CONSULTANTS

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Decline in School Spirit and Tradition among USD Students The main driver for participation is the emotional connection individuals have to the action or event. Recent years have shown a decline in university spirit and an overall loss in student loyalty as a group. This has caused a decline in the tradition of traveling in large groups to be supportive of the University. The students of USD are moving away from traditions, which is changing the way the University arranges activities. The games with the highest attendance numbers are Dakota Days and games against rivals such as SDSU. School spirit can be directly related to the student’s perceptions of the campus and activities. One main thing discovered in our research was a high dissatisfaction with the University’s athletic teams. Students felt that the athletes did not participate enough with activities on campus. Overall, students perception of athletes is negative. Survey results have depicted them as “rude” and those who think they are better than the rest of the student population. Athletes represent the University at the games, and a negative relationship with their own student body will affect the tone of events. Students do not feel the need to support a team to which they hold no emotional connection. The image that the student population has for the athletes needs to improve before students will feel the need to attend games simply to support the team. The Ticket Distribution Process is Viewed as an Inconvenience to Students Ticket distribution is unorganized and students dislike the process. Ticket distribution is held at one location for a few hours each day on Tuesday through Thursday the week of a game; however, with only an average of 1500 tickets available, distribution is often completed by Wednesday. One issue with this method of distribution is that students have minimal interaction with sales staff at the one current distribution location. During the focus group, participants noted that often they just do not wish to travel to the tables to pick up a ticket. Although the ticket table is placed within the Muenster University Center (MUC) that alone does not automatically mean that all The time-frame for ticket distribution is also a problem. The department only keeps the table open for about three hours in the center of the day. It is important to point out that most students are in class at this time and generally do not want to travel to the MUC during the time between classes to pick up a ticket. The results from the focus group and survey showed that students do not like to wait or spend effort to get the ticket. Holding distribution for such a short period ensures lines and a waiting time, which deters the students. This time is also usually during lunch when students would rather get in line for their food than for a ticket. 22
The Lack of an Engaging Social Media Presence for the USD Athletics Department It is important to focus on the social media problems of the Athletic Department. the information they wanted. Our social media audit showed us each sport has a Twitter account and the content on each page is generally the same. But we discovered from our social media audit that USD does have a focused Twitter page set up for students, but the students are simply unaware of it. This leads us to wonder how students are not aware of the page with all the content that they all claim to want. In addition there is a lack of follows amongst some the pages on Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. As well as there being too many pages, interaction with the students on all the pages is low. There is no real system to actively communicate among the pages and their followers. This gives a negative image to the site because it makes it appear as if there is no interest in students. The University must focus its social media Students Leave Before the Game Ends There has been a trend among students who do attend the games, to leave before the game is over therefore it is hard to keep the students at the game until the end. Students tend to lose interest during the course of the game. According to focus group and survey data, there is a lack of entertainment during breaks in the game. An average football game lasts about 3 hours, and students tend to get restless if there is no other form of entertainment (other than the game itself) during the game. Another factor that tends to drive students to leave is if the team is losing. Granted there is no way to control the outcome of a game, but the atmosphere of the game can be controlled. 23
Page 1 and 2: University of South Dakota Athletic
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary
Page 5 and 6: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This campaign cre
Page 7 and 8: COMPANY ANALYSIS The University of
Page 9 and 10: USD athletics’ communication syst
Page 11 and 12: SECONDARY RESEARCH information on
Page 13 and 14: Identifying Consumer Needs, Wants,
Page 15 and 16: this demographic is that they are p
Page 17 and 18: Tradition is an important part abou
Page 19 and 20: Students ranked pregame events high
Page 21: PROBLEMS Communication about the g
Page 25 and 26: More Interaction with the Students
Page 27 and 28: TARGET MARKET PROFILES 27
Page 29 and 30: PERSONA #2 Name: Hailey Age: 19 Gen
Page 31 and 32: OBJECTIVES 31
Page 33 and 34: Objective #3 Increase the overall a
Page 35 and 36: BUDGET 35
Page 37 and 38: Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar $0
Page 39 and 40: MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY O
Page 41 and 42: ADVERTISING STRATEGY 41
Page 43 and 44: MEDIA STRATEGY It was a common fact
Page 45 and 46: the app lets us know. So we will ge
Page 47 and 48: Facebook Posts Saturday (Game Day)
Page 49 and 50: Twitter Posts Saturday (Game Day) 4
Page 51 and 52: Facebook Advertisement Get ready fo
Page 53 and 54: Posters Napkin Holders 53
Page 55: Dome Dog 55
Page 58 and 59: 58 SALES PROMOTION STRATEGY
Page 60 and 61: Promotions Dome Dog Giveaway coup
Page 62 and 63: PUBLIC RELATIONS STRATEGY In order
Page 64 and 65: DIRECT MARKETING STRATEGY In order
Page 66 and 67: CAMPAIGN EVALUATION Coyote Consulta
Page 68 and 69: 8. Increase overall school spirit w
Page 70: APPENDICES Appendix A Survey Questi
Page 76 and 77:
Appendix B Focus Group Topics/Quest
Page 78 and 79:
Appendix D Literature Analysis A li
Page 80 and 81:
further and actually go over game p
Page 82 and 83:
A literature analysis is important
Page 84 and 85:
Appendix E Benchmarking Our next me
Page 86 and 87:
The research methodology used in th
Page 88 and 89:
(NACMA, 2007). They brought in near
Page 90:
REFERENCES Bowers, A., Hall, S., El
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CONSULTANTS

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