In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:
- Evaluate relevant data and information to determine how to segment and target an audience
- Apply legal and ethical considerations in relation to the use of target audience information
- Determine the considerations and adjustments needed to communicate effectively with diverse audiences
Scenario
Wheelies is a small family-owned scooter and bicycle rental business near the large tourist city of San Francisco, CA. Wheelies currently has 42 employees, most of whom are San Francisco residents. Currently, Wheelies promotes itself by having their employees hand out 20% discount coupons within a one mile radius of the store. Employees do this each morning for the three hours that the store is open. Additionally, Wheelies has a Facebook page (though it was last updated two months ago) that offers a two-for-one rental coupon to followers who share the post.
The biggest struggle for Wheelies is its competition with other local businesses to attract tourists. The owner of Wheelies has decided to invest in more modern marketing techniques in hopes of establishing a well-known presence in the community and gaining new customers who return to support the business year after year. This will require the owner to better understand the company’s audiences and how best to market to them. To begin this process, they have reached out to the San Francisco Travel Association and the California Department of Finance for the most recent publicly available numerical data on the city’s tourists, which was gathered through city censuses and formal questionnaires. The complied information is listed in the provided fact sheet under the Supporting Materials section.
You have been hired by the owner as a consultant, and your job is to create a basic communication plan that provides guidance on how to appropriately collect demographic information, analyze the gathered demographic data provided, and identify ways to reach the target audience so that the owner can move forward with her new marketing campaign.
Directions
Using the provided scenario and customer data set, create a communication plan for Wheelies that addresses the company’s goals to be well-known in the community and to retain new customers year after year. This plan will affect both internal staff and external customers, so it’s important to consider the company in terms of its employees, values, and goals. Be sure to provide sufficient guidance and rationales in your communication plan that will allow for the plan to speak for itself. This is especially important since it is currently the off-season, and you will not be available during most of the busy season when the part-time staff come back to work.
Specifically, you have been asked to address the following. Make sure to support your responses using the course resources.
- Data and Information Collection: Review the San Francisco Fact Sheet, then provide feedback on how the data and information were collected and make suggestions for future improvements. Address the following:
- Evaluate whether the data and information is accurate, credible, and valid based on how it was collected.
- Determine whether the data and information were collected in accordance with federal laws and regulations.
- Suggest additional research techniques that would have been beneficial in collecting information to best target an audience.
- Analyzing Audience Data: Analyze the demographic data that Wheelies has already collected on their target audiences. Address the following:
- Identify important target audience demographic information that has been collected.
- Determine if the current communication strategies being used are appropriate for target audiences.
- Recommending Effective Delivery Strategies: Recommend effective delivery methods and strategies to help the business reach its goals. Address the following:
- Identify key considerations and targeted adaptations needed to craft an effective message for diverse audiences.
- Explain how current delivery methods and strategies could be improved to better reach intended audiences.
- Recommend new delivery methods for each intended audience. For example, decide whether to deliver the campaign messages through the use of emails, phone calls, fliers, social media, and so on.
- Describe the potential issues that could arise as a result of delivering the targeted message. For instance, consider the legal, ethical, or cultural issues.
- Explain how the targeted messages might reach unintended audiences.
