Mount Pleasant High School Marketing Strategy

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Mount Pleasant

High School MKT 410 Fall 2015

Claudia Birgy, Danielle Block, Anthony Cavataio, Nicole Daniels, Amy Hord,

Corrie Irving, Alex Kimball, Heather Ouro, Megan Seamans, Morgan Stevens

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3

Problem Statement 4

Key Objectives 4

Target Audience Demographics 5

Key Influencers 5

Preferred Media 6

Proprietary Emotion 8

Recommendations 9

Budget 10

App Upgrade 11

ROI Measurement 12

Appendix 13

Sources 17

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Executive Summary With school of choice being an option for parents in Mid-Michigan, enrollment and parent involvement is crucial to maintain funds for schools. Mount Pleasant School District needs to increase their attendance for Parent Teacher Conferences to achieve this. Based off our research, the team has concluded that parent communication needs to be improved to therefore improve parent involvement. The methods that were chosen are low-budget and can also be completed by students. By implementing several new communication methods, parents can be communicated the best way for them. These methods include text alerts, email, and the use of an app. Continued research methods of a survey to be given out at every Parent Teacher Conference will track parents preferred communication methods.

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Problem Statement

Communication with current students and parents is ineffective and outdated. Parental involvement and conference attendance rates need to increase.

Key Objectives

Objective 1: Update website and social media platforms by the beginning of next school year. Objective 2: Increase interaction with parents: get 65% of parents involved with at least one form of communication with school by end of 2016-2017 school year. Objective 3: Get 65% of parents to attend parent teacher conferences by the end of 2016-2017 school year.

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Target Audience Demographics

For your target market we looked at information for the entire Isabella County. We wanted to make sure we were covering the majority of your target to represent the most accurate data. Your target market consists of high school students at Mount Pleasant High School and their parents. The county has a population of roughly 70,000 people, with the female population accounting for 51% and the overall population being predominantly white. We found the median household income to be $36,372 with the average per capita being $19,061 and of those in the work force only 25.3% have a bachelor's degree or higher. The per capita is a very important number as 14.1% of the total population is made of single parent households with children under the age of 18, this is part of the reason 30.3% of the county is under the poverty line even with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state of 3.9%.

Key Influencers Kids doing well in school - Teachers - School Administrators - Coaches Your key influencers are the individuals or other factors that are directly impacting the attendance of your parent teacher conferences. The biggest factor is the students doing well in school, this is why there’s parent teacher conferences. The key influencers for getting good grades are your parents, teachers, and coaches if the kids are involved in athletics. The biggest influencer of getting students and parents to conferences are your teachers and school administrators, the effort on their end to encourage the students to come to conferences along with their parents and making sure that all parties are aware of the time and date.

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Preferred Media

Text message - Email - Phone call We conducted a survey that was sent out by the PTO, there were only 7 responses but they were very helpful and gave constructive answers. We found that text message alerts pertaining to parent teacher conferences, when grades are available, and events going on at school would be the best option for letting parents know when these things are going on or are available. Schools can sign up for a program called E2Campus for free that allows these alerts to be sent out to parents via text. There was a very constructive response related directly to being able to contact teachers via email and the difficulty of finding their email, then the time frame of them responding to the parents in return. For direct communication with teachers, email was the preferred method of contact and the most professional, unless there was an emergency then a phone call is the most appropriate. Flyers and other print were brought up in aspects of being contacted previously by the school, but when asked how they were preferred to be contacted this was something that wasn’t chose as an answer or mentioned. A table detailing your target market’s communication preferences can be found in the appendix.

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Cell Phones are Key -The Pew Research Group reports that 85% of all adults own and use cell phones, 72% of adults use text messaging regularly, and 97% of adults who are parents of school-age children live in homes with working cell phones -It has been well documented (Edwards and Young, 1992; Mau, 1997) that parents’ involvement in school activities influences their children’s academic performance. Text messaging can provide real-time exchanges between parents and schools. Research conducted by Becta (2008) found that 68% of parents would like to use text messages as a means of receiving more information from the school -Event reminders. Blast messages may also be used as reminders for events that involve the entire school community, such as open house, parent-teacher conferences, and PTA meetings. When the staff implemented this strategy at Inspire Academy, participation at the monthly parent meetings rose 30% in two months. The school found that for young urban parents, this form of communication is most effective.

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Proprietary Emotion: What drives your target audience?

Your target audience of parents is most frequently driven by the emotions and feelings of security and safety. An education is valued very highly in our society, and in many cases it is required for success. Parents are also driven by the desire for their children to grow more and become more. All parents really want is for their children to be successful with their future, typically starting with a good education. It is often seen in many situations that a parent's involvement in their child’s education may help increase the chances that their student will be successful in school and even later in life. Their desire for their children to be more successful than themselves can also be viewed as another driving factor to increase a parent's motivation to get inspired with taking a more active role in their child’s education. The more involved a parent is in their children’s education, the more they are able to help their child with their coursework or decision making when it comes to planning their future.

Receiving a quality education will result in a secure and safe future, which is exactly what parents want for their children. Therefore, greater involvement in their children’s education will lead to a greater sense of safety and security.

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Tactical Advertising Recommendations

What: Update website and social media platforms by the beginning of next school year. Increase interaction with parents: get 65% of parents involved with at least one form of communication with school by the end of the 2016-2017 school year, meaning either signing up for text/email alerts, or downloading the school's application. Get 65% of parents to attend parent-teacher conferences by the end of the 2016-2017 school year. Where: Mount Pleasant High School When: Start working on improvements by the end of the 2015-2016 school year, and be ready to implement tactics by the start of the 2016-2017 school year. Recommendations can be measured at the end of the 2016-2017 school year. How: Students from the Graphic Design program (and other students, club presidents student body council members) at the tech center can get involved in re-building the school website. Calendars need to be updated regularly, should be easy to read and interact with, and should include sports, school events, and events parents need to attend. The school should get involved in social media in order to more effectively maintain contact with students and parents. At the very least, the school should maintain a Facebook account in order to answer direct messages, post updates, and send reminders in a timely manner. Texting alerts should be one of the primary methods for contacting parents regarding issues that do not require response, such as parent teacher conferences and events, scholarly and sporting, happening in the school. Academics should be consolidated into one source--BlackBoard, Moodle, etc, to minimize confusion and there needs to be one source where parents access grades and contact info. This will reduce work for the school and make it easier for parents to check all the students happenings in one area. Grades should be accessible by parents through this source, which will ideally have a mobile app in addition to a user-friendly website. Parents should be given access to this program by giving the school their, phone number and email as well as information about their new aps. Student academic and disciplinary files should be consolidated in an online source for easy distribution to parents that are unable to come in to conferences. Parent-teacher conferences should emphasize student success and accomplishments and showcase their work, rather than just being a check-in for grades. Conferences should be brief, with options for parents to get a digital/tangible report if they cannot attend. In addition by rewarding attendance rates at conferences we intend to create a raffle system. By attending conferences, either in person or via email, By doing so parents will be making their students eligible to win prizes such as free yearbooks, school apparel, and even a pizza party that will be awarded to the students with highest parent teacher attendance rates. All of which will will be supplied by the school through the budget. (find pricing estimate) Creating

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prizes will increase student incentive which will in turn create pull effect from the students, urging their parents to attend.

Why: Ineffective communication exists between pizza party for students and the school. Although the school currently has communication with the parents via mail, a more direct communication method, text alerts, and applications will allow parents to be notified and reminded in real time. Parents are not involved, are not attending events, and do not show up to parent teacher conferences, there is a direct correlation between parent involvement and student academic performance. They are unresponsive to direct mail and to mail sent home with students. We need to find better ways to maintain contact with parents and keep them updated in their children's lives as well as in the school community.

Budget: $1,000-$2,000

Possible Student Incentive Rewards and Budget Options: each of these options are potential ways to motivate your students. In addition to trying to pull the parents to conferences, it would be beneficial if students urged their parents to attend as well. By getting the students involved with parent-teacher conferences, they will be more motivated for their parents to attend. These are just a few possibilities.

1. Yearbook raffle: awarded to a student whose parent attended conferences $50-70

2. Both conferences total cost: $140 3. Cost of apparel raffle: if three winners were to be chosen at each conference

estimated total based on average apparel cost total: $240 4. Cost for possible pizza party: $300 for students whose parents attended

conferences

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Possible App for Updated Communication:

BuzzMob’s mission is “to turn every classroom into a vibrant, connected community

where teachers, parents, and students are engaged in support and education.” They

accomplish this through being simple, safe, and effective. This app is easy for people of

all ages to use, it requires authorization before use so everyone is protected, and all

messages are delivered instantly through mobile text, email, or the app itself depending

on user preference. They are big on the fact that a student’s success is dependent on a

good relationship involving effective communication between the school and parents.

Notable features:

- Works on iPhone, android, tablets, desktops, and SMS phones. - Has a smartfeed feature that allows parents and students to quickly see what is

most important or coming up at a glance - Has a calendar that can help organize different classes and their assignment, as

well as out of the classroom activities. - Teachers can upload files for assignment and include due dates - The messaging feature allows communication from the teacher to the entire

class or just one on one messaging if a parent has a specific question.

- There is a special emergency feature that will send push-notifications directly to

a device’s home screen if something like a school cancellation occurs. If

something is important, such as a science project being due that day, but not an

emergency, the event feature can do the same thing.

There are a variety of plans depending on how many classrooms would be using the

app but we feel that it would be the most effective if the entire schools adopts it. This

cost is per-year and also requires a one-time setup fee.

School Complete

$995.00 /yr.

Setup Fee: $295.00

Up to 5 Administrators

1 School-wide Group

1 Staff Group

Unlimited Members

Unlimited Posts

Unlimited Messages

School Rollout Package

Customer Support (M-F)

+

Classroom BuzzMob For

All of Your Teachers

Unlimited Teachers

Unlimited Classroom Groups

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Plan for Tactic ROI Measurement

a. How should the client measure the success of each tactic?

Measure attendance by parents at school events such as conferences and open houses and compare it to attendance numbers of these events in the past. An increased number of parents in attendance will indicate success in the method. No increase in attendance indicates that the the method was unsuccessful. In addition, a survey can be given to the attending parents asking if they attend conferences every year, or if they are new. If they are newly attending, ask the parent why they chose to attend this year. As well as the number, age, and grade of their children would be asked to assess if their child’s grade standing is a contributing factor. b. Consider the plan and process Encourage teachers to keep a class blog that parents can follow, or even use a Facebook page so parents can get up-to-date information from alerts. For measuring parents attendance of parent teacher conferences this simple survey [added below] can be distributed during parent teacher conferences. This ¼ piece of paper with five questions is short enough that parents can fill it out while waiting in line. Every trimester this survey will be administered and the results added to in an Excel Spreadsheet to measure attendance numbers.

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APPENDIX

Survey Results

#1

Q1: What is your age and how many kids do you have?

45 yrs, 4 kids

Q2: What grade/s are they in?

1 finished college

1jr in college

1 jr in high school

1 8th grade

Q3: How have you been contacted by the school in the past?

Phone, postal mailing

Q4: How would you prefer to communicate with the school?

Email

Q5: What methods do you have for accessing the internet?

Home computer

Q6: Which events have you attended at the high school/ tech center?

Open house

Q7: What kind of updates would you like to receive about your child's involvements at

school?

Email

Updated modernized school website

Q8: How do you access your child's grades?

I don't

Q9: What day and time is most convenient for you to attend parent/teacher conferences?

Any time

Q10: Do you know about the school Facebook page or the activities going on through the

student website?

No

#2


40, 2


7,10


email, phone, text


Email

14


Phone


games, open house


school?

progress on grades


power school


evening


student website?

Yes

#3


45, 2 kids


8th and 10th


email, text, flyer, phone calls


Text


Phone


Orchestra concerts, choir concerts, parent sports meetings, parent-teacher conferences


school?

Respondent skipped this question


Powerschool


M or F, 5-9 p.m.


student website?

Yes

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#4


I am 41 years old and have 5 children.


9, 7, 4, 1, preschool age


Email, phone, flyer


Email


Home computer


Orchestra concerts, Open House (HS & tech center), school plays, sporting events & parent

meetings


school?

Meeting times and contact information. Performance times.


Powerschool


Tuesday or Thursday evening or during the day.


student website?

No

#5


One female age 16, Junior Next child is in MS and will be coming up soon to MPHS, therefore

this respondent hopes that these changes will be implemented in a timely fashion.


On school website teacher emails inaccessible.

Teacher emails need to be accessible and visible, not having to click on email link next to

teachers name. This is very limiting as certain computers will not allow you to open up that

link, therefore it needs to be typed out like this: [email protected] next to teacher

name. This would only facilitate communication between parent and teacher and not have

parent got to main office every single time the parent cannot reach the teacher. Teacher

responses need to be within a 24 hour time frame, this is expected in every single profession

worldwide. Therefore teaches need not be exempt, especially since the advent of the iphone

in 2005.


Yes, once


Email


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Home computer


None

Q: What methods do you have for accessing the internet needs to allow for multiple

responses, not one.

Therefore, I access the internet via smartphone, ipad and home computer.

Kindly revise this survey.


school?

I would like to receive the MPHS announcements via email. The school principal should also

initiate reminders via weekly telephone call at 5:00 pm or 6:00pm this would instill school

spirit as it would remind parents about upcoming events. Not just football games, but the

results of sporting or academic activities, for example the date of upcoming standardized

testing, telling parents to remind their child to get a good nights rest, etc. If there is a coat

drive, canned food drive, whatever.


No access, my child excels at all she does, via report card. Excels means far exceeds

parental and school expectations.


Evening - they need to be regularly scheduled and on a monthly basis. To encourage parents

to attend the school can have pizza available, it can be Little Caesars. Kindly notify the

school administration of this constructive feedback.


student website?

No

#6


54, I have 4 children


10th, college or college grads for rest of them


email, phone, mail, text


Other (please specify) All of the above is fine with me


Home computer


Open house


school?

Mail, email, text, etc. More info the better. Power school is excellent when it is updated.


Power school or student :)

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Lunch time or evening, any day. I make it a priority.


student website?

No

#7


I'm 32, and I have one daughter.


My daughter is in 9th grade.


phone call


Email


Phone


We haven't been to any events yet.


school?

I would love to get a message on my phone when she gets a new grade.


Through the mt. pleasant high school website.


Mornings


student website?

Yes

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This past month, I communicated with my child's teacher about…

Face-to-face

(%)

E-mail (%)

Phone (%)

Written Communication

(%)

Skype/FaceTime (%)

Texting (%)

Average (%)

1. …my child's grades in the class.

10.2 23.3 2.8 1.9 0 .1 6.4

2. …why my child has a missing assignment.

4.9 18.7 1.9 1.0 0 0 4.4

3. …how my child can improve his/her grade.

9.8 24.7 2.7 1.4 0 .2 6.5

4. …why my child received the grade

he/she did.

7.1 18.6 2.0 .7 0 0 4.7

5. …why my child was not completing assignments.

5.1 15.0 1.8 1.5 0 0 3.9

6. …learning more about homework assignments.

7.9 34.0 2.5 4.0 0 .5 8.2

7. …a question I had about an assignment.

10.0 38.6 3.2 4.3 0 .3 9.4

8. …solutions to address my child's behavior in

class.

7.5 13.5 3.1 1.5 0 .2 4.3

9. …my child talking back to the teacher.

2.7 5.8 1.2 .7 0 0 1.7

10. …my child goofing off in class.

5.5 10.4 1.9 1.2 0 0 3.2

11. …my child's ability to make/maintain

friendships with peers.

5.9 7.0 1.1 .5 0 .1 2.4

12. …how my child was not bringing materials to

class.

2.6 8.3 1.1 .7 0 0 2.1

13. …my child being picked on by his/her

classmates.

4.2 7.9 3.3 .5 0 .3 2.7

14. …a major classroom behavioral incident (fight,

racial slur).

4.0 6.8 2.7 .7 0 .2 2.4

15. …a temporary health issue that my child is

experiencing.

5.8 17.0 6.0 2.3 0 .1 5.2

16. …a major physical health issue that my child

is experiencing.

4.1 9.8 3.8 1.0 0 0 3.1

Academic performance mean

7.9 24.7 2.4 2.1 0 .2 6.2

Classroom behavior mean 5.2 9.9 2.1 1.1 0 .1 3.1 Preparation mean 4.3 7.7 1.1 .6 0 .1 2.3

Hostile peer interactions mean

4.1 7.4 3.0 .6 0 .3 2.6

Health mean 5.0 13.4 4.9 1.7 0 .1 4.2 Overall mean 5.3 12.6 2.7 1.2 0 .2 3.7

-Table 1 offers a percentage summary. The results indicated that parents most frequently communicate academic support via e-mail

(12.6%), compared with face-to-face (5.3%), phone (2.7%), written communication (1.2%), text messaging (.2%), and Skype/FaceTime

(0%). Parents selected e-mail most frequently across each dimension of parental academic support. RQ2 queried whether parents would

select richer modes more frequently for complex topics and leaner modes for instrumental topics.

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Mount Pleasant High School Marketing Strategy