The Marlins Voice PR Action Plan Comm.

328 Spring Semester 2012 Alli, Aaron, Sara, Guy, Katelynn, and Rio

Situation Analysisa. Overview of the InstitutionVirginia Wesleyan is a small liberal arts college located in the metropolitan area of Norfolk and Virginia Beach with a total enrollment of 1,404 students. Of that enrollment, 700 students live on campus. There are more than 70 clubs and organizations offered at Virginia Wesleyan College along with a strong backing for Marlins sports. With this being said, Virginia Wesleyan College offers a close knit community with plenty of chances for students to get involved on campus. VWC is a Methodist based college that accepts students from all walks of life and all religious backgrounds. Virginia Wesleyan offers over 60 majors and minors, and plenty of chances to take learning outside of the classroom with alternative spring break trips, study abroad programs, the PORTfolio program, undergraduate research, and winter session classes. Virginia Wesleyan even allows their students the freedom to double major, triple major, and even create their own major with the support of faculty members. The diversity statistics on campus are as follows: Female-61% and Male-38%. Racial diversity consists of: White- 64.1%, Black-23.7%, and other Minority and International- 12.2%. b. Recruitment NeedsThe goal of the Marlins Voice PR plan is to research our target audience by accumulating information from our current mediated and unmediated tactics, personal experiences, survey results from the office of Institutional Research and Planning, and by conducting a focus group of Virginia Wesleyan students to discover our target audiences needs. We need to recruit a wider range of well rounded students to bring more life to our motto, Bring a Spark Light a Fire!

c.

Primary Communication Vehicles The Website The Marlin Chronicle The View Book The efforts of the admissions staff, making a presence in the high school communities The catalog The magazine Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Blogs Campus sponsored events

Primary Needsa. Need to attract strong applicants-

The Marlins Voice is seeking to attract not only strong applicants, but well rounded applicants that will add to the diversity of our small campus. To create key messages that will resonate with the target audience. These messages will not only showcase Virginia Wesleyan College, but show students how Virginia Wesleyan College will be an advantage to their needs. Goals and Objectives- Increase interest in the college through the use of strategically communicated key messages that highlighting what Virginia Wesleyan does best and how future students will benefit from becoming a Marlin. a. What we have done to achieve these goals and objectivesWe started our research process by individually finding information that stood out to us based on our own experiences at Virginia Wesleyan. Each person in the group wrote a summary about what attracted them to Virginia Wesleyan College, and provided the group writer with a few key findings. We then split up the research methods and eventually compiled all of our research from the fact sheets, view book, website, and institutional research portions of the Virginia Wesleyan website. When all of this information was brought together, we sorted out the common themes and came up with the idea to focus on crafting key message that showcase Virginia Wesleyans success in community, accepting diversity, offering a wide variety of ways students can get involved, and allowing students to feel prepared after graduation with a well-rounded education. These messages must be directed in a way that provides a personal approach to the target audience, Whats in it for them? These key messages would showcase Virginia Wesleyan while showing students that they can use these aspects to their advantage if they choose to be a Marlin. We also conducted a focus group session to gain additional opinions right from the target audience. Each person has also been assigned a role in the group that is as follows: Rio- Group writer and moderator for focus group Sara- Assisting Alli with focus group promotion and note taker- keeping us organized Guy- Focus group note taker and author of focus group methodology section of our PR action plan. Aaron- Food Coordinator and author of the summary of research section. Alli- PR manager- In charge of promoting our focus group set for March 28 th at 12 noon, and contacting Virginia Videlle to reserve Batten 228 for the focus group session. Focus group moderator #2, and author of the analysis of key messages section. Target Audience-

 Scope-

Future Virginia Wesleyan Marlins! High school seniors around the age of 17-18 Students of different minority backgrounds The best and the brightest academic wise and extracurricular activity wise. Student leaders that could enforce our motto, Bring a Spark and Light a Fire!

To complete a well organized, thought out, and researched PR action plan for Lisa Lyon Paynes Intro to Public Relations class. This project will bring attention to new ideas for Virginia Wesleyans most prominent leaders. Overall, we hope to contribute fresh ideas that promote the qualities of Virginia Wesleyan College that resonate with our target audience. We want to try to make the key messages more personable, to show them what Virginia Wesleyan has to offer them. The goal in mind will be to ultimately attract the best and the brightest future leaders that will bring meaning to our motto Bring a Spark Light a Fire! Research SummaryFrom our secondary research that we conducted, we took some statistics of the students in the fall semester of 2011 from the Institutional Research web page. We found that our school is 62% female and 38% male. 30% of our student population is athletic and 65% of the students were white. Other races that contribute to the population are black (22%), Hispanic (5%), multi-racial (1.4%), and Asian (1%). We also found that of the 1,222 students that attend Virginia Wesleyan, 1,002 of them are from the state of Virginia. The average student age is 23, which is a little high because 12% of students are 30 years of age or older. We also took statistics from a 2007 CIRP Freshman Survey Profile and from this we found that 66% of incoming freshman in 2007 read for pleasure. It also showed that in 2007, 84% of incoming freshman used social networks and of those, 64% use them for an hour or more. Because this survey was conducted in 2007, it may be safe to assume that with the increase in popularity of social networks since then, that number has increased. The CIRP Survey Profile also showed us that 24% of incoming freshmens average grade in high school

was a B+. 59% of incoming freshmen in 2007 said Virginia Wesleyan was their top college choice. We also find that the most popular probably majors were Psychology (8.8%), Elementary Education (6.8%) and Biology (5.5%). In addition to these two, we also found some statistics from last years incoming freshman class, in which 56% of the class was female, 44% male. 39% of the class was minority. The most popular majors were Biology and Business, so putting emphasis on the fact that we are close to water and close to the city, which would provide great research opportunities and internships that could be beneficial for them. We also found that the median GPA range for the class was 2.618-3.469, which is relatively obtainable. 72% of the incoming freshman were from the state of Virginia, about half of that coming from the Tidewater area of Virginia. 90% of last years freshman returned for the spring semester, and 63% returned for their sophomore year. We also researched our peer institutions, and found that the schools we are most in competition with are Lynchburg College, Roanoke College, Randolph Macon, Randolph, Christopher Newport, Washington and Lee, Mary Washington, Emory and Henry, Eastern Mennonite, Bluefield, Hollins and Sweetbriar. Most of these schools are in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), which is the conference in which our athletic schools compete in. Self ReflectionsEarlier in the semester our Public Relations group turned in a self-reflection paper writing about why they came and what attracted them. For three of the six members of the group, they came to learn about the VWC through sport recruitment. But sports was not the reason the four athletes came to VWC, it was only an introduction to a school they eventually

picked because of location, the small class aspect, close-knit feeling, homeliness, and sense of being a known individual on campus. One main common factor was location. Virginia Beach has a great reputation amongst vacationers and college students. The beach is a place, which no one that loves the warmer weather and beach can resist. With that being a common factor it would be wise of the school to take advantage of it and advertise it. Majority of the group members mentioned the school had a close-knit feeling of a community when they visited. This is a rare quality when it comes to colleges and universities, but very important. This sense of community should be highly looked into and put into action within the recruitment process because homely feeling schools will be very appealing for prospective students whether they are looking for a small or big school. Size was another factor to why the members in the groups chose to come to VWC. That is very important for prospective students. This implies that professors have the availability to meet with students. One girl stated she had a name and was not merely a number. With the aspect of a small school it gives students a chance to be a known person on campus. This feeling of importance in ones college career is important because people want to be their own self and be recognized for its which is why a few people in our group came to VWC. a. Words of the group members: Sara Erlichman- I met up with a Wesleyan student that I graduated with, Lauren Davis and she told me lots of great things about VWC. The website was decent enough for me, but

what really got me was the tour and interview. I thought the campus was very impressive and secluded, like being in a bubble yet there are plenty of things to go out and do like going to the city, or the beach. The beach so close by is also amazing. The honor code at Wesleyan was a major contributor to my coming. To me, the attraction of Virginia Wesleyan College comes from its location, admissions office, and the honor code. Alli Raymer- There was a few things that attracted me to VWC. One attraction was being my initial impression of the school. Another was the theater program. Lastly, I know a few people who went here, so I wanted to be with them too. Guy Hatch- I was first contacted by VWC on behalf of the head baseball coach. He invited me down on a tour to meet the faculty members and students. Everyone was more than welcoming. The tight knit gated community gave me the vibe of a family community along with the perfect location close to the beach. Athletics, relationships with professors, and location were all selling points of VWC for me. Aaron Clark- I was recruited here to play basketball, and Im from Virginia Beach so I was somewhat familiar with the school. I got a chance to attend a home basketball game and then spend the night on campus and see what its like to be a student. I thought it was a closeknit environment where most of the students knew each other. When I was at the game, I got from the students that they really support each other. Basketball first attracted me to the school, but after I found out my major was here, the small class sizes, and the very impressive employment rate after graduation, I was sold.

Katelynn Duncan- I came to Virginia Wesleyan College because of the small, supportive, family oriented community and the location; Virginia Beach! I felt welcomed and at home during my visits. The class sizes were small. The professors are personal; they know everyones name within the first weeks of class and what your hobbies are giving VWCs advertisement, You are not a number at VWC, true meaning. I also choose VWC because of the athletic program. I was recruited to play volleyball and tennis. Recruitment however was what brought me here, but it took all those other aspects to make it my final decision. Rio Ziegler- VWC is the only school I applied to. I fell in love with the campus and was going to try out for cheerleading. I love that it is close to the beach and my family, which is important to me. I can shine and join clubs or be known around campus. Everyone is always nice and welcoming. Review and Analysis of Current Key Messages: a. Summary of past efforts/ Key MessagesThe key messages that Virginia Wesleyan College is trying to portray focus on the following elements: The classrooms are the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay as well as the college experience with a costal edge. The diversity of our location, and the fact that we are close to so many types of environments such as the beach, the city and the country. You can wear a number without being one. This is interesting because not very many colleges can say that. Virginia Wesleyan College is a small school and provides a great community for athletes and non-athletes alike. This message relays great to the athletic world because no one wants to be just another face in the crowd or just another athlete, and here, you dont have to worry about that.

Another interesting message is, More than just professors scholars, mentors and friends. This is interesting because again, not a lot of colleges can say that. Not many colleges can offer such close relationships with the professors. The idea of a Green college- Virginia Wesleyan promotes the beauty of our campus, and emphasis the fact that we keep it that way by recycling, and being pro active in environmental awareness and change. The opportunities to explore beyond the classroom- Think Outside the Book Our view book, website, and all of our mediated communication tactics put an emphasis on learning outside of the classrooms with programs like PORTfolio, alternative spring break options, winter session, internships, undergraduate research, and etc.

While the view book and the website are good tools for Wesleyan communication of messages, there are some things that are missing, such as personal connection with the potential students. While we do advertise ourselves well, we dont really explain to potential students why it is a good for school for them personally. Another thing that seems to be missing is racial diversity. If you look through the view book, a lot of the pictures are mostly white. We need to work on getting more racially diverse pictures. Along with things that are missing, there are things that might need to be changed. Most of these problems lie in the view book. For one, the format of the view book is not very aesthetically exciting. Along with that, more quotes from the students themselves. There are a lot of quotations from the faculty and staff, but it would make the college look better if the students themselves talked about why they love Wesleyan because then the potential new students can better relate and hopefully have the same great experiences. The pictures in the view book need to be of better quality, for the most part. They mostly look like pictures that were grabbed off of Facebook, or something along those lines. Also, the part of the view book that states the majors that we offer, and it

might need to be bigger. We need to show off what we have and show the potential new students why they should come and why Wesleyan is right for them. The box that states when the open houses are towards the end of the book need to be bigger and more outstanding because now, it looks like it was just thrown in there. Focus Group MethodologyOur first step to conducting a focus group was having a sit down meeting to discuss as a team; what questions to ask, what kind of people to invite, what would attract people to come? We came up with many topics to discuss; activities, geography, sex and race ratio, why VWC, religion, academics and athletics. Underneath those topics we came up with detailed questions that would get our focus group thinking and help us be able to pick their brains on their opinions on the matters. We brainstormed various ideas, and Sara came up with a list of questions that we made into our moderators guide, which you will find below. The next step we decided to take was to create a Facebook page promoting our focus group and to get the message out there. We also made in person invites to people we feel would be appropriate and of value to our focus group research. Guy Hatch and Katelynn Duncan we in charge of talking to our main food company at Virginia Wesleyan College, SODEXO, to come up with a tasty menu for the event; hoping a free lunch would be a benefit to the teams success o f getting students to show. The day of the focus group, Alli and Rio became our mediators; people who addressed our questions and got the focus group to open up on their opinions; pick their brains if you will. Guy Hatch and Sara were the secretaries and took down as many key messages they heard that would benefit the research. As a backup the team decided to video record the event to make sure key information needed was not missed and was able to be looked back upon if needed.

a. Moderators GuideFocus Group Questions: VWC: What brought you here? Why would you leave? What are some advantages to going here? What are some disadvantages to going here? What are some misleading messages the school advertised that you found not true?

Day students: Why stay here/home?

Activities: What activities do you do? What do you think of the activities available on campus? What would you change about the activities available on campus? Did you get a different impression of activities available when applying then when you came? What changed when you come? Would you transfer?

Geography: Was it a factor being close to the beach? Is the school racially proportionate? Do you think the school is small tight knit kind of atmosphere?

Sex/Race Ratio: Do you think our school is mostly white? Do you think our school is mostly diverse? Do other races being here bother you? Do you feel there is a difference in gender ratio? - If so, do you have a problem with that?

Guys: what attracted you Why do you think there are more girls than guys?

Why VWC: Why did you choose us over other schools? Was your major listed when you applied? What is your major?

Religion: What is your religion? Why did you come to a Methodist college? Do you feel comfortable in this kind of religious atmosphere? Does participating in events (the Xmas tree lighting) bother you? Does the whole liberal arts approach agree with your conservative or liberal opinion?

Academics: Do you think we have a diverse representation of everything we offer? What do you think about winter session? The 4 credit system: how do you feel about it?

Athletics: What sports dont we have that you wish we had? Do you play sport? Do you feel athletes get special privileges? Do you feel the work between athletes and non-athletes is fair? Do you feel it is easy to break into the athletic social comrade?

b. Summary of Focus Group FindingsAs a group, we decided to enhance the key concepts that we are currently lacking in as a school as we took in opinions from a wide range of students. In order to prevent the same common interest, our goal was to involve a variety of current students ranging in differences of

class, race, major, student-athlete, demographically, religion, and gender. One of the few common characteristics our focus group participants share is currently being students at VWC, which intrigued our group because everyone resulted in having a number of concerns that revolved around a number of common interests. For example, a non student athlete felt this school only pertained to athletics and that is the priority while a student athlete was not pleases with the array of majors offered forcing them to settle with one of non interest. From what we learned from the focus group the following will be the things we keep in mind when crafting key messages:

Method 1: Deciding on key concepts that could better VWC as a whole Method 2: Deciding on our target group and areas of VWC that could use improvement for diversity reasons. Method 3: Uniting student athletes, Greek life, and students involved in other clubs and activities in ways other than athletics. Method 4: Our successes when considering an array of differences among students making each student feel comfortable with their decisions no matter their religion, race, hobbies, or preferences. Method 5: Recruiting efforts and increasing VWCs exposure nationally using tactics other than athletics Method 6: Advocating the community feel that originally enticed Wesleyan students to come here and stay here Method 7: Promote the opportunities that going to a small college can provide in terms of individual attention, a chance to standout academically, athletically, and socially. Method 8: Promote Wesleyan spirit, because Virginia Wesleyan is a small college it lacks the spirit that bigger universities have. Method 9: Showcase what makes us one of the Princeton Reviews best colleges. Advertise our success by showcasing former Marlins.

New Key Messages Based on Findings: 1) Business meets the Beach: Expand your opportunities in a diverse location! -focuses on the idea that our college offers a chance for students to be close to the metropolitan area to gain great internships, but still be close enough to kick back and have fun too. Tactic Website and Brochures- Its sweet and simple and something that is pretty self explanatory maybe with a few pictures. A YouTube video made by the digital film making class- Why not create a YouTube video that shows how our location is our advantage. You can showcase this through pictures, but we have already done that and a YouTube video could take that visual to the next level. This video could show Wesleyan students taking advantage of the hot spots in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. 2) Be the BIG fish in a small pond- This key message advocates the reoccurring trend that students admire about being a student at a small liberal arts college. The small size of Virginia Wesleyan was often stated as a downfall according to students, but if we advocate the positive aspects of being at a small college those small school phobias may be dismissed by future students. Tactic-News Release on Website or Magazine. This slogan would be really great paired with stories on Virginia Wesleyan students that show how they stand out among the crowd by being a student at Virginia Wesleyan. 3) Extend your family- In all of the self-reflections and comments from focus group participants we found a reoccurring theme that they loved and felt attached to Virginia Wesleyan because of its tight knit community feel. Many students stated that despite the financial challenges and desire to go to a bigger campus, it would be hard to leave behind the friendships they have made here. Tactic- This would be great for the view book, website, facebook, and twitter pages. It would be really neat if Virginia Wesleyan students could share pictures and quotes that tell the stories of the wonderful friendships that keep them Marlins until graduation. 4) Not your average Methodist College: No matter you religion, preferences, race, or belief system we welcome your diversity!- Virginia Wesleyan is not your typical closed minded Christian college, we succeed very nicely in promoting the idea that students can freely demonstrate ideals that may not necessarily go along with Methodist teachings and still feel accepted. Tactic-A pseudo-event could take place with this slogan. It would be great if we could host a religious diversity event. Dr. Wansink would be the perfect person to promote something like this. We could have Wesleyan students of different religions and backgrounds host an event that would teach other students to learn and accept the differences of others. It would also be great if we got the community involved. A news release to the Virginian Pilot could follow about this pseudo event. 5) Dive in Head First- Virginia Wesleyan offers an array of ways in which students can really sink their teeth into what they are studying. With our new four credit system,

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many professors have new ways in which students can get a more hands on approach other than just reading textbooks and listening to lectures. Tactic-This is a very visual key message so it would best be supported with photos of students diving into their studies. The view book would allow the appropriate space for that. Social Networking could also be another route. Students could blog, tweet, or facebook their experiences with hands on learning. Be Your Own Fish to Fear: No matter your passion, you can find your place here at Virginia Wesleyan-With over 70 clubs and organizations Virginia Wesleyan has something for everyone, and if something is not offered a student can create it. Freedom of choice! Tactic- This would be a great key message for the student activities webpage. Its a Good Day to Be a Marlin- School spirit is something that we should always aim to promote and build. Being that we are such a small school the athletic department is a much smaller community compared to ODU or CNU. Therefore the more Marlin promotion the more students will want to wear the Marlin brand. This idea came from group member, Sara E. She stated that this is a common slogan used among the athletic community at Virginia Wesleyan, and it would be nice to make it more wide spread in the Virginia Wesleyan community and to upcoming freshman. Tactic- It would be great if the student activities/bookstore could get T-Shirts made with this slogan that way students could show their Marlin pride by wearing the slogan. That was exactly how we got Fear the Fish started. Marlin today Professional Tomorrow-Our after graduation success rate of students finding jobs is a staggering 94%. With the United States number one concern in the upcoming election being the countrys economic conditions. Advertising that our students are successful in gaining career opportunities with the help of the Career Services center could be a great thing to market to our future Marlins. Tactic- View book, we need to showcase this to future Marlins to show them why they should attend our college. These are bragging rights for our small college to showcase. Career Services brochure could add this key message, or the career services webpage could contain this message. The internship spotlight stories in the Chronicle could contain this slogan. Ignite your desire: Create your own college experience- Virginia Wesleyan allows students to explore academically in many ways. The fact that we allow students to create their own major with faculty advisors guidance, the opportunity to study abroad, do multiple internships, or the chance to do independent research really allows Virginia Wesleyan students to explore their options. Another interesting concept about this message is that our target audience is all about personalizing and having options. Our millennials love to have things their way. Advertising that they can create their own

college experience just like how the personalize the music they listen to on their IPods, or their cover photos on their Facebook pages would be a great way to reach that target audience. Tactic- This could be advertised in the view book or academic page of the website. It should be close by the Bring a Spark Light a Fire slogan to go with the fire them of ignite your desire. 10) Youre not just a number, you are a marlin-We do realize that we already have a key message similar to this that states, Youre not just a number, unless you count the one on your jersey From our research we thought that this would be a nice change to that key message because we have found that students feel that our school showcases athletics more than any other group on campus. This message almost sounds as if they are saying youre not just a number unless you are participating in athletic sports. This message has a negative connotation. By presenting it as the new key message we have above, it would make students see that they would be included no matter what their extracurricular interest. Tactic-Instead of communicating this message from an athletic standpoint, it would be nice to have this slogan paired with photographs of the Wesleyan community on our website and view book.