Mount Pleasant High School Marketing Strategy

1
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

2
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Communication with current students and parents is ineffective and outdated.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.

5
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.

6
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

10
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

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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: teachername@mpps.net 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.

19
WORKS CITED
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Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.ijcce.org/show-29-171-1.html
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29). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://publ.com/blog/2014/09/29/e-
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http://www.e2campus.com/higher-education/emergency-notification-system-
ualert/features
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McCrea, B. (2013, June 11). 7 Free Apps for Keeping Parents and Teachers Connected – THE
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the-response-rate-of-email-study
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ZICKUHR, K. (2011, February 2). Generations and their gadgets. Retrieved
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