Taylor Cole

10/31/2018

JAMS 347: Principles of PR

Final Project: Campaign Plan

Situation Analysis

Client Overview

The are a minor league affiliate of the .

The Diamondbacks provide players and coaches to the team, as well as a stadium for the baseball prospects to play their games. The team is considered a Short Season Single A baseball club that features predominately first year players (About the Hillsboro Hops, n.d.). The team was previously based in Yakima, Washington and just recently relocated to Hillsboro, in

2013. Upon moving to Hillsboro, the team acquired new ownership, new facilities and a new name. The previously named became the Hillsboro Hops. , which has the ability to host 4,500 people at capacity, was built for the Hops and is used for youth soccer and lacrosse in the off-season (Gordon Faber Recreation Complex, n.d.). The Hops are a part of the Northwest Conference, in which it plays other short season teams in the Pacific

Northwest.

Although supported by the Diamondbacks, the Hops are a privately and locally owned business. Short Season LLC owns the Hillsboro Hops Professional Baseball team. There are 30 investors that are a part of the ownership group. President Mike McMurray and his wife, Vice

President and CFO, Laura McMurray, live in Hillsboro. The McMurray’s are highly involved in the daily operations of the team (About the Hillsboro Hops, n.d.). The organization’s mission statement is “to provide a memorable first-class experience so that we can enrich the lives of our fans, staff, players and community” (About the Hillsboro Hops, n.d.). People of the surrounding

Hillsboro area attend Hops games. The business is committed to taking a leadership role within the community, operating a fiscal and sustainable business, maintaining reasonable prices and providing unique and memorable experiences (About the Hillsboro Hops, n.d.).

External Environment

Professional baseball is organized in a way that players have to work their way up the system in hopes of someday making it to the Major League. Players start down in Single A, then move into Double A ball and again up to Triple A ball. After working their way up the ladder and improving their skills, the players then earn to opportunity to play in the Major League. Not all players make it up through the leagues and others may start at Double A and potentially skip

Single A- it all depends on where a players’ abilities are at.

As noted previously, the Hillsboro Hops are a short-season Single A team that is affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks. It is one of the lowest divisions of that most often host first year players. Short-season leagues exist to help young baseball players transition from high school or college ball to professional ball. Often, high school players are not ready to play against people that are two or three years older than them. The short-season leagues begin after the draft in early June, which is perfect timing for high schoolers who just recently graduated to prove their skills to the Major League affiliate. For some players, it only takes a few weeks to move up in the league, while others may spend a full year or two in the short-season Single A ball before moving up. “Not all short-season and rookie leagues are the ​ same, however. For instance leagues like the New York-Penn, Northwest or Pioneer involve travel, minor league stadiums, and all of the rigors that come with the lifestyle of professional baseball. These are the more advanced short-season leagues” (Moore, J., 2012). The Hillsboro

Hops are one of those teams that helps young players adjust to the rigors of professional baseball.

Something that could either help or hinder the success of the Hillsboro Hops is the popularity of baseball in the surrounding Hillsboro area. The Hops are currently the only baseball team in the Portland area. If the market for baseball continues to grow in the area, the

Hops could either see an increase in attendance, which would benefit the them, or the Major

League might recognize this and bring a bigger team to Portland, which could hinder the financial success of the organization. This may not necessarily affect the overall success of the organization, but it may draw baseball fans who can afford a more expensive option to a higher quality baseball game that would be provided by the Major League. The Hops will still retain loyal fans who appreciate a cheaper option, but could potentially lose some fans to a higher quality alternative.

The economy could also affect ownership of the Hillsboro Hops. Currently, the Hops are owned by Short Season LLC, which has 30 shareholders. In a limited liability company, each shareholder pays self-employment taxes on their shares of the company. If the economy takes a downward turn, shareholders may back out. This requires the company to either quickly find a replacement shareholder, or all shareholders will have to back out, ultimately leaving the business to fail (Nixon, D., n.d.). Many limited liability corporations have a limited lifespan due to lack of consistency in the economy.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

One of the Hillsboro Hops’ strengths is its connection to community members through social media. It has a Twitter account that tweets and retweets relevant information daily and an

Instagram and Facebook profile that posts several times a week- even in the off-season. This generates interest of community members and other stakeholders. Along with consistent posts on social media, the Hops often provide links to their merchandise. Although the post is dedicated to an upcoming event or relevant news story, the organization uses it as a marketing platform to sell its products.

Not only do the Hops use social media effectively, it also has a strong website that further proves its excellent internet presence. Part of the reason for a clear and informational website is because it is a part of the official Minor League Baseball website. The organization is monitored and maintained with the help of the Minor League. Although privately owned, the

Hops still represent the Minor League and the league should ensure that its reputation is being maintained.

Another strength of the Hillsboro Hops is that it is new. People in the community see it as a fresh and exciting thing to do in their community, so it draws in a lot of people out of curiosity.

Once people attend games, the Hops must give fans a reason to return. An example of a public relations initiative that the Hop’s conducted last year was called “Los Lupolos de Hillsboro” which is Spanish for Hillsboro Hops. In this campaign, the team played five games as “Los

Lupolos de Hillsboro” in recognition of Latinos in the surrounding area. According General

Manager, K.L. Wombacher, “The fact that the Hispanic demographic in our area is nearly 25%, ​ combined with the substantial number of Latino players we have on our roster each year, we wanted to celebrate our connection with the Latino community over more than just one night”

(Hillsboro Hops Newsroom, 2018). Overall, the Hops recognize that a large percentage of their publics is Latinos and they used a public relations plan to bring awareness and show appreciation to that specific public. The organization should continue these public relations initiatives with other relevant publics.

Lastly, the organization has a strong connection with its interns and employees. A lot of top management positions are held by people who have been with the organization for several years and started as interns for the organization (About the Hillsboro Hops, n.d.). Those people would not have stayed with the organization if they did not believe in it or its goals as an organization. This shows that the organization values employees and the employees value the organization in return, which is an example of two-way communication within an organization.

The staff is also fairly small, which makes it easier for two-way communication to exist.

Weaknesses

A weakness of the Hillsboro Hops is its fast and constant turnover of athletes. The structure of the minor league makes it difficult to become a dedicated fan to a team that is always changing. A large aspect of being a fan is creating a connection with the players on the roster, but unfortunately, the Minor League makes it difficult to establish that connection. The Hops are also a newer organization that does not have a history or legacy to lean back on. Unlike Linfield College football, the Hops do not have a legacy that they can use to brand their organization or receive donations from alumni.

Opportunities

An opportunity for the Hillsboro Hops is to capitalize on its Hillsboro Hops Fund. The

Fund was established by owners Mike and Laura MacMurray in 2013. According to the website,

“The fund aims to re-instill a love of baseball within the youth of Washington County and the ​ entire Portland-metro area through the funding of projects like refurbishing baseball fields, supplying baseball equipment for low-income families, covering entrance fees into tournaments for local youth baseball teams, and many many more” (Hillsboro Hops Fund, n.d.). This Fund does a lot of good things in the community and it should be recognized more during to increase awareness of its initiatives. By drawing more attention to philanthropic initiatives, it gives the organization an overall better image in the community.

Threats

A threat to the Hillsboro Hops organization are the other professional sports teams in the area. There are several other alternatives for sports entertainment that people may choose over the Hops. In Portland there is the Trail Blazers, which is an National Association

(NBA) team, the Timbers, which is an (MLS) team, the Thorns, which is an National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team, that are all top tier professional sports teams. There are also other minor league sports teams in Portland as well. The threat is that baseball may not be as popular as the other sports in the area that have a more developed fan base and following. Although baseball and other sports are differentiated products, professional sports in the area could serve as substitutes to a minor league game that may not be as competitive.

Another threat to the organization is the popularity of baseball either hindering or helping the Hillsboro Hops. In the external environment section of this paper, I mentioned that an increase in popularity of baseball may bring a Major League team to Portland and ultimately outrun a minor league program, such as the Hillsboro Hops- another way to look at it is if the popularity of baseball takes a downturn. People may stop showing up for games and ultimately the organization will fail because it is not making enough money to cover production costs. The

Hillsboro Hops do not want either of these things to happen, so as an organization, it hopes for the popularity of baseball in the community to stay relatively close to where it is now.

Opportunity Statement

One of the Hillsboro Hops’ greatest opportunities is in its Hillsboro Hops Fund, which donates money and volunteers to the surrounding Hillsboro area in hope of supporting youth involvement in sports. The Hillsboro Hops Fund works to, “connect the organization to the surrounding community by fostering and supporting education, heath, culture and youth activities, including activities in underprivileged youth, in the greater Hillsboro area” (Hillsboro

Hops Fund, n.d.). The Fund has completed several fundraisers including 50/50 raffles at games, a yearly banquet and other service projects. An opportunity for the Hillsboro Hops is to take their fundraising a step further by creating a public relations campaign to honor youth athletes, specifically baseball athletes, in the community. The home opener for every sports team is always a big event, which is why the campaign should revolve around this day specifically. The home opener of the 2019 season could be dedicated to youth baseball players in the area and give them an idea of what “a day in the Minor League” may look like. The Hops could use its already good connection with its fan base through social media to promote the event. Not only could the public relations initiative be used to inspire youth players to follow their dreams of playing professional baseball but also a way of saying thank you to fans for their loyalty to the organization.

Target Audience

The main target audience that the Hillsboro Hops should connect with for this public relations plan is the youth baseball clubs in the Hillsboro area. I will speak with the directors of the clubs and ask them to invite youth athletes and their families to a game dedicated to celebrating the love of baseball and supporting their children’s dreams to succeed, whether that be on the field or in the classroom. This statement would fall in line with the ideals of the already present Hillsboro Hops Fund. Youth baseball clubs are the perfect audience for this public relations initiative. These youth athletes are the future of baseball and they should feel important and wanted. With so many other sport options, baseball could potentially be overrun by the basketball and football options and this is a way to bring awareness to America’s pastime. It is important to the Hillsboro Hops’ mission to “enrich the lives of their fans, staff, players and community.” Youth players are not only fans and community members, but also potential players of the future generation. What better than to dedicate a day to inspiring youth to live out their dreams? The organization already does an excellent job reaching out to the community, but why not take it a step further and specifically target youth in the area? It falls in line with the

Hillsboro Hops Fund ideals already and gets more youth athletes interested in baseball. Some of the youth baseball clubs in the area that the Hillsboro Hops could reach out to include: Reedville

Baseball Club, Glencoe Baseball Club, Hillsboro Baseball Club, Westview Baseball Club,

Sunset Baseball Club, Beaverton Baseball Club, among others.

The Plan Goal

The Hillsboro Hops will further connect to their Hillsboro Hops Fund, whose mission is to “re-instill a love of baseball within the youth of Washington County through the funding of projects”, as stated previously in the situation analysis (The Official Site of the Hillsboro Hops, n.d.). By using the diffusion of innovations theory, the Hops will use a one-day public relations campaign to increase awareness of the Hillsboro Hops Fund as well as encourage people to donate to the Fund. The diffusion of innovations theory has a six-step process including: awareness, knowledge, evaluation, trial, adoption and reinforcement. This campaign plan will implement this six-step process through its strategies and tactics to achieve the overall goal of bringing awareness and encouraging people to donate to the Hillsboro Hops Fund.

Objective 1

The first objective the Hillsboro Hops should use to accomplish this goal will be that 90 percent of fans become aware of the Hillsboro Hops Fund by the end of the public relations campaign. In relation to the diffusion of innovations theory, the objective helps to accomplish the first step of fans becoming aware at the event. Some fans might also learn something about the Hillsboro Hops Fund and its initiatives, which shows that they might step into the second phase of the diffusion of innovation theory: knowledge. Through a variety and strategies and tactics, a vast majority of the fanbase in attendance of the campaign should become aware of the Hillsboro

Hops Fund initiative and its connection to the overall organization.

Strategy 1 and Tactics

A strategy used to achieve the first objective will be to invite several youth teams from the surrounding community to celebrate youth sports at this one-day campaign event. The event will take place at a Hillsboro Hops game during one of the summer months in order to increase attendance of youth baseball players and their families. The event will be named “Hop into

Youth Sports” and inspire youth baseball players to follow their dreams as well as thank loyal fans for their previous work with the Hillsboro Hops Fund. This campaign plan could potentially become an annual event hosted at the Hops games and could be improved from year-to-year based on past successes and failures. This event will bring awareness to the initiatives of the

Fund and will improve the Hops’ brand image as well as strengthen relationships with their current fanbase.

The first tactic used to support this strategy will be to contact youth club directors and inform them of the event. An email would be the best form if communication in this case because a lot of information will be embedded in the message, including an introduction of the

“Hop into Youth Sports” event and all of the activities that will available to youth baseball players that decide to attend. Some of the activities that will be available to youth athletes include running the bases, meeting the Hops players and getting a tour of the locker rooms. This will draw more youth athletes to the game and bring awareness to the initiatives of the Hillsboro Hops Fund. The email will also include a discounted ticket price to youth athletes so that they may be more inclined to attend the event. An email with all this information is the best form of communication because then the youth baseball club directors will have all the information in writing and will not be able to confuse any of the information in the email.

The second tactic used to accomplish this strategy is to provide some sort of free merchandise to youth baseball players who attend the event. Depending on how much money the

Hops have in their budget for public relations, the free merchandise could be anything from a t-shirt to a foam finger. The campaign name of “Hop into Youth Sports” will be on the free merchandise. This allows parents and youth baseball players to take something home with them that is a constant reminder of the event aimed toward supporting the Hops Fund. Overall, free merchandise increases awareness of the Hillsboro Hops Fund.

Strategy 2 and Tactics

The second strategy used to accomplish this objective will be using interpersonal communications and mass media to connect with families before arriving to the “Hop into Youth

Sports” event. This strategy is important to ensuring high attendance at the campaign. It will also be important to increase awareness of the Hillsboro Hops Fund and its initiatives before the event so that parents are more inclined to attend an event that supports a good cause. In this case, the parents would be supporting their children who participate in youth sports. People may not know that the Hillsboro Hops Fund exists and by reaching out to them prior to the event and informing them of what to expect, this will overall help them become aware before the event even begins. The first tactic that will be used to accomplish this strategy is emailing the parents from youth baseball clubs who are interested in attending the event. The email would include information about the initiatives of the Hillsboro Hops Fund and why it would be worth it to donate to the fundraiser. It would include information on past projects, future plans of the Fund and its overall mission. Becoming aware before the event begins is important to the success of the campaign because it is more likely for people to take action and donate money at the event if they are already aware of what they are donating to. The Hops would obtain these emails from the youth baseball club directors.

The second tactic will be to send out a press release to local newspapers to inform the local community of the event. Not only do the Hops want youth baseball players to be in attendance, but also anyone in the community who supports youth sports and wants to be a part of the campaign to raise awareness for the Hillsboro Hops Fund. This is a good tactic to reach a large amount of people that may not have a relationship with the Hillsboro Hops yet. By creating event to honor youth sports, this may draw new fans in to attend the game. Even if people read about it and choose not to attend, they still become aware of the event and the Hops overall improve their brand image.

Objective 2

The second objective will be to fundraise $2,019 for the Hillsboro Hops Fund by the end of the campaign. After fans become aware of the relationship between the Hillsboro Hops and the Hillsboro Hops Fund, the next step is to turn these aware publics into to active publics and ask for a donation. In the diffusion of innovations theory, the Hops will have already accomplished the first two steps of making publics aware and knowledgeable through the first objective. The second objective is in place to move from these first steps to the next ones which are: evaluation, trial and adoption. Once these publics are aware of the initiatives of the Fund, it is the responsibility of this objective to ensure that these publics act on it.

Strategy 3 and Tactics

The first strategy that will be used to achieve this second objective is to set a creative goal amount of money to fundraise for the event to hopefully inspire attendees to donate and reach the goal. Through using owned media and employee interpersonal communication, the

Hillsboro Hops will encourage fans in attendance at the event to donate to the Hillsboro Hops

Fund. The goal amount for this event will be $2,019 because the year is 2019. If this is something the Hops decide to continue in the future, they can increase the amount in accordance to the year. For example, in 2020, the goal amount will be $2,020 and so on. Having a goal amount inspires fans to try and reach that amount. It can be assumed that most people that will attend the event are sports fans, and sports fans enjoy competition.

The first tactic that will be used to accomplish this strategy is using owned media such as readerboards at the stadium to show status of how close the Hops Fund is to reaching its goal of

$2,019 for the campaign. After every inning, the announcer will tell attendees how far they are from reaching the goal. This will inspire attendees to improve the fundraised amount inning to inning. The Hops will also use owned media to visually show how far the attendees are from reaching the goal.

The second tactic that will be used to support this strategy is doing a money during the seventh inning stretch to collect any spare change from fans in the stadium. By running around the stadium and asking people face-to-face to donate to the cause, they might be more likely to donate. When you make eye contact with people and ask them a question, this creates an interpersonal relationship and it helps to fundraise for the event.

Strategy 4 and Tactics

The second strategy that will be used to accomplish the objective of fundraising money for the Hops Fund is creating an informational booth to help those who attend the game learn more about the Hillsboro Hops Fund and why they believe youth sports are important. The informational booth will be located right next to the ticket booth and employees will be there at all times to answer any questions that fans may have. Employees will greet fans as they enter the stadium and act as a welcoming committee and an informational center to learn about the

Hillsboro Hops Fund and its partnership with the Hillsboro Hops organization. The booth will include information about past projects and future plans so that fans are informed on what their money will

The first tactic that will fall under this strategy is using interpersonal communications to build relationships with fans who attend the event and walk past the informational booth.

Employees working at the booth will engage with fans as they enter the stadium by saying hello and asking them if they want to know more about the Hillsboro Hops Fund. It would be beneficial for the McMurray’s, who created the Fund, to be present at the booth and introduce themselves to the fans. This helps create a more personal relationship with fans and it may motivate them to donate if they know who the money is supporting. The Hops mascot will also be next to the informational booth so that more people will be drawn to walk over and learn about the Fund. The second tactic that will be used to accomplish raising money for the Hillsboro Hops

Fund is by taking emails of those who donated and sending them a follow-up email that will thank them for their donation and provide them with more information on the Hillsboro Hops

Fund. Some of the information might be repetitive to what they learned at the booth, but it will be good to tell them twice because the information will be more likely to stick. Those who feel like their donation matters are more likely to donate again. This could also be the beginning some future partnerships with people who also see value in the mission of the Hillsboro Hops

Fund.

Evaluation

The Hops Organization will evaluate its objectives and strategies by counting how many people attend the event, how much money was raised and and how many emails were obtained at the informational booth. These are things that will happen if people become aware and take action during the campaign. The greater the number, the greater the success of the campaign. The tactics chosen to communicate the strategies and achieve the objectives actively pertain to the overall goal of the campaign, which is to raise awareness of the Hillsboro Hops Fund and to further take action and donate to the fund.

References The Official Site of the Hillsboro Hops. (n.d.). About the Hillsboro Hops. Minor League ​ Baseball: Hillsboro Hops. Retrieved from https://www.milb.com/hillsboro/team/about ​ ​ Moore, J. (2013, July 2). Understanding the minor league levels. The Hardball Times. Retrieved ​ ​ from https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/understanding-minor-league-levels/ ​ Dixon, C. (n.d.). Why start and LLC? Limited liability company advantages and disadvantages.

Rocket Lawyer. Retrieved from

https://www.rocketlawyer.com/article/why-start-an-llc-limited-liability-company-advanta

ges-and-disadvantages.rl

Hillsboro Hops Newsroom. (2018, March 20). Hillsboro Hops to transform into “los lupulos de

Hillsboro” for five games during 2018 season. Minor League Baseball: Hillsboro Hops. ​ ​ Retrieved from

https://www.milb.com/hillsboro/news/hillsboro-hops-to-transform-into-los-l250pulos-de-

hillsboro-for-five-games-during-2018-season/c-269201582

The Official Site of the Hillsboro Hops. (n.d.). Hillsboro Hops Fund. Minor League Baseball: ​ Hillsboro Hops. Retrieved from ​ http://www.milb.com/content/page.jsp?ymd=20140501&content_id=73957024&sid=t41

9&vkey=team3

Hillsboro, Oregon Official Website. (n.d.). Gordon Faber Recreation Complex. Retrieved from https://www.hillsboro-oregon.gov/departments/parks-recreation/our-facilities/gordon-fab er-recreation-complex