Executive Summary “We inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running. ” This is the mission of the Girls on the Run organization and they strive to encourage positive emotional, social, mental, spiritual and physical development in girls from the ages of eight to thirteen years old. Their main objective is to educate and empower these girls at their early ages in order to prevent the display of at-risk activities such as alcohol abuse, eating disorders, pre-marital sexual activity, depression, suicide, and other confrontational behavior in the future.
The organization is growing rapidly around the United States and Canada; State College being the next site to create a program location. However, Girls on the Run is not currently well-known in the area so our current objective is to raise awareness to the young girls and their parents. The program consists of a twelve week curriculum divided into three pieces. The first eight lessons focus on helping the girls get to know themselves better by examining their values and who they visualize themselves to be.
The next eight lessons center around team building, cooperation, showing support, and listening to others. The final eight lessons concentrate on the world as a whole through community contribution and dealing with the negative ideas perceived from the world. The program is then concluded with an opportunity for each girl to participate in a 5k run. Our objective is increase awareness so that the Girls on the Run organization is recognized throughout State College.
Our main goal is to achieve an enrollment of 144 girls for the first full program in fall 2012. We plan to increase awareness through product distribution, back to school information nights, school assembly presentations and a “demo day” trial for the program so the girls can get an understanding of what the program does. Background: Girls on the Run was founded in 1996 by Molly Barker. The program was intended to enhance the physical and mental health of young girls by instilling powerful, confidence building lessons while training for a 5k event.
The event started with thirteen girls in Charlotte, North Carolina. After a successful first session, Girls on the Run grew from thirteen girls to seventy-five girls; and in 2000 Girls on the Run became a certified non-profit organization for positive youth development. Today, Girls on the Run has spread to more than 150 cities across North America. More than 60,000 thousand girls participate each year, and the program has served nearly one million since it was founded. Current Situation and Analysis:
The purpose of Girls on the Run is to provide a safe, fun, and positive outlet for young girls to build relationships, learn how to work as a team cooperatively, develop their inner strengths, and minimize any self-perceived weaknesses. Currently, Girls on the Run is set to begin at Park Forest Elementary School in State College effective fall of 2012. The target market for their organization is young girls in the State College area ranging from the ages of eight through thirteen. This spring, the Girls on the Run organization will be hosting a trial run with twelve girls at the Park Forest School.
Based on this trial run, they will be able to see any problems and make changes before the organization’s big launch in September. When assessing their current situation, it is important to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that their organization may face once implemented. In today’s world, young girls are faced with societal pressures on a daily basis. In a survey done on young adolescence by the Crandfield MBA Program, 38% of young adolescence have admitted to falling victim to peer pressure, and 35% have been pressured into doing something that they knew was bad for their health.
Girls on the Run is a program that will attack this problem and will capture and encourage young girls to make good, responsible choices and to avoid destructive behavior in the future. Girls on the run will also provide a constructive use of time as they engage in healthy activities that are physically, emotionally, and socially beneficial. However, because Girls on the Run is a new organization to State College, it is less known and parents and children may be less receptive and willing to enroll in the program.
Another weakness that Girls on the Run will face is having the start up funds necessary to host various special events and activities. In addition to analyzing the organizations weaknesses, it is also important to evaluate the opportunities that they can bring to the area. Girls on the Run has the opportunity to introduce a new and innovative program to the State College area that would promote good health and fitness. This is especially important due to the current grow in the child obesity rate.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of children aged 6-11 years old in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. In terms of threats, Girls on the Run will have to compete will the other organizations that are held within the various schools that they choose to implement the program in. The State College area school district alone already has more than eighty extracurricular options available for interested students. At the Park Forest Elementary School, some of these activities include K. I. D.
S which stands for Kids Involved in Doing Service. This is a community service related after school program for first through fifth graders. These children meet periodically throughout the school year to work on projects that benefit various organizations. Another after school activity includes after school intramural sports. Intramural sports are offered to all fourth and fifth graders. Some of these sports include basketball and flag football in the fall, volley ball and skiing in the winter season, and track in the spring season. The Park Forest Elementary School also hosts intramural swimming.
Aside from the intramural sports, Park Forest Elementary also has after school enrichment programs such as young authors on computers, youth material arts, and drawing/painting exploration classes. In addition to the other clubs, Girls on the Run will also have to compete with the longevity of them. People may be more receptive to joining a club that has been around longer. Due to this fact, Girls on the Run must find a creative way to promote themselves and raise awareness of their organization to persuade both parents and children that Girls on the Run is the best organization to join.
Marketing Objective statement To organize an effective marketing strategy to create awareness for Girls on the Run and achieve 144 participants for the 12 week program beginning on October 3rd, 2012 Marketing Strategy Product: The product is the “Girls on the Run 12 Week Program”. The program consists of 24 curriculum lessons taught by Girls on the Run certified coaches. The lessons involve teaching the participants life skills through group processing, running games and workouts. This curriculum will include the understanding of oneself, the value of teamwork, and understanding how to connect and shape the world.
In addition, the program will also include community service events for the participants. At the end of each session, a 5K run will be completed by the girls as a group. In terms of paying a fee, each member of the program will be charged with $150 in order to become a member. Price: In general, our marketing plan for the beginning chapter of Girls on the Run in State College does not involve a pricing strategy. However, we do have a budget of $500. The pricing strategy will include a breakdown of how we are going to spend that $500. First, we will be printing out flyers. According to the quota given by www. otprint. net, 500 8. 5”x11” color copies, one sided, printed flyers will cost $78. 74. As far as incentives are concerned, wristbands and stickers will also be provided. According to www. 24hourwristbands. com, the manufacturer will be able to provide 200 customized silicon wristbands at $0. 26 each in addition to 100 free wristbands due to our demand. Thus, a budget of $52 will be deducted from our $500 capital for the cost of 300customized silicon wristbands. Moreover, www. psprint. com is able to provide us 500 3”x3” customized clear polyester stickers with the price of $57. 1. This gives us a total fixed cost of budget of $188. 65. After the fixed costs are deducted, a remaining budget of $311. 35 will be left. This remaining budget will be used for miscellaneous items such as water and other refreshments for participants during our events. Place: The places where we have decided to host all of our marketing events are Park Forest Elementary & Middle Schools. More specifically, the gymnasium, lobby, and auditorium will be used. We have chosen these specific locations due to the fact that we have been granted the permission for using these locations.
In addition, placing our events such as demo-day at Park Forest Elementary School greatly enhances our advantage in terms of our target audience. We are focusing on the students and parents of Park Forest Elementary & Middle Schools specifically for the fall of 2012, with the hopes to input this marketing plan to all of the other Elementary and Middle Schools in the State College district by 2014. Not only will it make it easier for us to target our audience, but also makes it convenient for our potential members and audience to attend our events.
In conclusion, our target audiences are female students between the age of 8-13 years old and the parents of these students. Promotions: The marketing strategy will be mainly consisting of our promotion strategies. First, flyer distribution is a tool that we are going to use to spread our information. The flyers that we are going to distribute will provide knowledge and information about Girls on the Run. It will also include specific dates and locations on when and where we are going to host future important events. These flyers will be distributed to parents and girls during events.
Our first event will be “Back to School Night”. This is an event that involves setting up welcome tables at the lobby for parents and girls to acquire more information about Girls on the Run. This action will definitely send out a first wave of awareness and demonstrate an idea of potential participants. Then we will conduct a “School Assembly”, this event is directed towards the students. It’s a presentation to bring the female student section of our target audience to one place and deliver awareness. Lastly, and most importantly, a “Demo-Day” will be held.
We look at the “Demo-Day” event as a way to further provide information about Girls on the Run to parents as well as to provide experience for potential participants. Through experiencing Girls on the Run activities, potential participants can further evaluate our product. If the product is evaluated in a positive trend, further awareness can be generated by word of mouth. It’s our last wave of awareness in our marketing plan. We are looking forward to achieving a more specific number calculation of our potential members at that time. Implementation Program: First Day of School:
The first day of school for the Park Forest Elementary and Middle School is set for Tuesday, August 30, 2012. Boys and Girls report back to school on this day. Flyers: On Wednesday, September 7, Girls on the Run will distribute their flyers to the Park Forest Elementary and Middle Schools’ secretary. The flyers will contain information about what Girls on the Run is, as well as information about upcoming information sessions. The secretary will then distribute the flyers to 3rd-8th grade teachers who will make sure all of the girls in their classroom receive a copy.
The girls should put the flyer in their take home folder to bring home to their parents. Back to School Night: Back to school night is set for either September 14 or 15, 2012. At back to school night, children bring their parents into their classroom to meet their teachers. It is also a time for student to show their parents some of the projects that they have completed so far during their first few weeks of the school year and to show them around their classroom. Most of the time, students like to introduce their parents to some of the new friends that they have made.
At back to school night, Girls on the Run will have a table set up in both the Park Forest Elementary and Middle School. Representatives from the program will be there to greet parents and children. They will be available to have face-to-face conversations with parents who are interested in the program or who want to learn more about the program. Also, flyers will be available for parents to take home. To help catch the eye of the children, Girls on the Run will have 300 customized silicon wristbands and 500 customized clear polyester stickers available as free-bees.
School Assembly: An in school assembly will take place on September 20, 2012. The assembly will be held in the auditorium of the Park Forest Elementary and Middle School during the last hour of the school day. All of the extra-curricular activities available to students at both the Park Forest Elementary and Middle School will be on hand to give the student’s a brief introduction to their club. The clubs that will be in attendance are: • Girls on the Run • Girl Scouts • Boys Scouts • Communications Club • Drama Club • Homework Club Intramurals: Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Skiing, Bowling, Roller-skating • Student Council • Technology Student Association • Yearbook • Math League • K. I. D. S. • Youth Material Arts – Drawing & Painting *At the end of our marketing plan we have provided the necessary contact information to get in touch with these organizations and faculty members at the Park Forest Elementary and Middle Schools. At the in-school assembly, Girls on the Run representatives will be joined by women from the Penn State Track and Field team.
The track and field team has agreed to volunteer at the Girls on the Run Program to help teach the girls how to run properly as part of their yearly community service time. During the assembly, the Representatives will talk to the students about the program, informing the girls that it is an afterschool twelve week long program, where girls learn to be confident and boost their self-esteem. Also during the program, girls learn how to run, participating in various conditioning and fun activities such as runny, playing tag, performing an Indian run, to in the end, achieve their overall goal of being able to run a 5K race.
Demo Day: Demo Day will take place on Sunday, September 25, at the Park Forest Elementary School. Demo Day will be held from 2-4pm. All of the extracurricular clubs stated above have the option to be in attendance to talk to parents and students about what their club is, and what it brings to the students. Girls on the Run will definitely be in attendance since they are a new program and do not have a lot of awareness yet around the community. There will be two, fifteen minute information sessions in a classroom for parents and students.
At the information session, Girls on the Run representatives will show a power point presentation giving detailed information about the program, and what the girls will be doing on a regular basis at the program. For the other hour and a half, girls will have the opportunity to go outside with other Girls on the Run representatives and members of the Penn State Track and Field Team to participate in activities that they would be involved in if they did join Girls on the Run. Some activities may include playing tag, relay-races, the teamwork “knot” and an Indian run.
If parents and students are interested in the program and would like their child to be involved in Girls on the Run, they can sign up before leaving Demo Day. Sign Ups End: Signup sheets will be distributed beginning September 21, 2012 to each classroom at the Park Forest Elementary and Middle School. They are due back to their homeroom teachers on Friday, September 30, 2012. At this point, a Representative from Girls on the Run will go to the office at each school to pick up the completed forms. 12 Week Program Begins: Girls on the Run will officially launch their first fall semester program on Monday, October 3, 2012.
The program will take place at the Park Forest Elementary school, two days a week from 3:00pm to 4:30pm. 5K Race: The 12 week program will end either right before the students Christmas break, or in January, a week after the students return depending on if the program will run during the week of Thanksgiving or not. If the weather is uncooperative in January, or many parents do not want their children to run outside in the cold during January, the fall semester students involved in Girls on the Run will run their 5K in May with the spring semester participants.
Measurements: Success for this project will be measured by the number of girls participating in the fall of 2012 session. The goal is to have at least 144 participants from the Park Forest Elementary and Middle Schools. The long term goal of the State College Girls on the Run chapter is to spread district wide throughout the State College School District. To have the participation of all nine Elementary Schools and the two Middle Schools is the five year goal. This implementation plan is just a starting plan directed toward the Park
Forest Elementary and Middle School since that is Girls on the Run’s target market for the fall of 2012. This plan can easily be adopted into all nine Elementary Schools and two Middle Schools to help create awareness for those parents and children. Flyer’s spread throughout the State College area, Newspaper ads in the Dailey Collegian, The Center Dailey, and statecollege. com, and radio ads on All Hit 94. 5, Power 100, and the Zoo Crew in the Morning can help promote Demo Day on September 25, 2012 so that not just the student’s from Park Forest Elementary and Middle School are in attendance.
This will promote awareness for Girls on the Run to the entire State College area, not just the Park Forest Elementary and Middle School. We had many people question us as to why our awareness plan was only targeted for the Park Forest Elementary and Middle Schools. This is something we debated when coming up with our implementation plan, but couldn’t find a direct solution. We decided that since Girls on the Run’s target audience for the fall of 2012 was the girls at the Park Forest Elementary and Middle Schools, we should concentrate on those girls, and reaching the goal of 144 girls.
We decided that it wouldn’t really make sense to spend a lot of time promoting the awareness of this program to other schools if the girls were not allowed to participate in the program in the fall of 2012. However, as stated above, this marketing plan can easily be put in place at any other school throughout the district. Also, as girls participate in the fall of 2012 program, word of mouth from the current participants will probably work as one of the best ways to create awareness among other districts. Once Girls on the Run is an up and running organization with participants, another step could be added to the implementation program.
Girls on the Run can have girls who are interested in joining the program for the following semester actually come to one of the hour and a half afterschool session to gain greater knowledge about the program. They will also receive firsthand experience seeing what an actual day in the program would look like, and to see if it is something that they are interested in being a part of. Ultimately, Girls on the Run will be a successful organization within State College in five years. Contact Information: State College Area High School: • Superintendent: Dr. Robert J.
O’Donnell (814) 231-1016 • Use of school facilities: Director of Physical Plant, 814-231-1026 • Principle (North Building): Dr. Craig Butler, (814)-231-5020 • Principle (South Building): Dr. Craig Butler, (814)-231-1111 State College Middle Schools: • Park Forest Middle School: Dr. Karen Wiser, (814) 231-5010 • Mount Nittany Middle School: Mr. Jason Perrin, (814) 466-5133 State College Elementary Schools: • Corl Street: o Mr. Scott Mato sem28@scasd. org (814) 231-1185 • Easterly Parkway: o Mr. Brian Peters bkp11@scasd. org (814) 231-1170 • Ferguson Township: o Mrs. Charlotte Zmyslo cmz12@scasd. rg (814) 231-4119 • Gray’s Woods: o Mrs. Linda Colangelo lmc11@scasd. org (814) 235-6100 • Houserville: o Mr. Scott DeShong std14@scasd. org (814) 466-5040 • Lemont: o Mr. Scott DeShong std14@scasd. org (814) 231-5034 • Mount Nittany: o Ms. Deb Latta dll11@scasd. org (814) 272-5970 • Park Forest Elementary: o Ms. Donnan Stoicovy dms11@scasd. org (814) 231-5010 • Radio Park Elementary: o Ms. Deirdre Bauer dmb13@scasd. org (814) 231-4115 Extracurricular Activities: • Girl Scouts • Boys Scouts • Communications Club: Mr. Tranell, jrt13@scasd. org • Drama Club • Homework Club • Intramurals: Mr. Ryan Walsh • Student Council: Ms.
Holli Jo Warner, hjw11@scasd. org • Technology Student Association: Mr. Jeff Seamans, jds11@scasd. org • Yearbook: Mr. Beers:, db37@scasd. org, Ms. Buchan, alb11@scasd. org • Math League: Mrs. Bonsall, leb17@scasd. org • K. I. D. S. • Youth Material Arts – Drawing & Painting State College High School Sports: • Girls’ Varsity/JV Track o Coach: Jennifer Evans jle17@scasd. org • Girls’ Junior High Track o Coach: Heather Shakley hjs13@scasd. org Penn State University Sports: • Beth Alford-Sullivan – Director and Head Coach of Track and Field/CC • Chris Johnson – Associate Head Coach (Sprints, Hurdles, Relays) Works Cited
Childhood Obesity Facts (2011) Web. 9 Nov. (2011) Girls Running Program, Nonprofit, Self-esteem, Character Development. 2008. Web. 02Dec. 2011. . Online Printing Services You Trust- Print Online with up to 60% off. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. . “Print Flyers, Full Color Flyer Printing, Design, Templates, & Brochures. ” GotPrint. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. . Survelum Public Data Bank Peer Pressure Survey Statistics Web. 11 Nov. (2011) www. survelum. com/survey-results/PeerPressure/filter-2-0/ Wristbands | Buy Custom Rubber Bracelets and Silicone Wristbands. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. .
