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Cat’s Cradle2008-2009 Strategic Plan

TEAM 2:Kristen Cicala

Keryn DohanichAlyssa Johnson

Ashley SiegleHeather Thoreson

Index

Executive Summary 1 Situational Analysis 2Goals and Objectives 3Publics 3Tactics 4Budget 6Suggested Plan of Action 8Evaluation 9 Team Profiles 10Appendix 11

Executive Summary

Cat’s Cradle is a non-profit organization based in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The organization extends over Page, Augusta, and Rockingham counties. They are mission based to ensure and maintain a compassionate community in Harrisonburg and the surrounding counties through the spaying and neuter-ing of the feline population. Cat’s Cradle focuses on trapping, neutering, and returning cats to a caregiver or releasing them back into society. Cat’s Cradle does not have a facility to house cats. The goal of our campaign is to increase the foster care network. Having a strong foster care network is essential to keeping stray cats from overpopulating the community. These families will also provide loving and caring homes for the cats and kittens to recuperate. Our plan’s tactics strive to increase awareness for the need of foster families, thus increasing the amount of foster families within the Cat’s Cradle network. Our plan will help Cat’s Cradle expand their reach and strengthen the base for gaining potential foster care families. We accomplished this by targeting young adults, single families, and elderly members of the community. We targeted these groups as potential foster families because adopting a cat is a permanent obligation. Fostering is short-term; these groups would be more likely to pursue this type of commitment. We plan to run our campaign for nine months. In order to evaluate our campaign, we will be complet-ing a checklist to analyze those tactics that worked were most effective.

1

Situational Analysis

Cat’s Cradle began ten years ago and since then the organization has accumulated 35 foster care homes. While this is a good start, there is room for improvement. Cat’s Cradle is a no-kill organization, so while some shelters rely on euthanasia to reduce the number of cats in shelters, Cat’s Cradle utilizes alternative methods. About 80% of cats in shelters die each year; Cat’s Cradle wishes to decrease this statistic by increasing the number of foster care families. Cat’s Cradle traps, neuters, and releases the cats using the most humanmethods. Each day, hundreds of cats are spayed and neutered through the Cat Cradle organization. Instead of releasing the cats after they are spayed or neutered, it is advantageous to the community to have the cats placed under the care of foster care families.

2

Goals and Objectives

Goal: To further develop Cat’s Cradle’s foster care network by increasing awareness among more demographics

Objective: Increase the number of foster care families from 35 homes to 70 homes during 2009

Publics

As of now, the current market for Cat’s Cradle is middle-aged to elderly women. In order to be able to meet our goal of increasing the foster care network for Cat’s Cradle by adding to the demographics, the target market for this campaign will be directed towards young adults, the middle-aged, and the elderly, both male and female. Because our campaign is looking towards expansion, the target market needs to be broad so as to include as many people as possible. As long as all the requirements are met, such as supplying food and shelter for the cats, the foster care network would be able to grow within a wide range of individuals.

Young Adults (Ages 18-21): This is the age where young adults are able to start caring for an animal. The fact that Cat’s Cradle will pay for all medical expenses for the cat might entice this age group to help foster.

Middle-Aged (Ages 22-35): This is the age group where most of the people included are finically stable and can afford to take care of a cat. This could also be the group where children are more able to influence their par-ent’s decision to foster.

Elderly (Ages 36-70): This is the age group where fostering could be a good idea for those who wish to tempo-rarily own a cat. Cat’s Cradle needs to make sure that this age group would be physically able to care for a cat.

With increasing the demographics to include those aged from 18-70, our campaign hopes to make the public aware that fostering can help ensure the safety of animals and have everyone in the surrounding community involved in the growth of the foster care network for Cat’s Cradle.

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Tactics

Half-page fliers on pizza boxes

This tactic reaches many demographics as many different people order pizza, from college students to single families.

Chanellos65% deliveries are made to college students and 35% to residential areas• Monday - Thursday: 250 boxes a day delivered• Fridays - Sunday: 700- 800 boxes a day delivered•

Anthony’s70% deliveries are made to college students and 30% to residential areas• Monday - Thursday: 50 boxes a day delivered• Fridays - Sunday: 65 boxes a day delivered•

Advertising with Interior Ads on the Harrisonburg Buses (www.harrisonburgva.gov)

On an annual basis the buses carry over 1.3 million passengers ranging from local area residents to • influential college students.

Their routes cover 17 square miles with a population outreach of 44,000.• Interior ads hold longer exposure ratings due to most individuals can sit back and relax during their •

ride.This gives them more time to read additional ad copy as well as be exposed to your brand name and •

logo.Compared to other forms of advertising, transit advertising is cost effective. • Rockingham County has a population of 117,369 people with an average spending income of $24,780 •

per personOver 40% of the population has acquired some form of higher education•

Fliers and brochures to be placed in local vet offices and Sylvia’s Pets

Veterinary officesPlacing brochures and fliers in vet offices is effective because people have time to read while waiting •

for appointments. Perhaps after having experienced the loss of a beloved pet, former owners will be more interested in •

fostering.

Sylvia’s PetsClientele are animal lovers• Prospective cat adopters •

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Newspaper Insertions and Advertisements

The Valley Scope Warren SentinelTotal market coverage: 69,558 households• The Valley Scope is mailed and home delivered each Wednesday to non-subscribers in Winchester, •

Frederick, Clarke, Warren, and Shenandoah counties. With the Winchester Star Valley Scope you can target your messages to specific zip codes and popula •

tions

Shenandoah Valley Newspaper Network (see graphic in Appendix C) This network includes the Page News and Courier, The Shenandoah Valley-Herald, The Warren •

Sentinel, and The Valley Banner.The Shenandoah Valley- Herald distributes in Woodstock to 4,204 readers• The Valley Banner distributes in Elkton to 3,917 readers• The Warren Sentinel distributes in Front Royal to 4,848 readers• The Page News and Courier distributes in Luray to 7,907 readers•

The BreezeCirculation: 9, 500• Readership of more than 22,000 • 17,000+ students• 3,000 faculty and staff• Local business receive more than 1,000 copies for patrons •

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Suggested Plan of Action

This timeline is based on when you have the money and time to put the tactics into actions. These are thesuggested months to allocate them, beginning in January 2009.

January – February

Start giving fliers to Chanello’s and Anthony’s at the beginning of January• Give Chanello’s 500 copies for Monday’s and Tuesdays; 1,000 for weekends• Give Anthony’s 500 for entire week • Also give fliers and brochures to Harrisonburg Animal Hospital and Sylvia’s.• January 12 is when JMU is back in session—start the bus interior ads for a month • We recommended these months because as weather is colder, more people will be using the bus rather •

than walking.

March – April•

Continue implementing pizza box fliers• Now place brochures and fliers in chosen veterinary offices • Start placing fliers according to “suggested area” list •

May – June

Select one of the newspapers’ advertising tactics in purple. Inserts are suggested. • Continue to make sure the animal hospital and Sylvia’s have brochures. Count how many have• were taken.•

July – August

Do another interior bus ad for a month (summer is kitten season)• Post more fliers in suggested areas•

September

Newspaper ad in any paper from list •

October – November

Continue and assess evaluations •

December

Accommodate to necessary changes and prepare for new year•

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Evaluation

In order to track the success of our campaign, we will need to determine the effectiveness of each of the following categories:

Did the number of foster homes increase? »Did we reach all three target markets and increase demographics? »How were new foster parents informed of the program? »Which advertisements reached foster parents most frequently? »How many brochures were taken from each location? (Check each location monthly) »What was the average time a new foster parent took part in the program? »Are new foster parents willing to take in more than one cat? »Criticisms of the fostering program among new members? »From Cat’s Cradle point of view, how successful was the campaign and what areas can be improved »

upon?

Our campaign team feels that evaluating these areas is critical to the growth of the organization and its foster care network.

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Team Member Profiles

Heather Thoreson is a junior at James Madison University with a major in Media Arts and Design. She is concentrating in Corporate Communication and minoring in Communications. She hopes to find a career in the design aspect of advertising after she graduates. She is currently the secretary of the Madison Advertising Club and is a member of the university SMAD club.

Alyssa Johnson is a junior at James Madison University. She is a Media Arts and Design Major with a Corporate Communications concentration. She is also a double minor of Art and Music Industry. She has always had a love for animals and could see herself doing something with animals. Her main focus is to work with the music industry when she graduates.

Ashley Siegle is a junior at James Madison University and is majoring in Media Arts and Design with a concentration in Corporate Communications. Ashley is a contributing writer for the student newspaper, The Breeze, and is a member of Alpha Phi Fraternity. During the summer of 2008, she was a creative intern at Red-head Advertising Agency in Columbia, Maryland. Next semester, Ashley will be completing her Spanish minor in Salamanca, Spain.

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Appendix

Appendix A Contact List Appendix B Bus Advertising InformationAppendix C Newspaper Advertising InformationAppendix D Example Newspaper AdvertisementsAppendix E Suggested Brochure/Flyer Placement Appendix F BrochureAppendix G Flyers Appendix H Conference Reports

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Appendix A

Anthony’s Campus Pizza1762 S Main StHarrisonburg, VA 22801(540) 432-0200

Ashby Animal Clinic 1685 Garbers Church Road Harrisonburg, VA 22801(540) 433-9174

The BreezeJames Madison University(540) 568-6127

Chanello’s Pizza425 N Main StHarrisonburg, VA 22802(540) 574-4700

FedEx Kinko’s1010 S Main StHarrisonburg, VA 22801(540) 433-9287

Harrisonburg Animal Hospital 1611 North Liberty StHarrisonburg VA, 22802(540) 434-6331

Harrisonburg Department of Transportation475 E Washington StHarrisonburg, VA 22802

Sylvia’s Pets226 University BlvdHarrisonburg, VA 22801(540) 433-2124

The Valley Scope2 N. Kent St Winchester, VA 22601(540) 667-3200

The Warren SentinelAlison Duvall429 North Royal Ave.Front Royal, VA 22630

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix G