Marketing Proposal for MC2-APA

Running head: MARKETING PROPOSAL FOR MC2 1
Marketing Proposal For MC2
Skip Spoerke
15 OCT 2014
Southern New Hampshire University
Dr. Kavita Finn
ENG-120-06512: English Composition I

MARKETING PROPOSAL FOR MC2 2
Making Community Connections (MC2) is a year-round state authorized charter
school in Manchester struggling with the same problem every charter school experiences –
negative public stereotypes. Often regarded as second-chance schools for troubled students
and escape opportunities for low-income students in failing school districts, charter
schools have been forced to either accept these stereotypes or do something about them
(Ravitch, 2013; McShane, 2014).
Charter schools that decide to do something about the stereotypes must showcase
their strengths to attract positive attention from the public and define their reputation as
something other than a typical stereotype. It’s not as easy as stating a new direction for the
school though. It takes a lot of work to change public opinion, and that’s what MC2 wants to
do. The school needs to prove itself as an impressive contributor to community
improvement and influence, which can only be done through consistent marketing
strategies and community involvement.
Identifying the Problems for MC2
New Hampshire State authorized charter schools receive $5,498 per student and
locally authorized charter schools receive approximately 80% of the average cost per pupil
in their district. Traditional public schools in New Hampshire spend $11,000-$12,000 per
student on average (New Hampshire Center for Innovative Schools, 2014). This means a
state authorized charter school, like MC2, receives an average of 45.82%-49.98% of the
funds that a traditional public school will spend per student. That budget detracts from the
education quality MC2 can offer by lowering the amount of basic supplies, teachers,
textbooks, and other important resources the school can afford. Yes, increasing student
population will increase state funding for the school, but school financial requirements will

also increase with each new student. The school, therefore, needs additional sources of
revenue.
Reversing negative public stereotypes requires a charter school to have social
connections within the community that demonstrate their value to that community. MC2
does not have these connections, and they don’t know how to build beneficial relationships.
This requires personnel and time - resources that the school has already stretched
incredibly thin.
MC2 also needs to learn how to use social media effectively to assist with marketing.
The benefit to social media marketing is that it doesn’t cost money, but it does require time
and strategic content. Using social media for marketing without a clear purpose, as the
school uses social media today, is a waste of the school’s few resources. MC2 needs to
consolidate its social media marketing efforts and create a strategic approach for best
results.
NH Traditional Public
School
NH Locally Authorized
Charter School
NH State Authorized
Charter School
Per Student $11,000 $8,800 $5,498
$0
$2,000
$4,000
$6,000
$8,000
$10,000
$12,000
FinancialAmountPerStudent
Example budgets for NH schools
Figure 1: Example budgets for New Hampshire Schools

MC2 is a nonprofit organization that cannot dedicate a lot of resources to marketing.
Most of its resources are dedicated to providing high-quality education to students, and
that should not change. However, strategic marketing that considers the limited resources
still needs to exist; without it, the school will likely be forced to close. Thankfully, students,
teachers, and staff are all ready to do whatever they can to prevent the school from closing.
Marketing challenges for MC2
1. Identify specific marketable strengths and opportunities for the school.
2. Create a flexible, simple, resource-conscious marketing plan demonstrating the
identified strengths and opportunities that will lead to improvements for the quality
of education provided at the school.
3. Educate the school’s teachers, staff, and students on social media campaigns,
forming community relationships, and measuring the effectiveness of various
marketing strategies.
4. Positively draw attention to the school through community involvement to improve
public awareness, student enrollment, and financial revenue.
Strategic Approaches to the Challenges
Each challenge must be met for MC2 to have marketing success. With the combined
efforts of students, teachers, and staff there is good news for the school – these challenges
can be shared between groups to accomplish higher results in less time. The bad news is
that it still takes time to become comfortable with marketing, and the leaders will need to
be highly organized because students, teachers, and staff will all be contributing.
Furthermore, it might seem easy enough in the beginning to only do exactly what the

marketing plan specifies, but much of the success will come from the school’s ability to
modify marketing strategies for prime performance.
Identifying Marketable Strengths and Opportunities
Common strengths of charter schools
 Charter schools have fewer students per teacher compared to a traditional public
school.
 Parents are more involved with the education plan for their children at a charter
school.
 Teachers and staff are more readily available to students and parents at a charter
school.
The individual strengths of MC2 need to be identified before writing a marketing
plan. To identify these strengths, the marketing team will conduct a SWOT analysis (Figure
2), which examines internal and external factors to identify the school’s strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This analysis will establish what could be used to
help the school succeed in its marketing efforts.
Internal factors of a SWOT analysis are factors that the school has some control
over, such as education plans and student resources. External factors cannot be controlled
by the school but still may hold value for marketing, such as cost of living index for their
community and the need for charter schools in the area. The marketing focus will primarily
be on items categorized as the school’s strengths and opportunities. However, some of the
identified weaknesses and threats, such as low student population and multiple charter
schools in Manchester, might be transformed to strengths and opportunities for certain
marketing strategies.

The Marketing Plan
Marketing plan: The written document that describes your advertising and marketing
efforts for the coming year; it includes a statement of the marketing situation, a discussion of
target markets and company positioning and a description of the marketing mix you intend to
use to reach your marketing goals.
(Entrepreneur, 2014)
Imagine planning a cross-country road trip like the one in Figure 3. You need to plan
for multiple stops for fuel, food, rest, and recreation. You need to know how many miles
you will drive each day and which roads you will take to arrive at each destination. You
might also benefit from accommodating for traffic patterns in major cities and optimizing
fuel stops for long stretches of highway through farming communities. You know it’s
important to plan before you start driving to make the most of this trip. A marketing plan is
Figure 2: SWOT Analysis (Raymond, 2012)

just like that; it doesn’t do the driving for you, but it can help focus your attention on
smaller goals (stops) that lead to achieving the larger objectives (destinations).
Marketing plans are unfamiliar territory for MC2, just as planning a cross-country
road trip would be unfamiliar to an inexperienced driver. Simplifying the complex process
of developing measurable marketing goals is essential to the school’s success with this
plan. Therefore, the marketing plan for MC2 will focus on two important objectives:
improving community involvement and being consistent in marketing strategies.
Figure 3: Map of a cross-country road trip
The Marketing Plan Sections
1) Executive Summary
To help executives quickly make an informed decision regarding the marketing plan,
the executive summary highlights strategies and expected results.

2) The Business Challenge
The business challenge is a brief description of the school and goals of the marketing
plan.
3) The Market
This section defines who the target audience is and what they need, provides
detailed SWOT analysis, and describes the school’s collaborators, competitors, and
business climate.
4) The Strategy
This section fully explains the strategies, MC2 benefits, communication plan,
execution plan, and expected results for each strategy.
5) Budget
The budget explains investment needs, return expectations, and other resources.
6) Conclusion
The conclusion repeats the highlights and reminds the reader why the marketing
strategies detailed in the plan are the best options.
Discovering Strategies and Measuring Success
An essential element to marketing is the ability to analyze strategies and amend
them as necessary for the most impact and consistency. For MC2, this process is extremely
important because there currently aren’t any measurable marketing strategies in place.
This will likely contain a challenging learning curve, which will include some expected trial
and error. Teaching MC2 students, teachers, and staff how to discover and measure
marketing strategies is invaluable to the long-term success of the school.

Involving the entire school in the development of their marketing plan is important
to MC2 and will help them grasp an understanding of the strategic planning process. They
will also be afforded the opportunity to start working on executing certain strategies
before the marketing plan is complete. This allows them opportunities to try a few things
while the marketing team is still in direct contact with them.
Social media campaign development, press release writing and distribution, and
forming relationships with community residents and businesses are other areas of interest
that will be covered.
Social Media Campaigns
As stated earlier, social media marketing does not cost money, but it does require
strategic content and time. MC2 is investing plenty of time in social media marketing right
now, but they are only spinning their tires in the mud because they are neither delivering
strategic content nor striving to achieve any goals.
Like traditional marketing, a social media campaign consists of establishing target
markets, setting goals, strategizing a plan, executing the plan, and measuring success
(Devitt, 2014). The marketing team will guide the school through the development of a
measurable social media campaign. The goal is to provide the school with hands-on
training of how to incorporate strategic planning into all future marketing efforts.
Press Releases
Every newsworthy story should be distributed to journalists through press releases.
MC2 is not using press releases today because they don’t know how to write one or have
any media connections to send it to once written. First, the school needs to learn the
format.

1) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” goes in the top left corner, identifying that this story
can be released today. If the release date is other than today, you can replace it with
"HOLD FOR RELEASE UNTIL (DATE)."
2) Headline
The headline tells the journalist what the story is about. It should be specific,
capitalized, memorable, short, and without exclamation points – shouting at
someone isn’t good marketing.
Example: MC2 Student to Paint Mural of Historic Manchester on the Old Merrimack
Restaurant Wall
3) Subheading
While this is often viewed as an optional element, it is encouraged because a
subheading allows expansion of the headline. The subheading should express a
complete thought; again though, it should not include exclamation points.
Example: Jack Brown, a student at MC2 can be seen painting the old Merrimack
Restaurant wall between October 20, 2014 and November 1, 2014.
4) Date and Location
Below the subheading should be the city and state where the story takes place. This
is not necessarily the school’s physical address, but where the reporter will find the
story. Next to the city and state should be today’s date—including the day, month,
and year.
Example: Manchester, NH October 12, 2014

5) Press Release Content
The content is arguably the most important element to the press release, but it is not
written as a story. Journalists write the story using the information shared within
the content of the press release. The important details should be in the first
paragraph; paragraphs and sentences should be short; it should be written in third
person; it should incorporate quotes; exclamation points should be avoided; and it
needs to be less than one page.
6) Business and Contact Information
This section includes basic information about the business and direct contact
information pertinent to this story for journalists. Contact information should
include a person’s name, phone number(s), email address, and the business’s
website address and physical address.
7) END and ###
Centered below the business and contact information should be the word “END.”
Below that, also centered, should be “###.” This signifies the end of the press
release.
Example:
END
###
Once the press release has been written, the next step is distributing it to
journalists. The school will want to target the journalists who will be the most likely choice
for writing the type of story the press release is about. For instance, if it’s a general news
story that directly impacts the local community, the school will want to submit the press

release to journalists that only cover general news for the local community; if it’s an
inspiring story for the local community, the school will want to distribute it to journalists
that cover inspirational stories for the local community. Finding the right journalists
requires researching the newspapers and other sources of news, like radio and TV. Some
media sources could offer multiple journalists that MC2 could target, while other sources
will only have one.
Over time, MC2 will learn to style their press releases in a manner that attracts the
most attention from journalists. They will also form relationships with various journalists
who consistently write stories on MC2 press releases, improving the chances of a story
getting published. It takes time, practice, determination, and patience to be successful with
press releases.
As forewarning, however, distributing press releases is not a numbers game and
playing as such will lead to the school getting blacklisted by journalists. Focusing on quality
newsworthy content in every distributed press release is the only way the school will form
mutually beneficial relationships with individual journalists.
Focusing on Community Involvement
Since MC2 wants to be viewed as a school that doesn’t fit a common stereotype for
charter schools, it will need to invest in making a powerful impact within the community.
This will not come easily or quickly and the public opinion will not change for the long-
term without consistency. Money, time, and personnel are going to be required to pull this
off—none of which MC2 has sitting in a stockroom waiting to be used. Simply stated, either
marketing has to be effective, low cost, and easy so the school can afford to dedicate some
resources to community involvement, or effective marketing strategies have to be

seamlessly incorporated in the school’s community involvement. MC2 has chosen to
incorporate effective marketing strategies into its community involvement, allowing
frequent opportunities for community impact.
There are some additional fundraising opportunities available to MC2 that are
unavailable to traditional public schools, such as private and corporate contributions and
numerous charter school grants (grants.gov, n.d.). If effective, grant writing is a specialty
skill that can prove extremely beneficial each year for the school, and MC2 has had some
success with grant writing in the past. There will be some time designated for grant writing
in the marketing plan, but that’s not going to be the primary focus for fundraising.
The new direction dictates consolidating the school’s resources to get more involved
in the community. Because of that, efficiently using the designated time for grant writing
will be extremely important – targeting specific grants that will benefit the school’s
programs the most. MC2 will primarily concentrate on gaining private and corporate
contributions, which tend to have greater long-term benefits than grants, to include repeat
donations, volunteer recruitment, and relationships with community businesses and
residents. Based on the approved 2015 budget, the school will establish a financial
fundraising goal of $25,000 over the next twelve months, to include corporate
sponsorships valued at $5,000 or better from at least three local businesses.
There are some relatively easy and low cost opportunities to make an impact and
gain financial support. A couple of these include school participation at community events
and small projects led by students that positively affect the community. This type of
community involvement will help MC2 become recognizable in the community, but will not
necessarily help the school stand out as an impressive contributor in the community.

Focusing only on this level of impact will need to include a high frequency of community
involvement activities for the school to be memorable.
There are also more challenging and costly ways to make an impact. These include
things like hosting community events and spearheading collaborations with other local
schools to improve the quality of life for community residents. This level of involvement
would greatly help MC2 in the future, but the first marketing plan will not include
marketing strategies like this due to the high demand on school resources.
When MC2 becomes capable of contributing in this capacity, the school will take
larger and bolder steps toward gaining the long-term support of the community. This type
of community involvement will have a lasting impact, reducing the need for frequency. For
the greatest impact, however, the school will include both levels of community involvement
in future marketing plans. With consistent goal-driven marketing MC2 could be capable of
supporting both levels within two years.
The goal for this next year is for MC2 to get involved with at least three community
events and one community-improving student project per quarter. This gives the school a
minimum of sixteen opportunities to form community relationships, write and distribute
press releases to journalists, and convince residents that MC2 is an impressive contributor
to community improvement and influence. That’s sixteen opportunities that were not
pursued last year.
Through social media campaigns and direct communication, MC2 will target local
businesses for sponsorships with various student-led community projects and student
resources, such as textbooks and computer components. Specific campaigns will be
established from highest to lowest need. Some campaigns will be for specific durations of

time and others will be for specific financial amounts. All campaigns will have goals that are
challenging to achieve, but not impossible.
Benefits of Consistently Marketing Through Community Involvement
By focusing the marketing plan heavily on community involvement, MC2 will form
lasting relationships with community residents and businesses. Marketing in this capacity
will require school resources, but the improved community relationships will lead to
numerous long-term benefits.
Through student, teacher, and staff collaboration it’s expected that MC2 will see
these significant benefits within the first year of consistent marketing.
 Heightened awareness of the school within the community.
 Higher student/parent interest for enrollment.
 New opportunities for private/corporate donations through community
relationships and sponsorships.
 Self-knowledge building of beneficial marketing strategies for future marketing.
 Improved quality of education through purchasing student resources from
community contributions, through the encouragement of community improvement
projects, and hands on training of real world value to help them prepare for
adulthood.
Consistent Planning and Execution
MC2 faces the common dilemma of negative public stereotypes among charter
schools. Creating a marketing plan that concentrates on conserving resources with a
simplistic approach to marketing consistency and community involvement will greatly
improve the community’s response to MC2. But, it can’t be forgotten that the purpose of a

marketing plan is similar to that of a road trip itinerary – it will not drive the car for you. It
will, however, allow the school to focus on smaller measurable goals leading to larger
objectives.
There will be some expected trial and error associated with marketing strategies
since MC2 does not have much experience with marketing; however, the marketing plan
will define the expected outcomes for each strategy to help the school easily identify what
is and is not working as expected. Modifying each strategy further for prime performance is
what will lead MC2 to success for years to come.
Through hands-on training for strategic marketing development and measurement,
the school’s students, teachers, and staff will be capable of challenging themselves and each
other with new goals in the future. They will form many mutually beneficial community
relationships, and become well versed in social media marketing strategies and the writing
and distribution of press releases. All of these skills, combined with their ability to work in
collaborated teams for most marketing projects, will establish MC2 not only as a
contributor to community improvement, but as one of the most impressive contributors
the community has to offer.

References
Devitt, N. (2014, March 10). The 10 Steps In Developing A Strategic Social Media Plan For
Your Business. Retrieved October12, 2014, from LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140310102733-23033608-the-10-
steps-in-developing-a-strategic-social-media-plan-for-your-business
Entrepreneur. (2014, October 05). Marketing Plan Definition. Retrieved October 05, 2014,
from Entrepreneur: Small Business Encyclopedia:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/marketing-plan
grants.gov. (n.d.). Search Grants: Charter School. Retrieved October 05, 2014, from
grants.gov: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-
grants.html?keywords=charter%20school
McShane, F. M. (2014, May 13). Loving charter schools to death: Column. Retrieved October
05, 2014, from USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/05/09/education-reform-charter-
schools-week-column/8868043/
New Hampshire Center for Innovative Schools. (2014, February 18). Charter School FAQ.
Retrieved October 02, 2014, from New Hampshire Center for Innovative Schools:
https://nhcharterschools.org/home/index.php/19-for-parents/2-charter-school-
faq
Ravitch, D. (2013, October 03). The charter school mistake. Retrieved October 05, 2014,
from Los Angeles Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/01/opinion/la-oe-
ravitch-charters-school-reform-20131001

Raymond, J. F. (2012). Principles of Marketing, v. 2.0. Irvington, NY: Flat World
Knowledge, Inc.

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