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Emily Eisert
Senior Capstone
Linfield College
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Situation Analysis
Oregon and an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International. The mission of the organization
is to bring people together to build homes, communities, and hope. McMinnville Area Habitat
for Humanity has built 55 homes since it was founded in 1991. Each home is built with the help
of volunteers and community members as well as the family who will own the home.
McMinnville Area Habitat for Humanity owns the home until the Home Dedication Ceremony,
when the family becomes the owner of their home. The organization recently purchased a lot of
land that will be used to build future homes. There are currently 55 homes, and two are in the
There has been a recent change in leadership within the organization. Mary Stern stepped
in as Executive Director in June and is working to improve the reputation of McMinnville Area
Habitat for Humanity. There have been some other changes at the administration level as well.
The organization is working hard to be transparent about where funds are going and regaining
the respect of the community as an organization doing good work. Past reputation problems may
create hesitation from community members to participate in McMinnville Area Habitat for
Humanity events.
The Run, Walk, Ride event will be held on June 17th, 2017. This will be the 16th annual
Run, Walk, Ride event. Last year there were 130 participants and the organization raised
$12,500. There is a 5K and 10K run and walk and a 28-mile bike ride. A possible competitor for
this race is the Go Granary 5K on June 10th in the Granary District in McMinnville. People may
not want to participate in multiple races within a week of each other. There is also a 10K in
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Portland, the Grateful Dad, on June 17th, which may be appealing to runners in the Portland area
who do not want to drive to McMinnville. There is also the Salem Summer Solstice 5/10K on
June 23rd in Salem. Once again, Run, Walk, Ride will be competing with people who do not
regularly participate in races and may only choose one within June to participate in.
A strength of this organization is that McMinnville Area Habitat for Humanity is working
for a great cause. The Run, Walk, Ride event will make it possible to build homes in the future
for community members. There has already been a significant impact in the community with the
55 homes already built. Another strength of the organization is the executive director, Mary
Stern. She is highly respected in the community and has been working to better McMinnville for
most of her career. She is very involved in the community and is an influencer among residents.
McMinnville Area Habitat for Humanity has the opportunity to reach beyond
McMinnville and Yamhill County for the Run, Walk, Ride event. There is an opportunity to
reach out to runners and bikers in the Portland and Seattle areas. There is also an opportunity to
make this event one that people look forward to each year as a way to be active as well as
support a local non-profit organization. The organization currently has a Facebook page and an
Instagram account, which can be utilized for outreach for the event.
As noted above, one audience for this campaign consists of serious runners and bikers in
the Portland and Seattle areas. This is a professionally timed race, which will make it appealing
to this group. The event includes a 5K or 10K run and walk and a 28-mile bike ride. The 10K run
will likely appeal to people who regularly run races. The campaign will target this group through
media outlets that promote running and biking. These are people with active lifestyles who are
seeking out opportunities to be professionally timed. They are likely to be in average to higher
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income bracket due to the $25 cost associated with the event as well as having the ability to
travel to the race if they are living outside of the McMinnville area.
The second audience for this campaign is people who want to support the McMinnville
Area Habitat for Humanity. These people are going to be more interested in the 5K or 10K walk.
This audience includes McMinnville residents who want to support a local non-profit. They are
not reading running and biking magazines, blogs or websites, so they will have to be reached
PR Plan Introduction
This plan is based on a mass communication theory called the diffusion of innovation
theory. This theory is used to explain how people make decisions, such as choosing to participate
in the Run, Walk, Ride event (Weidman, 2015). There are five stages to this theory that will
eventually turn potential participants into active participants. The first step of the theory is
awareness. This is important because it is the basis of the rest of the decision-making process.
Without people being aware of the walk, run and bike ride, no one will sign up for the event.
Once people are aware of the race, they need to become interested. Interest is the second part of
the theory and is related to awareness because people need to know about the race in order to
become interested.
The next two stages are evaluation and trial. These are the stages in which potential
participants will evaluate whether the action they are being asked to do is worth it to them and
then they try it before officially adopting the action. The evaluation and trial stages are important
because it can determine whether the potential participant becomes a participant. This will be
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done through direct communication with potential participants. The final stage of the theory is
adoption. This stage of the decision-making process will be evaluated by how many people
Goal: Increase awareness and attendees for the Run, Walk, Ride Event
The goal of this plan is to increase participation in the Run, Walk, Ride event. There were
130 participants at last years event and there is a goal to increase that number by another 30
people. In order to successfully get an increase in participants, potential participants will need to
become aware of the event, become interested in it and eventually sign up to participate. The two
objectives for this plan are to increase awareness and interest in the event to 3,000 people and to
increase the attendance among runners and bikers from last year by 30 participants.
The first objective of this plan is to increase awareness of the event to 3.000 people.
Raising awareness of the event is the first step in getting people to sign up for it. They are not
able to sign up until they know what to sign up for. Once they are aware of the event, they will
need to become interested in it before they register. This objective is designed to increase both
The first strategy for objective one is to utilize local businesses and events to promote the
event. By doing this, we will be able to increase the awareness of the local community. The
McMinnville community is an important audience and will likely be the largest group present at
the event. This is because of proximity to the event. By utilizing the businesses that local
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residents visit, we will be able to reach an audience beyond those that are already aware of
McMinnville Area Habitat for Humanity. Using an event that is largely attended by people in the
community will also increase the number of people who will become aware of the event.
Tactic 1: Posters
The first tactic for this strategy is to create posters. These posters will be put up in
McMinnville businesses all over town, particularly 3rd Street because these businesses have the
most traffic. This communication tool will reach people who are shopping at these locations.
There will also be posters specifically for businesses that are sponsoring the event. The poster
will identify them as a sponsor, which will help them show their audience that they may be
We will evaluate this tactic by surveying people when they sign up for the event to learn
how they found out about the event. We will also track how many posters went up and the usual
amount of foot traffic that goes through the different locations to track how many people were
The next tactic for gaining interest in the event is through McMinnville Area Habitat for
Facebook for people to RSVP to that includes more information about Run, Walk, Ride and how
to sign up. This is an opportunity for people to see who else has signed up for the event and be
encouraged to do the same. There will also be a posting plan that includes the link to the website
so followers can sign up through the post. The social media campaign will run from April 15-
June 17.
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be posted on Facebook. This will help encourage people who are not as active to prepare for the
event and feel like they will be successful when participating. The campaign will be a series of
posts for 9 weeks, one a week leading up to the event. Each post will include a tip about how to
get in shape or an exercise they can do. This will be a way to promote the event without over-
posting directly promotional messages. It is important for people to feel like they are getting
something out of the the posts, especially if they have already signed up for the event.
We will measure the effectiveness of this tactic by surveying people when they sign up
for the event to learn how they found out about the event. We will also track shares, likes and
comments on the social media posts to show how many people were actively aware of the social
media posts. The number of people reached will be tracked using analytics on the social media
sites.
The third tactic for this strategy is to create a social media toolkit to provide to people
who register for the event. This toolkit will include posts for participants to copy and paste to
their own social media accounts and pictures to attach. This toolkit will be on the registration
website for people to access after registering. This will make it easier for people to share with
their friends and for them to do some of the promotional work. People are also more likely to
want to participate when they know their friends are and, therefore, will be more likely to sign up
if prompted by someone they know. I will also develop a social media toolkit for the event
sponsors to use if they would like to share with their followers that they are supporting the Run,
We will measure the effectiveness of this tactic by tracking how many times the hashtag
included in the social media toolkit is used. This tactic can also be evaluated by tallying all posts
Uncontrolled media is important for reaching people who live outside of the McMinnville
area. Uncontrolled media includes newspapers, blogs and websites. It is also an opportunity to
reach people who do not look at posters when they are out in the community.
The first tactic for uncontrolled media is to write a press release that targets the
McMinnville community. This press release will be sent to the News-Register and will highlight
what the event is about and why people should sign up to run. The newspaper may reach people
who are not paying attention to posters or do not follow McMinnville Area Habitat for Humanity
on social media.
We will evaluate this tactic by surveying people when they sign up for the event to learn
how they found out about the event. This tactic will first be evaluated based on how much
coverage the News-Register gives leading up to the event. The circulation of the paper will be
The second tactic for uncontrolled media is to write a press release that targets a regional
audience of people who regularly participate in races or bike rides. There will be two versions of
this press release. The first will target runners and will be sent to regional running magazines and
blogs. This will reach a broader audience outside of the McMinnville area. Another press release
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will be written that targets cyclists. These will be sent to websites and blogs specifically for
We will evaluate this tactic by surveying people when they sign up for the event to learn
how they found out about the event. This tactic will first be evaluated based on how many
publications and blogs publish the press release or an article based on the press release. The size
of each media audience will be used to estimate how many people were reached with the two
Objective 2: Increase attendance of runners and bikers areas by 30 people from last year.
After raising awareness and interest in the event, the next step is to increase the number
of people who actually participate in the event. In order to do this, they will have to go through
the trial, evaluation and adoption stages. The strategies in used for this objective include direct
communication with potential participants, which gives them the opportunity to There are several
forms of communication that will give potential participants the opportunity to sign up and
evaluate whether they are going to participate. They will then go through the adoption stage
The first strategy for achieving the second objective is to have a booth at the
McMinnville Farmers Market on May 18th. This will give prospective participants an
opportunity come up to the booth, learn more about the event and then sign up. This is direct
Tactic 1: Postcards
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We will design and print promotional postcards and will hand them out at the booth as a
way to remind people to sign up for the event. These cards will have all of the information
necessary to sign up and will be a great way to keep the event on the mind of each person who
gets one. It will be designed similarly to the poster to keep the style consistent and recognizable
for people.
We will evaluate this tactic by surveying people when they sign up for the event to learn
how they found out about the event. We will determine how many people were reached by this
tactic by counting the number of cards taken by the end of the day of the event.
Tactic 2: Website
The second tactic for this strategy is to develop content for the registration webpage that
is user friendly and adaptive, and provides all of the information about the event. People will
then be able to sign up for the event at the Farmers Market on an iPad. This is a way to make it
easier to register. The website will also feature the social media toolkit and press releases for
We will evaluate the success of this tactic by tallying how many people sign up for the
event during Farmers Market hours. We will track this through online registrations, which
The second strategy for generating registrations is to directly communicate with people
who already support McMinnville Area Habitat for Humanity. It is important to keep a direct line
of communication to those who already support the organization because they are likely to
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continue to support it. Reaching out to people who already support the organization may lead
We will evaluate this tactic by surveying people when they sign up for the event to learn
The first tactic for this strategy is to send out an email in a newsletter format to tell
people about the event. This will take the form of the monthly newsletter that already goes out to
McMinnville Area Habitat for Humanity supporters. This email will inform the recipient about
the event as well as provide some facts about why affordable housing is important and the
purpose of the Run, Walk, Ride event. It will also give directions for signing up through the
website along with a link to the registration page. The end of the email will have a share feature
We will evaluate this tactic by surveying people when they sign up for the event to learn
Tactic 2: Postcards for Mac Habitat Events Leading Up to Run, Walk, Ride
The second tactic for this strategy is to hand out more of the previously mentioned
postcards at other McMinnville Area Habitat for Humanity events leading up to Run, Walk, Ride.
These postcards will give information about the event and how to sign up. These will be effective
because they are being handed out in person and the recipient is already supporting McMinnville
Area Habitat for Humanity at a different event. These will be available at the registration table
The success of this tactic will be measured by how many people who attended a previous
event sign up for the Run, Walk, Ride event. As a part of the registration process, we will have a
survey for participants to indicate how they found out about the event.
Conclusion
The overall success of this campaign will be determined by whether the participant goal
of 160 people is met. This campaign can be modified in the future for next years Run, Walk,
Ride event.
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References
bbcswebdav/pid-351855-dt-content-rid-2205601_1/courses/2015FA-MSCM34701/PR
%20Chapter%209%20Public%20Opinion%20and%20Persuasion.pdf
What We Do. (2017). McMinnville Area Habitat for Humanity. Retrieved from http://
machabitat.org/about-us/