The marketing plan aims to raise awareness for the American Cancer Society's upcoming Relay for Life event at MCC on June 23rd. The plan is to have MCC's lacrosse teams wear purple socks at an upcoming double header game to bring attention to the event. Surveys will also be conducted at the game to estimate how many attendees may participate in Relay for Life. The goal is to influence just 3% of the estimated 366 people reached through the sock promotion and game attendance to attend and help raise $100 for the event.

1. MARKETING PLAN
Presented by:
Rich Healey Justin Pollizi
Jackson Mordaunt Nelson Scott
Nick Pagano Zhihao Yun

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Executive Summary:
The goal of our project is to raise awareness for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for
Life taking place at MCC on June 23rd. Relay for Life is a walk that many schools participate in,
in America, to raise awareness and money for the American Cancer Society to fight back at
cancer.
Our idea is for the MCC sports teams to wear purple socks to raise awareness for the
event during a game in early April. We would also ask for a short announcement to be made at
the start of the game to explain the reason why the team is wearing the purple apparel. We
would be willing to provide the script for this announcement. The target audience will be the
MCC students and parents in attendance for the game. Also, since the players are bringing
attention for the event, they as well are part of the target audience. We also want to survey a few
people in the stands to ask them if they think they will attend Relay for Life in order to make
accurate financial predictions.
Cancer awareness is at an all-time high due to effective marketing the ideals of the ACS
through both charitable and government programs. Getting the word out about these events is
vital to attract potential donors/participants. Without them, there would be no money being
raised for cancer research.
With your permission, it would be our request to have any MCC athletic teams willing to
participate in our project to help out The American Cancer Society and Relay for Life.

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I. Competitive overview:
The American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life is a charity event held in order to
raise funds for the fight against cancer. The Relay for Life teams enter for a small fee
and then walk around a track set up at a community venue. All money raised goes
towards the fight against cancer and teams spend the night walking around,
socializing, and remembering cancer victims. As this is a not-for-profit charity, it may
seem as if this event would have little competition, but someone could donate to any
charity instead of Relay for Life, and that would be a potential competitor.
Consumers have a limited amount of money and if they donate to one charity, it is
less likely they will donate to another. Charity events are schedule not to not happen
at the same time in order to maximize funds raised though this will not eliminate all
competition. One of the main reasons people attend charity events is because they feel
the need to convince themselves they are good people. If a person attended a charity
event just a month ago it is unlikely they will feel obligated to attend another for
some time. As such, any charitable events happening in within the month of June can
be considered a competitor to Relay for Life.
The most serious competitive threat to Relay for Life is the Canandaigua Run for
Their Lives’ event. This charitable 5k event is happening on the same day as the
Relay for Life event going on at MCC and may potentially lure away several
prospects from Relay for Life.
Advantages for Relay for Life are that no physical fitness is required, removing a
barrier for entry of many applicants, Relay for Life’s registration fee is $10,
compared opposed to the Run for Their Lives’ events’ $25. Lastly, Relay for Life is a

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more social event as opposed to the competitive atmosphere of a 5k. All these factors
should be taken advantage of in marketing efforts.
II. Objectives/Goals:
Relay for Life’s objectives are twofold. While it is obvious that the American
Cancer Society aims to raise money for cancer research, an often overlooked
objective is raising awareness of the dangers of cancer in the general population. Both
these goals are equally important. Raising awareness of cancer means people are
more likely to donate to the American Cancer Society to help rid the world of cancer.
If someone has no connection to Cancer, such as a family member with the disease,
they will unlikely recognize the seriousness of the condition and be willing to donate
money. Furthermore, raising cancer awareness can help reduce the prevalence of
activities that cause cancer. There is no doubt that cancer awareness has contributed
to the declining rates of smokers and in turn declining rate of lung cancer since the
1950s. Such raising awareness is of great benefit to the ACS, as it helps them
accomplish their goal of raising money to combat cancer and to also eliminate
thousands of incidences of cancer directly through discouraging carcinogenic
activities.
III. Situation Analysis:
Cancer awareness is at an all-time high due to years of effectively marketing the
ideals of the ACS through both charitable and government programs. While cancer
awareness remains high, declining rates of cancer and breakthroughs in its treatments

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have many regarding the threat as less severe than it was several years ago. With
outbreaks of diseases such as HIV and widespread coverage of national disasters,
many are opting to donate their money towards other charities such as the American
Red Cross, leaving the American Cancer Society struggling to raise funds. These
factors are threats to the continued success of the American Cancer Society.
A strength of the Relay for Life fundraiser is its ability to engage donors by
providing a full night’s worth of activities. This event has proved to be successful for
two equally important reasons. First, donors are more likely to donate if they can
receive something for their money. Participants in the relay gain a night’s worth of
entertainment and conversation through their donation instead of just having their
money vanish into research and developments that they never actually perceive.
Second, donors are more likely to donate again as the night spent at the event helps
many form an emotional connection with the disease that wasn’t there before. Many
participants have never had or known someone who had cancer and simply attend as a
social event the first time. Once they leave however, they will have met several
people who either directly or indirectly battled cancer and this can form a lasting
impact on a person.
A weakness of the Relay for Life is its focus exclusively on cancer research.
There is a vast majority of people that have not been touched by cancer, in which they
remain unaware of the seriousness of the condition. As such, they feel little need to
donate to rid the world of a disease which to them barely exists. This one dimensional
approach is integral to the American Cancer Society which has just one goal, but the

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fact is more people could be reached if donations went to a more diverse assortment
of causes.
Lastly, an opportunity for the American Cancer Society is that there is a sense of
optimism present in the public’s opinion cancer survivors. Cancer treatments have
become vastly more successful over the past few years. If the American Cancer
Society can stress the role they played in making these breakthroughs possible, they
may be able to increase the amount of donations received. Potential donators often
feel their donations never really help to change anything, but through advertisement,
the American Cancer Society can establish the link between their efforts and
continued success in the field of cancer research, thereby reaching more potential
donors.
IV. STP Analysis:
Relay for Life is a fundraiser that raises millions of dollars each year for the
American Cancer Society. Relay for Life’s main goal is to raise money to help fight
back against cancer. In order to raise money, Relay for Life needs to get the message
out and have people participate in the event. Participants or donors could be anyone,
but they can’t help if they don’t know about the event. We will choose to market
Relay for Life to MCC students and parents by using the MCC athletic teams to help
us. At MCC sporting events, there will be students at the game that will become
aware of Relay for Life, along with parents that go to their children’s games. Using
this target market, we should reach out to two different groups of people.

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V. Marketing Strategy:
As far as our marketing strategy goes, we will be using both the MCC men’s and
woman’s lacrosse teams in order to engage with our target market. By having the
members of the team wear the purple socks, we will reach our target market of
college students as they will be attending the games and the athletes who are
competing. Also, by having members of our team present at a table during the games,
we will reach the target market as they are entering the stands. Thinking about the
marketing mix, the “product” that we are attempting to sell to the market is the Relay
for Life event. The “place” will be sporting events around the campus, most notably
at a home game of the baseball team. The only price that will be involved will be if

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people want to donate money for the socks the athletes will be wearing. Our
promotion will be getting the word out about the event and bringing it to the fans’
attention. The sustainable advantage that we can gain over the other groups is having
a wall around the market by involving the sports teams.
VI. Financial Projections:
The American Cancer Society is a non-profit organization. Thus, most of its
income is support from public. Relay for Life is the most successful event created by
the organization for its capacity. 3.5 million people in 5,200 different communities
are involved within the United States, as well as 19 other countries. This nationwide
event creates more than 40% of public support for America Cancer Society. The
following data will show you how successful this event is:
Support from public revenue (in millions)
Year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Relay For Life 375 406 409 386 388 385 378
Total support from the public 989 1039 1002 930 898 896 889
Percentage 37.92% 39.08% 40.82% 41.51% 43.21% 42.97% 42.52%
Even though the fund from Relay for Life is slightly shrinking, it is still the biggest
portion of the total income. In addition, this event gains things far more than money
including connections, participation, and awareness, which are not easily exchanged
by money.

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VII. Implementation Plan:
Our event will take place on Saturday, April 12th due to multiple sporting events
taking place on the same day. We have the support of both lacrosse teams in which
both teams will wear the socks during a double header. With each player wearing the
purple socks, awareness is aimed towards Relay for Life. Creating the ability for
someone to recognize Relay for Life and even attending the events is our main goal
and will be executed with our plan.
VIII. Evaluation Metrics & Control:
The aim of our marketing plan is not to directly raise money for Relay for Life by
asking for donations, but rather to spread awareness of the event in order to increase
attendance. As such, we will not be able to definitively measure the success of our
marketing efforts until the actual date of the event. What we can do however, is form
projections based on the number of people we reached with this promotion. The
statistics for the men’s game attendance are not posted but we know men’s lacrosse at
MCC has an average attendance of 66. The attendance for the women’s game is
posted however and number is in at 255. It is thus reasonable to estimate that we had
a reach of 321 individuals. In addition, there are 17 members of the women’s lacrosse
teams and 28 members on the men’s team. Taking into account the fact that we also
exposed the players to Relay for Life, we can more accurately say we reached 366
people. Keeping in mind our goal of $100 dollars, at $10 dollars per entry, if we
influenced just 3% of the individuals we reached into attending, we will have
achieved our goal.