Campaign Plan Book GVSU Surplus Store · Web viewThis research will help to establish strategy and...

Running head: GVSU Surplus store 1

Campaign Plan Book GVSU Surplus Store

Whitnie Keyworth

Grand Valley State University

GVSU Surplus store 2

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Secondary Research 6

Primary Research 13

Action Plan 19

Budget 21

Calendar 21

Evaluation 21

Appendix 23

References 23

Survey 24

Survey Results 26

Moderators Guide 27

Focus Group Transcripts 28

Tactic 1: News Release 32

Tactic 2: Event Card 34

Tactic 3: Customer loyalty Punch Card 34


Introduction

The client we are working with is the GVSU Surplus store. Which takes equipment from

Grand Valley State University through donations, where it is sold at a discounted price. The store

aims to save the cost of the university and reduce landfill diversion. GVSU Surplus is committed

to the act of sustainability. If the items cannot be reused, they look to another outlet to recycle

these items. In some cases, items are donated to other organizations, whether that is a school or

food pantry. Some of these items that appear in the store are laptops, computers, furniture,

phones, office supplies, and many others.

The Surplus store had a setback in 2014, when they shut down the Surplus Store,

previously located in Grand Rapids. The Surplus Store was out of business for a period of time

until they reopened at a new location in August 2018, located in Standale. This move altered a

few factors within the company. The first being a new location in a different area, so building up

and bringing in new customers. With the previous location being shut down for a long period of

time, the ability to reconnect with old customers is difficult, so creating an awareness of the new

location is essential. Therefore, the goal we wish to focus on when working with GVSU Surplus

Store is to create awareness, engagement with customers, as well as increased customer flow

within the store.

My CAP 220 class was given this client, GVSU Surplus Store, with the goal to help

create awareness. We are to create a campaign plan focusing on this goal and creating objectives,

strategies, and tactics to help with the issue the store is currently facing. We will do this through

the use of research, both primary and secondary, and then providing the store with the action plan

we have created for them in order to attack this issue of awareness the company is facing.


GVSU Surplus Store has many well-established strengths as a company already. The

overall message of the company is a major one. Their mission is to reduce landfill diversion and

engaging in sustainability practices. The store does this through the use of reselling items that are

past their shelf life at a discounted price. The store also offers a variety of items to purchase such

as: laptops, desktops, furniture, cell phones, and many others. The Surplus Store provides online

purchasing options of items as well. For a person that might not be able to stop into the store,

they are able to purchase the items online and pick them up in store when it is more convent for

customer. The website itself is very well organized through tabs and also the display of new

products along with featured products on the main page. With these items being previously used

by the university, it is important to still ensure the quality of the items. The store has workers that

work with IT to insure these items are still in good condition and work to fix items so that they

can be purchased. The store makes sure not only to check items of technology, but all items that

are donated to the store. Since the Surplus store is partnered with Grand Valley, it aims to bring

in students, faculty, along with other members of surrounding areas, accessibility is very

important. Therefore, having access to the store through a bus route is very beneficial.

Although this company has many strengths there is still much room for improvement.

The biggest weakness of the Surplus store is their social media. The company is active on

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Unfortunately, the content posted on these platforms lacks

creativity. Each platform is posting the same content in the exact same form. Which is a very

negative thing to do. Each platform is different and requires different content and style. The

company is affiliated with Grand Valley so some restrictions on what can be done to certain

aspects of the company are limited. The layout of the website along with the new letters are

bland, they lack the creative “wow” factor that makes people want to read and hop around


looking at the content. Advertisement is also an issue, in 2014, the GVSU Surplus store created

an advertisement via YouTube, but has failed to do another since the change in location. The

store does work with the Grand Valley Campus with promotion of the store, yet not many people

have knowledge of the store.

As mentioned previously, the goal we wish to achieve through this campaign is to

increase awareness. One of the main contributing factors to this issue of awareness comes with

the fact of the recent relocation of the business, and maintaining customers as well as gaining

new ones. Also, advertising on social media, YouTube, and more around campus could play a

factor. The way to create awareness of something is to increase information going out and being

displayed for protentional and preexisting customers.

The plan to attack this issue of awareness that the GVSU Surplus Store is facing can be

done through the use of multiple objectives. The first objective is to improve Social Media

content through an increase social media engagement by 25% in September 2019. The Surplus

Store aims to attract people 18 and up. Therefore, social media is the easiest way to engage with

customers, and get your company out there. Although these accounts are established, an

improvement needs to be made, for instance hiring someone to control the pages and content that

has previous experience within social media work. Also, different content being posted on the

platforms that fits the content of that specific platform. Not only the content posted, but

increased interaction with the customers. The second objective is to increase Surplus Store

knowledge on Campus by 30% by October 2019. Increasing the promotion on campus about the

Surplus store, along with out in the public as well. This will bring in students, faculty, people that

want to support the University, and even people that just enjoy stores like the Surplus Store. The

final objective is to increase customer involvement with the store by 15% by October 2019. Give


your customers an incentive or increased interest to come to the store. Whether that be through

GVSU affiliated discounts on items. Or even having events like DYI projects where customers

can come in and create something new like the owner has done and posted on her social media.

The GVSU Surplus Store suffers from the issue of awareness. Through identifying the

strengths and weaknesses of the company, ideas on how to improve and achieve this goal were

established. By applying the ideas of the objectives stated above will help lead to the

accomplishment of the goal to increase awareness of the GVSU Surplus Store within the next six

months.

Secondary Research

Method

When looking for the most helpful information when looking into secondary research in

reference to the Surplus Store, it is important to find information related to Surplus Stores, but

also the message of sustainability. Seeing the role of sustainability and what it does for stores.

Not only like the Surplus Store, but other stores that work with this goal of reducing the amount

of product going into landfills. Looking at competitors of other stores like the GVSU Surplus

Store and seeing what works well for them is important as well. Most importantly, how your

target audience interacts and the best way to engage them in their support of businesses such as

these. Through the use of online databases like the GVSU library and Google Scholars was the

most productive way to obtain information.

Keywords: Social media, Sustainability, Effective, Millennials

Audience analysis

Since the audience is millennials, the use of specific channels to reach this audience is

important. Focusing on the content posted and making sure they are effectively reaching their


audience through these different channels. Channels referring to the use of social media

platforms that the client is currently using such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and creating

content that works most efficiently for each platform. Social media is about building

relationships and conversations with your audience. “Social media is not just about telling and

giving a message, rather it is about receiving and exchanging perceptions and ideas.” (Drury,

2008). It’s important to not just create content rather than just posting simple messages for your

audience. Social media allows for the combination of two different actions that take place on the

web. These being informed content and interactive, user-generated content. The combination of

these two activities lead to an increase in size of the audience and their engagement with the

company (Drury, 2008). As mentioned, this audience is millennials this falls into the age group

of 18-23. Most of our audience is from the areas surrounding the Grand Valleys campus so Grand

Rapids, Allendale, Grandville, ect. This audience is in most cases affiliated with the university, as

a student, faculty, or staff member. This audience is in a lower/ middle class income so finding

items that are affordable to their budget is always a plus, which is what the Surplus Store sells.

Target Audience

The target audience for the GVSU Surplus Store is college students or millennials as a

whole. Although, they do reach to other audiences such as alumni of the university, staff, faculty,

and people that typically go to Surplus stores.

Findings

The GVSU Surplus Store focuses on the concept of sustainability. The store acquires

items from the University that have come to the end of their life cycle or simply of no use to the

university at this point. The GVSU Surplus Store is not the only store of this kind that is

participating in the act of reducing the amount of waste going into landfills. It’s important to look


at the efforts of sustainability within other stores. When working to achieve and set goals for this

Store taking a look at factors that need improvement and how other companies have addressed

these issues. As well as work to fix these issues is important. Therefore, focusing on

sustainability efforts of other stores, and the power that social media has on a business and its

relationship with its consumers is essential. Along with how to properly reach the specific

audience you are trying to market your company to.

Sustainability focuses on the goal of reducing products that are being placed in landfills

around the world. The market for stores that are looking to support this effort are growing. The

market for stores and products that support the efforts are improving, because the idea of

sustainability and helping the earth is becoming a more mainstream effort (Harris,2007).

“Research published by the National Consumer Council 3 indicates that sustainability is fast

becoming a mass-market phenomenon — with even lower-end retailers embracing a greener

approach.” Customers are demanding more products like these, so in turn more are being

created. Although, ideas of sustainability are more in the focus of media encouragement of these

practices, attitudes of consumers are changing (Thompson, 2007). The idea of creating a Surplus

store with efforts of sustainability has become increasingly common within the world of

universities. As Rebecca mentioned, the Surplus Store that Michigan State University has many

other schools have been taking on this environmentally friendly effort too. “By 2013, more than

665 U.S. colleges and universities had publicly committed to pursue net-zero carbon emissions.”

(Thompson, 2007). Schools are working to create sustainability programs through many different

ways.

Stores like the GVSU Surplus Store helps to improve three aspects: social,

environmental, and financial for the university. Socially, this is a great way for the company to


help build a stronger relationship with the school and its customers. It creates a sense of goodwill

as the university’s money is being put into these products and being able to resell them and have

profit coming back into the university. It also creates a sense of innovation, where people are

able to buy new products and change them into something else such as DYI projects. This also

allows for a creation of awareness of people’s ability to help with sustainability within the

community. Socially it is also a great way for students to get involved and support this cause.

“64% of students consider a school’s commitment to environmental issues when choosing a

college.” (Princeton Review, 2018). Surplus Stores through universities also greatly help with the

topic of finances. The GVSU Surplus Store’s revenue goes directly back into the university’s

general fund (Ramos, 2019). The Store acts in a way for the university to monitor how much

waste the university is producing. As a result, the university is able to save cost on trash pick-up

services and gain revenue from the items being purchased goes directly back into the university.

Ultimately goal that Surplus Stores that support sustainability help to improve is the

environment. As previously mentioned, reusing and reselling of products helps to reduce waste

diversion. Other universities have implemented different ways that the school can help the issue

set aside from the Surplus Store alone. The University of Virginia, has free events that allow for

students and faculty to bring in their personal electronic equipment and donate it in this

environmentally friendly way. Colorado State University has a program called Leave-it-Behind,

where during the time of residence hall move-outs they collect items that students leave behind

and are the donated to the Surplus Program of the university (Asset Works, 2018).

Working with the world of social media and posting content to different platforms, it is

crucial to understand how each platform works and how to get consumers engage with the

content. Having a media presence is essential for an organization or company. Interacting on


social media is a way for companies to directly interact with their buyers. “The internet has made

public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media. Blogs, online

videos, news, and other forms of web content let organizations communicate directly with the

buyer.” (Scott, 2015). Now that a majority of company interactions are through the use of the

internet, their lies an issue of originality and sticking out. Creating a strong brand and something

to set you apart from other companies with the same motive is essential. Vroomen said, “if we

want our company to get noticed, we can’t do it the same as everybody else. A big part of that is

to do something unexpected and being remarkable.” (Scott, 2015). For his company, they started

a blog at the Tour de France. They also constructed a video while there, it gave their customers a

unique way to display their products and encourage for their customers to go biking. While in the

back of their head, seeing the use of the company’s bike which may lead to an interest in

purchasing.

Vroonmen brings up the concept of having an open atmosphere. Making the customers or

audience feel open and comfortable with the brand, this led to an increase in audience

engagement. (Scott, 2015). It creates a larger focus on the use of social engagements not only

within the customer-business relationship, but building relationships between clients. Creating

this open atmosphere leads to an increase in social networking and introduce new protentional

customers. Creating a social reputation and establishing a sense of trust with your customers is a

key aspect. Different aspects play into building that bond, such as replying back to customer

comments and questions, posting at scheduled times, and interacting with your customers beyond

just the basics. With the use of social media, communication has now become a two-way process

engaging a brand and an audience. “Marketing within social media is not just about telling and


giving a message, rather it is about receiving and exchanging perceptions and ideas.”

(Drury,2008).

How does incorporating the use of social media into your business help lead to company

success? As previously mentioned, social media is a great way to help gain an audience, follow,

and create awareness of a company or organization. It strengthens the company’s reputation.

“Customers like to deal with companies that have a ‘face’ rather than some nondescript company

they know nothing about.” (Rafiq, 2018). Thus, being able to interact through social media with

your audience creates this image for your company rather than a name. Interacting through social

media with your audience is also a timely and cost-efficient way of communication. Social media

is instant you can easily post, and communicate with you audience through different platforms

within seconds. Even though social media is a great way to engage and interact with your

audience, using it incorrectly can hurt the company. My PRSA, provided a list of eight tips to

help increase audience engagement. The first being the amount you post; Posting should be on a

schedule based off when your audience is most active on these platforms to ensure the most

responses. This also helps with being relevant and posting in a timely matter. Social media is a

great place to run campaigns and promotions as well. Be bold. Have a personality this will make

people more willing to engage if the content is intriguing to them. Along with being bold and

having a personality it is also important to ensure that your pages are appealing both visually and

content wise. “Social media will provide brands with one of the most personal, trusted and direct

points of access to these consumers. Social media provides a good opportunity now, and a great

opportunity moving forward.” (Drury,2008).

Realizing who your target audience is and how-to best tailor to your target audience is

vital. It’s important to know how to successfully reach this group of people in ensures your


company’s success. Looking at ways to engage, advertise, and reach this specific group is

crucial. As mentioned below, the target audience for this brand is millennials, by definition this

generation starts in 1981 into the 21st century.

The University of Southern California, put together a study which looked at the

psychology of how-to successfully reach and market to the audience of millennials. As previous

mentioned, the use of digital media will have the largest impact on gaining a consumer following

with this generation. 38% of millennials actually discover brands themselves through the use of

social media. With that being said it’s important that the platforms are used correctly with the

right content. Millennials say that 85% are more likely to become a customer of the brand if the

messages are personalized to them. Whether that be digitally or through in-store services.

Millennials also say that brand engagement with them directly will result in building a long-term

loyal customer. 85% of millennials are likely to interact with brands that they enjoy. Millennials

want to see content that isn’t deceptive, though and see originality and the values that brand

supports through their content.

When looking at content to post, you also have to examine what your audience is using

and engaging in most commonly. Focusing where you want to put the majority of your budgeting

when it comes to social media. If you put it to a platform that your audience isn’t as engaged

with its like throwing your money away. Do your followers use Facebook the most? Instagram?

Twitter? Or even YouTube? “For instance, 55% watch video content on multiple devices.

Customization should also be part of your marketing strategy because 85% of Millennials are

likely to purchase personalized goods/services.” (USC, 2019).

Millennials are a key consumer demographic when trying to achieve online sales.

Millennials are a web-based generation. Therefore, knowing how to property use and post


content to different platforms is essential for success of the GVSU Surplus Store. 87% of

Millennials have shown the desire to make purchases that have an environmental or social

benefit. (USC, 2019). With the Surplus Store being focused on the issue of sustainability, this is a

perfect target audience to address. This is due to the fact that a substantial amount of people in

this generation are more likely to make a purchase of something if the brand is helping a cause.

The GVSU Surplus Store is reducing landfill dispersion and also giving back to the university

which is also creating that social benefit, which is exactly what this generation is looking to

support.

In conclusion, it is important to understand all aspects of your brand and your audience

you wish to reach. So, understanding fully what sustainability is and how competing brands are

also using this environmentally friendly idea in their business is key. Fully understanding your

audience in all aspects such as, understanding their wants and needs from you as a company, and

going about it effectively and efficiently will lead to increased business successes.

Primary Research

Methodology

Primary research was conducted through the use of a focus group and an online survey.

These methods of research were used to gain insight on GVSU students’ thoughts when it comes

to stores like the GVSU Surplus Store. The creation of an online survey which was posted onto

multiple Grand Valley Facebook group pages, as well as sent to other class members and the

conduction of a focus group in the GVSU library, allowed for the ability to gain insight into their

thoughts on the GVSU Surplus Store. The student’s thoughts on contributing to an organization

that helps with the issues of sustainability along with giving back to an educational institution.

Insight was also gained on how students want to interact with and find out about different local


business and their social media presence. Whether this was through content posted or directly

interacting with the business. Directly interacting with the audience that the Surplus Store wants

to reach and seeing what they want and need from the business is essential to the success of the

GVSU Surplus Store. This research will help to establish strategy and tactics to achieve the

objectives that have been set in place for this campaign.

Survey Questionnaire

A survey questionnaire was posted to multiple Grand Valley Class pages on Facebook, as

well as sent to friends and fellow classmates via email and text. Information was gained from

multiple ages and genders to ensure accurate information. The purpose of this questionnaire was

to gain insight about students’ thoughts on stores like the GVSU Surplus Store. Students were

asked questions based on where they like to shop, how they learn about new business, and the

interaction they like to maintain with companies digitally. These questions were very straight

forward and simple to answer. The majority of questions were multiple choice or multiple

answer, with a few featuring a liker scale.

The research gained from the survey proved that awareness is in fact an issue when

talking about the GVSU Surplus Store. Through the graph, you can see that over 50% of

respondents did not have knowledge of the store. Although, students didn’t know about the store

data shows that students are interested in stores that do sell resale items as 77.6% of respondents

currently shop at stores like Goodwill, Salvation Army, and others. When it came to the topic of

helping organizations that work towards a good cause like landfill reduction and giving back to

educational institutions, almost 100% of respondents were in favor of this idea. Since students

were unfamiliar of the Surplus Store, it’s important to gain knowledge of how students would

prefer to learn about new businesses and how close knit they want the relationship to maintain


after the initial engagement. Research showed 87% of people would like to learn about new

business through social media and 56.7% through word of mouth, so friends and family.

What peaks people’s interest into trying out a new business? Is it the discounts? Word of

Mouth? Incentives? For 86.4% of respondents, discounts are what get them interested, having

affordable pricing and marked off items is what primarily peaks interest.

Next step is how to best maintain a relationship with your customers after purchase.

Looking into what social media platforms are most used to ensure that money isn’t being put into

less used platforms. 50% say they use Instagram the most with Facebook in second with 34.8%.

After figuring out which platform is best to reach audiences, figuring out how often they like to

see content and engagement from brands was also something important to ask. 77.3% of

respondents wanted to see content weekly, whereas 13.6% wanted content every other week and

only 9.1% wanted content daily. With this content people didn’t think that engagement, meaning

replies and follow backs were all that important most people thought it was slightly important or

neutral about the idea.

Focus Group

The focus group was conducted on the second floor of the Allendale Campus library. Our

focus group consisted of students ages 18-22, consisting of two male and four females. The goal

of this focus group was to speak with students about their knowledge of the Surplus Store and

how they like to interact and learn about new brands.

Through the focus group, knowledge was gained that none of our participants had

knowledge of the Surplus Store, but they did share that they have an interest in support local

business and business that help support sustainability and helping out the university. When


asking participants about their spending habits and more than half of the participants agreed that

the majority of their money is spent on food. Following that question the moderators asked when

you are looking to buy something what really entices you to want to buy the product and how

you most commonly find out about stores. Participants said that when looking to purchase an

item they largely focus on price and reviews of others who have used or purchased the items.

Since price was so important to the participants, asking them how often shopped at resale stores

such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army was important to see their chances of going to the

Surplus Store. All participants mentioned that they have shopped at resale stores, most

commonly Goodwill, and when shopping they were looking for clothing items. They did

mention that they frequently did not shop at these types of stores. When it comes to finding out

about a new store most of them said though word of mouth, discounts, or through other people’s

social media postings.

Moderators then asked the participants about the role of social media. First finding out

which social media platform is being used most often. Two respondents said Facebook, two said

Instagram, and one said Twitter, but Facebook was used most to find out information. We them

asked then how important interaction is with a brand that you follow. All agreed that it was

important that brands reply and build a social media relationship with their followers. While on

the discussion of social media, moderators asked our participants about social media

advertisements to see how effective they are. All respondents mentioned that they never click

onto advertisements that they see on social media, unless it was something they had been

searching about. The final question to our respondents was about how they wish to receive

information and what they think works best. Most respondents said that the internet is most

effective whether that’s through google or social media platforms and pages that they follow.


They said that the use of flyers and information tables was much less effective, being that it is the

least common way they gain information, although has been effective at times.

Report

My primary research yielded multiple results, to draw conclusions about our target

audience, young adults, aged 18-24. To reiterate the goal of the research, taking the basis of our

secondary research and creating a method of information discovery, which led to the creation our

focus group and survey, thus providing substantial information. Through this research we

confirmed that issue of awareness is major and that many people do not know about the Surplus

Store. Although they do not know about the store, they are interested in supporting business like

this. After gaining the information from the primary research, it shows that the most effective

way to increase awareness of this store is through the use of social media. Through secondary

research this claim can be supported by Scott where he said, “The internet has made public

relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media. Blogs, online videos,

news, and other forms of web content let organizations communicate directly with the buyer.”

(Scott, 2015). Content should be focused on Instagram and Facebook, being that these are the

most common used platforms of social media by the target audience. Working to improve the

engagement and interest on social media platforms will be essential for the success of this store

in creating awareness amongst their target audience. Secondary research supported this idea by

saying, creating this open atmosphere leads to an increase in social networking and introduce

new protentional customers. Creating a social reputation and establishing a sense of trust with

your customers is a key aspect. “Social media will provide brands with one of the most personal,


trusted and direct points of access to these consumers. Social media provides a good opportunity

now, and a great opportunity moving forward.” (Drury,2008).

Conclusion

To summarize, through the conduction of primary research one was able to gain a better

understanding of the students here at GVSU, and their needs and wants when it comes to the

GVSU Surplus Store. Our goal with the store is to increase awareness, with the help of research

allowed for a better understanding of how to address this issue. The results have provided me

with information that will help when begin to work on my action plan for the GVSU Surplus

Store, as a proceed to create objectives, strategies, and tactics to accomplish the goal of increased

awareness.

Information gained through primary research will help to aid my focus of the creation of

strategies and tactics on addressing this issue through digital and face to face interactions. For

example, making post on social media that require follower participation like polls and contest.

Also, new content that is more appealing to the eye besides our general content, using videos and

lives. Students also want a personal connection with the business gaining interest through events,

information tables, or offered incentives. Each of these objectives, strategies, and tactic will aim

at increasing knowledge and customer engagement to grow awareness of the GVSU Surplus

Store.


Action Plan

Objective 1: Increase social media engagement with customers by 25% in September 2019.

Strategy 1: The use of polls, especially on Instagram and Twitter, but encourage audience

interaction with brand.

Tactic 1: Ask customers what new types of products they would like to see

Tactic 2: Ask fun questions to engage customers whether they deal with

GVSU or just random questions to get to know audience (more personal

bond)

Tactic 3: Ask audience what type of content they would like to see more often.

Strategy 2: Create content consistency for each platform

Tactic 1: Unique postings for each platform ex: interactive on Facebook, pictures

and videos on Instagram, humorous and interactive posting on Twitter

Tactic 2: Post twice a week on each platform

Strategy 3: video content and live videos to encourage customers to return to platforms

for additional information.

Tactic 1: Do live videos once every two weeks

Tactic 2: Create a reminder letting audience know about live video content

coming every two weeks.

Tactic 3: Use live to show new products that have recently been donated

Objective 2: Increase Surplus Store knowledge on Campus by 30% by October 2019.

Strategy 1: Partner with organizations at the University to provide information about the

GVSU Surplus Store and the acts of sustainability.


Tactic 1: Reach out to campus organizations like Alternative Breaks and

Environment Coalition with a compelling pitch.

Tactic 3: Reach out to Sustainability major students to help expand awareness and

credibility of the Surplus Store.

Strategy 2: Provide ways to gain more information of the Surplus store on campus.

Tactic 1: Set up information booth in Kirkhof twice a year, at the beginning of

semesters.

Tactic 2: Chalk writing on sidewalk telling people to come check out the store.

Strategy 3: Student incentives to increase traffic within store.

Tactic 1: Student discounts 10% off purchase with student ID

Tactic 2: Food incentive for signing up for newsletter email list

Objective 3: Increase customer involvement with the store by 15% by October 2019.

Strategy 1: Hold Events to bring increase customer in store traffic

Tactic 1: DIY projects

Tactic 2: Sales ex: beginning and end of school year discounts

Tactic 3: Live Social Media event ex: Garage sale theme event, Start of school

year event

Tactic 4: News Release

Strategy 2: Customer loyalty discounts to encourage customers to continue to return to

store.

Tactic 1: Punch card after so many purchases receive a percentage off next

purchase.


Budget

Calendar

Evaluation

For evaluating the success of these objectives, I have set in place there should be multiple way to

evaluate the success of this campaign plan.

Objective one


When working with the first objectives these strategies and tactics to deal with the use of social

media, to evaluate the success of these tactics I recommend the use of google analytics. This way

you can see the success of your post, the path your followers are taking when going onto your

social media accounts (bounce rate). This will allow you to see the behavior of your followers,

the conversion, and also what’s bringing them to your page. Having google analytics will also

help to see truly what your target audience is and who is viewing your content most often.

Objective 2

For tactics that deal with discounts, traffic into the store through information booths, writing

around campus, and GVSU affiliated incentives you simply will see an increase in traffic flow

into the store during the time of implementation of tactic. Discounts or promotional efforts can

be measured through the use of operational metrics, and through the increase in sales. To

measure the tactic of food incentive for newsletter sign up, this can be evaluated based off how

many people sign up for the newsletter by taking the food incentive.

Objective 3

The DIY event success can be measured based off how many people attend the event related to

how many expected people are to attend the event by prediction (I estimated 15-25). New

releases success rate can be evaluated also through bounce rate, delivery rate, spam rate, list rate,

and open rate. Based off that information you will be able to analyze the success of this tactic.

As for the student punch card, seeing how fast people are filling up the punch holes, so again we

see foot traffic. Foot traffic into stores can be measured through in-store analytics. Examples of

these are Aisebels, which monitors in-store traffic through an app. You also can use service

footage to keep track of this also. Another way to analyze foot traffic within the store is through

social engagement, who is talking about your store online.


Appendix

References

Drury, G. (2008). Opinion piece: Social media: Should marketers engage and how

can it be done effectively? Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing

Practice, 9(3), 274-277. doi:10.1057/palgrave.dddmp.4350096

Grand Valley State University Surplus Store. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2019, from

http://gvsusurplusstore.com/

Harris, S. M. (2007). Does sustainability sell? Market responses to sustainability

certification. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal,

18(1), 50-60. doi:10.1108/14777830710717712

Rafiq, M. Socialnomics Trends. (2017, July 14). The Role of Social Media in Customer

Engagement. Retrieved from https://socialnomics.net/2017/07/14/the-role-of-

social-media-in-customer-engagement/

Scott, D. M. (2017). The new rules of marketing & PR: How to use social media, online

video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach

buyers directly. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

The Psychology of Successful Marketing to Millennials. (2018, July 13). Retrieved

February 15, 2019, from

https://appliedpsychologydegree.usc.edu/blog/psychology-of-successfully-

marketing-to-millennials/

University Surplus & Sustainability: The Triple Bottom Line. (2018, January 22).

Retrieved from https://www.assetworks.com/university-surplus-and-

sustainability/

https://www.assetworks.com/university-surplus-and-sustainability/

https://www.assetworks.com/university-surplus-and-sustainability/

https://socialnomics.net/2017/07/14/the-role-of-

http://gvsusurplusstore.com/


Survey Results


Moderators Guide

1. Have you ever heard of the GVSU Surplus store?

a. If so, what do you know?

2. As a college student, what are you most likely to spend your money on?

a. Food, clothing, electronics

3. What is the most important factor in buying specific products?

a. Quality, aesthetic, price, brand

4. What do you usually do with your unused items or electronics?

5. If your apartment complex offered to take care of your unwanted furniture or

items at the end of the year would you be willing to sell your items to them?


6. Do you shop at resale shops?

a. If so which ones? Goodwill? Salvation Army?

7. What entices you to go to a new store?

a. Discounts? Social media ad? Word of Mouth?

8. Are you more willing to support a store that helps a good cause like

sustainability?

9. What is the most important aspect of a retail shop?

a. Sales, trends, customer service, organization, etc?

10. What is your most used social media?

11. When following a company that you like how important is company interaction?

12. Do you follow small local business online?

13. Of these platforms, which are you most likely to use to follow and discover

brands?

14. How often do you click on social media ads?

15. How often do you stop at the tables at Kirkoff or by the clock tower to get

information about events or organizations happening on campus?

a. Or where else do you get your information?

Focus Group Transcript

Participants:

GVSU College Students: 18-22

1. 1.Have you ever heard of the GVSU Surplus store?

a. If so, what do you know?


b. All no

2. As a college student, what are you most likely to spend your money on?

a. Food, clothing, electronics

3. What is the most important factor in buying specific products?

a. Quality, aethstetic, price, brand

Price: low to high

Reviews online (quality)

Brand name

Discounts

Don’t look at sustainability

4.If a brand is for a good cause, participants are more likely to buy

5. What do you usually do with your unused items or electronics?

Throw it away

Sell phones back to company (Trade it in)

6. If your apartment complex offered to take care of your unwanted furniture or items at the

end of the year would you be willing to sell your items to them?

Throw it away

Sell it on facebook

Ikea

Family members

Facebook marketplace

7. Do you shop at resale shops?


Yes

a. If so which ones? Goodwill? Salvation Army?

Yes, Both

More goodwill

b. How often: not frequently

Only clothing usually

4. 8. What entices you to go to a new store?

a. Discounts? Social media ad? Word of Mouth?

Word of mouth

Discounts

Social media (IF FRIENDS POST)

Aesthetic

5. Are you more willing to support a store that helps a good cause like sustainability?

Yes, more willing to shop if a brand is good for the environment

6. What is the most important aspect of a retail shop?

a. Sales, trends, customer service, organization, etc?

Price

More willing to come back with better customer service

7. What is your most used social media?

2 facebook, 1 twitter, 2 instagram

Information: facebook

8. When following a company that you like how important is company interaction?

Yes


9. Do you follow small local business online?

Lake Michigan nutrition

Coffee shops

More likely to follow local business than big business

10. Of these platforms, which are you most likely to use to follow and discover brands?

Google reviews

Not yelp

11. How often do you click on social media ads?

Never click on social media ads, unless it's something you’ve googled

12. How often do you stop at the tables at Kirkoff or by the clock tower to get information

about events or organizations happening on campus?

a. Or where else do you get your information

Internet - calendar, spotlight gv page

Flyers: in tunnel to kirk (sometimes check)

18. Do you follow GVSU social media?

Clubs they are in

Barstool

19. Is it important for a company to interact with their consumers?

If a company didn’t respond, they look SKETCHY


Tactic 1: News Release


Tactic 2: Event Card

Tactic 3: Customer Loyalty Punch Card

Campaign Plan Book GVSU Surplus Store · Web viewThis research will help to establish strategy and...

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Transcript of Campaign Plan Book GVSU Surplus Store · Web viewThis research will help to establish strategy and...