STRATEGY STATEMENT The strategy for this campaign is for The Breeze to implement the idea Your News Your Way to its target audience. The Breeze is a multi-platform, student-run newspaper that covers a wide variety of topics. Readers can choose to pick up a paper copy or access articles online via The Breeze s Web site or on their different social media accounts. By highlighting the easy accessibility of The Breeze to the target audience, consumers can see that The Breeze offers them the news that they want to read and can be read in the way that is most convenient to them. This strong campaign was developed after analyzing The Breeze s target consumers, its brand position and the competitors of The Breeze
Background: Established in 1922, The Breeze is James Madison University s student-run newspaper dedicated to providing news to university students and the surrounding Harrisonburg community. The Breeze publishes content through printed newspapers that are published bi-weekly and online through The Breeze s Web site. Seven thousand printed copies are delivered throughout Harrisonburg each Monday and Thursday to over eighty locations both on and off campus. These locations include residence halls, dining facilities, off-campus apartments and off-campus restaurants and shops (The Breeze, 2015). The Breeze publishes fifty-five issues per year and eleven special sections. The Breeze is also responsible for publishing the quarterly lifestyle magazine Best of the Burg online. Best of the Burg covers the top locations in Harrisonburg for food, drinks, music, living arrangements and more (Best of the Burg, 2015). The Breeze also produces an annual guide to James Madison University. The Breeze boasts a readership of more than twenty-two thousand people, including eighteen thousand students. Furthermore, eightyone percent of James Madison University Students said that they get local news through The Breeze in a 2011 survey (The Breeze, 2015).
Since The Breeze only receives ten percent of its revenue through James Madison University s Media Board, the majority of the newspaper s revenue is generated through advertising. Printing costs, salaries for student employees and staff and some miscellaneous costs make up the majority of The Breeze s usual expenses. Advertising and expenses are overseen by the General Manager, the Advertising Director and various professional staff members such as the Advertising Manager, Creative Director and account executives (The Breeze, 2015). Over fifty students work for The Breeze as writers, editors and general staff members. Students can apply to be writers for the paper at any point in the year. All majors are encouraged to apply and there is no previous newspaper experience necessary. Writers can choose to write for four major sections of the paper: News, Life, Sports and Opinion. They can start being paid for their work after they publish five articles (The Breeze, 2015) The Breeze additionally has a student run editorial staff that oversees the writers of the paper. The editorial staff is largely responsible for the content produced in the biweekly paper and online through The Breeze s Web site. The Editor-In-Chief and Managing Editor oversee all the content and production of the articles each week while the editors for each section of The Breeze (i.e. News Editor, Sports Editor, Arts & Graphics Editor, Life Editor, etc.) oversee their own writers and photographers. The editors and art directors are responsible for the print layout once a story has been written (The Breeze, 2015). Impressively, The Breeze has won numerous awards throughout the years. Recently they received the 2014 Pacemaker Award for a top-ten non-daily student
newspaper at a four-year college or university. The newspaper also won the 2014-2015 Grand Sweepstakes Award from the Virginia Press Association for the best mid-sized non-daily newspaper in Virginia. Target Audience: The Breeze is targeting the students of James Madison University, and alumni who have graduated from the university in the past ten years. There are about 20,000 students at James Madison University that The Breeze is trying to reach. The student population of James Madison University is forty percent male and sixty percent female, with seventy-four percent being Virginia residents and twenty-six percent out-of-state residents. There are eighteen percent of students that are considered a minority and two percent come from countries outside of the United States (James Madison University, 2015). There are over twenty regional alumni chapters around the United States, each having regional ambassadors that allow the alumni to stay in contact with one another within the area (James Madison University Alumni, 2015). Alumni are located in areas across the country with alumni chapters located in states such as California, Massachusetts, and Washington DC. (James Madison University Alumni, 2015). The Alumni Association has several events in place for members around the country including a crabfest hosted by the MetroDukes chapter located in Washington DC. (James Madison University Alumni, 2015) Those being targeted by The Breeze range in age from eighteen to thirty-two and have a desire to keep up to date with James Madison University and current events in a way that is easy and accessible to them. They are interested in being up to date not only
on the national news, but also what is going on on-campus and in the Harrisonburg community. He or She is a leader, has a global perspective and strong interpersonal skills (Strategic Business Insight, 2009-2015). The target audience is involved around campus or in the community but also has a work hard play hard attitude (Strategic Business Insight, 2009-2015). They are innovators, they like having options and enjoy cuttingedge, technology-enabled products and services (Strategic Business Insight, 2009-2015). The Breeze s target market is also curious, energetic, and sometimes impulsive. They like to seek out new and interesting information and enjoy learning the whole story. They own the most current technology and are active on many different social media accounts including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. As experiencers they hate to wait so they seek fast access, options, mobility, and customization (Strategic Business Insight, 2009-2015). Target Consumer: Lauren, a busy college student, is 20 years old and a sophomore at James Madison University. She is living on campus in the Grace Street Apartments, which not only allows her to experience the convenience of being on campus, but also have the feeling of independence with an apartment layout (James Madison University, 2015). Before attending James Madison University, Lauren graduated from Douglas S. Freeman High School in Richmond, Virginia in the top ten percent of her class. At Freeman, Lauren played on the varsity
field hockey team for three years and was a member of the National Honors Society (Henrico County, 2015). Lauren lives in the West End suburbs of Richmond with her Italian-American family and two dogs. Her father, Anthony, is the owner of a local pizzeria, Stuzzi s Pizza, located on Belmont Avenue (Stuzzi Pizzeria, 2015). Janet, Lauren's mother, is a stay-athome mom who designs jewelry. Lauren helped Janet create an online store on Etsy entitled Jewel s By Jan, where she can sell her creations. Lauren s brother Tony is currently a senior at Freeman High School. When she is at home, they enjoy watching Game of Thrones together on HBO. Her family s income is about $156,000 a year, enabling them to frequent Hilton Head, South Carolina in the summer (The Nielsen Company, 2015). She works as a nanny for two boys ages five and seven in the summer to save money to pay for her extra expenses at school. In addition, she obtains occupational therapy hours at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center (VCU Health, 2015). Lauren decided to attend James Madison University to pursue her dream of becoming an occupational therapist. She hopes to take advantage of the university s five year program (James Madison University, 2015). Her major is currently Health Sciences on the pre-occupational therapy track. As an innovator, she values her studies highly and enjoys thinking about her future. She hopes to move to Washington DC post-graduation and work in a hospital (Strategic Business Insights, 2009-2015). To become more involved on campus, Lauren joined Phi Mu and is on its Public Relations committee. A natural leader, Lauren was also a First Year Orientation Guide for Eagle Hall this past summer. As an experiencer, Lauren loves to travel and is
attending an Alternative Spring Break trip in New Orleans this spring (Strategic Business Insights, 2009-2015). She hopes to lead an alternative break trip her junior year. In her free time, she loves to attend Yoga classes at UREC and attend James Madison University football games. On Fridays and Saturdays, she goes out with her friends to local fraternity parties. She listens to country music and Top 100 radio stations. She watches Grey s Anatomy, Scandal and The Voice with her roommates and actively checks her social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on her IPhone 6. Lauren does not read the newspaper regularly, but subscribes to The Skimm and checks Buzzfeed almost daily to stay up to date with current events. Lauren is very social, values her friendships, is up to date on the latest fashion trends and enjoys experiencing the world and what it has to offer. She loves James Madison University, but feels that she is not always up to date on what is happening on campus. She is looking for a fast and easy way to keep up to date with current campus and world news. Brand s Current Position: According to a random survey conducted on September 28, 2015 of 100 James Madison University students and alumni, nine percent of the students read The Breeze regularly, forty-four percent read it sometimes, forty five percent never read The Breeze, and two percent do not know what The Breeze is. A majority of the students who read The Breeze were female and upperclassmen. More than half of these students also do not
follow The Breeze on any social media site. Students with a range of majors such as Nursing, Education, Media, Arts and Design, and Integrated Science and Technology answered the survey. No major proved to have read The Breeze more than others. These results provide a basis for the type of students who are currently reading The Breeze, and those who are not. Competition s Current Position: Daily News Record - The Daily News Record is the regional Shenandoah Valley paper published daily. Aimed primarily at permanent residents, the newspaper delivers local, regional, national and world news every day both online and through paper copies. The Daily News Records prides itself as an integral way for the Harrisonburg and Shenandoah Valley residents to receive local, regional and national news (Daily News Record, 2015). Founded over one hundred years ago, the first issue of the newspaper was published in 1899 and has only grown since then. The paper publishes over twenty-eight thousand copies a day and has an estimated readership of over seventy thousand. The Daily News Record is distributed in four Virginia counties and three West Virginia counties, generating a readership of over seventy thousand (Daily News Record, 2015). The Daily News Record shares a similar target audience with The Breeze, however, accessing its content is not free and is only offered through a paid membership subscription. Subscribers who wish to receive their content online only are charged thirty dollars per year, while those, who choose to get their paper delivered, pay one hundred and twelve dollars per year- or thirteen dollars per month. The paper is also available with e-readers such as a Kindle for sixty-five dollars per month (The Daily News Record, 2015).
The Daily News Record hopes to reach all residents in the Harrisonburg area. The average person, who lives in their target area, is a young person, working-class person without kids who has a medium income of about $43,000. This group lives in affordable housing, tend to have entry-level jobs, and enjoy the single-scene in Harrisonburg. The residents pursue and active and entertaining lifestyle (Nielsen, 2015) The Daily Duke- The Daily Duke is James Madison University s student life blog written and run by a group of nine current James Madison University students created in the fall of 2014 (Walter, 2014). The team is made up of writers, graphic designers, and Web designers who are motivated to share James Madison University s wonderful, oneof-a-kind student experience (Walter, 2014). These nine students are also known as New Media Madison and are paid interns with James Madison University s Office of Communications, constantly being challenged to rethink the way stories are [told] on the web and push creative boundaries (James Madison University, 2015). Similar to The Breeze, The Daily Duke is entirely student run from the design of the Web site to the content found within. Caitlyn Read, James Madison University s social media strategist, says that the blog gives students an outlet to communicate and be proud of what is authentically and uniquely James Madison University (James Madison University, 2015). The blog encourages students to give feedback by emailing the blog or submitting something on their comments page to keep the blog s content aligned with the student s interests. Using the comments page is one of the only ways students can contact the blog because they do not have a social media presence (Walter, 2014). There are twenty different categories of blog posts on The Daily Duke s Web site ranging from Arts and Culture with twenty-four posts to Famous Dukes with only
two posts featured. Readers are also able to read personal bios about The Daily Duke writers on the Meet the New Daily Duke Team page, which features all of the current writers and a link to those from the past school year. These bios are set up like a Q&A asking the writers: What do you love about JMU? What does it mean to write for The Daily Duke? What do you like to do in your free time? What s the funniest thing that s happened to you recently? What are your hopes for life after JMU? [and] E-hall or D- hall? Why?. The student s answers to the Q&A questions were often humorous, with John Bennett answering that he [lets] the Duke Dawgs out in his free time (The Daily Duke, 2015). Featuring their bios makes the blog feel more personal, creating a very personal tone for the Web site. The Daily Duke targets current James Madison University students and prospective students as well. The target is fun-loving, and engaged by inspiration, humor, and fresh material (Strategic Business Insight, 2009-2015). They are curious and require high stimulation, excited by concepts but prefer the big picture to detail (Strategic Business Insight, 2009-2015). Port & Main- Port & Main is James Madison University s only student published magazine, first being distributed on November 2nd, 2010. The magazine s mission is to help students take full advantage of their time at JMU and show all possible aspects of student life (Port and Main, 2015). Content for the magazine includes: entertainment, health, dining, fitness, fashion, career, and human interest and can be found for free in over ten locations on campus. The magazine has a circulation of 5,000 and boasts a strong readership of 19,000 students throughout campus (Port & Main, 2015). Its Web site includes a page for advertisers to find contact information if they are interested in advertising in the magazine, as well as information about ways to contact The Breeze for
advertisement opportunities. Port & Main has received multiple awards including First Place in the category Best Student Magazine in the Region 2 mark of excellence Awards for the Society of Professional Journalists for the fall 2011 issue, and third place for slick publications by the Virginia Press Association (Port & Main, 2015). The magazine is present on social media with 358 likes on Facebook, 74 followers on Instagram, and 571 Twitter followers. Since the magazine is only published three times a year their social media accounts and Web site are not regularly updated. Port & Main s target audience includes James Madison University students and faculty who enjoy the visual stimulation of a magazine. They are complex and involved and often see themselves as sophisticated (Strategic Business Insights, 2009-2015). They see the world differently than others and are interested in topics that are more specific and not mainstream (Strategic Business Insights, 2009-2015). The target is involved on campus and aspires to be leaders in their community. They favor participation in individual over team sports and look for well-designed, well-crafted products that reflect their personality and style (Strategic Business Insights, 2009-2015). Brand s Future Position: According to a presentation held on September 20, 2015 by the faculty advisor of The Breeze, Nan Zheng, The Breeze would like to become the primary source of information about James Madison University and the local community. The Breeze wants to be seen as young and fun, written for students by students. With the desire to be approachable, The Breeze encourages students and the Harrisonburg community to freely give input and suggestions to the newspaper, along with submitting their Instagram photos to be featured on the cover. The Breeze, an objective and independent source,
aims to be a guide to the entire Harrisonburg and James Madison University community (N. Zheng, personal communication, September 20, 2015). Consumer Promise/Big Idea: In order to appeal to James Madison University students and the Harrisonburg community, The Breeze hopes to implement the campaign: Your News, Your Way! James Madison University boasts a variety of different students with different interests and social media preferences. The Breeze wants its readers to know that it offers the news tailored just for them in a quick and timely manner using whichever platform is most convenient for them. Your News, Your Way embodies the goals of The Breeze as being seen as an upbeat, fun newspaper for readers receive news that they actually want to read. The Breeze is available as a physical copy or through its Web site and can be accessed through multiple forms of social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The student-run paper covers a variety of topics such as sports, lifestyle and breaking news and each individual reader of The Breeze can access content especially for them, without shuffling through articles they do not want to read. By promoting that readers can access articles from The Breeze through social media platforms, The Breeze s overall presence and followers on their various social media accounts should increase and increase traffic to the main Web site. Supporting Evidence: Nan Zheng, Faculty Advisor for The Breeze, expressed a desire to increase the traffic of The Breeze s social media presence, during a presentation held on September 20, 2015 (N. Zheng, personal communication, September 20, 2015). According to a
survey conducted on September 28, 2015 of 100 students in the target audience who are active on social media, results showed that more than half of the students do not read The Breeze through a social media outlet. Of those surveyed, 56 percent do not like The Breeze on Facebook, 55 percent do not follow The Breeze on Twitter, and 58 percent do not follow The Breeze on Instagram. Even greater surprising results revealed that more than 20 percent of these students are unaware that The Breeze is present on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These results provide a basis for measurement of the success for the new campaign Your News, Your way! By providing students with unique opportunities to read The Breeze through many social media outlets, and making them aware of the benefits that come with following The Breeze, such as suggesting story topics, and posting photos that may be featured on the newspaper cover, the traffic of followers with voices that want to be heard will likely increase. Tone of Voice: The Breeze wishes to be seen as friendly, approachable, and open by the target audience. Therefore, the tone of the campaign will convey that. The tone of the campaign will be easy to read and upbeat to show the friendly side of the newspaper. It will stress the importance of feedback and how readers voice can be heard to appear approachable. Lastly, it will be stressed the variety of news the newspaper reports to showcase the openness and willingness to report the news the readers want to know.
Mandatories: 1598 S. Main St., MSC 6805 Harrisonburg, VA 22807 540-568-6127 breezeeditor@gmail.com http://www.breezejmu.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreezejmu Twitter: @TheBreezeJMU Instagram: @BreezeJMU Published every Monday and Thursday