You are in charge of a very limited marketing budget for a nonprofit organization whose mission is to stop drinking and driving among college students. It is your job to educate the marketing committee about how your organization can change attitudes among college students. Imagine that you attend a meeting and hear the following exchange.

Marketing Committee:

Curtis Davis, Board Member:

Okay, I’ll admit it. My kids are grown and I have no idea what college students think these days. How are we going to understand their attitudes about drinking and driving? Who do we ask? I want to make sure we have accurate information about student attitudes—attitudes we know are honest and representative of the target audience. Without this information, we cannot create a convincing communications plan. I want to make sure we lead with the right message, and I want to make sure we know how to measure the impact of our efforts. There is no room for guessing here — I want to make sure we’re listening first, and then delivering message with truth, impact, and measurable results!

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Susie Wang, Social Media Specialist:

This is not an easy task. Budget aside, we need to make sure we identify meaningful reference groups for college students. Students will listen to their peers if we target the right reference groups and come forward with a no-nonsense, honest message. Credibility is critical. We need to make drinking and driving their issue — not ours. But back to the budget for a minute — I’m concerned we have limited resources to identify and target these reference groups.

Jim Ponce, Marketing Director

We have a budget for research, creative, and media placement. It’s not much, but keep in mind we have an advantage with this audience. With a message like this one, we can do the whole campaign online. That’s the best way to get the maximum impact with a target audience of college students. But we need to concentrate on the details. We need to understand existing attitudes, identify the reference groups, listen and find the way to change attitudes about drinking and driving for the better. – and know the best places to reach our students, where they will both pay attention to and be receptive toward our message. Now that you have heard this exchange, write a short business memo addressing the concerns that all three stakeholders have and make some overall recommendations for this critical campaign.

Now that you have heard this exchange, write a short business memo addressing the concerns that all three stakeholders have, and make some overall recommendations for this critical campaign.

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