Creating an Efficient Marketing Plan for Aid to Artisansu
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Creating an Efficient Marketing Plan for Aid to ArtisansU December 16th, 2015 Authors: Ife Bell [email protected] ______________________ Anjali Kuchibhatla [email protected] ______________________ Melissa Rivera [email protected] ______________________ With contributions from: Michel Sabbagh In Cooperation With: Maud Obe, [email protected] Senior Program Coordinator, Aid to Artisans Proposal Submitted To: Professor Fred Looft, [email protected] Professor Brigitte Servatius, [email protected] Washington, D.C. Project Center This project is submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree requirements of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or options of Aid to Artisans or Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Abstract This purpose of this project was to develop a marketing plan for sustainability of Aid to Artisans’ e-platform, Aid to ArtisansU. The team accomplished this by completing the following five steps: defining the mission, identifying the target audience, advertising through print and social media marketing, and finally, locating sponsors to finance it. We provided short-term and long-term recommendations to update the platform and maintain the website for future sustainability. 1 Acknowledgements We would like to thank our advisors Brigitte Servatius and Fred Looft for their advice and guidance in this project. We would also like to thank our sponsor, Maud Obe, for mentoring and teaching us about working in the nonprofit sector. We would like to extend our gratitude to everyone we worked with who helped us in the completion of our project: thank you to the entire Creative Learning and CreativeU staff for your support and helpful information! Readers interested in more information about this project should contact Professor Fred Looft or Brigitte Servatius via email at [[email protected]] and [[email protected]]. 2 Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2: Background ................................................................................................................ 6 Aid to Artisans ............................................................................................................................ 6 Aid to ArtisansU ......................................................................................................................... 8 Formulating a marketing strategy for a nonprofit organization .................................................. 9 Step 1: Defining a mission .................................................................................................... 10 Step 2: Identifying the product ............................................................................................. 10 Step 3: Understanding the target audience ............................................................................ 10 Step 4: Publicizing the organization ..................................................................................... 12 Empowered Women International ........................................................................................ 15 WEConnect International...................................................................................................... 16 Step 5: Locating sponsors ..................................................................................................... 17 Our Project Timeline............................................................................................................. 18 Chapter 3: Our Project .............................................................................................................. 19 Defining the mission ................................................................................................................. 19 Identifying the product .............................................................................................................. 19 Understanding the target audience ............................................................................................ 20 Advertising ................................................................................................................................ 23 Craft shows ........................................................................................................................... 23 Company presentations ......................................................................................................... 24 Videoconference calls ........................................................................................................... 25 Locating sponsors ................................................................................................................. 26 Updating the website: technical recommendations ............................................................... 28 Evaluation of short-term recommendations .............................................................................. 31 Mass email evaluation........................................................................................................... 31 Google Analytics evaluation ................................................................................................. 32 Cost-benefit analysis ............................................................................................................. 34 Sustainability of the platform.................................................................................................... 36 Social Media Templates ........................................................................................................ 36 Aid to ArtisansU Abroad ...................................................................................................... 37 Chapter 4: Final recommendations ........................................................................................... 40 Website maintenance and updates ............................................................................................ 40 Communicating with members ................................................................................................. 44 Marketing and Networking ....................................................................................................... 45 Reflections .................................................................................................................................... 47 Ife Bell’s Reflection .................................................................................................................. 47 Anjali Kuchibhatla’s Reflection ............................................................................................... 47 Melissa Rivera’s Reflection ...................................................................................................... 48 Ethical considerations ................................................................................................................. 48 References .................................................................................................................................... 49 3 Appendices ................................................................................................................................... 55 Appendix A: ATAU Web Development Team Questions ....................................................... 55 Appendix B: Semi-Structured Interview (D.C. Communities) ................................................. 56 Appendix C: Online Survey (ATAU Audience) ....................................................................... 58 Appendix D: Email Templates.................................................................................................. 61 Appendix E: Aid to ArtisansU Flyer ........................................................................................ 69 Appendix F: Interview Notes with Nureen Das ........................................................................ 70 Appendix G: Interview with Paola Martinez ............................................................................ 72 Appendix H: Social Media Templates ...................................................................................... 74 Appendix I: Interview Questions (Rural Artisans) ................................................................... 78 Appendix J: General Article for ATAU.................................................................................... 80 Appendix K: ATAU Courses Re-categorization ...................................................................... 81 Appendix L: Interview Notes with Joy Bittner ......................................................................... 83 Appendix M: ATAU Badges with Description ........................................................................ 85 Appendix N: List of Sponsors................................................................................................... 87 Appendix O: List of Colleges & Universities for ATAU Abroad ............................................ 88 Appendix P: List of ATAU Intern Responsibilities .................................................................. 90 Table of Figures Figure 1: The organizational structure of Creative Associates and Aid to Artisans. .....................