all students rigorous academics and cultural experiences to develop life-long
learners who will be ethical citizens of the world.
Vision Statement:
Yorktown High School shares with our community the responsibility of creating a safe and supportive learning
environment. We strive to engage students minds by providing opportunities to explore knowledge and enhance
personal creativity.
Client Description:
Yorktown high school is located in Yorktown, Indiana which is approximately 10 miles West of Muncie,
Indiana and approximately 55 miles Northeast of Indianapolis, Indiana. Yorktown high school currently has
755 students enrolled in their school. YHS is part of Yorktown Community School district. The superintendent
of Yorktown School District is currently Jennifer McCormick. The principal at Yorktown High School is Kelly
Wittman.
Product Analysis:
Yorktown High School is a proud member of the Yorktown Community Schools Corporation. Yorktown High
School as a brand touts a high quality education at an affordable price. Being a four star and National Blue
Ribbon High School, Yorktown maintains their profciency exam rates, including those of their economically
disadvantaged and minority students. It comes as no surprise that one of the core beliefs at Yorktown High
School is that students will learn and perform best when stakeholders maintain high expectations.
According to U.S. News and World Report, Yorktown High School is ranked as the tenth best high school in the
state of Indiana, and is also ranked as the 807
th
best high school in the entire nation. The student teacher ratio
at Yorktown is 19:1, and this kind of close attention has paid off in their form of their test scores. One of the
factors that U.S. News and World Report used to determine which high schools were the best is the participation
rate and coordinating test scores on A.P. exams. At Yorktown, the participation rate in A.P. exams was 57%
during the 2010-2011 school year. Among those students that took the various A.P. exams, 52% earned a
passing score (U.S. News & World Report).
For parents and many achievement-oriented students, this high level of performance provides some comfort
and assurance that students will be granted acceptance to the colleges of their choice, thus leading them to the
careers of their dreams. This does not exclude economically disadvantaged students. When comparing the
percentage of economically disadvantaged to non-disadvantaged students, the profciency rates on state exams
were 81% and 88.3%, respectively (U.S. News and World Report). It is clear that Yorktowns education system
is of a caliber that any student can reach a high degree of success.
Another beneft for the students is the athletic department at Yorktown. With the Tigers as their mascot,
these athletes are ready to compete. Last year, the girls softball team made it to the state fnals, and the boys
wrestling team also competed at state. Their boys basketball team also had two members named to the All-
Conference team as well as one earning an honorable mention from the 2011-2012 basketball season (HHC
Boys Basketball Team Released). Extracurricular activities provide students with a well-rounded high school
experience that make them stand-out candidates for a college education.
2
Being a public high school, Yorktown does not have a very large advertising budget, so they have not done any
major advertising campaigns in the realm of commercials and similar strategies. They rely partly on word-
of-mouth, and also on some free advertising via public relations sites such as both Twitter and Facebook
accounts. It is understandable that Yorktown would rely partly on word-of-mouth to increase brand awareness
because it can often be one of the most effective forms of advertising. People are much more likely to trust and
believe the good words of a friend for ten years than perhaps a 30 second radio or television commercial.
The advertising budget for Yorktown is right around $3,000 for this year, so they have to be creative with their
advertising campaign strategy each year to stretch those dollars as far as they can go. This is a key factor in
their use of Twitter and Facebook to help spread the word about their brand, because both of those services are
free.
Yorktown High School currently has over one thousand followers on Twitter, which is very good considering
there are only a little over seven hundred students in the entire high school. The school also has the opportunity
to increase brand awareness and knowledge of everything they have to offer as a school through parent / teacher
conferences. As part of their public relations portion, these conferences can be an effective way to increase
general knowledge as well as brand awareness directly within their target market because they know their staff
is speaking with the parents of current students. This ties into word-of-mouth advertising because the more
information that the parents of current students have about Yorktown High Schools education standards and
techniques, the more likely they are to communicate that knowledge to others who may be in surrounding
target markets, such as Muncie, or Anderson. Once these parents and families in surrounding areas hear of
Yorktowns high quality education, they may decide to transfer their children from their current school and put
them into Yorktown.
It is a little bit more diffcult for Yorktown to measure the success of its sales promotion or marketing strategy
since they cannot rely on inventory turnover, point of purchase information, or other ratios or units of measure
as traditional companies and retailers can. They have to rely on carefully monitoring the increase in enrollment
for specifc groups, such as minority and economically disadvantaged, as well as simply the increase in overall
enrollment from year to year, while accounting for the differences between the number of students graduating
and those entering high school for the frst time that were already a part of the Yorktown Community Schools
system. Below is a chart showing the distribution of students among Delaware County High Schools according
to numbers pulled from highschools.com.
As you can see, Southside occupied just over 20% of the market, and with it closing, there is a rich opportunity
for Yorktown to increase its market share of the students in Delaware County.
3
Consumer Analysis
Yorktown current target market is has a couple different branches. Yorktown wants to reach out to men and
women ages 20-49 in the surrounding cities, single parents ages 20-49, young married couples ages 20-34, and
median household income of $66,056. With another high school closing in the surrounding town of Muncie,
this is another available target market for Yorktown to pursue. Considering that there has been a drastic cut to
funding busses, this could be a potential threat of a target market for Yorktown because of its location.
Yorktown has a unique brand loyalty compared to the other competitors. One thing Yorktown does have over
other Muncie Community Schools is their athletics. Yorktown is ranked number 10 in the state of Indiana for
school rankings across the board. Their athletics have been state ranked sports for many years.
When it comes to brand perception, Yorktowns prospect consumer wants a good quality education and wide
range of athletics. These consumers want their students to have a chance to get into credited colleges and
universities, with having a long lasting effect on job offers. Another aspect these consumers will be looking for
is the offer of scholarships to future students.
Appealing aspects for Yorktown fall in line of Yorktown being an affordable school with great education.
Yorktown has statistics to prove that their education is top notch. 53% percent of Yorktown students graduate
with honors and they have a 98% graduate rate.
Geographic difference between Muncie Southside and Yorktown is approximately 8 miles apart. Yorktown
from surrounding campus living of Ball State University is approximately 17 minutes away. Yorktown is
approximately 22 minutes away from Anderson, Indiana. All in all Yorktown is basically in the middle of all of
surrounding areas. The huge fnancial cut to the funding of busses for Muncie Community Schools could also
be a threat to the geographic differences for Yorktown because that takes out a portion of Yorktowns target
area. Yorktown is going to have to strategically plot a way around the bus situation.
Competitive Analysis
Yorktown high school has been known as one of the best high schools to attend academically along with
athletically. With this said, Yorktown high school has many competitive advantages over their competition,
which are other schools in Mid-Eastern Indiana. Yorktown High has competitive advantages such as national
recognition, a quality education at an affordable cost, great student academic results, a decent location for new
student prospect, and a great place to live. According to the recent 2013 high school rankings, Yorktown high
school is ranked in the top 10 school to attend for academics in the state of Indiana. This is very important for
many families in the greater Muncie and central Indiana area. As for national recognition, Yorktown high school
is ranked at an outstanding 1,257
th
best school to attend academically in the United States. As of 2010, there are
98,817 public schools and 33,366 private schools in the United States. Which is a total of 133,183.
Muncie Central High School is not ranked and did not receive a medal award according to the 2013 high school
ranking. This means that Yorktown provides a higher quality education compared to Yorktown.
Burris Laboratory is ranked 3rd in Indiana. This is a higher ranking than Yorktown, but Burris requires and
application process to enroll, allow a smaller number of students to attend and has a much higher price to attend.
Yorktowns quality education has shown in the past and has received the title as a Blue Ribbon School. Indiana
also awarded Yorktown High with a four-star status. Which is the highest star status a high school can get in
the state of Indiana. With these types of credentials, some may think that they would have to pay an extreme
4
amount of money to send their child or children at a top high school in the state but that is not true in this
scenario. Yorktown high school is a public school along with majority of the high schools in the United States.
Therefore, tuition is not part of the students costs to attend Yorktown. The low cost to go to Yorktown is a great
advantage over their competition due to the quality of education the students receive.
Students at Yorktown high school learn each and every day. Which is proved through their outstanding test
scores and achievements. At Yorktown high school, 53% of the students choose to take honors courses and,
with that said, 98% of the students that attend Yorktown actually graduate and graduate with a greater chance
to be accepted into the college of their choice. 57% of students at Yorktown choose to participate in Advanced
Placement (AP) courses compared to only 36% at Muncie Central High School.
Along with great academics at Yorktown high school, they also have an outstanding athletic department.
Yorktown has won fve state championships in their school history. Boys golf won in 1975, girls golf won in
1977 and 2013, and their volleyball team won state in 2001 and in 2012.
Another great advantage that Yorktown has over other competitive high schools in the same area is their
location for current and new prospective student to attend Yorktown high. Yorktown high school is located
in Yorktown, Indiana which is approximately 10 miles West of Muncie, Indiana and approximately 55 miles
Northeast of Indianapolis, Indiana and within 10 miles from one of the most popular highways in the state;
Interstate 69. Therefore, that are a number of towns surrounding Yorktown, Indiana that Yorktown high school
can recruit new students from. Towns such as Alexandria, Indiana, Albany, Indiana, Muncie, Indiana, Anderson,
Indiana, and even the North side of Indianapolis Indiana. In recent news, many citizens of Muncie, Indiana have
heard about the closing of Southside high school. There is a great amount of opportunity for Yorktown high
school to recruit new students from Southside high school to attend their school.
Living in Yorktown, Indiana is great for many reasons. One is that the Indiana way of life is wholesome and
cultural. Yorktown can attract not only traditional Americans but also citizens of other countries and origins.
Yorktown is located outside of Muncie, Indiana and therefore is much more peaceful due to a smaller city
limits. Yorktown has a population of just under 10,000 people and a median household income of $66,000.
Therefore, for those looking for a great place to live with good income status, Yorktown, Indiana, would be the
place to live.
5
SWOT Analysis:
Yorktown schools have a great amount of brand equity. There is a vast amount of untapped potential in their
brand.
Strengths:
Four Star school
National Blue Ribbon high school
Top 10 in Indiana
Location: Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne, Muncie,
other surrounding cities
Athletics program
College prep classes
Homework hotlines
Weaknesses:
Small budget
Lack of transportation to Southside students
Lack of awareness of strong academic
standing
Opportunities:
Southside schools closing
Parents working in Indy but commute
Parents working in other cities that could
commute
Threats:
Burris high academic standing as well
Other nearby schools
Potential disciplinary issues from new stu-
dents
6
Analysis of Research
Our team did not do any primary research for this project. Our research on Yorktown High School revealed
that it is one of the top schools in the state of Indiana. Being a four star and National Blue Ribbon High
School means that Yorktown has to keep up their profciency exam rates, including those of their economically
disadvantaged and minority students.
Jesse Rothstein of Princeton University explains that students who attend schools with higher overall test scores
tend to have higher GPAs and is a good indicator of success in college in his article titled SAT Scores, High
Schools, and Collegiate Performance Predictions.
Throughout the semester, we have uncovered a wealth of information regarding Yorktown as a school and
a product, the education system in general, and even the education system within Delaware County and
East Central Indiana. To say that we have only learned a few new pieces of information would be a gross
understatement, however, some pieces of information have been more interesting or unique than others. For
example, we learned that Muncie Southside High School comprised nearly twenty-fve percent of all high
school students in Delaware County. We knew that with the closing of Muncie Southside, Yorktown High
School would have a good opportunity to absorb some of those students and increase enrollment, but we were
surprised to learn that Southside held such a large number of students. There is certainly a great opportunity to
be seized here, and we have tried to tailor our marketing ideas and efforts towards this population.
Another interesting topic we learned about was the high caliber of education at Yorktown High School. A
couple of our group members were familiar with the Muncie and Yorktown areas and were already aware that
Yorktown was known to provide a quality education, however, after learning more about Yorktown, we learned
that their reputation does not do them justice. Not only does Yorktown provide a high quality education at an
affordable price, but they also have many state-ranked athletic teams for both boys and girls. We understand
that the target market for Yorktown is actually the parents of the students that would attend school there;
however, it does not hurt Yorktown to have athletics to draw in the attention of the prospective students. The
unique combination of high quality education, ranked athletic teams, and a low cost at Yorktown will be a
strong selling point to Yorktowns target markets.
After completing quite a bit of research and doing a SWOT analysis, we have been able to realize that one of
Yorktowns biggest competitors is Muncie Burris. Burris actually has a higher ranked academic curriculum
than Yorktown does, and also has a few solid athletic programs. In addition to this, Burris is affliated with Ball
State. While Yorktown and Burris are very comparable and similar in many facets, Yorktown offers a unique
feature that Burris does not: price. We have pinpointed this as the differentiating feature between Yorktown and
Burris. While their overall selling point is a quality education that puts children on the right path to college and
successful careers, Yorktown offers a quality education at an affordable price.
One of the unexpected things that we uncovered throughout the research process was the low number of
minority students enrolled at Yorktown as a percentage of the whole. Yorktown High School values diversity
and considers it a desirable factor to enhance the quality of education. However, despite this viewpoint, the
minority enrollment at Yorktown is only six percent. Knowing this is benefcial because drawing in some of
the students from Muncie Southside to Yorktown will increase the amount of diversity and minority enrollment
and thus increase the quality of education at Yorktown. The majority of students at Yorktown do not come from
economically disadvantaged students, so the addition of potentially economically disadvantaged students that
previously attended Muncie Southside will give a wider variety of perspectives to the classrooms at Yorktown.
7
Target Market Profle
Yorktown high school has a seemingly large target market in their particular feld of work. Yorktown high
school is an educator, which means that most young adults and people in general attend high school to earn an
education. Therefore, Yorktown high school has a large target market. As for demographics, Yorktown has a
somewhat high advantage when discussing the ability to increase student enrollment. Yorktown high school is
located in Yorktown, Indiana, which is approximately ten miles West of Muncie, Indiana, and approximately
ffty-fve miles north of Indianapolis.
Yorktown high currently has a total enrolment of 755 students at their school and is also a part of Yorktown
Community Schools. Yorktown has a good reputation to be excellent in not only academics but also in athletics.
Therefore, they have higher expectations than at most other public high schools in the state of Indiana.
Yorktown high schools core beliefs are that students will learn and perform best when stakeholders maintain
high expectations. Curriculum and instruction will be research or evidence based with student achievement
being measured to ensure continuous progress. Students will be provided opportunities to learn and achieve to
their highest potential at Yorktown high. Also with their core beliefs, they believe that school leaders will expect
and support ongoing improvement of teacher and student performance.
Yorktown high schools market varies drastically from other Indiana public high schools averages. At Yorktown
high, they do offer free and reduced lunches for their students in need but is much lower than Indianas average
free and reduced lunches at other public high schools. Indiana currently has an average of 28 percent of their
students in public high schools that receive free or reduced lunches. At Yorktown high school, only 8 percent
of their students receive free or reduced lunches. Therefore, Yorktown has a higher expectation of students
and families of their students. Along with the market share, student to teacher ratio is taken into perspective.
Currently, Indiana public high school student to teacher ratio is at 15.6 students to one teacher. Yorktown high
school has a slightly greater ratio of 19.2 students for every one teacher. With this information, it is obvious and
possible for Yorktown high school to increase in students along with staff. Overall, it is possible that Yorktown
may have room to hire a couple more teachers, which will increase the overall population of Yorktown, Indiana.
Yorktown high schools main goal is to increase student enrollment at their school. There is high potential for
this to occur due to the fact of their geographical positioning. Being only 10 miles away from Muncie, Indiana
and approximately 15 miles from Anderson, Indiana, there is potential to transfer student from high schools
such as Muncie Southside High School which recently shutdown and Anderson High School, which is fairly
close to Yorktown, Indiana. Yorktown high school has a primary market of couple ages 28-35 years old that are
interested in having children who would attend Yorktown high. With a primary market such as that, it would
create opportunity for Yorktown high school to receive those types of peoples children throughout the childs
life along with any siblings that child may acquire in the future. This includes parents of students who live or
work in the Muncie, Anderson, Indianapolis and other surrounding cities.
Their secondary target audience includes families on the Southside of Muncie. Since the recent closing of their
high school, there is a great chance to absorb some of the students from that school into Yorktown High School.
8
Media Objectives and Strategy
Objectives:
Our media objective is to increase the number of students enrolled by 10% for the fall 2014 semester. Since
there are currently 755 students, that would be an increase of 75 students in attendance. There are two target
audiences we are trying to reach with this plan. The frst are parents on the Southside of Muncie. Since the
school has recently closed, they are looking for a new school to send their children. Our other market is
parents in Delaware County and the surrounding areas to try to get them to switch their students enrollment
to Yorktown High School. The effective frequency is more important to us than reach because we are more
concerned with parents switching their students enrollment than we are with getting our information out to a
mass audience. Our advertisements will be targeted to the Muncie Southside area, Delaware County as a whole,
and the roads people travel between Muncie and Anderson, and Muncie and Indianapolis. We are not doing any
sales promotions or event promotions during our campaign. We will also not be targeting any trade consumers.
Our working media budget, as mentioned above, is $2,700.
Strategy:
Yorktown high school will be working on a tight budget for its campaign. Therefore, it is important to use the
most effective media strategies compared to a good price. The three most effective media strategies for the best
price was decided to be using billboards, radio commercials, and direct mail.
The idea for the billboards is to strategically place the billboard ad in an area that would effectively grab our
targeted audiences attention. With that said, Yorktown high school will be placing a billboard ad on highway
32 between Muncie, Indianapolis and Anderson, Indiana. The theory for using this geographical area is that
families and parents will travel back and forth on highway 32 to and from their workplace. We are hoping
that this will be seen every day by the working parents of high school, middle school, and elementary school
children. In result of, it will provide an opportunity for those parents to transfer their children to a better school.
The billboards will cost approximately $500.00 per month. The best months for Yorktown to purchase these
billboards would be in June, July, and November. We decided that June and July would be a good time to
purchase these billboards due to it will be during the high school students summer vacation and will give their
parents time to think about transferring their children to Yorktown high school. Also, there will be much more
traffc during the summer months compared to the winter months. We also chose to purchase billboard space
during the month of November. This will give Yorktown the opportunity to grab the attention of parents in the
area before the fall semester for their children ends. In theory, this will create a chance for students to transfer
and be ready to attend Yorktown for the spring semester.
Our second media strategy is to provide commercials on the local radio stations in the Muncie, Indiana and
Anderson, Indiana area. We believe that this will be most effective in June and October. We decided on
June for the frst month to use radio commercials because it will be during the students summer vacation.
Therefore, will give their parents a chance to hear the commercial and will persuade them into thinking about
transferring their children to a more superior school district. The other month that we decided would be best
for a radio commercial would be in the month of October. We believe that this would be an effective time to
air the Yorktown commercial because it will be towards the end of the students fall semester which will give
their parents the idea to transfer their children over to Yorktown. It is also a generally decent time for weather,
which will create a decent amount of traffc and will result in more people hearing our advertisement. Radio
commercial will cost approximately $250 to air in the local Muncie, Indiana and Anderson, Indiana areas.
9
The third media strategy to grab local Muncie residents attention is to use direct mail. Due to the fact that
Southside high school in Muncie, Indiana will be closing in the near future, we believe this is a great advantage
for Yorktown to contact the parents of those students in a personal level by mailing them via direct mail.
Muncie Southside is approximately 10-15 miles from Yorktown, which creates a great advantage for Yorktown
to contact and persuade those parents and student to send their children to a better and more superior high
school compared to Muncie Central. Direct mail may be the most effective strategy for Yorktown because it
will create a relationship more on a personal level than a public radio commercial or billboard. Direct mail will
approximately cost $700 and will be seen by more than 500 households.
We also recommend using the high schools website and social media pages to promote the school. The high
school website should include an online PDF of information for potential and future students. This would
include the rankings, test score information, athletic accomplishments and anything else that would help parents
make the decision to send their students to Yorktown High School.
The social media pages can highlight success stories of individual students that have attended Yorktown High
School, as well as achievements the school has earned, upcoming events, athletic scores and other information
important to families who already attend Yorktown, but also position it as a great school for those families doing
research into the school.
We decided against using television advertisements because they are expensive and we believe it would not be
as effective as the strategies we have listed above. Parents are in their cars to drop their students off to school or
drive to work in the morning, so there is a high probability that they will see our billboard and hear our radio ad.
They are also almost guaranteed to see our direct mail piece sent specifcally to them. Television we would have
to do research into what shows families in our targets are watching and try to get ad space during that time. We
would need to have multiple ads running on different channels at varying times to reach everyone in our target
audience, which Yorktown does not have the budget for.
For this campaign, we will be using both continuous and fighting strategies. We will be using social media
pages and the website to promote the benefts and achievements of Yorktown High School. That will be on
a continuous basis. Our radio, billboard and direct mail ads will have fighting. Instead of having ads run all
year round, it is a better use of our budget to run ads during the summer months, right before the fall semester
begins, and during the winter months, right before the spring semester begins. These are time periods when
parents are considering moving and are more likely to transfer their students for a more smooth transition into
the new school, as opposed to moving them half way through the semester. The billboard ads will be up 24/7 for
month long periods of time. The direct mail pieces will be a one-time occurrence to our target households. The
radio ads will be on in the morning, during the time that parents are dropping their children off to school. Our
campaign runs from May-July and Oct.-Nov.
Determining the appropriate designated market area is key in the success of our advertising and marketing
for Yorktown schools. Referencing the Nielsen media research list of markets we decided that the following
geographic areas as well as markets were the most ideal in getting the message across for our strategy and
implementing our tactics:
Internet communities
Newspapers (Anderson, Indianapolis, Muncie)
Billboards
Radio Stations (Delaware County frequencies)
10
We would like to place a heavy emphasis on billboards on the major highway areas between Muncie and
Indianapolis. This is because many of the targets that we are trying to reach on in the area, and are already
traveling a lot. The parents that have a commute to work from Indianapolis to Muncie, or vice versa are the
parents that would be willing to travel to take their children to school in the morning that may require a bit of
travel. We would like to maintain two-three billboards on highway 32. The months we would like to do this
are January-June. By choosing this seasonality it allows for parents as well as students at the beginning of their
second half of the school year to have time to start planning for the following school year. It allows time for
accommodations to be made for all parties involved as well. That way the targets can research the schools, tour
it while school is in session, and be able to make a decision by the time school registration starts at the end of
the school year and early summer.
The frequency each month for these would vary. For radio as well as newspaper outlets there would need to be
a heavy emphasis toward the end of the school year, to really press the idea of making the transfer to Yorktown
schools before its too late to register. Then in the early months we would advertise and market normally with a
regular consistency. The following chart demonstrates this.
Designated Media
Market
Market Area
Reach
Frequency
Months
Heavy-up Periods
Newspaper Muncie/Anderson January-June April-June
Radio Delaware County April-June April-June
Internet (website, SM) ALL January-June ALL
Billboards Anderson/Indianapolis January-June April-June
Choosing the vehicles through which to distribute our integrated marketing communications concepts was
somewhat diffcult because we have such limited funds to work with. However, because we have such limited
funds, some of the bigger vehicles, such as television ads, were immediately dismissed. The frst cost item
listed on our media fow chart is direct mailers. We decided that this would be a very effective way to reach our
target audience because we can send the mailers to Muncie households. We are only sending out 2,500 mailers
because only about 1,000 students went to Southside, one of our targets, which would leave 1,500 mailers to
be sent out to other target markets. Direct mailers are an effcient way to reach our target audience because, as
compared to other methods such as television, it will only go to our target market and not be distributed state or
nation wide. We also chose to distribute them in May as that is the most likely time that parents will be looking
to switch their children to a new school.
The second cost item on our media fow chart is a radio commercial. Putting a commercial on a Muncie radio
station will help reach a larger base than just the direct mail, because anyone who picks up that radio signal
could hear the ad. We considered using an Indianapolis radio station that is also accessible in Muncie so that we
could reach a larger audience, however, the AQH rating for the Muncie-based station was actually almost triple
that of the Indianapolis station. There is likely a higher number of XM radio and other satellite subscribers in
the Indianapolis area than in the Muncie area. Using a radio ad on a Muncie radio station will be an effcient
way to reach our target audience because it will be within reach of Muncie, Yorktown, and other surrounding
areas that can pick up the station. We chose to run the radio ad in October and June for maximum effectiveness
because these two months are shortly before the start of new semesters.
11
The last cost item on our media fowchart is billboards, which will be used in June, July, and November. We
chose this time because the billboards will be in place to reach our target audience at a time that parents will
likely be looking to switch their children to a new school. The billboards are an effective way to reach our
audience because it will be visible to both residents of Muncie and Yorktown, as well as anyone commuting
through Yorktown, such as Anderson, Indianapolis, or other nearby areas.
As far as non-paid media goes, we planned to submit a press release on Yorktown High School in the Star Press.
The Star Press is distributed both in Muncie as well as other areas in Delaware County, so it is an effective
way to reach target audience members without adding an additional burden to the low marketing budget that
Yorktown must work with.
The following media fowchart (broken in half to enhance visibility) shows a breakdown of reach by media type
per month.
12
Budget
The total budget for Yorktown High School is 2,700 dollars with our 10% contingency taken out. We were
given this amount from our contact, Dr. Jennifer McCormick, Yorktowns superintendent. We chose three paid
media outlets: billboards, direct mail pieces and radio ads. Billboard will be implemented during the full months
of June and July, and for the full month of November 2014. We chose to rent a billboard and design a billboard
ad for one of our target markets. Our frst target market is parents who live on the Southside of Muncie, since
that school has recently shut down. Our second target market is parents that live in surrounding cities such as
Anderson, Muncie, and Indianapolis. We suggested renting a billboard located on highway 32.
That road will take people right into Yorktown. This will target our second target market. Our second paid out
let will be direct mailers. There is a source through the United State Postal service that allows us to mail up to
5000 pieces for a discounted price of fourteen cents each, bringing our total for direct mailers 700 dollars. We
will also have to pay to print the direct mail pieces, so we wont be able to send out all 5000 pieces. This wont
hurt our plan because that is larger than our target market. The direct mailers will be sent out towards the end
of May 2014. Our reasoning behind this was because school is getting ready to be let out and we wanted to
make our frst target market, residents of Muncie South School Corporation aware of what Yorktown school
corporations had to offer. We think if Yorktown draws in residents that live within the Muncie South school
corporation; this would be a huge beneft for Yorktown. Creating diversity as well as creating bigger attendance
numbers which is one of our objectives as a team. Lastly our third paid media outlet is radio. Rough estimation
on a 30 second radio ad is 250 dollars. We wanted to air two ads, one in June and one in October 2014. With
having two ads during a years period, it brings our total for radio ad to 500 dollars.
With our entire advertising plan put together, it brings our total to 2,700 dollars. We stayed within our budget
with effective types of advertising. We also plan to execute all forms of free publicity as well. These include but
are not limited to: newspapers stories mainly in The Star Press, release date, to be determined; word of mouth;
social media; and our website. Social media is going to be the biggest outlet to focus on. There are a lot of stay-
at-home mothers doing research, so if we target them as well as the hard working mothers through these outlets,
it would be a huge advantage for Yorktown over any other school in Muncie and surrounding areas.
13
The tables below break down the amount of money spend each month for our three paid advertising medium. It
also shows what percentage of the budget goes to each.
Tables:
Marketing Expenditures May June July October November Totals
Billboards 0 500 500 0 500 1500
Radio 0 250 250 0 500
Direct Mail 700 0 0 0 0 700
Total Spent Marketing 700 750 500 250 500 2700
Total Marketing Expenditures in % 100%
Billboards 0.55556
Radio 0.18519
Direct Mail 0.25926
14
Radio Ad Copy:
Its that time of year again the new school year is coming up and your children are moving closer towards
college. Why not put them on the best track for success? Yorktown High School is ranked as the 10th best high
school in Indiana, but you dont pay private school prices for their high quality academics. Located close to
69, it is in the perfect location even for those who dont live in Yorktown. Enroll your child in Yorktown High
School today and help them excel in life for less.
Billboard Ad:


15