Bold Innovations plansbook by Liz Johnson

Spring 2014 | Plansbook | University of Kansas

Bold Innovations

table of contents Building Connections

Executive Summar y

Connect Your World 7

Creative Strategy

Goals & Objectives

Situation Analysis

-Follow Your Dollar -Gifters -Student Artist Spotlight -Tote bags -Email -Music Festivals

Media Strategy

-Social Media -Video

SWOT Analysis

Evaluating Connections

Researching Connections Secondar y

Timeline

Primar y

Budget

Conclusions

Appendix

Target Audiences

A forward thinking agency that specializes in creating sustainable marketing tactics.

Being bold is starting a revolution. It is being valiant in your search for unique solutions. It is making strides to build your own path and push creativity to the limits. This is Bold Innovations. Together we will tell your story and generate opportunities to impact your audience. Be Brave. Be Brilliant. Go Bold. 1

team members

Presentation Director

Public Relations Director

Account Executive

Creative Director

Research Director

Social Media Director

Ellie Stropes

Stephanie Glassberg

Leah Swartz

Liz Adcock

Kelly Murphy

Ellen McGivern 3

Connect Your World

Artist Spotlight Festival Engagement

Gifter s

Brand dor s Ambassa Product Line Expansion

Follow your dollar

RDS

Student Spotlight

Goods For Good Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what we stand for. Giving you a way to share what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re passionate about with the world. Offering you an opportunity to make an impact.

Bold Innovations has created the Connect Your World campaign as a reflection of the mission of Red Dirt Shop. Not only does purchasing a Red Dirt Shop product directly impact the life of someone else but it also creates a connection that cannot be made elsewhere. As a part of the Connect Your World campaign, Bold Innovations will accomplish four goals throughout a six-month time pe5 riod.

Executive Summar y

Building Connections

Red Dirt Shop is a Kansas City based social impact company that sells uniquely designed t-shirts and mobile phone cases. Each product sold features original work generated by artists and creators from all over the world. At Red Dirt Shop the mission is to bring awareness and put an end to the water crisis affecting developing countries through the sale of products that allow customers to express themselves creatively. After traveling to Africa in 2012, co-founders Dawn Taylor and Christina Eldridge, wanted to create a company that supported innovation, positively impacted the lives of people living with the water crisis, and derail the cycle of poverty through commerce. As a result, Red Dirt Shop was founded in April 2013 and has since helped bring clean water for life to more than 230 people. The Bold Innovations Connect Your World campaign will continue to educate consumers about the water crisis affecting millions of people around the world while increasing Red Dirt Shop sales among its current market and expanding to a younger demographic and new cities.

Bold Innovations has created the Connect Your World campaign as a reflection of the mission of Red Dirt Shop. Not only does purchasing a Red Dirt Shop product directly impact the life of someone else, but it also creates a connection that cannot be made elsewhere. As a part of the Connect Your World campaign, Bold Innovations will accomplish four goals throughout a six-month time period with a $15,000 budget:

After extensive primary and secondary research we found that the Millennial generation as a whole responds well to cause marketing and has positive reactions to social impact companies – especially females. Our research showed us that the key markets for Red Dirt Shop within the Millennial generation are the Frequent Users, the Gifters and the Art Enthusiasts. Our media strategies will be targeted specifically to these segments because we believe they are most likely to engage with and purchase from Red Dirt Shop. We will primarily focus on social media as a means to build awareness and create conversation about Red Dirt Shop and the water crisis in third world countries. Every strategy and campaign we have created is centered around the idea of making connections to people all over the world and carrying out the Red Dirt Shop mission of creating Goods for Good.

These four goals will be accomplished through a variety of different tactics but predominantly through the incorporation of three mini campaigns -- the Follow Your Dollar campaign, Gifters campaign and Student Artist Spotlight Contest. These different campaigns will be implemented and executed by the new Brand Ambassador position created as a part of the Bold Innovations campaign strategy. In addition to the three mini campaigns, there will also be a variety of print advertisements and non-traditional public relations tactics utilized to strengthen and build community awareness. We believe that these campaigns will not only accomplish every goal but will also work towards creating a better life for people affected by the water crisis all over the globe. After all, Red Dirt Shop believes every good sold creates more good for someone else.

• Increase the Millennial customer base through heightened social media use directed specifically towards Generation Y • Strengthen and build the Red Dirt Shop community through different community outreach programs in Kansas City, Lawrence, Denver, Austin and Chicago and improve customer relationship management in these specific cities • Expand the Red Dirt Shop product so that more emphasis is put on the bags created by women in Uganda.

Join the family. Connect to each other. Connect Your World.

Goals

Increase Millennial Customer Base

Improve customer relationship management

Expand Product Line

Goals & Objectives • Objective 1 – Have one thousand Twitter followers by the end of September 2014

• Objective 2 – Increase reach to Millennials on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram by 10 percent by the end of 2014 Tactic 1 Implement three online social me

Continued

dia camaigns—Follow Your Dollar, Gifters, Student Artist Spotlights —that will be used to spread awareness of Red Dirt Shop within the Millennial demographics Tactic 2 Create two videos – one artist spotlight and one stop motion video about Red Dirt Shop - to be shared online via viral marketing

• Objective 1 – Increase reach in Lawrence, Denver, Austin and Chicago with the campaigns initially beginning in Lawrence and expanding to other cities after one year so that the number of sales in each city increases by five percent from last year Tactic 1 Implement Brand Ambassadors into structural organization of the company. Two Brand Ambassadors will be based out of the main college campuses in Lawrence (University of Kansas), Denver (University of Colorado Boulder), Austin (University of Texas Austin) and Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago). Tactic 2 Potential buyers will be reached at music and art festivals through pop-up shops and guerilla marketing techniques. Customers who sign up for the mailing list will be mailed a coupon or promotion code as determined by the mini campaign goals Tactic 3 Develop relationships with artists in Lawrence, Denver, Austin and Chicago so that five new artists represent each city by 2016

• Objective 2 – Create a Nimble account (depending on how active Red Dirt Shop is on Google Analytics and MailChimp) in order to track customers’ purchases (frequency, average amount spent, time of the year of purchase, etc.) and level of interaction with Red Dirt Shop. Utilize database to both generate sales and obtain more followers by September 2014 as a result of the email campaign • Objective 3 –Strengthen reach within Kansas City area so that the number of sales increases by 8 percent from last year by the end of November 2014 Tactic 1 Participate in First Fridays event in Kansas City throughout the six month timeline

• Objective 1 – Put more emphasis on the bags made by women in Mali, West Africa and expand product line to include full tote bags by November 2014 Tactic 1 Roll out email campaign will take place the week of October 13, 2014 and will be highlighted during the Gifters campaign from November 17th until December 26th • Objective 2 – Increase awareness of men’s t-shirts to male customers so that t-shirt sales increase by 10 percent specifically within the male demographic

Red Dirt Shop

Situation Analysis MISSION STATEMENT The overall mission of Red Dirt Shop is, Goods for Good. The mission statement Goods for Good is a positive and creative way to express the brand image. Goods for Good was the slogan created by Taylor and Eldridge in order to embody what they believed was the overall mission of Red Dirt Shop. Essentially, Goods for Good means that every purchase made from the company positively affected someone living in the water crisis in a third world country. The idea is to break the cycle of poverty through commerce. However, based on first impressions, the mission statement is not clearly explained to the viewers. The concept of what Goods for Good means does not become apparent until the viewer begins to read through the content on the website. Goods for Good is a slogan that accurately describes Red Dirt Shop, however, it is not a mission statement. By creating a cohesive overall image and explanation of what Goods for Good means, the consumer will be able to better understand and respect the brand’s purpose. Additionally, the logo and picture associated with Red Dirt Shop should be consistent through all forms of media. The inconsistency between the titles Red Dirt and Red Dirt Shop and mismatching pictures on social media accounts could hinder the company’s credibility and visibility. Research shows that overall brand consistency translates into higher search engine optimization and greater brand awareness.

FACEBOOK When comparing the Red Dirt Shop website to the Facebook page, it is apparent that there are often two different logos presented as the primary image. This creates a lack of consistency that translates into weak SEO. When searching online for Red Dirt instead of Red Dirt Shop,

several unrelated pages flood the search engine. This is also true when searching for the company through a Facebook graph search. Without a consistent image and logo, more research is required on the part of the consumer in order to find the correct media profiles. The Facebook page has considerable reach through its connections with 1,978 Facebook users as of April 20, 2014. On average, 159 people tag Red Dirt Shop in posts or comments on their own profiles or on a friend’s page (also as of April 20, 2014). The most popular weeks for Red Dirt Shop on Facebook correlates to the release of a new product design. When Red Dirt Shop posts about a new design launch or artist, the post reaches more than 5,000 unique Facebook users. For example, on Monday, February 3rd (after a new design was released) the number of people talking about Red Dirt Shop hit a peak and reached 5,986 people. Many of the posts written by Red Dirt Shop are image based and provide a link or call to action statement. The company also does well generating buzz around specific holidays or events. For example, according to Facebook Analytics, on February 10, 2014 Red Dirt Shop posted a photo of the new Valentine’s Day inspired phone case to the Facebook page and reached a total 10,316 users. The heightened interest in Red Dirt Shop products as a potential gift is what motivated the Gifters campaign that will be discussed later in this report. The most popular city for the Red Dirt Shop Facebook page is Kansas City, MO and the most popular week was April 28, 2013, which is when the company launched its first design. Based out of Kansas City, it is no surprise that the social impact company has a higher reach within its own urban network. The primary followers of the Red Dirt Shop Facebook page are young adults ages 22 - 44 years old. Overall, Red Dirt Shop has a positive brand reputation. Customers commonly post on the Red Dirt Shop Facebook page stating that they “loved their new phone cases.”

TWITTER Red Dirt Shop has a mildly strong presence on Twitter. With 673 followers, the reach on Twitter is not as strong as it is on Facebook. Red Dirt Shop follows 951 other Twitter handles and has a total of 1,060 tweets as of April 20, 2014. The majority of the content pushed by Red Dirt Shop is promoting new design releases and content related to the international water crisis. Red Dirt Shop utilizes hashtags that correlate to its mission and values like #goodsforgood and #water. The Red Dirt Shop Twitter handle tweets multiple times a week and, on some occasions, multiple times a day. @Reddirtshop also actively responds to tweets and creates two-way conversations between consumers and the company. According to a report generated by Tweetreach.com, Red Dirt Shop is estimated to reach 9,350 user profiles and have 18,957 impressions as of April 20, 2014.

COMPANY ORGANIZATION Currently, Red Dirt is fully operated by the two cofounders, Dawn Taylor and Christina Eldridge. Taylor serves as the COO and Eldridge serves as the CEO. Together they have been able to fulfill the majority of the roles required to operate Red Dirt Shop. Previously, the company employed a summer intern but did not keep her on as a full time staff member. Graphic design and website maintenance is contracted and Red Dirt Shop does not currently use a social media aggregate in order to curate online content. Taylor and Eldridge are

“Customers commonly post on the Red Dirt Shop Facebook page stating that they loved their new phone cases.”

also responsible for developing relationships with and seeking out local artists whose work would transfer well onto a phone case or t-shirt. Currently, Red Dirt Shop releases a new product design every Monday. These designs are purchased from artists based on a set-licensing contract. The company leases the design for a specified number of cases and has certain promotional expectations for the artists that are specified in the contract. The artist must promote their designed case on all personal social media outlets in order to reach their fan base and increase the reach of Red Dirt Shop. Once the cases are sold, the contract is essentially over and it is the responsibility of Taylor and Eldridge to maintain a professional relationship with the artist. In regards to production, Red Dirt Shop outsources its actual case creation and printing to PhotoUSA. The phone cases cost the customers $37 including shipping. Production of the phone cases costs Red Dirt Shop roughly $4. After factoring in Red Dirt Shop etching on the side of the case, shipping and handling and the additional stickers and products included in the delivery bag, total production cost equals about $19 including the $5 donation to Water.org. In all, Red Dirt Shop make a profit of approximately $18.

SWOT Analysis The connection between founders Taylor and Eldridge and the Kansas City art scene is Even though Red Dirt Shop is a young unparalleled to many other company, it has many defined strengths start-up companies. Taylor and that have given it a strong foundation. Eldridge have utilized their personal One of the most defined strengths is its popularity with its current target audience relationships to enhance their new of 35+ women. Red Dirt Shop has made business. The phone cases produced by Red Dirt Shop feature it clear that its sales come almost local artists that have a strong folexclusively from one audience, middlelowing in the Kansas City area. This aged women. This audience has already makes the cell phone cases even defined itself as a mass consumer of the more desirable. The relationships product, which will help our group continue to hold a specific connection to this Dawn and Christina have with artists have the potential to expand consumer base. Instead of building from the company into other art centric the ground up on every market, we can help plan tactics to grow an already exist- communities across the country. ing and prominent consumer base.

Strengths

Another defined strength of Red Dirt Shop is its ability to attract earned media. There have been no shortages of news stories, articles and programs concerning the uprising of the Red Dirt Shop franchise. In less than one year Red Dirt Shop has attracted an exponential amount of status within the Kansas City community. Red Dirt Shop has left us with the possibility to use what earned media they have already attracted not only to help selling more of the product but to leverage higher profile media outlets such as the New York Times or Elle magazine.

Weaknesses

While Red Dirt has established strengths, as a new company they have many obstacles to overcome as well. Red Dirt Shopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s age is one the few weaknesses hindering the success of the company. This causes many problems when it comes to reshaping/rebranding because Red Dirt Shop has not yet established itself to see what works and what does not.

annual findings. Although Red Dirt Shop has gained an array of earned media, its social media presence is lacking, or at least this is how it is perceived. When using a Google search for Red Dirt Shop, the official company website is not in any of the top hits. The first result of the search is an unrelated Wikipedia page followed by other irrelevant sites before directing the user to the Red Dirt Shop website. Essentially, this proves that the majority of Red Dirt Shopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earned media is not easily accessible in terms of search engine optimization. When looking further into the outlets that are accessible, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr, there is no consistency in the mission statement, logo and taglines.

Additionally, the durability of the phone case in comparison to the cost of the case is one of the top weaknesses of the brand - especially for the Millennial demographic. As our Additionally, it is difficult to acquire primary research shows (which credible statistical data concerning will be discussed later in this the company because that type of report) Millennials are willing information is typically based off of to pay more for a phone case

if it provides more protection for their phone. Unfortunately, the Red Dirt Shop phone case does not provide the optimum amount of protection required for the high cost. Another primary weakness for Red Dirt Shop is the lack of awareness of the t-shirt line. The majority of the focus on social media is typically geared toward phone cases and not t-shirts. Lastly, many of the designs featured by Red Dirt Shop are predominantly female oriented and have perceived feminine qualities like colors, images and themes. This does and could potentially hinder men from purchasing a Red Dirt Shop product.

Oppor tunities As previously mentioned, the foundation Red Dirt Shop has built provides many opportunities for company expansion within its Kansas City home base and beyond. The already established social media pages have considerable reach so there is great potential to develop social media campaigns that strengthen and increase the online customer awareness. In order to do this, a variety of social media strategies that will be discussed later in this report will be implemented into the overall strategic campaign for Red Dirt Shop. These campaigns will benefit the company by expanding customer awareness to a younger demographic. Currently, the primary customer base of Red Dirt Shop is a Generation X female, age 35+. As Millennials are gaining more economic power in our society it is essential that Red Dirt Shop increase its business practices to include ways to target this demographic. There is a strong Millennial presence on social media, so by pushing content online that relates to Millennial value systems and lifestyles Red Dirt Shop will be able to increase awareness of the company in the Millennial cohort. When analyzing the Facebook analytics for Red Dirt

Shop, it is apparent that content that includes photos, videos and/or links to new product designs are the most seen and engaging posts for followers of the Red Dirt Shop Facebook page. As a result of this analysis, we have found that Red Dirt Shop has the opportunity to engage Millennials online through photo-based content like viral video and image marketing. The creation of a stop motion video describing the Red Dirt Shop mission and products has the potential to reach a large amount of Millennials online via social networks beyond Facebook like Upworthy, Buzzfeed and Tumblr. In general, Millennials are influencing the entire consumer market and are creating an environment where social impact plays a large role in whether or not any customer will be loyal to a company or brand. This new Millennial consumer mindset works in favor of Red Dirt Shop because of the humanitarian mission of the company. Campaigns and events that educate consumers about the water crisis in Africa while promoting Red Dirt Shop products are a viable way to increase profits and awareness of the company. Later in this report we will discuss various campaigns that connect with customers on an emotional and educational level while still creating drive to purchase Red Dirt Shop products.

S Threats

price ($37) dissuades Millennials from purchasing the product, which they feel is not protective enough for their phones. As previously mentioned, Also, the lack of availability in brick and Millennial consumers respond mortar stores is a threat to Red Dirt Shop positively to companies that stand for more than just its bot- because customers are more willing to tom line. This means that a large spend a higher amount of money for the number of companies are includ- convenience of purchasing the case in a store. Our research shows that although ing philanthropic endeavors in their mission statements. There- Millennials use the Internet for primary fore, it can be difficult for a start- research, most customers are still making final purchases in the actual storefront. Adup company to break through ditionally, Red Dirt Shop phone case sales larger, more established brands that already have a social impact specifically are very dependent on IPhone sales. Should another market take over the presence. Brands like Toms and phone industry, Red Dirt Shop could suffer Warby Parker are leading the the consequences. pack when it comes to retail social impact companies and are strong competitors for Red Dirt Shop. Our research shows that Millennials are highly aware of these brands and their social impact efforts. These companies have also branded themselves in the fashion world and are now seen as a trendy accessory or fashion statement. Another threat that could potentially affect Red Dirt Shop sales is the high prices of the products. Our primary research shows that consumers (specifically Millennials) are not willing to pay more than $25-$30 for a Red Dirt Shop phone case. This finding is linked in large part to the durable qualities of the phone case itself. The high

As Red Dirt Shop continues to grow and expand, the customer base requires more attention in terms of engagement and connection. This means that the current organizational structure of Red Dirt Shop can no longer support the growing company’s needs. One of the biggest threats to start up companies is the lack of manpower to produce enough content to raise awareness while still handling the business and sales aspect of the company. The lack of brand ambassadors or an operational manager for Red Dirt Shop is hindering its ability to expand to new networks and demographic locations.

• Current loyal market • Attract earned media • Artist influence and relationships

O • Social media presence and sharing • Millenials • Expanding product lines • Using analytics to inform decisions • Humanitarian positioning -Connection to Water.org

W • New company -less awareness and less media presence • Less empirical evidence • Phone case -Durability and “girly”perception

T • Several competing social causes and philanthropies • Perception of too highpriced products • Operational and financial ability to scale

Researching Connections

Secondar y Research INDUSTRY GROWTH & CONSUMER PREFERENCES

natives, Millennials have grown up in a com-

them. There is also a shift to higher-quality accespletely the technological era. Millennial sories, replacing cheap, white-label products response to learning through interactive that characterized the market until recently.”media As such as Generation Y, also known as Millennials, is iPads, smart boards and online educational the fastest growing demographic in the Unit- smartphone usage and accessory purchases are engagement is higher thanusing thatsmartof GeneraAccording to The NPD Group, mobile phone increasing, the population of people ed States. Millennials are defined as young tionalso X or Babyover Boomers. accessory sales in the US increased 32 percent phones has shifted the past five years. adults born between 1977 and 1995. As a in 2012, with mobile phone case sales alone In 2011, nearly two thirds of people aged 25-34 whole population, Millennials are 80 increasing by 69 percent - more than anymillion other had a smartphone 50 percent Millennialsand aremore city than dwellers as wellofas suburstrong. 25 percent of the segment Composing in mobile phone accessories. In a Ameripress people aged 18-25 and 35-44 had a smartphone. banites. According to research conducted by can population, is estimated that release written byitThe NPD Group , theMillennials comThese numbers dramatically increased in Wendell Forbes have Magazine and demographer, have roughly billion of for direct buying pany found that$200 average prices accessories recent years. Cox, 80 percent of Millennials live outside of power almost double(NPD that in indirect grew byand roughly 25 percent Group, 2012). core urban cities, 38 percent live in suburFurthermore, to a report by ABIetReIt is clear that both the number of wireless subbuying poweraccording and influence (Fromm al., areas and 45mobile percent live insold the largest search inBrands 2012, smartphone owners spent close scribers ban and revenue from phones 2011). are focusing the majority of metropolitan areas 2014). to $56efforts on accessories per device. demographic Research has increased dramatically over(Kotkin, the last 10 yearsTypically, their on the Millennial younger Millennials in grow their for 20sthe and 30s prefound thatthe smartphone users spend times and are expected to continue to because oldest members aretwo at their fer to live in the city while older Millennials more on mobile phone accessories than feature next five years. This would indicate that phone peak earning and spending years. arelikely becoming parents and starting their phone users. Feature phones are any mobile case saleswho would experience similar growth. devices that have Internet and music capabilities The initial ABI families Researchare report also states thatthe in suburbs own moving back to Millennials are considered to be the most but that lack the sophisticated functionality that order tooutside enter thisofmarket, companies will need metropolitan areas. There is also diverse demographic in the also United States. a smartphone has. The report claims that to capture brand recognition: a growing trend among Millennials under the Although percent of Millennials are still the amount61 spent on smartphone accessories age of 25 to move back home and live with predominantly white, there are more African in 2017 is expected to increase to $38 billion. their parents. According to the Huffington American and Hispanic Millennials than there Another report from ABI Research claims that Post, 56 percent of Millennials aged 18 to 24 the worldwide revenue from mobile accessories are in the population of adults over the age “The increasing of smartphones is are living at home penetration (Kingkade, 2013). Reasons alone $26.5etbillion in 2010 and is expected of 30 was (Taylor al., 2010). Millennials are drivingthis a shift accessory designemploytoward smart behind trendin include declining to double 2015, driven in large part by smartalso morebyaccepting of different races and accessories that drive levels of consumer ment opportunities, risinghigher college enrollment phone sales.and value incorporation and incluethnicities

sion of all people into society. According to Senior analyst for ABI Research Michael Morgan the 2009 Pew Research study, the majority of stated, “Smartphones are generally higher-value the public believes Millennials are more products than featurethat phones, so consumers racially tolerant than previous generations. are willing to spend more on the accessories for In terms of education, Millennials are becoming the most highly educated demographic. More than half of Millennials have some sort of college education and that number is increasing every day. Millennial women are more likely than men to complete college with a bachelor’s degree or higher. As digital

In addition to shifting phone accessory designs, the report from The NPD Group also states the following as the top purchase influencers: • • • •

Protection and durability (86%) Quality materials (73%) Minimal bulkiness (66%) Aesthetics and price (50%)

These findings are very similar to statistics found through primary research that will be discussed later in this report. The article also explains that protection ranks higher than price on the list of necessary attributes due to the smartphone design, compared to other mobile cell products. Furthermore, the report indicates that almost half of those consumers who purchased their phones in-store bought an accessory at the same time. Consumers who purchased their phones in a brick and mortar store spent three times more on “add-on” products regardless of whether they bought the accessory at the same time of the phone purchase or not. The NPD Group also found that of the phone buyers who purchased accessories within first six months of buying their phone, four out five purchased the accessories from a different retailer than where they purchased their phone.

and an increase in the value, average agebrand of marinteraction, product and recognition. riage. For new market entrants, developing brand recogni-

tion is paramount in capturing market share from the incumbents. This is best accomplished by the development of engaging, innovative accessories that extend the value proposition of today’s mass market accessories.” -Michael Morgan, ABI Research.

COMPETITION ANALYSIS Red Dirt Shop has a large number of competitors, both direct and indirect. Many of the top competitors are well known among Millennials. The top Red Dirt Shop competitors are: • • • • • • • •

Kate Spade Society6 Zazzle OtterBox Lifeproof Apple Amazon Uncommon

For our particular competition analysis, we will focus on Society6, Zazzle and Uncommon.

Society 6

Zazzle

Uncommon

Founded in 2009 in Los Angeles, Society6 is a rapidly growing online marketplace powered by artists from around the world. Society6’s commerce platform enables artists to easily upload and offer their art for sale as prints, iPhone cases, home décor, t-shirts and more, without giving up the rights to their work. Society6 produces products on-demand, using high quality materials and processes and delivers them to consumers worldwide. Society6 has positioned itself as a trendy, modern design outlet and is very popular among Millennials. The annual report from 2012 stated that Society6 earned $15 million in revenue and $4 million in operating income (Yahoo Finance, 2013). While it does sell its phone cases for about the same price as Red Dirt Shop ($35), Society6 offers more options in its designs and product lines.

Zazzle Inc. operates websites that enable individuals, professional artists, and major brands to create and sell custom t-shirts, greeting cards, invitations, postage products, mugs, aprons, ties, belt buckles, key chains, skins, cases, speakers, business cards, buttons, bumper stickers, magnets, and bags for customers in the United States and internationally. The company manufactures and sells the custom designed products. Zazzle provides software that enables customers to design their own mobile phone case. This is a unique feature that Red Dirt Shop does not offer. Also, since Zazzle is a larger, better known company, it is capable of offering more promotional codes for discounts and regular sales.

Uncommon was launched in 2009 by a group of entrepreneurs who felt that the products used every day can, and should be, iconic expressions of art and individuality. It sources engineers, designers and artists to create a range of customizable, highly efficient, beautiful and practical personal accessories that would define the apex of the product on the market. Customization is what sets Uncommon apart. Uncommon is the first manufacturer to offer mass customization with proprietary 3D TATT® printing on plastic. Uncommon is one of the pricier phone case companies, but its cases are typically customizable rather than selling premade designs.

GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION AND MARKETABILITY

In Austin, TX, 20 year olds make up 24.3 percent of the population and 30 year olds make up 18 percent. The median household income is $42,689. Single males make up 22.3 percent and single females make up In our research, we will focus predominantly on art communi17 percent of the population. This city is segmented ties based in Denver, Chicago, Austin, Kansas City surrounding into Non-native Newbies, Urban Power Families, areas and Lawrence. Denver, CO has a strong cause marketand Corporate Climbers. In this geographic location ing influence within its community. There is more competiCorporate Climbers are the most appealing segment tion amongst social impact companies - specifically for mobile for new companies to target. They are high-income, phone companies. However, as our previous research indicates, high-expense urban singles with a college education once a company brands themselves as a social impact company and are employed in mid-management professions they have a bigger attraction to a Millennial audience. 20 and (Zillow, 2000). 30-year-olds predominantly populate the city of Denver. GEOGRAPHIC In Kansas City surrounding areas, 31.8 percent of citizensSEGMENTATION are between 20 to 39 years old. According to The median household income in Denver is $39,500 AND MARKETABILITY Zillow, the median house income is $37,198. Single compared to the national average of $44,512 and it has a females make up 15.6 percent of the population while higher percentage of single males (20.3%) and single females single males make up 16.9 percent. The Kansas City (15.6%) than the national averages (14.6% and 12.5% respecmetro area is sectioned into Ramen Metros, Urban tively). Denver’s population is segmented into three main bootstrappers, and Unmarried with Children. (Zillow, groups: Non-native Newbies, Power Singles, and Makin’ It Singles. Power Singles are high-income urban singles, highly edu- 2000). cated and live a “hip, upscale life in an urban center.” Makin’ It Singles are upper-scale urban singles; pre-middle-age to middle Lawrence, Kansas is populated with 94,000 locals. The population is made up of 25.4 percent single males age, with a college education and a mid-management profesand 22.4 single females. 44.1 percent of the populasion (Zillow, 2000). tion is between the ages of 20 to 39 while the median household income $34,669. In this community, LawrenChicago, IL, has a strong reputation as the place to be for cians, are segmented into College Life, Stable Nuclears in-style, young Millennials trying to “make it.” According to and Urban Power couples (Zillow, 2000). Zillow, 20-year-olds make up 18 percent of the population and 30-year-olds make up 16.6 percent of the population. The median household income in Chicago is $38,625 and 21 percent are single males while 19.9 percent are single females. The segmentation in this area is broken down into Non-native Newbies, Power Singles and Melting Pot. Chicago is also a popular location for art communities and artistic gatherings (Zillow, 2000).

Millennials Generation Y, also known as Millennials, is the fastest growing demographic in the United States. Millennials are defined as young adults born between 1977 and 1995. As a whole population, Millennials are 80 million strong. Composing 25 percent of the American population, it is estimated that Millennials have roughly $200 billion of direct buying power and almost double that in indirect buying power and influence (Fromm et al., 2011). Brands are focusing the majority of their efforts on the Millennial demographic because the oldest members are at their peak earning and spending years. Millennials are considered to be the most diverse demographic in the United States. Although 61 percent of Millennials are still predominantly Caucasian, there are more African American and Hispanic Millennials than there are in the population of adults over the age of 30 (Taylor et al., 2010). Millennials are also more accepting of different races and ethnicities and value incorporation and inclusion of all people into society. According to the 2009 Pew Research study, the majority of the public believes that Millennials are more racially tolerant than previous generations. In terms of education, Millennials are becoming the most highly educated demographic. More than half of Millennials have some sort of college education and that number is increasing every day. Millennial women are more likely than

Composing 25% of the American population, it is estimated that Millennials have roughly $200 billion of direct buying power and almost double that in indirect buying power and influence.

Sociographics of Millennials

men to complete college with a bachelor’s degree or higher. As digital natives, Millennials have grown up in a completely technological era. Millennial response to learning through interactive media such as iPads, smart boards and online educational engagement is higher than that of Generation X or Baby Boomers. Millennials are city dwellers as well as suburbanites. According to research conducted by Forbes Magazine and demographer, Wendell Cox, 80 percent of Millennials live outside of core urban cities, 38 percent live in suburban areas and 45 percent live in the largest metropolitan areas (Kotkin, 2014). Typically, younger Millennials in their 20s and 30s prefer to live in the city while older Millennials who are becoming parents and starting their own families are moving back to the suburbs outside of metropolitan areas. There is also a growing trend among Millennials under the age of 25 to move back home and live with their parents. According to the Huffington Post, 56 percent of Millennials aged 18 to 24 are living at home (Kingkade, 2013). Reasons behind this trend include declining employment opportunities, rising college enrollment and an increase in the average age of marriage.

CREATIVE VALUES

“Millennials are defined as young adults born between 1977 and 1995. ..Millennials are 80 million strong.”

We’ve seen Millennials change the way companies are designing logos and online sites. Millennials are a generation that are environmentally conscious and thrive on sustainability not on excess. This has inspired the DIY trend as Millennials are opting to up-cycle products they already have instead of buying something new. Creativity has become the new currency so outlets that allow Millennials to “spend” their creativity are becoming increasingly more popular (Spence, 2013). Millennials are the first generation to transform society into what has been defined as the cause economy. Companies and brands that enable Millennials to make a difference are becoming increasingly more popular with the Millennial demographic.

MILLENIALS PREFER CO-CREATION It is not enough to just give Millennials a product and expect them to appreciate it. Research shows that 4 in 10 Millennials are interested in co-creating products with companies (Marketing Charts, 2012). Many brands are taking advantage of this and are now offering customizable options. As a result of the Millennial generation’s new desire to be an active partner in the creation process, there has been a paradigm shift in the way brands are engaging with the public. Now, instead of focusing on interuption, brands are engaging and interacting with consumers.

SOCIAL MEDIA USE Millennials are a generation that is always connected to each other and linked into a variety of different social networks at one time. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are some of the most used social networks for the Millennial generation. In the United States, Millennials

make up half of all Twitter users and 69.9 million Millennials are active on Facebook (EMarketer, 2013). This generation values online engagement and is more likely to respond positively to a brand their friends like. Eighty-four percent of Millennials say that word of mouth is the primary influence for their purchase decisions (Garst, 2013). This emphasizes the importance of how brands engage with Millennials through social media. Millennials are also considered an on-the-go generation. They are over-stimulated by new technology and see multitasking as a way of life, not just a skill. This has led to an increase in online engagement through mobile outlets – predominantly through the use of smartphones. According to a survey released by Cisco, two out of every five Millennials would feel anxious without their smartphones. One third of all respondents to the survey said they check their smart phone every thirty minutes for updates of any kind (Freeman, 2012).

MILLENIAL RESPONSE TO CAUSE MARKETING Social entrepreneurship has taken hold of Generation Y and changed the way it views the world. Millennials want to utilize the power of the private sector to yield positive change and do so without negatively affecting the planet. According to Mintlife, 57 percent of Millennials volunteered regularly. On top of that, 54 percent of Millennials said they planned on starting their own business in the future (Mintlife, 2013). Marketers that have embraced this social entrepreneurship trend have implemented cause-marketing strategies into their campaigns. According to research conducted by Barkley in conjunction with Boston Consulting Group and SMG, 55 percent of Millennials say they are more likely to develop a more positive image of a company as the result of cause marketing programs (Fromm et al., 2011). This is further expressed in our primary focus group research. The Millennial response to cause marketing and idea brands has led to the creation of the “me plus the world” mindset that Millennials display. 25

Psychographics and Lifestyle Barkley US Advertising Agency in Kansas City is one of the leaders in Millennial market research in the United States. According to their study in combination with research from Boston Consulting Group, they divided the Millennial generation into six different segments â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Hipennials, Old School Millennials, Gadget Gurus, Clean and Green, Millennial Moms and the Anti-Millennial.

Millennial Moms Hippennials Hippennials make up 25 percent of the Millennial demographic. They are cautious consumers and have a positive outlook on the world. Millennials in this demographic use social media frequently and value entertainment and online engagement. This segment is predominantly female student based (Fromm et al,. 2011).

Millennial Moms is the fastest growing segment in the Millennial demographic as more Millennials are getting married and starting their own families. Millennial Moms make up 22 percent of the demographic. They are confident, active and technologically savvy. They spend time pampering their children while still maintaining a successful career. Millennial Moms value online shopping and contribute to online content that they share with their friends (Fromm et al., 2011).

Old-School Millennials

Anti-Millennials

In contrast to Hippennials, 10 percent of the Millennial population are considered to be Old-School Millennials. Old-School Millennials are the least likely to use social media outlets like Facebook. This segment values face-to-face connections as opposed to online engagement. Old School Millennials are in their thirties and have more money to spend on charitable causes and philanthropic endeavors (Fromm et al., 2011).

Clean and Green Millennial The Clean and Green Millennial takes care of him/ herself and the world around him/her. Clean and green Millennials make up 10 percent of the Millennial demographic as a whole. This segment responds positively to cause marketing and is loyal to idea brands that educate consumers about global and local issues. They also contribute content to online social media sites that are typically cause-related (Fromm et al., 2011).

This 16 percent of the Millennial demographic are career driven and focus the majority of their attention on their families and businesses. This segment tends to be more conservative and female dominated than the others. The Anti-Millennials tend to be more locally minded and own or work for a small business. On a tight budget, Anti-Millennials do not pay more for green products and are more concerned about making ends meet (Fromm et al., 2011).

Gadget Guru Gadget Gurus are technologically savvy, successful and constantly connected. They make up 13 percent of the Millennial demographic and are predominantly a male dominated segment. Gadget Gurus push and contribute to online content and are connected on multiple social media accounts (Fromm et al., 2011).

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Our survey consisted of 50 in-depth questions that were designed to gain a better understanding of participants’ social media habits, Red Dirt Shop awareness, brand perceptions and design preferences. The survey was released on February 28, 2014 and was open until March 6, 2014. We collected a total of 611 responses with some questionnaires left uncompleted.

Primar y Research The respondents also revealed that their top three reasons for following companies on social media were:

SURVEY FINDINGS Demographics The survey data collected returned 403 completed responses. The demographics of the group were predominantly Caucasian, female, upper-class students. More specifically, 67.8 percent of the responses were female and 31.4 percent were male. Approximately 84.5 percent were Caucasian, 66.1 percent of the respondents were students and 63.2 percent were from Kansas. The next state with the highest responses was Missouri (7.8%); other states listed made up less than five percent of the total responses. Of those students, the majority were in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (31.8%) and second highest majority were in the School of Journalism (22.5%). Other students were in schools ranging from engineering, architecture and design, business, education and more. Our demographics also show that the majority of our participants have had some college education or more (51.3% had some college; 36.5% completed undergraduate; 8.7% completed graduate school). Furthermore, the majority of our responses came from individuals

between the ages of 18 and 24 (76.9%). The appendix presents some of the demographics described above in chart form. Social Media Our survey also gathered information based on the social media use of students. The most frequently used media outlet was social media by a large majority (72.7%). The other media outlets were: • Social Media 70.8% • TV 8.4% • Email 8.2% • Mobile Applications 8% • Newspaper 1.6% • Magazine 0.2% • Radio 2.2% • Other 0.6% The data also showed that Facebook was used more frequently than the other social media outlets, while Twitter and Instagram were the next most used social media sites. This question specifically asked which social media outlets were used on a daily basis and the participants were asked to choose their top three. The frequency results are as follows:

• • • • • • • • •

Facebook 73.3% Twitter 41.3% nstagram 41.3% Youtube 26.5% Pinterest 18.4% LinkedIn 9.8% Google+ 7.6% None 3.9% Other 9.2% This information proves that social media is an important outlet that Red Dirt Shop should continue utilizing - particularly Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. However, it is also important to note that these outcomes are partly due to the high percentage of college students who took the survey compared to other demographics.

• The consumer likes the products and is a frequent customer (43.1%) • To be notified of sales/coupons (39.8%) • Company provides useful information (36.7%) • The social media posts they are most likely to engage in include: • clicking a link to a news article (47.7%) • clicking a link to a video (24.5%) • participate in contests/giveaways (18.8%) Furthermore, when excluding the participants who claimed they prefer companies not contact them at all (28% of respondents), the rest of the participants indicated that if a company tries to contact them first, they prefer it be done by email (61.4%) and social media (30.4%). However, for companies that do connect with consumers, the results show that social media updates are the preferred contact method for 21.8 percent of the participants. Of all survey respondents, 72.4 percent do follow companies on social media currently. If Red Dirt Shop decides to continue marketing to its target audi-

ence through social media, it should keep in mind that frequent status posts has a tendency to be counterproductive. Forty-six point one percent of the participants want to see a company post only 1-2 times a week, 29.5 percent want to see posts 3-4 times a week, 10.1 percent wanted to see posts 4-5 times per week, and after that it drops down to 8 percent or lower. These are important aspects that can help Red Dirt Shop tailor its marketing campaign and increase shares while utilizing social media accounts to spread awareness. However, while social media is an important outlet and contact point for Red Dirt Shop’s target market, it is important not to discredit wordof-mouth and peer referrals within the targeted demographic. When asked to select the top three ways respondents hear about new products, the following were the results:

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When survey participants were asked which media forms were most credible, the following were the results: • Friends/Family 52.1% • Online Review 31.5% • Official Company Website 12.9% • Brand Ambassador 0.8% • Advertisement 1.8% • Other 1% This is enhanced by the fact that the majority of the participants claim that they pay more attention to social media than any other form of media outlet:

• Social media 74.5% • Print media 6.9% • Promotional 4.9% • Digital 1.8% • Direct 2.6% • Email 8.7% • Other 0.6% • Word of Mouth 70.5% It is important to note that there • Social Media Outlets 64.3% is a difference in how each gender • Online Ads 39.9% uses social media. Most women uti• News Outlets 20.4% lize all of the social media accounts • Blogs 16.7% addressed in the survey while men hardly used some at all. If they used social media, men were more likely to use Facebook than any other outlet.

Phone

Awareness

As we move on to analyze specific results on phones and phone case selections for the consumers, we found that of the total 489 people who answered the question, 94.7 percent of our respondents had a smartphone and of the 461 people who owned a smartphone, 78.3 percent had an iPhone and only 21 percent had a Blackberry. Furthermore, 83.4 percent of the participants already had a phone case. Also, of the 80 people who answered this question only 37.5 percent were currently planning on purchasing a phone case in the future. This supports the idea that purchasing a phone case is more of a spur-of-the-moment purchase or more likely when it is at the top of their mind, such as right after purchasing a new phone. In regards to phone case design, the consumers had a range of preferences when it came to the type of phone case material they typically select:

When it came to being aware of Red Dirt Shop, of the 444 respondents who answered the question, only 21.4 percent of respondents indicated that they had heard of Red Dirt Shop previously and the majority of them heard about the company from friends and family (9.2%). Others had heard about Red Dirt Shop through the news (2.8%), social media (3.3%), blogs (0.6%), and other unlisted forms (2.3%). This is in contrast to the larger percentage of the same participants that were aware of Water.org (45.3%).

• • • • •

Lightwear 30.5% Rubber 34.4% Plastic 27.1% Skins 2.4% Other 5.6%

We also analyzed how knowledgeable the participants were on the water crisis in general and how involved in philanthropies and social issues they are. On a scale of 1-5, 1 being not at all and 5 being very, the participants indicated that they were right in the middle with a mean of 3.11 on how knowledgeable they were on the water crisis. Furthermore, many believed that the water crisis was an important issue (mean of 3.95) and that social companies make an important contribution to the improvement of society (3.65).

This will be an important factor to consider later in our recommendations for a product line expansion.

Red Dirt Shop Awareness

FOCUS GROUP FINDINGS

Intensive primary research was conducted the week of February 16, 2014 in order to better understand consumers’ social media use, phone case preferences and awareness of Red Dirt Shop. Seven focus groups were conducted with 45 participants total along with six in-depth personal interviews. Thirty-three focus group participants were students at the University of Kansas and six participants were students in Colorado. Six participants were recent graduates and young professionals or currently in graduate

school. The in-depth interviews were conducted with professional women in the Lawrence, KS area. Bold Innovations also conducted a secondary focus group with 12 male participants who are students at the University of Kansas between the ages of 18 and 22. Questions were open ended and moderators encouraged discussions between participants. The data collected is synthesized below highlighting the key points discussed among all focus group participants.

Although social impact companies are becoming more popular within the Millennial demographic, the majority of participants had never heard of the phrase “social impact company” and did not know about Red Dirt Shop before the focus group. After being told what a social impact company is, many respondents said that they would be more likely to make a purchase if some of the proceeds made a positive impact. One male participant said, “The good will factor [of a social impact company] wipes out any cognitive dissonance you have.” Millennials as a whole are a generation that genuinely wants to make a difference. Nearly all focus group participants said they would be more willing to purchase Red Dirt Shop products after learning about the company’s partnership with Water.org. Some respondents even said they would be willing to donate more than the five dollars that is included in the purchase price. When

asked what makes social impact companies stand out, A 24-year-old female participant said, “The company has a purpose behind.” This theme was strong in every focus group that was conducted. In addition to the positive reaction of the Red Dirt Shop mission, many young professional focus group participants also appreciated the inclusion of artistic design on the phone cases. The same female participant was excited that one of her favorite artists, Dolan Gelman, worked with Red Dirt Shop to design a phone case. She said that she would be more willing to buy his case because it is unlikely that she would be able to afford his artwork elsewhere. In contrast, younger focus group participants were not as interested in the artistic aspect of the Red Dirt Shop mission. Many participants between the ages of 20 and 22 said that because of their age they were not

as inclined to purchase art work or be aware of local artists. However, many students agreed that if a case were designed by one of their friends or another student at their university, they would be more willing to purchase the case. In general, participants showed more interest in the impact the company was making instead of a desire to buy the products. This was predominantly a reaction to the price of the phone cases. When asked how much money they would be willing to spend on a Red Dirt Phone case, many Millennial participants said they would not spend more than twenty-five dollars. Those who had steady jobs were more willing to purchase the case at a higher price but would rather do so if more money would be donated to the Water.org.

“Sleek and pleasing to the eye, the feel of it as well as the pattern, not something that I would get bored of, something...kind of like a piece of art....something I can have with me all the time, others can see me talking on the phone, I would be looking at and I can show to others “in a sense it’s a sense of pride, because it’s sort of an attachment to me.” -male participant, 21

Social Media As we have seen, the top three social media outlets are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In general, we found that women use Pinterest frequently as a way to stay up to date on fashion and style trends. In contrast, men felt more comfortable using Twitter because of its concise nature and short response time. In most focus groups, participants said they use their phones to access these media platforms in addition to checking email and texting. When asked what they are most likely to use their phone for, a male participantw responded, “I live on my phone. I text, surf the Internet, record video, have music, take pictures and check email.” Students and young professionals alike value personal connections through social media and commonly post product recommendations and reviews on their profiles. Almost all participants agreed that word-of-mouth is the most common way they hear about new products. They also usually post something to their Facebook profiles in order to let others know about their experience with the new product.

“I live on my phone. I text, surf the web, record video, have music, take pictures and check email.” -male focus group participant

Phone Case Preferences Although social media use is exceptionally high among Millennial participants, the majority explained that they do not respond positively to online advertisements. Most said they pass over online ads and only engage with them if discounts or coupons are being offered. Many participants explained that they use Facebook in their spare time and don’t necessarily pay attention to what they are seeing. Participant B (male, 25 years old) explained, “When you first start with Facebook you get really used to it, but after a while, you start skimming over it – you become desensitized to it.” According to our primary focus group research, the majority of participants said that posting on social media more than once a day is too much and less than once a week is too little. In general, all participants agreed that online engagement is key when connecting with new customers.

In almost every focus group conducted, durability was noted as one of the top characteristics participants look for when choosing a phone case. This was closely followed by the design and size of the case. Most participants said they would spend between $30 and $60 for a phone case that was highly protective and would last for a long time. When asked what type of phone case design they look for, Participant B responded, “it’s not about the design, it’s about protecting the investment you spent your money on.” This sentiment was especially strong among the male focus group participants. The majority of men who participated in a focus group used more protective phone cases like Belkin, OtterBox and Speck while the women were more likely to have smaller more design orientated phone cases. Participant C, who had a geometric pattern design on her current phone case, explained that when she looks for cases she looks for a design that relates to her that she will not get bored of seeing

every day. She said, “In a way it is about a sense of pride because it’s [her phone case] a sort of attachment to me.” Many women echoed this sentiment in other focus groups. When purchasing a phone case, participants were evenly split when asked about deciding to make a purchase in a brick and mortar store versus online. Some participants explained that they do their research online and then go into the store to purchase the physical phone case. Many participants said they bought their case when and where they bought their phone because it was convenient and available immediately. When asked how often they purchase a phone case, many participants said they buy a new case when they get a new phone or when their previous case breaks. Women were more likely than men to have multiple phone cases that they switch depending on style, design and season.

Durability was noted as one of the top characteristics participants look for when choosing a phone case.

Women were more likely than men to have multiple phone cases that they switch depending on style, design and season.

GENDER DIFFERENCES

As may be expected, there are some slight differences between customer preferences and engagement based on gender, particularly for Millennials. Women are more active on a variety of social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat. Men have these accounts, but are less active on all of the platforms other than Facebook and Twitter. According to our focus group research, women are more comfortable being contacted by companies on multiple platforms. Men, however, prefer to be contacted by phone, email or Facebook message, Most of the women we spoke to were also more willing to spend more on their phone cases than the men, particularly when viewing the Red Dirt Shop phone cases. However there were a few instances in which the men were willing to spend far more on their phone cases. The extra money spent was for high levels of durabil-

ity and protection or if they believed it had a “cool” gadget attached such as a bottle opener. The men would also pay more for phone cases with a battery pack and extra storage. Otherwise, majority of our male focus group participants claimed they would not spend more than $25 on a Red Dirt Shop phone case, while the women in our focus group averaged around $35. However, when compared with the survey results it is a bit easier to evaluate the price point these consumers are willing to pay. Here are the price ranges our survey participants claimed they were willing to pay for a phone case: • 30.5% would spend $20-29 • 20.6% would spend $10-19 • 20.4% would spend $30-39 • 11.5% would spend $40-49

When we compared the survey results based on gender, we found that in general the women were willing to spend more money on the phone cases than the men, but the difference was not statistically significant. However, it is important to note that there was a statistically significant difference in the number of women who would purchase the Giraffes phone case designed by Brian Okecha than men after learning that Okecha is a young boy affected by the water crisis. Sixty-four point six percent of the women survey respondents agreed that they would be more likely to purchase the case and only 35.3 percent of men surveyed claimed they would. This may indicate that Red Dirt Shop should focus on providing a story when marketing their items because consumers will feel a deeper connection and be more interested in owning the phone case.

The men were also more interested in discounts and coupons and many of the male participants claimed they would be more willing to consider purchasing a Red Dirt Shop phone case if they received a coupon or were buying the phone case for a friend or family member. As far as phone case design and style went, our male focus group participants all agreed that the top three features that affected their purchase decision were the level of protection and durability, the price, and the sleek, simple style.

The women were varied in their preferences of phone case style. Many of them varied based on how much protection they needed. If they cared about having a highly durable case, then the design mattered less. If they were less concerned with the protection level, then the women purchased phone cases more frequently based on the style and feel of the case. These women preferred the more colorful and creative designs or those that were specific enough to their own personalities. Those women interested in design who frequently change their phone case are better aligned with Red Dirt Shop’s products. There are a few other points that came up during our focus group discussion that Red Dirt Shop may want to consider. First, many of the younger demographics, particularly the male college students, were less interested in social causes than the young professionals.

However, it is important to note that our survey results showed more interest in social causes and most Millennials are interested in being socially aware, as our research above states. Therefore some of these opinions may be due to the college students’ lack of funds and focus on their own personal lives. Though when we evaluated the social consciousness of our survey participants based on gender, we found that there were two gender differences that were statistically significant. The first is that women rated the statement “I think the global water crisis is an important issue” as more important than the men did. On a scale of one to five, the women’s mean score was 4.04 and the men’s mean score was 3.84 (five being most important). The women also rated the statement “social impact companies make an important contribution to the improvement of society” as more true than

the men (women’s mean score was 3.76 and men’s mean score was 3.42). This information indicates that women may be more likely to buy Red Dirt Shop products due to the connection to the water crisis than men, but part of this may also be based on age and income. In conclusion, our research indicates that Red Dirt Shop’s products are more aligned with female preferences and product purchase decisions. Majority of the men we spoke with were more interested in purchasing a Red Dirt Shop shirt or buying the phone cases as a gift for their mothers, girlfriends, sisters, etc. We will discuss these target segments and the strategies Red Dirt Shop should consider to market to them in other target audience on page 41.

GENDER DIFFERENCES KEY FINDINGS

WHAT WOMEN WANT

WHAT MEN WANT

• • • •

Less protection, more design based Colorful, creative, unique designs More socially aware/conscious Showed more concern for global water crisis • More likely to think that social impact companies make a positive impact on society

• • • • • • •

Durability Simple design “Cool” gadgets/features Lower price Protection Sleekness Less interested in social causes

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“Needs to be sleek, sexy & fit in my pocket.” Male Focus Group Participant, 20 years old

“If I like the product and believe in the organization, I will spend more, but I need to know them and whether they’re credible and know that the money actually goes to a good cause.” Male Focus Group Participant, 21 years old

“Red Dirt is a total inspiration. Their socially driven business was inspired by a trip to Africa and brings art and social entrepreneurship together in a really unique way. Red dirt sells phone cases with message inspired art and gives part of their proceeds to fund clean water in Africa. You’ve got to check this startup out.” Female Facebook Testimonial

Target Audiences The “Mark and Melissas” (Art Enthusiasts)

The “Katies”

(Frequent Users)

• More likely to aware of local art scene and have a favorite artist. • Influenced by popular trends among college students. • Prefer to buy local products. • Influence each other and share new findings. • Melissa finds social cause worth while. • They are less likely to buy than the ‘Katie’s,” but willing to buy if they see a design by their favorite artist.

• Young adult and employed full time. • Loves bright designs and new fashion trends. • Buys products after hearing about them from her friends. • Spends about $50-$100/month on accessories. • Shops by finding deals online. • Purchases phone cases every three months. • More concerned with design and style of case over its durability. • More likely to impulse buy for a cases’ design than other consumers.

The “Susies” (Current Market)

The “Joshes” (Male Gifters)

• Lacks a desire to purchase a fun and artsy phone case for himself. • Believes that it is a unique and interesting gift that he would buy for many of his friends and family, particularly females. • Young professional willing to spend more money on gifts than the average college student.

• Women age 35+. • Beginning or already have families. • Carry everything in their purse, including phones so durable case is not necessary. • Want design to reflect personality. • Care about the cause. • Will purchase products for friends and family. • Will share product preferences by wordof-mouth or on personal social media pages. Millenials specifically in Kansas City, Lawrence, Denver, Austin and Chicago are the primary targets for this campaign. Bold Innovations is focusing on three subsections of Millenials and Red Dirt Shop’s current predominant market. We found in our research that these were the most likely audiences that will purchase products from Red Dirt Shop. Our segmentation of the target audience is as follows: The Katies, who are frequent users, employed and young adults; the Joshes who are the male gifters; the Mark and Melissas, the art enthusiasts; and the Susies, 35+ mothers eager to share the Red Dirt Shop products with friends and 41 family. “Susie” stock photo from http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/10236

Connect Your World

“ Creative Strategies

Gifters

Follow Your Dollar

The creative strategy for Red Dirt Shop will consist of three mini campaigns: Follow Your Dollar, Gifters and Red Dirt Shop Student Spotlight Contest. In addition we are recommending an email campaign to attract new customers and strengthen loyalty of repeat customers, a product line expansion to include full totes bags, more festival engagement and the inclusion of brand ambassadors in organizational structure of the company. All three of these campaigns will fall under the creative message, “Connect Your World.” The thinking behind the phrase Connect Your World lies in the desire to connect people with each other and spread awareness about issues affecting our peers all over the world as well as promoting Red Dirt Shop and raising their brand consciousness. We want our audience to feel the urge to help those in need and to see the bigger picture; by purchasing a Red Dirt Shop product, consumers really are making a difference in someone’s life.

Artist Spotlight Video

RDS Student Spotlight

Brand Ambassadors

Product Expansion

Festival Engagement

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Follow Your Dollar (July 27 – September 28, 2014)

The Follow Your Dollar campaign will be conducted primarily on social media leading up to a 5k walk that represents the distance the average person living in Africa without water must walk to have access to clean drinking water. Throughout the campaign, we will predominantly utilize Twitter and Facebook to spread awareness. Any customer who makes a purchase from Red Dirt Shop will receive an updated personalized email featuring a photo of a water well or a person who was directly impacted by the donation made by Red Dirt Shop. The email will have specific statistics that show the consumer that their purchase is helping make a positive change for such a devastating issue. They will be customized and tell a story of a family who was able to obtain clean water thanks to a donation given by Red Dirt Shop. This will be considered the customer’s “connection” and they will be

encouraged to share their connection on the social media accounts as a part of the Follow Your Dollar campaign with their #followyourdollar and #connectyourworld. Red Dirt Shop will spend the months of May, June and July collecting testimonials and photographs to be used in the email thank you letters. Social media posts during the campaign will also encourage people to do something good with their dollars and post videos and pictures of the good deeds being carried out.

Desired Reach 1,000 Frequency 1 – 2 times per week, thirty days prior to walk increase frequency to four times per week Gross impressions 1,000

#followyourdollar #connectyourworld

Social Media Outreach According to the Facebook analytics from Red Dirt Shop Facebook page, posts that are image and contest based drive more conversation and have greater reach than other text heavy posts. We will implement this same strategy throughout the Follow Your Dollar campaign. Thirty days prior to the Follow Your Dollar 5k Walk, Red Dirt Shop will post four times per week specifically about the event. Posts will include links to the registration page on the Red Dirt Shop website. Twitter outreach will be similar to Facebook engagement. During the Follow Your Dollar campaign, Red Dirt Shop will tweet 2-3 times per day with at least one of those tweets pushing content specifically about the Follow Your Dollar Campaign. Like the Facebook engagement, thirty days prior to the 5K Walk, tweets about the event will be posted two times per day.

Follow Your Dollar 5k Walk September 28, 2014

The Follow Your Dollar 5k Walk will take place on Sept. 28th, 2014 from 9am-1pm. Set up will begin that morning at 7am and clean up/tear down will be completed by 3pm. Registration fee for the walk will be $20 for adults and $15 for children 12 years of age or younger, this fee will include a custom Follow Your Dollar 5K Walk t-shirt. Pre-registration will close on September 14th. Interested participants will still have the option to register the day of the walk for $25 (for adults and children) but will not be guaranteed a t-shirt. Five dollars of every registration fee will be donated to Water.org to remain consistant with the overall mission of Red Dirt Shop. The walk will be highly promoted via social and print media in Lawrence and Kansas City. The Thursday before pre-registration closes, on September 11th, a print ad will run in News About Lawrence Events section in the University Daily Kansan, which is the fourth most frequently read section of the entire paper. The

Kansas City Star websites reaches more than 3.8 million unique visitors delivering 29 million page views a month. For this reason, we think posting an online advertisement on Kansascity.com would be beneficial to reach the audience we are targeting in the Kansas City area. The week before the 5K event, an advertisement will run on Kansascity.com. As our primary focus is Lawrence, we do not need to budget for a print advertisement in Kansas City. Budget allocations for these advertisements will be discussed later in this report on page 72. It will also be the responsibility of the two Brand Ambassadors to spread awareness about the event to local businesses and communities. This can be done by handing out flyers in highly populated areas, by hosting events on campus at the University of Kansas and by working with different on-campus organizations like the Panhellenic Association and Interfraternal Council. The Follow Your Dollar 5K Walk should be the primary focus of the Brand Ambassadors position

during the months of August and September. Brand Ambassadors will also be responsible for organizing the entertainment for the event. We recommend that they contact local bands, food vendors and entertainers to perform and set up booths for the event. All paperwork necessary for reservation of the park, and permit to sell food and products can be found in the appendix, Red Dirt Shop will also have a booth set up with phone cases and t-shirts for sale along with an iPad displaying all of the options available for purchase on the website. This model will be very similar to the booth set up that will be used for the Taste of Colorado event in Denver. Please see appendix for all mock ups regarding this campagin.

RACE FOLLOW UP After the event, we recommend that Red Dirt Shop send an email to all participants and attendees thanking them for their participation â&#x20AC;˘ Follow up email sent two weeks after 5k including: a thank you, loved seeing you, follow Red Dirt Shop; also check out RDS spotlight â&#x20AC;˘ One month after that roll out email campaign for new product line - tote bags

Race Route Volunteers The walk will start at the William Kelly Bandstand in South Park. The course will be as follows:

Volunteers should be stationed at several intersections to ensure the runners are safely through the intersection: 11th Street to 7th Street on Massachusetts (4) Per intersection (2) can be used if necessary.

- The runners will stage in the 1100 block of Massachusetts Street - The runners will start at North Park on Massachusetts Street - The runners will travel north on Massachusetts Street to 7th Street - The runners will travel south on New Jersey to 11th Street - The runners will travel east on 11th Street to the Burroughs’ Trail, past Oregon Street - The runners will travel south on Burroughs’ Trail to 15th Street - The runners will travel west on 15th Street to Massachusetts Street - The runners will travel north on Massachusetts Street to the finish on the 1100 block of Massachusetts Street. Barricades for traffic control:

• 16th and Massachusetts (2) barricades blocking northbound traffic (outside lane) • 15th and Massachusetts (2) barricades blocking eastbound traffic • 15th and Massachusetts (2) barricades blocking westbound • traffic • 14th and Massachusetts (2) barricades blocking westbound traffic • 14th and Massachusetts (2) barricades blocking westbound traffic • 13th and Massachusetts (2) barricades blocking westbound traffic • 13th and Massachusetts (2) barricades blocking westbound traffic • South Park and Massachusetts (3) barricades blocking southbound traffic • Barricades on New Hampshire Street at East 7th Street forcing all southbound traffic west onto E. 7th Street. • Barricades at 8th and New Hampshire street blocking all northbound New Hampshire street traffic

Traffic Cones

• Traffic cones will be placed on the lane line separating the two northbound lanes on Massachusetts Street between 15th Street and the Finish Line adjacent to South Park. The outside (east) lane will be coned off and reserved for runners coming off of 15th Street to head north. • Cones and barricades must be immediately removed at the termination of the race.

• 7th and New Hampshire Street (4) HAND HELD STOP SIGNS • 7th and Rhode Island (2) • 7th and Connecticut (2) • 7th and New York (2) • 7th and New Jersey (2) • 8th and New Jersey (2) • 11th and Pennsylvania (2) • 11th and Delaware (2) • 11th and Oregon (2) • 11th and run path (2) • 13th and run path Free Standing Signs 3X5 signs approximately 200 feet east and west of path “ Caution Runners Ahead” HAND HELD STOP SIGNS • 15th and run path (4) (Free Standing Signs 3X5 signs approximately 200 feet east and west of path “ Caution Runners Ahead” HAND HELD STOP SIGN • 14th and Mass Street (4) HAND HELD STOP SIGNS • 15th and Maryland (2) • 15th and Delaware (2) • 15th and Pennsylvania (2) • 15th and New Jersey(2)

• • • • • •

15th and Leanard (4) 15th and New York (2) 15th and Rhode Island (2) 15th and New Hampshire (2) 15th and Massachusetts (6) (48) Volunteers needed for the race route. 5 minutes prior to start of race the following locations should have barricades and cones placed by race staff: • Barricades on New Hampshire Street at E. 7th Street forcing all southbound traffic west onto E. 7th Street. • Barricades at 8th and New Hampshire Street blocking all northbound New Hampshire Street traffic • Volunteers should be easily identifiable and wearing safety vest or safety shirts.

Email Campaign “Connecting Your Friends” Email campaigns are a simple way to stay connected with your current customers and generate new customers. Red Dirt Shop already has a list of people for its newsletters, but Bold Innovations believes Red Dirt Shop should further its use of email. Email campaigns can be generated to send to particular groups of consumers, such as festivalgoers or just those who have purchased an item in the last month. They can also be used to increase followers just as social media is commonly used. Part of this comes with developing a proper consumer relationship management system, such as through companies like Nimble or Batchbook. These types of CRM programs can track purchases by various consumers, the frequency of these purchases, times of year, and other patterns. Some of this information can also be tracked using website coding which is relatively simple to do through Google Analytics. Throughout the plansbook and various campaigns we have outlined, Bold Innovations has provided a few examples of how to expand Red Dirt Shop’’s use of email lists. However, as part of goal one, Bold Innovations has created a pure email campaign whose main purpose is to increase the number of people Red Dirt Shop reaches and to create stronger connections with current customers. We recommend that if Red Dirt Shop continues to use email campaigns, it should create a paid account with companies like Emfluence. Emfluence is an email marketing company that provides its clients with a representa-

tive who can help explain what type of email campaigns can be run and helps organize the email campaigns for Red Dirt Shop. If Red Dirt Shop would rather attempt to manage the email campaigns on their own, MailChimp and Constant Contact are easy-to-use platforms that help generate email campaigns. All of our email mock-ups were generated using MailChimp. The other aspect of using these email marketing online platforms is that many of them have trackable aspects to their campaigns which can help Red Dirt Shop determine which campaigns are more successful and which followers it should reach out to more frequently or eliminate from its list.

Execution For our email campaign in July, Red Dirt Shop should create an email that they send out to the following target markets: • anyone who has purchased a Red Dirt Shop product within the previous six months • anyone on Red Dirt Shop’s newsletter list. The email will encourage the recipients to share the story of Red Dirt Shop and persuade their friends to purchase a product from Red Dirt Shop as well. It will provide a promotional code that can be shared with friends and will give both the email recipient (current customers) and the friends they share it with (new customers) 20 percent off their next

product. The current customers will only get 20 percent off if one of their friends, who must be a new customer, purchases a product. The code can only be used by the same person once. This will all be verified using the email recipients’ personal email. When the individual using the promotional code (whether a new customer or the current customer) enters the code, they will be prompted for the email of the person who gave them the code. Promotional codes will not go through unless the email listed is one on the list server used for the email campaign. Furthermore, it will be made clear to the current customers that their promotional code cannot be used until a new customer uses the code and lists the email upon making a new purchase. Please see the full range of mockup email in . When July Who Current customers + potential customers/followers How Email current customers with a promotional opportunity based on their sharing the story and media sites for Red Dirt Shop and earning Red Dirt Shop new customers. Using MailChimp (free) or Emfluence (paid account with a representative). Please see appendix for all mock ups of this campaign. 53

Why you should use email to connect • Email ROI in 2012 was $28.50; the highest of any direct marketing medium • Drove $67.8 billion in sales in 2012 (DMA, 2012) • 39.4 percent of marketeres reported that email delivered their strongest ROI (Datran Media Survey, 2010) • Average email click through rate equals 5 percent • Worldwide email accounts expected to increase from 3.2 billion in 2012 to 3.6 billion in 2013 • Your current market of women ages 34+ uses email

(Source: eMarketer)

(Sourcce: Blogspot)

source: socially stacked

Gifters Campaign

November 17-December 25, 2014

Our research shows that Red Dirt Shop products are a favorable gift for women. Men in our focus groups said they would be more willing to purchase a Red Dirt Shop product as a gift for the women in their lives (mothers, sisters, significant others, etc.). Additionally, the buzz generated around Red Dirt Shop during holidays and gifting seasons like Valentineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day is high on social media. According to Red Dirt Shopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Facebook analytics, when the Valentineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day phone case design was released on February 10, 2014, there were a life time post total reach of 7,788. Of this number, 516 were organic reach meaning there was no advertisement cost in order to gain these impressions. This post was one of the highest organic reach posts of the Monday design release posts.

effortless is a top priority for brands. This is why we recommend that Red Dirt Shop make themselves more active on all social media outlets to drive traffic to their page in an effortless way. Holiday shopping specifically has become more digital than ever. In 2013, sixty-three percent of holiday shoppers did a majority of their shopping online (Media Bistro). Additionally, 40 percent of shoppers used Facebook and Twitter to interact with brands. This research shows the importance of creating an online social media campaign that engages consumers digitally rather than through traditional print media.

will feature spotlighted Red Dirt Shop products in addition to a variety of digital advertisements. Please see appendix for all mock ups of this campaign.

According to the LivePerson Holiday eCommerce 2012 Survey, 51 percent of shoppers will do the majority of their holiday shopping during the month of November. The survey Millennials specifically are considered al- released by LivePerson also indicated pha influencers when it comes to shop- that 75 percent of holiday shoppers ping trends. The digital drive of Miluse Facebook in order to find dislennials is affecting the way brands are counts and coupons for their shopping creating their gifting campaigns. More endeavours. We will begin the gifters emphasis is being put on digital market- campaign on November 17th to draw ing as opposed to traditional advertise- in early-bird shoppers. These advertisements. Additionally, brands that intements will be posted on the Red Dirt grate multiple media outlets and daily Shop Facebook page. A portion of the deals are more likely to resonate with budget will be allocated to boosting Millennial gift purchasers. The attemt posts in order to promote the gifters to make the gift buying experience campaign. A majority of these posts

We recommend that Red Dirt Shop post about the gifter campaign (advertisements, promo codes, awareness updates, etc.) three times per week with one of those posts being a paid boosted advertisement. It is important to note that these posts will be occurring at the same time as the standard Red Dirt Shop Facebook posts that simply raise awareness and connect to the already loyal audience. Once a week, the boosted

How often to post

FACEBOOK

advertisements will feature a promotional code that offers a discount of 20 percent off a Red Dirt Shop product for the next week. These promotional codes will be offered on November 17th, December 1st, December 8th, December 15th and December 22nd. There will be redemption limit of 75 products per promotional code. We also recommend that Red Dirt Shop incorporate a tab onto the top bar of the website that indicates which phones are top sellers. This link will include the most sold, the most viewed and the most recently purchased phone cases. Our focus group indicated that men are more likely to go directly to a sale, top sellers or clearance tab on a website when picking out a gift.

(Colloson, 2014)

RDS Student Spotlight

Ampersand Design Studio Ampersand Design Studio got involved with Red Dirt Shop in 2010. As another professional female duo in Kansas City, the founders of Red Dirt Shop, Taylor and Eldridge, sought out Ampersand Design Studio to contribute a design of theirs for a phone case. This video will discuss their design style and process as well as how they learned about Red Dirt Shop and why they chose to participate. This video will be used to promote Red Dirt Shop and the Ampersand Design Studio to the Kansas City and Lawrence populations. The video could also be sent to more artists who could potentially become involved in the company. This will help us achieve our campaign goal of creating a Red Dirt Shop community with the objective of strengthening reach within the Kansas City area so that 50 percent or more of sales come from within the Kansas City area.

WHEN

Open to submissions between Monday, September 22, 2014 to Friday, October 24, 2014

WHERE

Red Dirt Shop official Facebook page

HOW

To submit a design for the competition, particiapants must both “like” the Red Dirt Shop Facebook page and post their design on the page with the #RDSspotlight as well as send their design to Red Dirt Shop’s email RDSspotlight@gmail.com using a valid KU email address. Red Dirt Shop will select three finalists and will then post them on the official Facebook page. Viewers may then “like” or share the posts.

DETAILS

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Legal paragraph at bottom of flyer in appendix: All participants must be willing to relinquish ownership rights of the design to Red Dirt Shop for product use. RedDirt Shop reserves the right to remove any work that is obscene, inappropriate and/or lude, according to Red Dirt Shop’s values. To submit a design for the competition, participants must both “like” the Red Dirt Shop official Facebook page (and maintain that like for at least the duration of the competition) and post their design on the page with the #RDSspotlight. Students must also email their designs to RDSspotlight@gmail.com from their verified KU email otherwise they will not be entered into the competition. Red Dirt Shop will select three finalists and post them on the official Facebook page. Likes count for 1 point and shares count for 2 points. Likes and shares will only be counted from the finalist’s post on the Red Dirt Shop’s page . The winner will be the finalist with the most points. Winners will receive $100 prize and their artwork will be displayed on RDS products, as determined by the RDS company. Any participants who do not submit to the rules and regulaions, as determined by RDS, will be diaqualified. All designs must be submitted by October 24th at midnight (CST) to be valid. All shares and lieks must be done by Friday, November 7th, 2014 at midnight (CST). Red Dirt Shop will announce the winnter of the competition on Monday, November 10th, 2014 by 12:00 p.m.

A chance for KU students to get their artwork featured on a phonecase. By using the #connectyourworld theme to create a unique piece of art work to add to the Red Dirt Shop collection creates an opportunity for Red Dirt Shop to establish a name with students at the University of Kansas. Hosting the campaign using social media will help Red Dirt Shop build their followers, as well as utilize shares and likes to pick the winner of their next artist design.

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Artist Spotlight

Please see appendix for all mock ups of this campaign.

Tote Bag Product Line Expansion Red Dirt Shop already has a strong hand in the artistic phone case market, but Bold Innovations believes that they have another unique product line just waiting to be utilized. The bags that are made by women in Mali, West Africa are a creative and appealing designed product that based on our focus groups and other research we believe would be a profitable new product line, if expanded. Therefore, we propose that Red Dirt Shop work with the women in Mali to generate the bags in a larger tote bag form. Red Dirt Shop should continue to package the phone cases in the smaller bags as we found those play an important, aesthetically appealing role.

In our focus groups, we found that when we showed the bag with the phone case, we received just as many questions about the design of the bag as we did about the phone cases. Some of our participants were even more interested in the bags themselves. When we asked what other products the participants would be willing to purchase from Red Dirt Shop, one participant mentioned bags as an option. As we questioned whether the bags in a larger form would qualify as a product they would want, majority of the women said yes they would consider purchasing the bags

“The bag is appealing to an artsy crowd; the way things are packaged makes a difference.” -Female participant, mid-20s. However, the new tote bags would appeal to customers in a new way and Red Dirt Shop could encourage more cross-selling purchases between the phone case, t-shirts, and tote bags.

designed by the women in Mali. They even said they would be interested in the bags if they had the same artistic print as those of the most popular phone case designs.

Therefore, we propose that Red Dirt Shop start off with a line of tote bags with three different designs by the women in Mali. We outlined in the timeline that Red Dirt Shop will release a teaser advertisement for the new product line on October 6th. The three new tote bag designs should be officially released and open for purchase on October 13th. These new lines should be heavily promoted on social media, the website and via email. For pricing we based it on the focus group comments, research from companies like Toms (no tote bags, but journals sell for $36), Society6 ($22 per tote bag), and Urban Outfitters ($40-50 per tote bag) and we considered the brand equity of each of these companies. These companies matter because they either have a similar social cause connection, are considered a top competitor of Red Dirt Shop or they target the same type of millennial market. Based on all of this information and our assumption that since the current bags cost about 35 cents each and a larger form would likely cost up to $5. We believe that Red

Dirt Shop tote bags would be better comparatively priced at $25 ($30 maximum) including another $5 donation to Water.org.

more money on it after they heard the story about it.

Red Dirt Shop should incorporate information about this more throughout its site, almost as frequently as it does with the Water.org connecThe other aspect of this tion. One of the sliders on the homepage should product line we would like to be about the bags. There should be a paragraph note involves Red Dirt Shop’s about it on the “Our Story” section, and Red Dirt Furthermore, as discussed in website and promotion of Shop should create two new web pages. The first the primary research section, the work it does with these web page will be a secondary level of the website women in Mali, West Africa. Bold Innovations found that and will be titled “Trendy for Change.” This page Many of our more socially connecting a social cause to will be similar to the “Thirsty for Change” page conscious focus group partici- but specific to the bags. The second webpage will a company’s products does pants were highly interested encourage some consumers be a tertiary level of the entire website; it will be in the work that Red Dirt to purchase from the comtitled “Get to Know: Our West African Designpany. This was particularly true Shop did with these women. ers.” This page will be similar to the “Artists” page for the women, which are the However, these bags and Red but specific to the women from West Africa. The Dirt Shop’s connection with exact segment we believe mockups of these webpages are shown in appenthese women is not typically dix pages.To help promote this new product line would be more interested highlighted on their website or we have also created an email to be sent out on in purchasing the tote bags. These tote bags are similar to social media. The main state- October 6th. Furthermore, we believe Red Dirt the story of David Okecha in ment made about this is on Shop should offer to double their Water.org dothe “faqs” page which states: that they relate to a person nation from the tote bags for their first month of positively affected by Red Dirt release. This would encourage consumers to buy Shop and both tell a story the product right away and spread word about “Do you employ people living in developing that will create an emotional the new product line instantly. If this model becommunities? connection to the consumcomes successful and sufficient tote bag sales ocers. Our survey research also cur in the future, we recommend that the prices We sure do! And we hope to highlighted the effect that con- continue to do so exponenof the current phone cases decrease. Majority of necting a story to the product tially because we believe in the our research indicated that consumers would be had on the purchase decision more willing to purchase the phone cases if they dignity of a hand-up rather than a hand-out. When you receive for the consumers. As it menwere less expensive. If the tote bags create a a Red Dirt case, it will arrive in tioned, the consumers (parhigh enough profit margin, then Bold Innovations a cloth bag made lovingly for ticularly women) were more believes decreasing the phone case price could you by a Red Dirt tailor living interested in both purchasing be manageable and please Red Dirt Shop’s target in Mali, West Africa. Thanks for see appendix for all mock ups of this the product and spending markets. Please 61 helping give them a job!” campaign.

Brand Ambassadors

HOW At the end of May, Red Dirt Shop should reach out to the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications and The School of Business at the University of Kansas to connect with students about the opportunity to be a Brand Ambassador. In future years, Red Dirt Shop should have a presence at the University and targeted careers fairs to highlight the opportunities available at Red Dirt Shop. As a student ambassador, students will put on Red Dirt Shop events once a month. An event could be as simple as tabling at the Kansas Union on Jayhawk Boulevard for a few hours or working hand-in-hand with another campus organization to raise awareness of

Red Dirt Shop and the water crisis as well as increase sales of Red Dirt Shop products. These events will be publicized by the ambassador running his or her own social media pages specific to the KU Red Dirt Shop â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;chapter.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; In addition, ambassadors will be responsible for posting the appropriate amount of social media content related to Red Dirt Shop campaigns and general activity. This includes retweets, Facebook shares and likes. A monthly meeting with Taylor and Eldridge will be required to guage the success of specific events and plan out promotional tactics for upcoming campaigns. Creating an account with companies like Radian6 or Topsy will allow Brand Ambassadors to locate influential bloggers

that could strengthen the reach within a new audience. Blog posts should continue to be written by Taylor and Eldridge because it is important for customers to feel like they have a relationship with the people behind the brand. There should also be room for guest bloggers to contribute (we suggest reaching out to Water.org). We believe that by creating a strong social media presence the brand awareness of Red Dirt Shop will increase exponentially, which is the overarching goal of the entire Connect Your World campaign.

WHY According to research, Brand Ambassadors are essential for creating and maintaining relationships with customers (Turchetti, 2012). By having a face in the local area, Red Dirt Shop would be able to engage more frequently with college students and other Millennials. Targeting Millennials in the Lawrence area will be more effective with student Brand Ambassadors because they understand the lifestyle and purchasing habits of people similar to their age.

Music and Art Festivals As previously mentioned throughout this report, the Connect Your World campaign plans to expand into Denver, Austin and Chicago with the initial focus being on Lawrence and Kansas City. One way to reach customers in other cities is by attending music and art focused events that host the type of audience – specifically the “Marks and Melissas” – most likely to purchase a Red Dirt Shop product. Millennials as a whole are becoming more invested in music and art festivals because it allows them to express themselves creatively while enjoying each other’s company. Millennials also place high value on shared experiences so brands that are able to partake in the experience WITH Millennials typically have more staying power for the Millennial mindset customer. According to a 2013 survey released by JWT Intelligence, 72 percent of Millennials increasingly crave experiences that stimulate their senses and 81 percent of Millennials value experiences more than material items. This research leads us to believe that by participating in music and art festivals Red Dirt Shop will be able to connect with

consumers on a sensory level that will ultimately form a deeper connection with the brand and create stronger brand loyalty. The cultural diversity and attention to the arts make Denver a prime expansion city for Red Dirt Shop. Additionally, Colorado has the second most Red Dirt Shop artists - behind California. In 2012, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said, “The arts are a huge component of Denver’s appeal. We all know that a smart city needs a diverse economy in order to thrive and that includes a robust culture sector.” (Collison, 2014) There are dozens of music, art and culinary festivals happening in Denver throughout the year. We suggest that Red Dirt Shop take part in the 2014 Taste of Colorado event from August 29 – September 1, 2014. This event would generate awareness and sales in the Denver market and would successfully expand the Red Dirt Shop presence to new cities. On average, there are 500,000 attendees annually and over $500,000 spent in promotional advertising for the event itself. This year, there are approximately 275 booth spaces

available for a variety of different exhibits ranging from fine art displays to home and good vendors. Hosting a booth displaying phone cases and t-shirts is a great way to reach a new audience. Festivalgoers will have the option to purchase a phone case at the booth or they can order a case or t-shirt online via an iPad that will be set up at the booth. The booth will be prepped with 200 phone cases and 100 t-shirts available for immediate purchase but guests will also have the option to scroll through a digital display of the additional products available on the Red Dirt Shop website while at the tent. All immediate transactions will take place at the booth with the Square credit card reader. This is an external device that allows small businesses to accept credit card payments anywhere. There is a 2.75 percent fee on all transactions per swipe that includes the cost of any additional credit card fees. All payments are then sent to a previously determined bank account within 1-2 business days.

Participation in the Taste of Colorado Event will allow both Taylor and Eldridge to not only expand their reach to a new city but to also personally build relationships with potential customers. Two weeks after the event, a personal email will be sent to every attendee that stopped by the Red Dirt Shop booth. This is a way to ensure top of mind awareness and the potential to generate repeat sales. We expect that this will lead to a huge increase in sales in the Denver market by the end of September 2014.

First Fridays, Kansas City

Reach – 500,000 festival attendees ROI - Assuming you sell 80 percent of the phone cases brought to the festival and all transactions are completed through the Square, you will make $5,920 in profits and $3,040 in revenue

We recommend that Red Dirt Shop continue participating in First Fridays in the Crossroads district of downtown Kansas City. First Fridays takes place in the Crossroads Art District on the first Friday of every month. Galleries stay open from 7-9pm and local restaurants and bars offer specials that draw in huge crowds. There is no fee to set up a booth in the Crossroads District. The only requirement is that vendors obtain permission from store fronts to set up in front of their shop. We recommend that Red Dirt Shop set up a booth on Baltimore Street between 18th and 20th Street as these are highly populated areas throughout the course of the night.

Proposed budget for Taste of Colorado event Booth rental - $925 Travel cost – roughly $1,000 (driving and hotel costs) Credit card fees (square) - $100 (if all 200 cases sold by credit card) for phone cases

Kansas City is another great venue to reach a Millennial audience. Since 2009, the Kansas City population of people ages 25-34 has grown each year by an average of 2,200 people. A huge reason for this is because Kansas City is becoming a hub for young adults who are seeking an urban vibe, easy public transportation and vibrant arts and music scene. In an article for the business section of the Kansas City Star, 35-year-old Chel O’Reilly said, “I love it that there is a great arts scene in Kansas City, the Charlotte Street Foundation and First Fridays is amazing. These are things I like to show off to people (Collison, 2014).” This is just one example of how Kansas City is a great place to expand reach to the art enthusiast target market. More specifically, the arts scene in Kansas City makes it an ideal location for Red Dirt Shop, which is predominantly and arts based company. Please see appendix for mock ups of this campaign.

The booth will be set up equipped with phone cases and t-shirts available for immediate sale along with an iPad display of all options on the website. This layout will be very similar to what will take place in Denver in the Taste of Colorado event. However, for First Fridays, Red Dirt Shop will only need to bring fifty cases and 25 t-shirts to sell at the booth. We believe it is important for Red Dirt Shop to have a presence at First Fridays every month throughout the Connect Your World campaign. 65

Media Strategies Overall Social Media Presence The majority of our mini campaigns will be taking place on social media outlets - predominantly Facebook and Twitter. Our research has shown that our target audiences rely on Facebook and Twitter as a primary resource to connect with brands and learn about discount promotions. Our audiences are also highly connected via mobile connections and use their smartphones during virtually every part of their day and are more often than not checking their email, Facebook and Twitter accounts. On top of the already recommended post topics for each campaign, Red Dirt Shop will also continuously post and tweet daily water conservation tips and encourage customers to share their experience with Red Dirt Shop online on their personal profile pages. Red Dirt Shop will also be an active participant in online discussions already focused on the water crisis and employment opportunities for people living in poverty in Africa. By utilizing consistent hashtags on social media Red Dirt Shop will be able to monitor and create conversations that have the potential to be seen by a larger audience. The hashtags Red Dirt Shop will promote are:

#goodsforgood #connectyourworld #RDSspotlight #thirstyforchange In order to maintain engagement Red Dirt Shop should follow these eight rules when posting to its social media pages: 1. Continue posting heavy image content to display new designs and pictures of Red Dirt Shop products. Larger photos typically get more likes so it is important to post high quality images that are larger than the average thumbnail photo. 2. Give shout outs to loyal customers people enjoy feeling like they are a part of the family instead of an outsider. 3. Employ like v. share contests. These type of contests generate a huge amount of reach because the drive is to constantly share content. These contests work by posting a picture and encouraging followers to like the image for one outcome and share the image for another. For example, Walmart recently used this tactic to engage audiences by asking people if they were going to commute to work by bike or car. Followers who drove were told to like the post

and followers who biked were told to share the post . 4. Use hashtags to engage viewers and to also organize what posts have high response rates and what posts do not. 5. Utilize current trends to generate buzz and engagement with your brand. Right now, Buzzfeed quizzes are littering Facebook and Twitter feeds. Using free websites like playbuzz.com will allow any brand to create a quiz that can be shared online. We recommend Red Dirt Shop create a â&#x20AC;&#x153;What Red Dirt Shop Design Are Youâ&#x20AC;? quiz to be boosted on Facebook and Twitter. 6. Determine the most efficient time to post updates by referring to Facebook and Twitter analytics. Both resources should detail when the most engaged viewers are more likely to visit the Red Dirt Shop page. 7. Upload videos to Facebook to catch viewers eye as they scroll through their feed

corporate a call to action that encourages viewers to take a stance on the water issue and purchase from a company that benefits others while providing a limited edition and one-of-a-kind product for the purchaser. Now that Video Marketing new designs are not being released every Monday, when a new artist crecause donors and the In addition to the ates a piece for Red Dirt current audience (The Artist Spotlight Video Shop they will also have campaigns, we will also Susies) who are more an artist spotlight created inclined to purchase create a stop motion about them. These videos from a social impact video that will be a quick and to-the-point company. At the end of will also be submitted to video connecting with the video there will be a outlets like Upworthy and call to action encourag- Buzzfeed. viewers on an emoing viewers to visit the tional level with the Red Dirt Shop website Research shows that intent of encouraging interactive videos have people to help make a to learn more and pura longer watch time for chase a product. Red difference and simply raise awareness about Dirt Shop will promote viewers than traditional advertisements. Accordthe stop motion and the water crisis. Since artist spotlight videos on ing to a study conducted the spotlight video is by Sizmeck, of the 84 all social media outlets. focusing on promotBoth videos will be used percent of interactive ing Red Dirt Shop, videos that were started an engagement tool to we wanted another by users, 50 percent were not only educate viewvideo focusing on the big picture that would ers about the water cri- played until at least the sis, but most importantly, middle of the video and be moving and inspir70 percent were watched to direct traffic to the ing to its viewers that Red Dirt Shop website all the way through the was also educational. end (eMarketer, 2014). This video will be used in order to increase sales. Our videos will in- This form of digital marto connect with pure 8. Create media schedules for all media pages to make sure you are connecting with as many viewers and followers as possible at the most efficient times (Hemley, 2013).

keting is one of the leading trends among the Millennial demographic. Research shows that Millennials respond positively to online non-traditional forms of advertising like video and interactive tweets and posts. As a result, we believe that our video marketing push will connect with a new audience that will prove to be beneficial to Red Dirt Shop. 1. Keep it short 2. Make it personal 3. Keep it authentic 4. Make it engaging 5. Allow space for viewer reactions 6. Give it a compelling title KEY WAYS TO MAKE VIDEO CONTENT GO VIRAL

Evaluating Connections

Timeline JUNE

JULY

SEPTEMBER

AUGUST

-RDS spotlight campaign begins August 25th

-Create a Nimble account by June 1st. -Develop one consistent brand image by June 1st -Gather testimonials for Follow Your Dollar campaign

OCTOBER

LONG TERM

-Tote bag line announcement October 6th -Tote bag line released on october 13th -Student artist spotlight submissions due October 24th

-Begin Brand Ambassador application process on July 1st and make a hire by July 31st -Increase twitter followers campaign

-Begin the Follow Your Dollar campaign on June 20th

NOVEMBER

-RDS spotlight winner announced on November 3rd -Phase 1 gifters begin November 17th

-Student artist spotlight campaign continues all month -Follow your Dollar 5k Sept. 6/7 -Follow Your Dollar thank you email September 21st

-RDS spotlight live competition begins on October 27th -RDS Spotlight live competition ends on October 31st

-Phase 1 gifters campaign completed December 25th -Phase 2 gifters campaign begin December 26th -Phase 2 gifters campaign completed January 5th

Appendix, Budget, Conclusions Follow Your dollar • T-shirts - $8.61 shirt cost *250 shirts=$2,152.50 • Print advertising -$2,690.88 • Kansas City Star-Thursday, Saturday, Sunday $396.96 advertisement cost*3 advertisements=$1,190.88 • University Daily Kansan- Tuesday and Thursday (insert) $750 insert cost*2 inserts=$1,500 • Entertainment - $300 • Facebook advertising - $200 • Reservation and permit fees - $150 • Miscellaneous costs - $500 Follow Your Dollar Total Budget=$5,993.38 Gifters • (4) Paid Facebook advertisements-$120 • Projected costs of promotional codes - $7.4 profit loss (20% off)*75 product codes*4 product code advertisments- $2,220 • (if all 75 products are sold for each promotional code) Gifters Total Budget=$2,340

Taste of Colorado Event • Booth rental - $925 • Travel cost – roughly $1,000 (driving and hotel costs) • Credit card fees (square) - $100 (if all 200 cases sold by credit card) for phone cases Taste of Colorado Event Total Budget=$2,025 Product Line Expansion • Initial Tote Investment-$5 cost (assuming it costs $5 to produce)*300 bags produced=$1,500 Prouduct LineTotal Budget=$1,500 Brand Ambassadors • $500 per contractual obligation (half a semester/one year) Brand Ambassadors Total Budget=$1,000 Email Campaign • 20% Off Promotions- $7.4 profit loss (20% off)*200 people who may use coupon Email CampaignTotal Budget= $1,480

Student Artist Spotlight Total Budget Total • Winning prize-$100 • (3) Phone cases with winning artist’s design$19 cost*3 phone cases=$57 Student Artist Spotlight Total Budget=$157

budget=$14,495.38

Taste of Colorado Mock Ups

Email Campaign Mock Up

Student Artist Spotlight Mock Ups

Gifters Campaign Mock Ups

Gifters Facebook cover photo promotion

Tote Bag Campaign Mock Up

Red underlined indicates it is a hyperlink. “Shop” will take you to the store tote bag options. “Get to know” will take you to the second web page mock up we have created, which will be a tertiar y level on the entire website titled, “Our West African Designers”

Follow Your Dollar Facebook Post Mock Up

Follow Your Dollar Mock Up

In celebration of the Follow Your Dollar campaign we encourage every person to do one good deed today. Nothing is as powerful as following the positive impact of your dollar. Make a connection with someone new and do something that positively impacts their life. Here is something one of our friends did today! Be sure to share your stories with us!

Follow Your Dollar Facebook cover photo promotion

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