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2015 PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition Western Kentucky University Vicki Bagwell, APR, Fellow PRSA, Faculty Adviser Created by:

2015 PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition

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Page 1: 2015 PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition

2015 PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition

Western Kentucky University Vicki Bagwell, APR, Fellow PRSA, Faculty Adviser

Created by:The Home TeamDerek Higdon

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Alyssa BornLaura HarperKatie Jaggers

#MyHomeWKUTable of Contents

Executive Summary                                1Situation Analysis                                    2Primary Research                                    3Secondary Research                                4Target Audience Overview                            4Objective 1                                        5Objective 2                                        6Conclusion                                        7

   

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Students signed the board with answers to the question, “Why does Home Matter to you?” Answers included, “to be educated and feel loved,” “to feel safe when hanging with friends,” and “having a private, safe space to be successful in school work.”

Executive Summary (Alyssa)

Many people in America are not aware of the housing crisis the country is experiencing. More than half a million people do not have a home, and among those who do, many live in neighborhoods that do not support basic needs such as adequate law enforcement, after-school activities and opportunities for children, affordable community events, and more. These basic amenities create a stable and safe-living environment for people’s success. According to Home Matters, these housing issues affect major aspects of an individual’s life, including health, education, success, public safety, and the economy. Too often, home is taken for granted and individual’s quality of life suffers. Home Matters works with organizations and individuals around the country to promote the idea that adequate housing is an essential element of life that every American deserves access to. Through participation in the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) Bateman Case Study Competition, we, The Home Team, partnered with local housing groups to promote the Home Matters mission.

The purpose of our research and campaign is to measure attitudes about housing issues and awareness of Home Matters. Our target audience is juniors and seniors at Western Kentucky University (WKU). Through conversations with our local client Homeless and Housing Coalition of South Central Kentucky, we decided that this would be a good target audience as they are most likely to benefit from hearing Home Matters’ messages. The Homeless and Housing Coalition of South Central Kentucky is looking to work more with college students.

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The Coalition’s most immediate goal is making students aware of housing issues. Through our campaign, we worked to raise juniors and seniors’ awareness of the impact that their housing has on their life. Situation Analysis (Katie)

Many college juniors and seniors are renting a house or apartment but have little knowledge of their rights as renters. Our research indicates that most of these people want to own homes at some point, which is something that Home Matters promotes. Also, research has shown that college graduates don’t ever expect to be homeless, but are at a greater risk than they think.To specify our messaging, we selected the Homeless and Housing Coalition of South Central Kentucky as a local client whose mission lines up with Home Matters’ mission. They have started the Student Coalition for Renter’s Rights at WKU who also work to educate students about their rights as renters, the importance and value of home ownership, and the prevalence of homelessness and inadequate housing in the Bowling Green community. The Coalition is currently expanding their efforts to educate students about housing issues, and this goal will be aided by our campaign around campus.

Our team conducted primary and secondary research to determine the current attitudes and beliefs students have toward housing issues and identify ways to best connect with students through our February campaign. As a result of this research, we created a public relations campaign plan that will support the organizational goals of both Home Matters and the Homeless and Housing Coalition of South Central Kentucky. The campaign centered around an on-campus event that asked students to think about why home matters to them. Their answers allowed us to explain how Home Matters defines the value of home and why they should care about the quality of housing they have access to.

Time Table:October November December January February

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Research

Planning

Implementation

Evaluation

Primary Research For primary research, a survey was sent to all students on WKU’s campus who are considered juniors or seniors. We received 223 responses from our pre-campaign survey. We first discovered several basic facts about our target market. The majority of them live off-campus, and pay for their rent with personal income. In fact, 171 out of 223(77%) of the respondents lived off campus. The second largest contributor to their living expenses was parent income, followed lastly by government aid and scholarship. They also reflected the correct age range of our target, which is 18-24, with a few identifying themselves as older than 25. Most importantly, the survey results gave us a deeper look at our audience’s attitudes and beliefs about housing in Bowling Green.

The most important factor in determining their housing: cost (82%) safety (60%) location (51%) sense of community (16%) schools in the area (16%)

This ranking reveals that our demographic may be making housing decisions with cost in mind at the expense of other important factors that they ranked lower, notably safety as our client would identify this as an essential factor in quality of housing.

We also learned that there was reasonably low understanding of the influence of housing on other aspects of life. Respondents rated how they felt housing influenced different aspects of their lives. The most influential to least influential:

Quality of life (59%) Safety (58.56%) Education access (33%) Career success (32%) Health (31%) Sense of community (27%)

While these numbers reveal that many students are aware of the influence of housing on these important aspects of life, they also show that there is room for improvement and many students do not fully understand the effects housing can have.

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Additionally, survey results revealed how informed students were about both Home Matters and the Homeless & Housing Coalition of South Central KY. While only 3% of respondents said they had heard of Home Matters, almost 17% had heard of the Homeless & Housing Coalition of South Central Kentucky. Awareness of both of these groups could be improved. Additionally, no respondents follow Home Matters on Facebook or Twitter, giving the campaign adequate room to improve and gain followers.

Secondary Research (Laura & Derek) To begin planning our campaign, we collected information about the current status of homelessness and housing issues in our community. We wanted to find statistics that stood out to the public and raise concern about housing issues. This includes information about housing legislation in the community, about the housing available in the area, about the current homeless population in Warren county, and about the current initiatives and groups within our community that are addressing homelessness and housing issues. The information we gained from secondary research gave us a starting point for our primary research and to give us an idea of the current status of housing in Bowling Green. Also, it gave us another point of contact with an organization that shares the Home Matters mission as we collaborated with Renter’s Rights. We discovered that many of the housing issues in our community stem from the lack of awareness about the rights of people under rental agreements. Additionally, we learned about advocacy work being done to address this issue through acceptance of the Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act.Target Audience Overview (Alyssa) Our target audience is juniors and seniors at Western Kentucky University, who fall directly into the millennial generation. Millennials are an important audience for both Home Matters and the Homeless and Housing Coalition of South Central Kentucky. At WKU, once students have reached a junior standing, they are eligible to live off campus and are more likely to rent a home or apartment. The majority of this audience intends to own a home at some point in their life. It is our goal to communicate to this audience the importance and impact of housing.  Most members of this group will be entering the workforce and looking for housing within one to two years. Our research showed that 62% of students paid for their living expenses with personal income. Other sources of paying for living expenses were parents (35%) and alternative sources such as financial aid and scholarships (18%). In this situation, students aren’t fully managing their own finances, and aren’t learning how to do so. This means that it is a critical time for them to learn the importance of having a home and strategies for how to avoid foreclosure or eviction. By reaching this audience with the Home Matters message, students will be empowered to make intelligent housing choices and better understand the housing issues facing their immediate community.

Objective, Strategies, Tactics, Evaluation Results  

OBJECTIVE 1: Encourage 15 students to join the Home Matters movement by February 28.

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Strategy 1: Engage the target audience in a way that shows them why they should relate to Home Matters’ mission. Help students to connect their housing experiences with the mission of Home Matters. (Derek)

o Tactic 1: Set up a table at Downing Student Union (DSU) building to talk with students about the Home Matters movement and give them an opportunity to join the movement. We selected the DSU because of its central location on campus and its ability to attract students from all different majors and housing histories. passed out fact sheets with information about Home Matters and the Homeless and Housing Coalition. Our primary conversation-starter with students was asking them, “What does home mean to you?” We asked them to write their answer on a poster or tweet/post their answer on social media using #MyHomeWKU. After giving their answer, we had the chance to respond with how Home Matters would define home and gave them a flier outlining the major aspects of an individual’s life influenced by home, including health, education, success, public safety, and economy, and gave them ways to follow-up: visiting the website, joining the movement, or following on social media.

o Tactic 2: Create a Twitter hashtag campaign using #MyHomeWKU asking students to post why home matters to them. Using our own Twitter accounts, our team started the discussion by promoting our table at DSU. As students signed the board and talked with us about their experiences with housing, we encouraged them to send out a tweet to their followers about why home matters to them using the My Home WKU hashtag.

o Tactic 3: Give students a direct and immediate way to join Home Matters. After speaking with students either in person or through social media, we asked them if they would like to join Home Matters. After explaining what it would mean, we walked students through the process of joining and used their email and name to sign them up through the Home Matters website. By signing students up on the spot, we received a more direct and immediate response. Students then were interested to learn more about the things that housing affects in their lives.

Outcome: EXCEEDED! 18 students and one organization joined Home Matters after stopping by our My Home WKU table. Additionally, over 40 students stopped by the table to sign the board and explain what home means to them, and several hundred took a flier or stopped to hear more about Home Matters. The Renter’s Rights Coalition of WKU joined Home Matters as a partner after working with us at the event to promote Home Matters alongside their upcoming day lobbying at the Kentucky Capitol. (Katie)

OBJECTIVE 2: Increase the number of students who have heard of Home Matters to 15% by February 28. (Laura)

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Strategy 1: Use relevant media channels and direct communication to reach the largest possible number of students and bring Home Matters to their attention. (Laura)

o Tactic 1: Create a PSA to be played on Revolution 91.7. Revolution 91.7 is WKU’s student run, on-campus radio station. Through this media outlet, we directly reached our target audience because the majority of Revolution’s listenership is WKU students. In the PSA, we encouraged students to visit our table at DSU and to go to the Home Matters website and social media pages. A script of the PSA can be found in the execution section of the appendix. (Laura)

o Tactic 2: Engage students through an email blast to promote the Home Matters message. We sent out an email using our original list of survey recipients to promote not only our upcoming events, but also the Home Matters message. In the email, we explained the upcoming event and how they could join the conversation using #MyHomeWKU. Attached to this email was a one-page information sheet describing Home Matters, the Homeless and Housing Coalition of South Central Kentucky, and the Student Coalition for Renter’s Rights. (Alyssa)

o Tactic 3: Encourage students to share what home means to them on Twitter. We invited students in our personal followings to the events in DSU through our twitter feeds. During the events, we shared photos, quotes and statistics about Home Matters. We asked students at the evens to tweet their answers to, “What does home mean to you?”

Outcome: 17% of WKU students had heard of Home Matters after our final February survey. We asked students if they had heard of Home Matters in our initial and final survey. In our initial survey, only 2% of respondents indicated that they had heard of Home Matters. Our follow-up survey indicated that 17% of students had heard of Home Matters for an increase of 15%. (Alyssa)

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Members of the Student Coalition of Renter’s Rights (pictured left) stand with our group members, Laura and Derek at our first day of the event. The board and table was set up at the entrance to DSU and students stopped by to write on the board, take a flier, and discuss housing issues.

Conclusion: The results of our campaign were evident after conducting our final surveys, and most importantly through our individual interactions with students. Seeing so many stop by to talk about housing issues and recognizing the number who connected with Home Matters’ mission revealed the value in setting up tables on campus and making a face-to-face connection with students.

In addition to the 16% increase in the number of students who have heard of Home Matters, the percent of students who identified health, education, success, safety, and quality of life as very important increased in all areas. The number of students who said their housing influenced their health increased by 8.74%, education access increased by 4.32%, career success increased by 3.13%, safety stayed about the same, quality of life stayed about the same, and sense of community decreased by 8.37%. The overall average increase between the six categories was 1.3%. While not every area saw an increase, the change in numbers revealed that students were thinking more seriously about how their housing choices affect every aspect of their lives. Most importantly, 18 students and on organization

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joined Home Matters, giving WKU a sustainable connection to the work Home Matters is doing.

Public relations is about being passionate for your client and representing them the best way possible. Let the public know what & why your client matters, and execute events that will have an immense impact on your goals and objectives. After evaluation our campaign was a success and we enjoyed getting a hands on experience on what a public relations campaign is all about.