Business Advertising

Group Project BUS 117 Fall 2018

DESCRIPTION

UC Riverside is a middle-tier public institution with inarguably lower-tier dining options on campus. Despite being the home of approximately 23,000 students, the campus has only a few culinary options: Panda Express, The Habit, Subway, and a few other places that are pure basura. As a result, most graduating students note that one thing they hate about UCR is the lack of quality food. This project looks at how advertisers can go about analyzing this problem and addressing it in a way that will benefit future UCR students. Let’s assume that you were given the opportunity to open up a new eating establishment on campus, to compete with the dining options currently there. You could start a diner, a fast food joint, a fine-dining restaurant, a food stand/truck, or anything else you can think of. What would you do? Who would you cater to? How would you position yourself? How would you advertise? What media choices would you make? In this project, you will go about integrating all you have learned throughout the quarter as you think about how to create an effective advertising plan for a new business. The goal is for you to take all you have learned and apply it to a real-world setting, meeting people’s real-world needs by satisfying their real-world wants and desires. You’re the advertiser, and you get to make all of the critical decisions. It’s your call!

PROMPT

Let’s assume the students of BUS 117 are a representative sample of the general UCR population. Go through the Class Survey information once again. There’s a lot of data there on students’ backgrounds and preferences. Think through what the data is telling you about what students are looking for in a potential dining establishment. Step 1 – Choose an eating establishment (e.g. diner, fast food joint, fine-dining restaurant, food stand or truck, etc.) that will be your new company for the sake of this project. Explain your choice. Don’t fall into the trap of choosing something that you think would be “cool” to see. Allow the data to guide your thinking – use it to come up with a place that will fulfill the needs/wants of your consumers. Use the data to guide your preferences, not vice versa. Step 2 – Do a consumer analysis. Try to better understand the typical “eater” at UCR. Use concepts from the consumer lecture to guide your thinking. Questions to consider: What does the decision-making unit look like? How do consumers go about the purchase process? What motivates them when dining? What attitudes do they carry towards dining, and how might you change them? (+2 points) Step 3 – Segment and target the market. Using the four segmentation variables –geographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioral– explain how you would segment based on each

variable. Now that you know which segments are out there, which one(s) do you select to target? Explain your decision. (+3 points) Step 4 – Determine the positioning of your product/service. Construct a clear, convincing positioning statement for your company. Explain how your choice of unique value appeals to your target market, and explain how your reasons to believe support that value. (+2 points) Step 5 – Determine your advertising objective and strategy. In terms of objectives, are you trying to inform, persuade, or remind? Explain your thought process. Next, regarding strategy, what’s your major selling idea? Any brand features? Explain your choices. (+3 points) Step 6 – Determine which media platforms you will be advertising on – TV, digital/social media, support media. Explain your choices. For whatever media option(s) you select, what kinds of advertising will you run? (e.g., if you decide to advertise on Facebook – Facebook posts, Facebook Live, carousel ads, etc.) Explain your choices. (+2 points) Step 7 – Determine the actual content of your advertising. What kind(s) of appeals are you going to use? How will you execute your appeal(s)? Explain your decisions. (+3 points) Step 8 – Any final comments. Anything you learned from this project, anything you discovered while applying advertising principles to the real world, anything you gained from this experience. This section is meant as a way for you to think about what you’ve learned through this project, and to discuss any important takeaways as you end the first step of your advertising journey. :’) As you go through each step, make sure to justify each advertising decision you make. Don’t just list what you plan to do; explain why you made the choices you did. Just as important as the decisions you make is your ability to explain why you made them.

This is key!!!

WRITE-UP INSTRUCTIONS

The assignment should be no longer than 13-15 pages, double-spaced, 12-point Times font, 1” margins. An additional 2-page appendix may be used to present figures, calculations, mock advertisements, etc. Be sure that all the members of the group have their names on the final document. Writing should be clear, articulate, and concise.

Remember: analysis over description.

WHEN IN DOUBT, REMEMBER: ANALYSIS OVER DESCRIPTION!

PRESENTATION INSTRUCTIONS

With your group, construct a presentation outlining your advertising plan. This presentation should provide your classmates with an overview of your project. Speaking roles should be divided up (fairly equally) among group members. Presentations will be judged on clarity, coherence, and overall quality. I’d encourage you to practice as a group at least once or twice so that you increase the smoothness of the presentation (and thus the clarity, coherence, and overall quality). Time: ~8-10 minutes

GROUP EVALUATION

You and your groupmates will have the chance to anonymously evaluate each member’s contributions. In fairness to those who work hard on this project, the members who do not pull their weight will receive a deduction ranging from 10-20%, depending on the severity of the group’s assessment of their work. Of course, it is the group’s responsibility to fairly assess each member’s contribution to the team, without allowing personal bias to weigh in, and I will make sure that any issues with a member are well-founded by more than one groupmate. That being said, to ensure your group does not need to evaluate you poorly, make sure you: come to team meetings (on time), contribute to team discussions, do your part, help with the presentation, and in general, be a responsible member of your group. Aka what you’d be expected to do in real life.