PUBLIC RELATIONS

PLAN
CHASE BURK, JESSICA MONTGOMERY

Executive
S u m m a r y
Tews School of Basketball (TSB), located in Filer
Idaho, has been in operation since 2010. Because
of the positive atmosphere and small-town feel,
participants experience, TSB frequently fills the
majority of its available spots.
TSBs main season, which is its summer session, begins the first of June and closes the end of August. TSB
normally teaches four days a week, Monday through Thursday and teaches six classes a day.
At the conclusion of the 2014 summer session, TSB expressed a desire to expand its business. It also wanted to make community service part of its business model. Finally TSB requested a way to measure satisfaction of its participants.
This campaign will explore TSBs current situation and recommend specific measures to increase its enrollment. The primary audience targeted will be parents who have never had their child participate in TSB,
with the secondary audience being parents who have had children participate in TSB before. The tertiary
audience will be the participants who are ages 6-18, as well as the Filer community members. By targeting
these audiences, TSB will effectively communicate the availability of additional classes, and enrollment will
increase.
These messages will be communicated to the target audiences in three ways. The first is to use enhanced
social media strategies to convey class availability as well as services that TSB provides. Second, an event
will be implemented to show that TSB gives back to the community. Third, success will be measured by a
simple survey at the end of the summer sessions to analyze satisfaction of TSB participants.

If implemented, this plan will increase TSBs enrollment by 25 percent,

a tradition of community service will be created, and customer
satisfaction will be measured.

Background

TSB started five years ago in Preston, Idaho as a

small business teaching basketball fundamentals to
a group of neighborhood kids. It has since moved
to Filer, Idaho, and at the end of the 2014 summer,
TSB finished their 5th season in an enclosed,
full-size gymnasium, with over 300 participants.
Students choose from two different class options. One class focuses on ball handling, the other focuses
on shooting fundamentals. The ball handling class has 10 participants the shooting class has four. At
this point TSB teaches five ball handling classes and one shooting class a day. Each class is one hour
and fifteen minutes long and participants usually come to eight classes over the course of two weeks.
TSB usually teaches Monday through Thursday.
TSB is different than other camps in the area because it strictly focuses on teaching fundamentals to a
small group so that students get individual attention as well as plenty of time doing the drills.

TSBs Purpose
Offer basketball classes that are small
(a maximum of 10 students) to guarantee individual attention to each participant.
Perform drills of high-intensity that are
challenging to students.
Provide a positive environment for
learning and having fun.

Situation
A n a l y s i s

Strengths
Strong customer base with majority returning every year.
Competitive services that are unique to this market.
Growth in business is largely attributed to word-of-mouth and customer referrals.

Weaknesses
Underdeveloped social media presence.
Lacks a fully-developed, website
Lacking local and community involvement.

Opportunities

Teach classes on Fridays and Saturdays to increase student enrollment.

Donate time to community through service.

Threats
College and high school basketball camps are TSBs greatest source of competition.
Not enough time and capacity to accommodate interest in TSB.
Social media restrictions limit online presences and marketing.

T a r g e t
Audiences
Most of the audiences will be parents of the
participants because they are the ones to sign up
their kids. A small number of the audience will be
the actual participants, depending on the level of
social media involvement they have.
Primary: Parents who have never had their student participate in TSB.
This group will see or hear about TSB for the first time through word-of-mouth, or through social media and
will want more information to decide if they want their kids participate.

Secondary: Parents who have participated in TSB before.

These people consist of TSBs main customer base. They know what TSB has to offer, know where it can improve, and would notice the changes that TSB made. It is key that they stay customers.

Tertiary: Participants ages 6-18.

Participants may see or hear or already know about TSB and want their parents to sign them up.

Tertiary: Community members in Filer area.

This audience is important because of the involvement they would have in the TSB service event.

Objectives
The goal of this campaign is to first
expand clientele and to increase
enrollment in TSB classes and
second, create an annual tradition
of community service.

Objectives set to accomplish this:

Increase enrollment in TSB by 25 percent.

Annually donate two camps to community members.

Measure customer satisfaction with TSB.

Objective-1

Target Audience: Parents of potential participants, Parents of

returning participants

Objective: Increase enrollment in TSB by 25 percent.

Strategy 1: Drive traffic to TSB website.
Tactic: Create website domain. Change www.tewsschoolofbasketball.wordpress.com to www.
tewsschoolofbasketball.com. This will shorten the length of the website. It also offers a more
professional style of website, and doesnt create the image of a blog.
Tactic: In order for parents to register for classes, they must sign-up and pay on TSBs website. This will drive traffic to website and also create a convenient payment method.

Strategy 2: Generate more social media awareness through Facebook

and Instagram.
Tactic: Create training videos using iPhone and publish on Facebook and Instagram demonstrating skills
taught at TSB. These videos could have a variety of focuses, with the main purpose to generate interest in
TSB.
Tactic: Post updates on Facebook and Instagram twice a week in the mornings between 8-10 a.m. and
evenings between 8-10 p.m. Parents spend more time on social media during these times. Updates could
include, drill of the day, student of the week, links to blog posts, links to videos, and links to upcoming
events and camps.

Strategy 3: Teach ball handling classes on Fridays to increase enrollment capacity.

Tactic: During TSBs summer session, teach two morning classes on Fridays. By doing
this, there will be an opportunity to teach 20 more students each session. There are six
sessions in a summer, so if added classes were full, there would be an opportunity to
teach 120 more students over the course of the summer. This would be a 40 percent
increase in enrollment in TSB. In the event that added classes dont fill up completely,
this campaigns goal was for TSBs enrollment to increase by 25 percent. It does have
the potential to increase by 40 percent.

Objective-2

Target Audience: Community members,

TSB participants, Parents

Objective: Annually donate two camps to

community members.

Strategy 1: Host a special needs childrens organization at TSB.

Tactic: Contact Filer High School special needs director to schedule a day for 20 special needs students to
come spend time doing a basketball class at TSB. Divide the 20 participants into two groups of 10.
Tactic: Contact Filer High Schools varsity boys basketball coach to come and speak to special needs participants.
Tactic: Create news release talking about this event.
Tactic: Ask local t-shirt business for donation of t-shirts to camp participants.
Tactic: Invite local newspaper to cover event.
Tactic: Arrange for TSB students to come help mentor special needs children.
Tactic: Post pictures and videos on social media platforms to demonstrate community involvement.

Objective-3

Target Audience: Parents of participants

Objective: Measure customer satisfaction with TSB.

Strategy 1: Offer a survey that measures satisfaction with TSBs services.

Tactic: Hand out survey to parents and toward the end of each participants enrollment.

Strategy 2: Use results to make adjustments.

Tactic: Analyze data and make changes based on the strongest feedback received.

C a l e n d a r
This campaign will be most effective
during the regular summer sessions
of TSB. In addition, year-round social
media efforts would be beneficial.
Objective 1:
January-December 2015:
During this period of time, it will be important to be actively posting on social media. It is crucial for TSB
to post heavily in April and May. April is right before the spring session of TSB begins (starts May 1), and
May is a month before TSBs busiest season (June-August).
March 2015:
Launch official website. At this time, the website domain will be changed to tewsschoolofbasketball.com.
Also, registration and payment forms will be made available on website.
June-August 2015:
Begin teaching additional Friday classes.

Objective 2:
January 2015:
Contact Filer High Schools special needs director to arrange event to be held in March.
March 1, 2015:
Inform local newspaper of upcoming event. Send out media alert, and provide them with news release.
Update followers on social media about event.
March 28, 2015:
Host event for special needs youth. Post pictures and videos of camp on social media.

Objective 3:
August 2015:
Distribute survey to TSB participants parents to measure satisfaction. Evaluate responses and make changes as needed.

B u d g e t
Most of the budget will be directed toward the website
upgrade and installation of online payment services.
Also, there may be some cost involved in the event,
depending on donations from sponsors.

Website domain Minimum of $13 per year

Social Media Posts - $0
Online payment service - $250 per year
Video creation: $0
T-shirts for special needs event - $150 (if not donated)
News Release - $0
Media Alert - $0
Survey - $10

Total Without Donations: $413

Total With Donations: $263

Evaluation

To measure percentage increase, compare the enrollment of the 2015

summer sessions to the 2014 summer sessions.
Measure the number of followers on both Facebook and Instagram
at the end of TSBs August 2015, and compare it to when the summer
session began in June of 2015.
Evaluate simple, survey at the end of TSBs summer sessions to
measure parent and participant satisfaction.