The document discusses a local food cooperative called Company Shops Market (the Co-Op) located in Burlington, North Carolina. It was founded in 2007 to support local farmers and revitalize the downtown area. The summary proposes a social media and event campaign targeting student organization leaders at Elon University to increase awareness of the Co-Op's catering services and drive business. Objectives include having 30% of key leaders prefer the Co-Op for events and 40% aware of its catering by the end of the year. Programming would include catering campus events, a tent at the farmer's market, and media outreach. Effectiveness will be measured through surveys.

1. Local Food for Local People
Amy Rauch, Annie Harris & Meg Brennan

2. BACKGROUND
Company Shops Market was founded in 2007. It was founded by a group of community members
that desired to see a food cooperative thrive and succeed in downtown Burlington, North Carolina.
Instead of constructing a brand new facility, the founders chose to renovate a historic building,
adding to the character of the Co-Op. They wanted to help revitalize the downtown area and bring
more people into the area, hoping to put money back into this community.
A Co-Op offers the opportunity for everyone to purchase a profit share and become an owner.
Owners have a say in what happens at the co-op, participate in elections and enjoy monthly
discounts. They also purchase the majority of their offered products from local farmers and
producers.
The Co-Op is a different kind of shopping experience. The employees are friendly and will engage
conversation. They advocate for healthy living and purposeful shopping, providing a variety of food
options, such as including gluten free, vegan or dairy free. For every dollar you spend at the
Co-Op, 68% goes back into the community through donations, taxes and payroll.
Mission
“To connect our community and erich our local economy through our owners, services, and
products.”
Vision
“Our vision as a community-owned grocery and gathering place is to provide exceptional food
products utilizing, as much as possible, our local, small, sustainable farmers.”
“We’re helping to support the local small farms, businesses and producers and offer-
ing our customers all-natural, free-range, fair trade, organic and REAL food products!”

3. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
The Company Shops Market, otherwise known as the Co-Op, is a up and coming food store
and sandwich shop located in downtown Burlington, founded in 2007. Company Shops Market
is a part of the National Co-op Grocers (NCG), a nationwide network of food co-ops that wields
enormous purchasing power as a group. They struggle with reaching out to the local
community, as the downtown area is in need of revitalization and Alamance county
is impoverished. The Company Shops Market has great concern for the community and wants
to provide donations to nonprofits, organizations and local events to extend the typical “grocery
shopping experience.” While they have a decent social media campaign running, their social
media presence lacks cohesiveness and clarity.
In order to solve the CoOp’s problems and take advantage of opportunities we want to conduct
further research on their clientele and target audiences. From there we can analyze what
programming would be most effective for increasing the community’s awareness of the store. We
want to incorporate their mission statement and goals of being a community member. To solve
this problem we believe our campaign should focus on targeting organizational
leaders in the Elon Community through means of cohesive social media and events
on campus to communicate their value of local food for local people.

4. TARGET AUDIENCE
NAME: Kelsey cooperative
- Female, ungraduate student at Elon
- Special Events Coordinator of Alpha Alpha Alpha
- Very social and enjoys time with friends
- Her friends look up to her and value her opinion
- Was born into an affluent family
- Loves supporting local businesses
- Enjoys eating healthy - is transitioning to vegan
- Enjoys using social media
As the Special Events Coordinator of her
sorority, Alpha Alpha Alpha, Kelsey is in
charge of planning sorority events. The
sorority budget is approximately $3,000 of
her $25,900 social budget on catering and
food per semester. She values a reliable,
consistent and modern company to work
with.To the right is a screenshot of Alpha
Alpha Alpha’s expenses.
The ideal consumer of the Co-Op is a male and/or female between the ages of 18-25. They have
access to transportation and have money for leisure activities and shopping. They’re health conscious
and they have an understanding of sustainability. They care about the environment and local
businesses. They also have a social media presence.

5. OBJECTIVES
To have 30% of key public organization leaders say they prefer the Co-Op
for catering purposes by the end of the year.1.
To have 15% of key public organization leaders say they will consider the
Co-Op for their next catering event by the end of the year.2.
To have 40% of key public organization leaders say they are aware of the
catering services the Co-Op offers by the end of the year.
3.

6. PROGRAMMING
Our programming will focus on targeting student run organization leaders on Elon’s campus. We
are seeking to pique the interest of highly motivated and involved student leaders that want to
engage the Elon and Burlington community with the University. With a highly diversified group
of student run organizations, The Co-Op is looking to target organization leaders that host large
events such as sorority and fraternity formals, sports banquets, and retreats. The Co-Op would
also benefit from a relationship with Elon’s Student Union Board, also known as SUB. SUB
notably hosts a food truck event called “Food Truck Frenzy” during the spring and fall semester.
With most of the vendors traveling 40-50 minutes to Elon, this partnership would be a simple
and effective way to involve The Co-Op with Elon students. The Co-Op will provide a spread of
local, organic, and fresh foods that are specifically tailored to each organization’s needs.
If hired to cater Alpha Alpha Alpha sorority formal, Co-Op representatives would contact the
leaders of the organization to develop a menu for their event that is equally representative of
the organization’s interests and North Carolina agriculture, underscoring The Co-Op’s
commitment to fresh and local, organic food. The Co-Op will also work with the leaders to
develop an aesthetic that matches the organization’s interests. For example, AAA’s sorority
colors are silver and purple. This aesthetic could be matched by using purple cabbage in
salads and silver tinted tablecloths. Platters of food will be delivered by The Co-Op to venues
in their signature Co-Op van. Co-Op banners will be hung in the center of the tables and
pamphlets explaining the Co-Op will be stacked on each end of the spreads.
The Co-Op will also set up a tent at the Elon farmer’s market at the community church. The
Co-Op tent will feature a make your own sandwich bar, similar to the counter in store. To
encourage previous customers to visit the tent, The Co-Op will be offering specialty
sandwiches that are only made for the farmer’s market. Flyers will also be handed out at the
tent that offer a 10% discount on your next purchase to encourage student business.
SPECIal events
local food for local peoplemessage

7. MEDIA
controlled
UNcontrolled
- Creating a cohesive social media presence to stronger the brand the Co-Op and reinforce
the theme of “local food for local people.”
- Passing out fliers and handouts that will include Elon BioBus schedules to encourage
students without cars to visit.
- Fliers with discounts included to bring a friend. Students going to the Co-Op for the first time
will recieve a coupon that encourages them to share it with a friend, allowing them 15% off
their purchase, so more students will go to the Co-Op.
- Reaching out to the Edge Magazine, The Pendulum and ENN to cover the Co-Op.
- ENN reporters will be invited to events catered by the Co-Op to get footage and interviews.
- Pitch story to the Edge Magazine featuring seasonal, local foods from the Co-Op

8. Evaluation
30% of key public organization leaders said they prefer the Co-Op for
catering purposes by the end of the year.1.
15% of key public organization leaders said they will consider the Co-Op for their
next catering event by the end of the year.2.
40% of our surveyed key public organization leaders said they were aware of the
catering services the Co-Op offers by the end of the school year.3.
Following a pre and post survey of attitudes regarding the Co-Op it was found that:
Those who were surveyed were also asked if they noticed an increase in the
cohesiveness of the Co-Op’s social media platforms.
20% of key public organization leaders said they noticed an increase in the
cohesiveness of the Co-Op’s social media platforms by the end of the year.
Additionally, the Co-Op’s search engine results improved by 7% by the
end of the school year due to increased searches and engagement on
social media platforms from Elon’s undergraduate community.

9. REFerences
“The Co-OP”. Company Shops Market. N. p., 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
“Food Truck Frenzy.” Student Union Board. Elon University, 13 Oct. 2016. Web. 04
Dec. 2016.
Hayes, Darrell C., Jerry Hendrix A., and Pallavi Kumar D. Public Relations Cases. Bos-
ton, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.
Powers, Katlyn. “Sorority Social Budget.” Personal interview. 3 Dec. 2016.