A Public Relations Campaign

Proposal designed for

TIS College Bookstore
Developed by:
Tori Lawhorn
Samantha Parkinson
Alec Steinmetz
Sam Watts
Joe Weber
Table of Contents
1 Executive Summary
2-6 Situation Analysis
7-9 Research Plan
10-16 Research Analysis
17-25 Campaign Plan
26 Timetable
27 Evaluation
28-32 Appendix
Executive Summary
College textbooks are a high-demand product. Every semester students decide where to purchase
and sell their textbooks. Price and accessibility, we believe, play a major role in where students decide to
purchase their textbooks. As a nationally recognized organization, TIS Bookstore, is just one of the many
stables a student can go to for their textbooks. We believe with the right public relations campaign, we at
Hoosier Media Agency can help TIS establish themselves as one, if not the only one, of the main competi-
tors for college textbooks.
Our overall campaign goal is to increase in-store text book sales, rentals and returns, as well as devel-
op a stronger brand loyalty between TIS and the IU student body.
We have multiple objectives for this campaign. First and foremost, we wish to increase overall sales.
In order to accomplish this, we will promote the low prices of their textbooks and the availability of IU-spe-
cifc textbooks. We will also show the relationship between TIS employees and IU students; there is a high
student presence at TIS because many employees also double as IU students. In addition, we will also
spotlight the fair buyback rates for textbooks, those originally purchased at TIS and those purchased at
other locations.
For our research, we conducted several surveys, both in person and online. Our results show that IU
students are mainly concerned about the price of textbooks, however, the majority of students also sell their
textbooks back upon class completion. Not only would we like to emphasize the high buyback rates of TIS,
but we would also like to show the guaranteed availability of TIS selection in addition to the accessibility of
the store itself in relation to the IU campus.
We believe TIS main public is college students. Not only is our agency part of its publics, but we are
also immersed in its main public everyday; students spend multiple hours a day on a college campus, inter-
acting with their fellow classmates.
TIS has provided a mission statement on its national website, a local mission statement on its Bloom-
ington stores website, its publics are very apparent, and we believe we can use this campaign to help TIS
improve its image and broaden its customer base. TIS has multiple competitors, both offine and online,
and we believe this campaign will distinguish TIS as the go-to store for every college students textbook
needs.
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TIS is a well respected bookstore at Indiana University of Illinois, and Ball State University. The
bookstore has achieved this status, we believe, by keeping a good relationship with its publics. The store
offers unique specials to its publics that other textbook and apparel outlets do not offer, like coupon books
and buy one get one t-shirts.
While the previous campaigns have been successful in bringing in business, they have not succeeded
in turning TIS into the number one bookstore on college campuses. The store has made strides in business
by offering special prices, and even buying back books that some other bookstores on campus will not ac-
cept. Through these campaigns, TIS has preserved the good relationship it has with the publics.
TIS is trying to become the go-to outlet to buy textbooks, supplies, and apparel. TIS wants to offer the
best prices and high quality products to their customers, to ensure that no one even considers buying their
books anywhere else. TIS not only wants to keep their current customers, but they also want to attract new
customers and build a lasting relationship with them.
Because TIS is already a very well known store in Bloomington, Champaign, and Muncie, the goal is
not to increase awareness, it is to increase market share. TIS is aware of its competitors, but they want to
become the only consideration of its publics.
The competitive environment has played a large role in the perception of TIS and its products. Be-
cause there is so much competition, the publics pay special attention to fnd what bookstore sells the high-
est quality products at the lowest prices.
TISs main audience is currently defned as college students in need of purchasing, renting, or selling
their textbooks for their upcoming school semesters. However, TIS also provides a wide range of college
gear products that can appeal to both children and alumni in addition to current students.
TIS current message is that they provide the largest collection of used college textbooks at a dis-
count price you cant beat anywhere else. Their website says that they pride themselves on making their
name and reputation based on their inexpensive quality college textbooks however, they are now also an
offcially licensed distributor of college gear, which they advertise in addition to their textbook offers. In its
mission statement, TIS is a company committed to quality, putting our employees frst to serve our custom-
ers best, seeking steady, manageable growth through our divisions by
Situation Analysis
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offering timely, top-quality products and exceptional personal service. TIS provides a declaration of
their competitive prices by exclaiming, TIS College Bookstore offers the lowest textbook prices, period.
TIS began in Bloomington as a family-run business in 1962. In 1975, TIS opened a Bloomington book-
store at 1302 East Third Street and it has occupied that space ever since. We believe TIS has a strong
historical background and important ties to the Bloomington community as a whole. TISs other branches
in Muncie and Champaign opened in 1986 and 1991, respectively, and we believe they also hold historical
ties to their communities. We do not believe that re-branding the company is worthy of consideration be-
cause of TISs rich history among the communities its branches occupy. We also believe that those branch-
es who occupy college towns, such as Bloomington and Champaign, have generational customers as well,
as some of their parents may have utilized TIS stores when they were college students.
TISs main public is current college students. They have built their reputation on their competitive text-
book prices. However, because they are now an offcially licensed distributor of college gear, TIS has been
able to expand their publics to include alumni and general college fans. For example, those customers who
live in Bloomington who do not have ties to Indiana University can still purchase IU gear if they so choose
to.
The main difference between TISs publics is the need for cheap, usable college textbooks. Current
college students mainly use TIS for their competitive textbook prices to sell, buy, or rent their books. For
the students, TIS serves as one of their main textbooks destinations. For the students, they are looking to
get the best prices in order to obtain or sell the books they must have for their classes. This is a constant
need on a college campus; every semester, students must obtain new books for their classes. They may
also look to sell their old ones. This is a cycle that happens at the end of each semester. TISs other pub-
lics, alumni and college fans, mainly utilize TIS as a leisure store, looking to purchase products of interest
to them. For them, TIS is not a mandatory destination and they do not have to return their at the end of
every semester. For the students, the usage of TIS may come in a specifc cycle; they must get rid of and
purchase new textbooks before each new semester. The students relationship with TIS is a cyclical and
mandatory one while TISs other publics use TIS as a recreational activity.
In a recent online campaign in 2012, the IU branch of TIS released a roughly 5-minute long
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YouTube video promoting the store. In the video, a college-age student walks through campus, even-
tually arriving at the TIS location on 3rd street. Throughout the video, she describes TISs long history at IU,
and its dedication to affordable and accessible used, new, rental and online textbooks. It is clear from this
promotional advertisement that TIS values consumer loyalty and strives to be known as more than just a
textbook retail outlet. This is further proved through the mural campaign TIS sponsored in the same year.
The store collaborated with local artists to repaint a mural on the eastern-facing wall of the store to refect
the culture and history of the IU Campus. Since its completion, the large, colorful mural is clearly visible to
drivers as they pass the store on 3rd street. This artistic promotion shows TIS is willing to give back to the
university by focusing on intangible values such as tradition and school pride. Since low-priced online retail
sites such as Amazon.com are a main competitor to TIS, it is essential that they continue to promote ideals
and company values that larger corporations cannot compete with.
Our main question that remains unanswered by our primary research is how the customers feel about
textbooks and what they take into consideration when deciding where and how to purchase them. We also
would like to know about the most popular format for purchasing these books, whether they are online, in
a physical store, or purchased through friends and classmates. The overall opinion of college textbooks
is that they are expensive, but we would like to know about a students personal preference, customer
loyalty to a favorite store or website, and the most important characteristic of a textbook when deciding
what to purchase (condition, year published, etc.). This secondary research will give us answers to these
questions. In addition, TIS will know exactly what their customer market is thinking and what is important to
them. This will then help them improve their marketing strategies in order to improve their sales and cus-
tomer loyalty. Once students realize not only that TIS has low prices, high buyback rates, and the availabili-
ty of IU-specifc textbooks is all but guaranteed, the number of IU students choosing TIS as their immediate
textbook provider will increase.
While TISs website claims that they offer the lowest textbook prices, we still need to research how
TISs prices actually compare to those of their competitors. The lowest prices guaranteed claim may have
been made before online retailers were major competitors. Another thing we need to research is students
current perceptions of TIS compared to perceptions of the IU Bookstore and online retailers. This will tell us
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why some students choose to shop at TIS while others choose other options. Also we should research how
much of TISs sales are in-store and how much is online.
Getting customers to purchase their books in a store rather than online would help achieve the goal
of increasing TISs market share since there are only a few local textbook retailers each in Bloomington,
Muncie, and Champaign. Students can also purchase textbooks online from TIS, so getting them to con-
sider TIS when deciding to purchase textbooks online would also help achieve the goal of increasing the
market share.
Brand loyalty is a driving force for TIS. According to their website, they have been servicing Indiana
University for over 40 years. Even without having conducted any research, it seems as though TIS is very
well known. However, TIS may need to begin to reinforce the relationship more as online textbook retailers
may be becoming more popular, offering a convenient service in addition to maintaining competitive prices.
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SWOT Analysis
Strengths
- Proximity to campus
- Availability of IU specifc books
- Buyback throughout the year
- Connection between IU students and TIS
through student employees
- Established brand/company in Bloomington
Weaknesses
- Set prices
- Store hours are not long
- Can run out of books
Opportunities
- Incoming freshmen
- Alumni relations and family members
- Current students who do not have TIS loyalty
Threats
- Independent/online retailers (Amazon, Slug-
Books, Chegg)
- Not the offcial IU bookstore
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Research Plan
Through our secondary research, we have gathered information about TISs goals, past campaigns,
and mission statement, we have yet to see what its main public, college students, thinks about TIS. In
order for our agency to form an accurate and potentially successful campaign plan, we must consider
how the main public feels about TIS, its services, and how well the company upholds its company mission
statement. We feel that we must see how TISs current publics at Indiana University feel about the book-
store. Though TIS sells licensed college products, its main means of generating sales and establishing
a customer base is through the selling, buying, and renting of college textbooks, therefore, we will focus
mainly on college students. We may also decide to ask the employees of TIS themselves about how they
feel their products and prices compete with the other bookstores on campus, independent sellers, and
online retailers.
We will focus on TISs Bloomington location. Our sample will be taken from one of its publics: college
students. For this research, we will only focus on college students because we want to specifcally focus
on the public that utilizes TISs textbook services. We will gather our sample by sending out an electronic
questionnaire, via each group members multiple Facebook groups and friends, to current Indiana Univer-
sity students. To broaden our sample, we will be handing out paper questionnaires on campus at various
locations so that our sample is not only our teams Facebook friends and social groups. It is important
that our sample is contained to Indiana University students so that our research is not skewed nor does it
posses research that does not pertain to this particular public. We will go to residential hall food courts, the
Indiana Memorial Union, Wells Library, and ask multiple students that walk by so that we can get a mul-
titude of different types of majors and school years. We believe that doing this will give us unbiased and
unskewed results for our research.
In order to receive organized and useful feedback from the sample populations we choose to survey,
we plan to create a standardized questionnaire through Google Survey. This survey program allows us to
construct original questions with effective and easy-to-use formatting. Most importantly, this program cre-
ates analytical charts and graphs to help us better interpret our results. Once we create the questionnaire,
we plan to use several social media and in-person strategies to gather results from our samples. We plan
to send a link to the questionnaire through the groups personal Facebook, Twitter and GroupMe profles.
While these online options give us access to a bigger audience
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in a short amount of time, we want to ensure we utilize traditional market research strategies as
well. Using the same questionnaire developed for Google Survey, we will make print copies and pass them
out to students at the residential hall food courts, IMU, and Wells Library. This allows us to increase the
diversity of students interviewed, while following a consistent question format.
Over the course of the next two weeks, we will conduct online questionnaires and in-person question-
naires that will give insight into college textbooks in general, in addition TIS and their services, through a
variety of student viewpoints. The focus groups will be held on a weekday evening in a communal location
on campus, such as Wells Library or the IMU. We will conduct the online questionnaires over the course
of the next two weeks so that we can get as many people to take the questionnaire as possible. We will
notify those taking the questionnaire that there is a deadline, and we will delete the links at the time of the
deadline, ensuring that no extra questionnaire takers will be permitted. We will also be sure to vocalize that
those taking the online questionnaires must be current IU students. For the in-person questionnaires, we
plan to conduct paper questionnaires so that they may take the surveys at the time of distribution. This will
also allow us to collect the data much quicker; students will take the paper questionnaire, complete it while
we are in their company, and immediately return it to us. This prevents time delay or lost questionnaires
if they were to return it to us on their own time. We would like to poll students on Monday, Tuesday, and
Thursday from a time span of 12pm-2pm. We want to get a variety of students, therefore we will distribute
our questionnaire on multiple days so as not to survey only those students with Monday/Wednesday or
Tuesday/Thursday classes. We also chose mid-afternoon times so that we could prevent only getting those
students with early morning classes or late evening classes.
We hope that the research will help us understand the process that an IU student goes through when
choosing their textbooks for their upcoming semesters. This includes when they purchase their textbooks,
if they mainly rent or buy them, and the main location our outlet they the student uses. It will ask what
condition, new or used, their books mainly come in. It will inquire as to who purchases their textbooks,
themselves or their parents, and how much they typically spend per semester on textbooks. It will also ask
them to measure their loyalty to their current textbook provider and inquire as to what the students do with
their books once the semester has concluded. We will also include demographic questions such as gender,
major, school year, and the type of student they are (in-state, out-of-state, or international).
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Additionally, through secondary research, we will look at the popularity of the IU Greek organization, an
organization that possesses 20% of the entire IU student body. We will research these groups via their IU
web pages, social media accounts, and national websites. Ultimately, we would like to include an aspect of
our campaign that will be directed towards this portion of the student body, given its plethora of members and
well-known reputation throughout IUs campus.
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Research Analysis
1. The Research
Paper Questionnaire
For our primary research, we conducted paper questionnaires and online questionnaires, covering
multiple aspects of textbook purchasing such as price, condition, location, condition, and the future fate of
the textbook after the semester has concluded.
For our paper questionnaires, we had team members stationed at multiple locations on campus, in-
cluding the Indiana Memorial Union, Wells Library, and Wright Food Court. During the week of March 10,
all group members were stationed at these locations at different times in order to get a variety of respons-
es. Our questionnaires stopped on March 14. Our paper questionnaire itinerary is below:
Indiana Memorial Union - 11am-3pm
Monday: Samantha, Joe
Tuesday: Alec, Sam
Wednesday: Samantha, Sam
Thursday: Alec, Tori
Wright Food Court - 5pm-6pm
Monday: Alec, Samantha
Tuesday: Tori
Wednesday: Joe
Thursday: Tori, Alec
Wells Library - 6:30pm-7:30pm
Monday: Alec, Samantha
Tuesday: Tori
Wednesday: Joe, Samantha
Thursday: Alec, Tori
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Online Questionnaire
For our online questionnaire, we sent a link via Google Survey to our Facebook friends and Facebook
groups to which we belong. We conducted the questionnaire from March 7 to March 14. We made sure to
tell the respondents that they must be current IU students. Once the deadline passed at 5pm on March 14,
we deleted the survey from Facebook so that no extra responses could be recorded. In order to make sure
only current IU students responded, we asked that each student type in their IU username to prove their
identity. Below are the Facebook groups that were asked to take our questionnaire:
Tori: Indiana University Ernie Pyle Scholars Class of 2016, Class of 2016, IU SAC, Journalism, Indi-
ana Class of 2016, Teter Boisen 3 2013-2014, Teter Honors 13-14
Alec: WIUX Board of Directors Facebook group, WIUX Event DJ Committee Facebook group
Samantha: GroupMe Chi Omega PC16, Email Chi Omega entire house, Facebook Chi Omega
Group, Facebook IUDM Public Relations group
Sam: Facebook Zeta Tau Alpha group, Facebook IUDM Riley Development group, Facebook IUDM
Merchandising and Apparel group, Zeta Tau Alpha GroupMe
2. The Publics
Paper Questionnaire
For our paper questionnaire, we surveyed our main public, which is current IU students. These were
random respondents that agreed to complete our questionnaire at a variety of campus locations. We sur-
veyed undergraduate students of all ages, and while our public is comprised of students of all school years,
the majority of the students who took the questionnaire were sophomores. Although we included both
males and females as a part of our public, a larger number of males answered the questionnaire.

Online Questionnaire
For our online questionnaire, we surveyed our main public, which is current IU college students. We
surveyed undergraduate students of all ages, and while our public is comprised of students of all school
years, the majority of the students who took the questionnaire were sophomores. Although we included
both males and females as a part of our public, a larger number of females answered the questionnaire.
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3. New Research
Paper Questionnaire
Based on 51 student responses, our research found that the majority of students questioned pur-
chase their textbooks before the frst week of classes or during the frst week of classes. Students who
buy or rent their textbooks are relatively even. Students were found to purchase their textbooks from a
variety of sources, with the majority using Amazon.com or another online retailer. Regarding loyalty to
their purchasing agent, the majority of students rated their loyalty as a 3 out of 5. Convenience was the
most important factor in purchasing textbooks for students, with 60% of the vote. The majority of stu-
dents selected Buy-Used and Rent-Used as the textbook condition they most often choose with 54%
and 39%, respectively. The majority of students selected either $100-200 or $200-300 as the amount
they most often spend on textbooks. The majority of students said they are very unlikely (selecting a 1
on a 5-point-scale with 1 being the lowest) to purchase something other than textbooks (school supplies,
apparel, etc.) when purchasing their books.

Online Questionnaire
Based on 71 student responses, our research found that the majority of students questioned pur-
chase their textbooks before the frst week of classes or during the frst week of classes. Students who
buy or rent their textbooks are relatively even. Students were found to purchase their textbooks from a
variety of sources, with the majority using Amazon.com or another online retailer. Regarding loyalty to
their purchasing agent, the majority of students rated their loyalty as a 3 out of 5. Price was by far the
most important factor in purchasing textbooks for students, with 89% of the vote. The majority of stu-
dents selected either $100-200 or $200-300 as the amount they most often spend on textbooks. 58% of
students said they sell their textbooks back to the store after the semester ends. The majority of students
said they are very unlikely (selecting a 1 on a 5-point-scale with 1 being the lowest) to purchase some-
thing other than textbooks (school supplies, apparel, etc.) when purchasing their books. The majority of
respondents were male and sophomores.
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Online Questionnaire Paper Questionnaire
13
14
Paper Questionnaire Online Questionnaire
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Paper Questionnaire
Online Questionnaire
Scanned Copy of Paper Questionnaire:
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Online Questionnaire
Campaign Plan
Overall Goal: To increase student awareness and loyalty to TIS
while increasing their overall sales in textbook rentals and purchas-
es.
Strategy: Through revamped advertising, increased campus in-
volvement, and elevated brand awareness, we plan to make TIS the
go-to outlet for all IU students textbook needs.
Advertisement/YouTube Video: Currently, TIS has two promotional YouTube videos. Both of which
are over a year old and are longer than four minutes. Additionally, the videos only follow one persons
account of TIS. Furthermore, the subject of the video is acting and therefore candid responses to TIS of
both actual students and current customers are not seen. We propose that we create a new video during
the months of June and July and make the focal point students reviews of TIS all within a minute-and-a-
half time-slot. During these months, we will be able to focus on both incoming freshman, as well as stu-
dents who are staying for the summer. We would like to have a video crew go around IU campus with a
TIS ambassador (student employee) and ask students what they think of TIS, what they like about it, and
why they continue to use TIS services. This Man on the Street view will give students candid insight into
TIS impression among IU students. We will do our best to interview a variety of students, including TIS
frst-time users and TIS veterans. This will give two different perspectives on the same business and will
give multiple, unique reasons why both underclassmen and upperclassmen use TIS. If the students being
interviewed currently have textbooks in their possession that were purchased or rented from TIS, we will
be sure to show those as well, demonstrating the practicality of TISs services. We believe a multitude of
student opinions will have more effect than one students account of TIS.
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Screenshots of
current
YouTube video
on TIS
YouTube account
1.
2.
3.
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Buyback Rate: TIS buys back textbooks year round, unlike many of their competitors, including
the IMU Bookstore and other retailers. Because most of our questionnaire respondents showed they sell
back their books once the semester is over, we feel that an estimated buyback rate needs to be dis-
played on the shelves next to the current price of the textbook. Here, the customers will not only know
that they currently have a guaranteed buyback, under certain limitations, but they will also know what the
prospective buyback rate is. They will know this at the start of the semester, unlike many other retailers
who do not give approximate buyback rates until the fnal weeks of the semester. With this, customers
who intend on selling their books back will know potentially how much they will truly pay for their text-
books, with the buyback price subtracted from the buying price. Because buyback rates are subject to
change, there will be a disclaimer at the bottom indicating this policy.
Example:
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Flier for New Student Orientation and Welcome Week: In order to target new customers, specif-
ically freshmen, we will have TIS ambassadors (TIS student employees) pass out fiers during New Stu-
dent Orientation during the summer. Though many freshmen will more than likely have not offcially signed
up for classes, this will give them an option for a textbook resource when they do decide which classes
theyre going to take. During New Student Orientation, freshmen explore IUs campus. This will give TIS
ambassadors a prime opportunity to highlight TIS location to campus while passing out fiers. In addition,
they will also stress the availability of textbooks that cover all of IUs courses, especially emphasizing the
textbooks that are only IU-specifc, such as language classes (that many freshmen must take) and classes
taught at the Kelley School of Business. The fier will serve as a friendly reminder to stop by TIS during
Welcome Week and pick up their textbooks for their frst set of college classes.
During Welcome Week 2014, the same fier will be distributed by TIS ambassadors to students enjoy-
ing Welcome Week activities throughout campus. By this method, the fier will reach more students, pre-
sumably those that are non-freshmen. This fier will remind seasoned IU students about the vast selection
of textbooks that TIS has to offer in addition to its prime location to campus.
Both fiers will display a coupon stating a 15% off of your entire textbook order with this fier. Not
only will this give incentive to the students that typically rent their textbooks, but it will also give an incen-
tive to those that buy their textbooks, especially if they intend on returning them and see the current buy-
back price listed next to the textbook. This will also serve as a measurement of evaluation; TIS employees
will keep the fiers when they are presented at cashier desk and will count them after Welcome Week to
determine how many fiers were used. After the textbooks profts are accounted for, we can measure them
against the previous semesters profts without the coupon and continue our evaluation to determine if the
coupon should resurface during the coming semesters.
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Example of New Student Orientation Flier: 21
Example of Welcome Week Flier:
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Greek Promotions: Representing over 20% of the undergraduate population with over 60
fraternities and sororities, Greek life is large and accessible public for our campaign to target. IU has
all four Greek councils, including the Interfraternity Council, the PanHellenic Association, the National
PanHellenic Council, and the Multicultural Greek Council. Since the TIS 3rd St. location is shared with
9 Greek houses, its close proximity can appeal to the hundreds of students literally down the street in
addition to expanding via word-of-mouth to other fellow Greek sororities and fraternities around cam-
pus, the biggest of which remain on N. Jordan Ave. Our Rush TI [TIS] promotion will be mixed in
with general promotions to build our brand image as a Greek-Friendly textbook destination. Much like
the Rush KOK campaign from Kilroys on Kirkwood, this will be an affordable way to increase name
recognition. TIS ambassadors will be distributing these t-shirts both at New Student Orientation and
throughout Welcome Week at various campus-wide events.
Example:
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Social Media: In order to reach our student audience, using Twitter and Facebook to promote the
new student deals and changes to TIS will be a cheap and effective medium of communication to our
publics.
Twitter: Since our research indicated most students purchase and sell back textbooks at the start
and end of the semester, we plan to implement a plan that spans the Fall 2014 semester. This will begin
in June of 2014 to account for New Student Orientation. Approximately one to two times per day, the ac-
count, @TISIndiana, will promote the 15% off textbook total purchase promotion. During Welcome Week
(Aug. 18-22), similar promotional tweets will be sent. Most importantly, however, are the interactions and
communication made by the Twitter account beyond promotions of deals and textbook prices.
Students will be able to tweet to TIS and interact with them on a personal level. Using the hashtag
#LoveTIS, students can tweet to TIS and explain why they love them in 140 characters or less. TIS will
then retweet these various tweets, showing students personal opinions about their services. An example
tweet can consist of, I #LoveTIS because they have the best prices for textbooks! A personal approach
will show others students why their fellow classmates love TIS. This will also improve the traffc on the
TIS account, breaking up the continuous tweets only made by TIS. Students will also be encouraged to
tweet pictures of themselves to TIS, whether its of their textbooks, themselves in front of the TIS store, or
dressed in IU apparel they purchased from TIS. When students express complaints such as, Not looking
forward to losing all my money buying textbooks the TIS account will send a response similar to, We
know its frustrating. What exactly are you looking for?. This back-and-forth interactivity is a growing trend
amongst professional companies and their clients. The offcial IU Bloomington Twitter account constantly
interacts with fellow users by simply searching key terms and responding or favoriting when appropriate.
This improves our brand image by creating a relatable, student-like account. At the end of Welcome
Week, one IU student will be chosen via Twitter to receive a 30% off coupon for their textbook purchases,
presumably for the spring semester.
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Facebook: With Facebook, students must Like TIS College Bookstore Bloomington, in order to
view the inside information on the page that will show up in each individual Facebook users newsfeed.
Students will be able to immediately post questions or concerns about both textbooks and apparel, as
well as post and tag TIS in pictures showing why they #LoveTIS. Facebook will allow customers to re-
ceive special deals and get a frst look at new apparel and merchandise that TIS has to offer. Not only will
this motivate customers to choose TIS, but it will in turn advertise to other students as they scroll through
their newsfeed, seeing that their friends have Liked TIS. The TIS ambassadors will be in charge of
keeping up with the Facebook page by constantly answering questions and interacting with users. Addi-
tionally, there will be a weekly post containing specifed textbooks that are sold out during that week. This
information will only be available online via Facebook, which increases incentive to Like the Facebook
page. Both TIS Twitter and Facebook accounts will be promoted on the fiers distributed during New Stu-
dent Orientation and Welcome Week.
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Timetable
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Evaluation
YouTube: In order for evaluation, Youtube gives us and audiences an easy way to understand how much
traffc the video has received. We will be able to judge how successful the video is by calculating the
amount of views, shares and comments. We will also compares these ratings and interactions with the
previous two YouTube videos TIS has created. We can also measure the number of new subscribers after
the video has aired. Currently, TIS doesnt have any subscribers. As these numbers rise, the video will
become more popular and others will be encouraged to view it as well.
Fliers: For fiers, we will be able to evaluate their effectiveness by allows the TIS cashiers to save and col-
lect the fiers after each purchase. We will be secure in knowing that each fier was only used once, as well
as calculating how many people actually put the fiers to use after the end of Welcome Week.
Twitter: In order for evaluation, Twitter has a function of showing the number of retweets and views partic-
ular tweets receive. The TIS employee in charge of social media for a given time will be able to measure
the social media traffc happening on TIS Twitter account in addition to how many views and retweets they
are receiving. Additionally, we will measure how many followers TIS has before June 2014 and compare
that with how many they have at the end of August. We will also measure the level of interaction between
TIS and IU students, particularly emphasizing how many people use #LoveTIS in addition to tweeting at
TIS.
Facebook: For Facebook, we will measure how many likes the TIS page has before June 2014 and
compare that with how many they have at the end of August. We will also measure the amount of com-
ments and shares TIS posts receives during June, July, and August, and compare that level of interaction
with the previous months. These statistics will be measured with Facebooks own interaction measurement
tool for fan pages, such as TIS.
27
Appendix
Screenshots of current TIS website:
28
Screenshot of current TIS Twitter account:
29
Screenshot of current TIS YouTube account:
30
Screenshot of current TIS Facebook account:
31
Resources:
http://tisbookiu.com/home.aspx
http://www.tisbook.com/
http://www.iubifc.com/home
http://www.iubpha.com/home
http://www.indiana.edu/~nphc/
http://www.indiana.edu/~mcgc/
32