4. Robin Perkins
President
Robin is a sophomore at Radford University originally from Staf-
ford Virginia. She is majoring in Communications with a concen-
tration in Public Relations and a minor in marketing in hopes of
getting into international travel and amazing journeys.
Thea Robinson
Secretary
TheaisafreshmanatRadfordUniversityfromFallsChurch,Virginia.
SheismajoringinMediastudieswithaconcentrationinadvertising
andaminorinpublicrelationsinhopesofworkingforaprofessional
sportsteamandbecomingheadoftheirPublicRelationsdepartment.
Michelle Samson
Creative Director
Michelle is a Senior at Radford University from Centreville, Va. She
is majoring in Communication with a concentration in Public Rela-
tions. She is passoniate about how and why people communicate
the way they do. She hopes to get a job in International PR.
Malcolm Jackson
Research Executive
Malcolm is a junior in Radford University’s College of Humanities
and Behavioral Sciences. He is studying Public Relations with a
minor in Marketing and currently holds a 3.2 GPA.
Katie Hartman
Market Analyst
Katie is a first semester senior at Radford University majoring in
Communications with a concentration in Public Relations and
minoring in Marketing.
Meet The Team
5
Tyreik Talley
Market Research Analyst
Tyreik is a junior at Radford University and is a Market-
ing major. His goal for the future is to move to Charlotte
and pursue a career in Marketing or Sales.
Brice Walker
Market Development Specialist
BriceisasophomoreatRadfordUniversitymajoringinPublic
Relations.ShewouldliketouseherPublicRelationsdegreein
thesportsworldaftergraduatingcollege.
Devin Jones
Consumer Behavior Specialist
Devinisafirstsemesterfreshmanmajor-
inginMediaStudieswithaconcentration
inAdvertising.Hehopestogointothe
advertisingagencydirectlyaftercollege
andintoalargefirm.
Tony Ports
Art Director
TonyisaseniorstudyingCommuni-
cationsatRadfordUniversity. Heis
anavidmemberandpostexecutive
councilmemberofThetaLambda
chapterofSigmaPiUniversityinter-
national.
8. Radford University Key Event Timeline
1910
The
Virginia Gen-
eral Assembly
founded Radford
University.
1911
Dr. John Preston
McConnell was
appointed the
first president of
Radford Univer-
sity.
1915
The first residence
hall, Tyler Hall,
opened.
1924
Radford Univer-
sity is named
State Teachers
College.
1934
Merged into Virginia
Tech and renamed
Women's Division
of the Virginia Poly-
technic Institute.
1938
Dr. Donald Peters took
office as president.
1964
Radford is re-
named Radford
College and start-
ed giving gradu-
ate degrees.
1970’s
Radford adopts the
“Highlanders” for ath-
letic teams.
1972
Radford College
becomes co-ed and
Dr. Donald Dedmon
assumes the role of
president.
1979
Radford College is
renamed to Radford
University.
1984
Radford become s a
member of the NCAA
Division 1.
1994
Dr. Charles Owens
was named acting
president of the
University.
1995
Dr. Douglas Cov-
ington was named
the fifth president
of Radford and
first African Amer-
ican president
in the common-
wealth of Virginia.
13
2005
Penelope W.
Kyle became the
University’s sixth
president.
2008
The Covington
Center for Visual
and Preforming
Arts Opened.
2011
Radford University
gave its first doctoral
degrees.
2012
COBE building
opened.
2014
Fitness and
Wellness
Center
opens.
2015
New center for the
sciences opens.
2016
CHBS building
opens.
2020
Radford Univer-
sity’s football sta-
dium is revealed.
9. Competition
Campus type: Large town, rural setting
Sports: Division 1 AA- Big South
Enrollment:
Undergraduate: 8,885
Total: 9,798
Acceptance Rate: 78%
Radford University
Campus type: Rural
Sports: Division 1 AA- Big South
Enrollment:
Undergraduate: 4,080
Total: 4,800
Acceptance Rate: 81%
Longwood University
Campus type: Urban
Sports: Division 1 NCAA-The American
Enrollment:
Undergraduate: 21,589
Total: 27,386
Acceptance Rate: 73%
East Carolina University
15
Campus type: Small City
Sports: Division 1-CAA
Enrollment:
Undergraduate: 18,431
Total: 20,181
Acceptance Rate: 61%
James Madison University
Campus type: Small City
Sports: Division 3-Old Dominion
Enrollment:
Undergraduate: 2,150
Total: 4,000
Shenandoah University
10. Clubs & Organizations
Greek Life
Scholar Citizens
R-SPaCE
The Radford University Greek community is comprised of over 20 general
fraternities and sororities. The organizations fall under the governance of
three different coordinating councils - Interfraternity Council (IFC), Nation-
al Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), and the Panhellenic Council (PC).
The Scholar-Citizen Initiative supports Radford University’s institutional
mission of fostering the development of “mature, responsible citizens”
by preparing students to put their intellectual skills to work for the public
good. Through integration of classroom and co-curricular learning op-
portunities, Scholar-Citizen Intensive, or “SCI”, experiences attend to the
whole student, helping them develop records of achievement in the areas
of public service, leadership, and applied research.
R-SPaCE, or Radford Student Programming and Campus Events, is here
to take this campus and make it R-SPaCE with fun and entertaining
events, mixed with a little education from time to time. Our purpose at
Radford University is to work with other organizations on campus to pro-
vide our students with entertaining events.
Lead Scholar
Freshman and sophomores who wish to enhance their leadership skills as
they prepare to accept leadership positions at the University and in their
communities should strongly consider becoming part of the LEAD Scholar
Program. To become a LEAD Scholar, students must complete a compre-
hensive leadership program consisting of three components: experience,
academics and development. The program is highly individualized and
flexible to suit most students’ leadership interests and courses of study.
17
PRSSA
RU PRSSA offers students many opportunities to get invoved and
explore their interests. This is done through fundraising, event plan-
ning, newsletters, and much more. Members can gain real life ex-
perience by joining our student-run firm, which offers free Public
Relations services to local clients. All of these experiences help our
members develop into qualified, well prepared professionals.
PRSSA
RU PRSSA offers students many opportunities to get in-
voved and explore their interests. This is done through
fundraising, event planning, newsletters, and much
more. Members can gain real life experience by joining
our student-run firm, which offers free Public Relations
services to local clients. All of these experiences help
our members develop into qualified, well prepared
professionals.
The Tartan
Radford’s weekly student-run newspaper, The
Tartan, features news and information about
Radford University and the surrounding area and
is distributed both on campus and around town.
Founded in 1921 as The Grapurchat, The Tar-
tan is Radford’s oldest student publication. New
contributors are always welcome.
11. Notable Alumni
June Atkinson
Superintendent of Virginia Schools
Scott Long
Human Rights Activist
Frank Beamer
Head coach Virginia Tech Football
Randal J. Kirk
CEO of Intrexon
19
Jayma Mays
Actress “Glee”
Dante Washington
Retired professional
soccer player
Steve Robinson
Assistant basketball
coach at UNC
13. Demographics of Targets
Primary Target
High School Juniors/Seniors and Transfer Students
Age: 16-20
Ethnicity: All ethnicities
Gender: Male and Female
Education: High school juniors and seniors and people
who have completed at the most two years of education at
another university or community college.
Income: Market the fact that Radford is least expensive
of all public institutions in the state besides Virginia State
University.
Secondary Target
Parents
Age: 40-55
Ethnicity: All ethnicities
Gender: Male and Female
Education: High school graduates and college graduates
alike.
Income: Market the fact that Radford is least expensive of
all public institutions in the state that are not HBCU.
Research shows that average age of parents
with 17 year olds is 45.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
23
Tertiary Target
Alumni
Age: 22-25 & 40-50
Ethnicity: 78.3% Caucasian, 9.7% African
American, 4.6% Hispanic
Gender: 55.8% Female, 44.2% Male
Education: Bachelors degree – primary
degree received at Radford University
Income: Starting salary of new college
graduate (≈ $44,000) and 40-50 year olds
(≈ $70,000)
22-25
Targets new college graduates that are eager to give
back to the school where they just received their degree.
40-50
Targets professionals with more disposable income
than a new college graduate. This target is more likely
to donate money to a good cause.
The campaign should primarily
market to female Alumni seeing
how the university was at one
point an all female college.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
14. Psychographics of Target
Primary Target
High School Juniors/Seniors and Transfer Students
Looking for a social school that offers a medium size
student body that is very involved throughout campus
with activities and clubs.
Looking for a university where you can graduate with
little debt and still receive a quality education.
Looking for a school that offers a wide array of degree
options.
Secondary Target
Parents
Looking for a safer environment for their children to
learn in.
Looking for a modern campus with newer buildings
and resources.
Looking for a university where their children can gradu-
ate with little debt and still receive a quality education.
•
•
•
•
•
•
25
Tertiary Target
Alumni
Looking to bolster the reputation of the
school to enhance the validity of the current
student and alumni’s degrees.
Looking to give back to their place of
education.
•
•
15. Geographics of Targets
Primary Target:
Northern Virginia (NOVA)
Secondary Target:
Southwest Virginia
27
Tertiary Target:
Hampton Roads/Tidewater Region
17. Survey Questions
1. We accept 78% of applicants, does this make
you think less of Radford?
2. How do you see Radford Universities image?
• Rising Academically
• The greatest school on earth
• Party school
• Worst school ever
3. On a scale from one to five, (1 being the worst
5 being the best) how well do Radford students
show their school spirit/pride?
4. Should we promote our D1 sports teams more?
5. Should we have a different mascot?
31
6. Should we revamp the website?
7. Would you be more inclined to
wear the logo it if was changed?
20. Survey Analysis
Our Media Mavericks’ survey had a total of 101 responses varying from freshman to
senior grade levels.
1. We accept 78% of applicants, does this make you think less of Radford?
• 59% of students agreed that because our acceptance rate was so high it
made them think less of Radford, while only 41% believed it didn’t.
i. This is important because it shows how students feel about their
own school, the fact so many students believe the acceptance rate is
too high proves something needs to be done.
2. How do you see Radford Universities image?
• 57% Rising Academically
• 9% The greatest school on earth
• 33% Party school
• 1% Worst school ever
i. This shows that although majority of students believe Radford’s
rising academically, there’s still a large portion of current students
who view it as a party school.
ii. This is a potential problem when visualizing how many NON Rad
ford students still view Radford as a party school.
3 On a scale from one to five, (1 being the worst 5 being the best) how well do
Radford students show their school spirit/pride?
• 11% said 1
• 31% said 2
• 34% said 3
• 18% said 4
• 7% said 5
i. The top two percent’s are between the ranges of 2-3 for school
spirit.
ii. This is important because it shows Radford students believe
school spirit is lacking, which is a large problem for potential incoming
students interested in our school.
4. Should we promote our D1 sports teams more?
• 99% Of Radford University students said yes while only 2% said No.
i. This proves to be one of the biggest problems for our school,
the lack of support for our sports teams.
ii. This information gives Media Mavericks proof that Radford
needs to re-brand and re-vamp our sports teams.
iii. When talking to some individuals, they commented that
having Radford University Football team would increase school
spirit as well as awareness for our school.
37
5. Should we have a different mascot?
• 44% said yes having a different mascot would be better for our school,
while 57% said no.
i. This is important because Media Mavericks had made a prediction
that Radford students were unhappy with the highlander mascot,
when in actuality, majority actually believed it’s what made the school
unique.
6. Should we revamp the website?
• 52% of students said yes and 49% said no.
i. This was a close pull as its evident revamping the website could
go either way.
ii. Media Mavericks decided based on this information its best to
focus on other important issues were it was clear Radford needed
rebranding.
7. Would you be more inclined to wear the logo it if was
changed?
• 48% of students said yes while 53% said no.
i. This information is important because again,
Media Mavericks made a prediction that stu
dents would be more inclined to change the
logo, when in actuality more students wanted
to keep it.
ii. Based off this information we decided as a
group to keep the option of changing the logo
open, because the results were so close giving
students the chance to decide would be
beneficial.
21. Focus Group
Introduction
Focus group was conducted by:
• Media Mavericks
Focus Group Leader:
• Tyreik Talley
Focus Group took place:
• On November 9, 2014
Location:
• Bonnie, Room 248
Focus Group Participants:
• Alex Austin
• Ashley Williams
• Carolina Rojas
• Drew Zafaross
• Jacob Britton
• John Ingersol
• Meghan Virostek
• Merideth Hopper
• Riley Anderson
Focus Group Participants:
39
Purpose:
My team conducted a responsive focus group. The purpose
of this focus group was to gather a individuals to discuss the
improvements that need to be made, positives, negatives,
stereotypes, and the image of Radford University.
Tactics:
The focus group was conducted in a respon-
sive matter. The participants sat in a semi
circle facing the team. Each participant had
a chance to voice there opinions after each
question was asked.
22. Focus Group
Objective: Rebranding Radford and Discussing Rad-
Agenda
Questions:
• What are some stereotypes you've heard about
Radford?
• How do you feel about Radford's academic
standards ?
• How do you feel about Radford's academic
standards compared to other schools?
• How does having a higher acceptance rate ef
fect our image?
• How do you feel about the student awareness
(fan support) of our athletic programs?
• How many are in favor of a football team?
• How do you all feel about our logo and mascot?
• Would you want to change our mascot?
• Do you think our mascot defines Radford's
identity?
• Raising our tuition do you think it would im
prove our image?
• How do you feel about the on campus dining
experience?
41
In conclusion to the focus group conducted by Me-
dia Mavericks, most of the students that were inter-
viewed seemed happy to attend Radford University.
The major change that needs to be made based off
of the groups responses would be adding a football
team. Introducing a new football team would take a
ten year plan and a lot would go into this project.
Analysis
This would connect the Radford communi-
ty with Radford University. There was one
participant who was not in favor of a foot-
ball team strictly because it would take to
much work and time. However, he did feel
that having a football team would help
raise fan support and awareness.
Also, having a football team would
help raise student participation at
sporting games and events. The stu-
dents interviewed would like to see
the logo and mascot used in a man-
ner that would give Radford an
identity.
24. Insights
Radford University
• Radford Univeristy has many different majors and
minors available.
• Radford is known for it’s diverse culture.
• The Univeristy is located in rural Southwest Virginia
along the New River.
• Radford has an 18 to 1 student ratio.
• Is a comprehensive, midsized public university.
High School Students- Juniors & Seniors
• The fascination of going to a good college.
• A school that can connect with the student and its
interests.
• An institution that is up to date on technology and
social media networks.
• A prestigious institute but not that much to much
for tuition.
45
Parents & Guardians
• Needs an accredited school that offers differ
ent majors and minors.
• Low tuition and on campus rates and good
meal plan.
• Nice surrounding area around the school.
• Access to resources close and nearby the
school.
• Community that surrounds and is embedded
in Radford University.
• Distance between Radford and
their home.
Transfer Students
• The need to feel involved and
connected to the University.
• Academics have to be up to
students standards.
• Transfer friendly orientation.
• Either worked or went to
community college before.
• Looking at academic programs
for the future with a Radford
degree.
29. Football Stadium
Radford University is growing as a whole,
yet school spirit and campus merchandise
could be significantly higher. Students at
this school keep asking for a football team
which would put Radford Univeristy at an
even higher standard and raising number
of students applying here.
Message
55
Pros
o Revenue
o Rise in applications/student
o School spirit increase
o Increase town revenue
Cons
o Expensive to build
o Long term investment
o Takes up space
30. Football Staidum
• According to the "NCAA Revenue/Expense Division I re-
port," the median net revenue for college football in 2010
was $3.15 million per school. ESPN reports that 27.3 million
viewers watch The BCS National Championship game alone.
Even with so many viewers nationwide, 43% of schools in this
division generated negative median net revenue of $2.87
million in losses.
Statistics
57
• For schools in college football's top division, football
revenues soared 99% in the last decade, with much of
the growth coming from TV networks battling to broad-
cast games.
• 17 of the 20 most valuable teams have undergone major
stadium expansions and renovations over the last 10 years,
and two others haverenovation plans in the works
• Premium seats has shown it can be
a good steady source of revenue for
schools. Ohio State and Tennessee
added 81 and 78 suites, respectively, in
recent years. For programs like Michi-
gan, Ohio State, and Tennessee whose
stadiums were built decades ago, luxu-
ry suites are a much more cost effective
means to increase stadium revenue than
building another crowded upper deck.
On average, the 31 largest college stadi-
ums already have 11,000 more seats than
a typical NFL stadium.
31. Football Stadium
The project includes:
• New Stands and lower long boxes.
• Large boxes, suites, and club seating.
• Removal of the track and lowering the
field by 4 feet.
• A football operations building on the
stadium’s west side.
59
32. Football Stadium
Other College Expenses and Total
Revenue
Total Football
Expenses
Alabama $36,918,963 $81,993,762
Ohio State $34,026,871 $58,112,270
Oregon $20,240,213 $51,921,731
Stanford $18,738,731 $25,564,646
Georgia $22,710,140 $74,989,418
Texas A&M $17,929,882 $44,420,762
South Carolina $22,063,216 $48,065,096
Clemson $23,652,472 $39,207,780
Louisville $18,769,539 $23,756,955
Florida $23,045,846 $74,117,435
Notre Dame $25,757,968 $68,986,659
Total Football
Revenue
61
Florida State $22,052,228 $34,484,786
LSU $24,049,282 $68,804,309
Oklahoma State $26,238,172 $41,138,312
Texas $25,896,203 $103,813,684
Oklahoma $24,097,643 $59,630,425
Michigan $23,640,337 $85,209,247
Total Football
Expenses
Total Football
Revenue
33. Football Stadium
Implementation
• Alumni donations (Tier system)
o More money they give the more their
donations will give back in the form of
season tickets, box seat tickets, bricks with
there name built into the stadium,
Stadium seats with their name on them,
and much more.
63
• Booster clubs
• Endorsement deals and selling
ad space on the stadium
• Slightly raising either tuition
rates
• Paid parking by the stadium
36. Tactics
Students and faculty of Radford University
we are proud to announce are new football
team. The highlanders have been practic-
ing hard for the upcoming season. Make
sure you come out this Friday to support
your team. The game starts at 1:00pm but
there will be a tailgate before in the park-
ing lot. Hope to see everyone there and
showing your school spirit!
Radio Spot
69
• 9:00- 10:00- parade on main street
• 10:00-12:50- Block Part/Tailgate
o 12:00- RU Rockers Perform
o $5.00 lunch
o Live DJ
o Booths
o Play houses for kids
• 1:00- football game begins
• 4:30-6:00- Alumni Dinner
Event Schedule
38. Budget
• Premiums……………………………………………
o T-shirts…………………………… $8.74each
o Beer Kozies……………………… $0.89each
o Bumper Stickers………………… $0.73each
o Bags……………………………… $4.52each
o Cell Phone Case………………... $23.54each
• Fotball Stadium……………………… $150 Million
• A New Dedmon……………………… $80 Million
Budget Form
73
