West Side Neighborhood Project Marketing Plan
Professor Manoj Agarwal’s Marketing Strategy Class at Binghamton University
Team Two: Spencer Weisser, Linda Ng, Michelle Chew, Tom Klim, and Leo Porto
Items for discussion at next meeting:
Financial
Presentation date/availability
Logistics the districts
Timeline:
10/30/12- Check-in with Professor Agarwal
11/30/12- Next meeting with Alycia
12/?/12- Presentation for WSNP
12/5/12- Final copy Marketing Plan
1 Analysis
a Industry
b Competition
c Firm
d Customers
2 Segmenting, Targeting, Positioning
a Segments
b Targets
c Positioning
3 Marketing Mix
a Product
b Price
c Place
d Promotion
4 Recommendations
5 Financial Considerations and Budget
a Financial Considerations
b Budgeting
6 Implementation and Control Plan
a Implementation
b Control Plan
Section One: Analysis
Industry
o The West Side Neighborhood Project is a grassroots initiative which will see a great
amount of success with the increasing number of volunteers. People who volunteer, show
support, or promote ideas will make Binghamton’s West Side a nicer place to live, work,
or enjoy. As per the “2011 Accomplishments” on the WSNP website, there are over 750
supporters.Questions:
■ How many of these are actual volunteers?
■ How many show up to meetings and suggest ideas?
■ What has been your best method so far in recruiting supporters/volunteers?
o The WSNP can gain more volunteers/supporters by:
■ Working with Binghamton University to earn credit for student volunteers.
Marketing students can work on behalf of the WSNP. Accounting or
entrepreneur students can team up with local businesses. Those who are
studying art or landscaping can help improve the visual appeal of the West
Side. Engineering and architecture students can help with the remodeling
or building of new homes/storefronts. If the WSNP wants to cater to
students, then the students have to know that they can make a physical
difference.
■ Working with the BU athletic department and specifically SAAC (student
athlete advisory committe) to recruit groups of volunteers for maintenance
and working WSNP sponsored events
■ Teaming up with local businesses/eateries that have not yet been reached.
Ask all the owners of businesses on Main Street if they have website or
social media page. WSNP can link to their content through your Facebook
page, and maybe even promote certain events or specials that those
businesses are running. In turn, they will likely help out the WSNP.
■ Reach out to landlords, especially those who are struggling. If you give
them more student tenants then they are more likely to help out or suggest
ideas. Have landlords collaborate at a public venue for a “Student Housing
Convention,” where leases can be signed for the upcoming school year,
pushing students from BU to the West Side. This would be few weeks
before campus has people sign up for housing.
■ Promote yourself at cultural centers and religious places. Have churches
announce specific volunteering events. On occasions such as parades or
street fairs, have people on the floor promoting the WSNP.
Competition
● Binghamton University housing
● University Plaza housing
● Questions:
○ Are you against students moving to the downtown area by Court Street
and State Street? And Twin River or Hawley? Yes, those are tenants that
could have potentially lived in the West Side, but the student support or
local bars and restaurants in the downtown area can be seen as a positive.
Student activity has definitely grown in this location, and that is pressuring
students to move off campus.
○ If local businesses choose not to locate themselves in Binghamton’s West
Side, where else are they looking to be?
○ Nearby areas where family housing has been growing?
Firm & Customers
Overview: Is a relatively new movement to make the West Side of Binghamton a more
attractive, safe, diverse, and fun place to live. In order to do so, WSNP is attempting to lure new
homeowners, tenants, businesses, landlords, and religious institutions to the area in order to
rejuvenate the West Side’s culture and public image. WSNP supports the objectives from the
Mayor’s Commission on Housing and Home Ownership:
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Promote student housing
Promote landlord accountability
Increase home ownership
Build healthy neighborhoods
Key Accomplishments
1 Legislation bills passed improving housing conditions and reducing zoning conflicts
2 Over 750 supporters and growing
3 WSNP honored by Mayor Matt Ryan and fellow officials with Friend of the City Award.
Upcoming Challenge
● Keeping current members engaged + attracting new volunteers to complete tasks and
projects
Solutions:
● WSNP interests align with student interests, largely untapped student base available
○ Resume building, improves community students live in
How
In our previous meeting we discussed the prevalence of numerous frats, sororities, sports
teams, clubs etc currently residing on the West Side. These groups are attracted to the West Side
because of the numerous options for group housing. These groups are almost always looking for
ways to improve their groups (frat, sorority, club, team etc) public image, and give back to the
community. Many of these teams and groups could provide the numbers required to get these
grassroots campaigns off the ground. Not only would it be geographically convenient for these
groups to work for WSNP, but they would be able to see the fruits of their labor daily. These
large groups could quickly spread the word of WSNP’s upcoming events due to their large
network and influence. When I discussed the prospect of working with WSNP to several
influential members of the athletic department they seemed eager to work together. I am
including the contact email of an AD employee who could organize a sports team or group to
volunteer for WSNP. (lreynold@binghamton.edu) This contacts name is Linda Reynolds and she
has volunteered for WSNP in the past. The proposed partnership would help to serve WSNP
purposes as well as improve the reputation of BU and specifically its athletic department.
We have prioritized the key issues we see as being relevant to your success. Currently
your efforts should be largely aimed at making the West Side a safer environment for all
inhabitants. A less crime riddled West Side is very important to changing public perception and
opinion of the West Side. We firmly believe that once the stigma of the West Side being
dangerous is out the window, people will be drawn to the West Side and significantly less pull
activities will be needed to draw customers in.
The disconnect between BU students and the city of Binghamton is too strong as it stands.
Freshmen are mandated to complete one calendar year of credits on campus so we can take them
out of our immediate target market. When upperclassmen look for a place to live off campus
they consider several attributes that the West Side already contains. Some of the most important
attributes a student seeking housing might consider are price, parking, laundry, safety, size of
bedrooms, overall cleanliness, and proximity to fun places. What many students do not realize
is the West Side can offer a unique combination of all of these elements.
The majority of the houses and apartments offer a washer and dryer which is convenient
and valuable to students. The West Side offers many options for food, live music, and
recreational facilities that students could enjoy in their leisure time. One selling point that WSNP
can leverage is the ability to have a lawn. This commonly overlooked feature will remind many
students of home, and cannot be offered by competitors. In my tenure on the West Side, the
rooms are approximately the size of a dorm room on campus and offer the privacy of living by
yourself. One tactic the advertising and promotions material could include is the ability to have
the experience of living on your own prior to when you enter the workforce. Living on your own
allows you to take the first step into the real world, and what your life will be like after college.
A smooth transition to the work force could be aided by past experiences in balancing your daily
schedule from an apartment or small home.
From a price aspect, the West Side offers a superior assortment of cheaper options than
what is readily available anywhere else. While places such as UP, Twin River Commons,
Hawley Street are the West Sides direct competition, they occupy a different niche within the
housing market. College students are almost always hard pressed for money, and many will jump
at opportunities to save hundreds of dollars per month.. Currently there is not enough general
knowledge of how much cheaper housing can be on the West Side compared to places such as
UP, Hawley, and Twin River. The apartments on the West Side are generally in the $300-600 per
month range. The options previously listed can run anywhere from $800-1,000. If this price
differential was more widely known, an influx of price sensitive student tenant would ensue.
More often than not parents or guardians have to “sign off” on their child’s housing
arrangements. You must convince these parents and guardians that they are not sacrificing their
children’s safety while paying drastically less than they would at any one of your competitors.
Overall the West Side is safe place to live but some additional steps can be taken in order to
ensure parents stamp of approval. For example, covered bus stations with seats would be a good
selling point to students without their own transportation.. The websites for Hawley, TRC, and
UP all advertise the proximity of the bus lines to their buildings. Students and prospective
tenants must immediately be made aware that there are conveniently located bus stops all across
the west side when they visit your website. The current bus schedule is relatively reliable. The
covers for bus stations would make residents feel more comfortable and protected from poor
weather. Additionally if a contract could be reached to provide additional bus routes both to and
from downtown Binghamton, this would solve a major setback students may be negatively
affected by. The majority of crime in the area occurs at night between downtown bars and the
students apartments. An organized and safe system of transportation could nullify this negative
aspect. This busing system would need to priced at or below the price of a cab ($3) so we could
market the this an additional measure making the West Side easier on the wallet.
Section Two: Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Segmentation
1 Students at Binghamton University
The first segment which WSNP is entertaining are Students, specifically those at
Binghamton University. Students are required to live on campus for a full academic year,
however after that is up, where they live is fair game. Students have a few options: University
Plaza, Hillside/Susquehanna (upperclassman dorms), 20 Hawley Street, Twin River Commons,
or renting in the cities of Binghamton or Johnson City. WSNP specifically deals with a section of
the city of Binghamton, the West Side, which extends along Main Street.
When looking at moving to the West Side, students would take many things into
consideration, including but not limited to, price, location (especially in regards to school),
transport, acquaintances, businesses, landlord, serviceability, and safety.
2 Other Renters
The second segment which WSNP deals with are other renters, specifically those who are
not students but would like to live in the Binghamton area. These may be younger people, such
as recent graduates, or singles looking to work locally, or families, or older people, such as the
large population of retirees whom already populate the West Side. Many of the same
considerations for moving the West Side as the students are probed, such as price, location,
transport, acquaintances, business, landlord, serviceability, and safety, but perhaps there are
additional aspects, such as future ownership prospects, education, or job opportunities.
3 Owners and Investors
The third segment which WSNP will acknowledge are Owners and Investors. There are
people who are injecting capital into the West Side, either through the purchase of real estate for
owning, leasing or development. The considerations for them are the return on their investments,
target markets and potential customers, development opportunities, location, transportation,
prices (real estate), safety, serviceability, and resale.
4 Businesses
The fourth and final segment which WSNP will deal with is Businesses. Businesses are
perhaps the most important segment because all others, Student, other renters and owners or
investors, take the businesses in the area into consideration before moving or investing in the
West Side. They hope to create new opportunities by working with Binghamton’s Economic
Development Office. Current needs are for Banks and new food or drink Businesses. Businesses
can also serve a double function as Sponsors for the area for such events as Music Festivals.
Targeting
Potential ideas for Targets
● Price conscious students
● Students who want freedom
● Students who want safety
● Students who want to be close to Downtown Binghamton
● Businesses who want access to a large base of student and older consumers
● Businesses who want to support the growth of the West Side, become sponsors for things
such as Music Festivals
● Investors who want cheap property
● Owners who would like to lease to students and singles
● Social Media users in the Southern Tier
● Growing list...
Positioning
The best positioning for the WSNP and the West Side businesses can be described as the
following: Mainstream appeal for cheap housing and business development for all entities. They
are not looking for a small, specific group of people to invest and live on the West Side; anyone
who is interested in a community that provides cheaper housing than the surrounding areas, as
well as cheap opportunities to develop business in the area would be targeted here. While it may
seem that using a mainstream approach would be more expensive, developing individual
marketing materials for specific segments would end up being more costly. Thus our general
recommendation would be to make materials accessible to all persons; rather than seven different
brochures for Volunteers, Sponsors, Students, Renters, Investors, Fustic Festival patrons, etc.,
WSNP should make their materials all encompassing.
Section Three: Marketing Mix
Product
What exactly is the West Side Neighborhood Project? It is a local organization dedicated
to building a community that is welcoming to students, business owners, homeowners and
various other stakeholders. It seeks to bring a new meaning to the West Side of Binghamton as a
less undesirable one that encompasses safe student housing as an alternative to campus housing,
and promotes a more secure neighborhood for people to live in. This organization looks to local
businesses and volunteers for support to establish a community of involvement, opportunity and
safe housing.
Price
Part of the organization’s goal is to bring students, homeowners, and businesses to the West Side
Binghamton area and more specifically the Neighborhood districts within it.
Homes for Rent:
Students can be drawn to move off campus by the low prices of renting a house, as opposed to
living on campus. Current annual campus housing ranges from just under $8000 for double room
to $13,000 for a family style apartment. Students would be saving a lot on housing costs by
moving to areas in the West Side. Since most students who do move off campus move in groups
ranging from 4-12 people, it is easier for students to move into houses on the West Side and split
the rent. The rental expense ranges from approximately $325/month per person to $4800/month
among the entire group. The cost to move to the West Side is significantly cheaper for students if
they choose to move off campus.
Homes for Sale:
Houses for sale in the West Side area range from $30,000 to about $600,000. The relatively
pricier houses are generally along Riverside Drive and should be aimed more towards older
homeowners with stable careers and established business owners, rather than to students who
will most likely be unable to afford it. Generally, if you are working in the Binghamton area, and
expect your family to stay in the long term, you are more likely to buy or own a home than to
rent. Therefore, targeting those adults for this area of the West Side would be more effective.
Place
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On Binghamton Campus
Restaurants
Cafes
Public Areas such as parks
Churches
Promotion
1 To Students
In order to create more awareness for the project it is necessary to increase exposure to
your target audience. While one of the target markets for WSNP is Binghamton University
Students, there is minimal exposure on campus. One of the reasons housing complexes such as
University Plaza or Twin River commons succeed is the easy access to information about what
the housing has to offer. While the west side has much student housing, there is no neatly put
together information about all the housing, instead students must rely on individual flyers that
the house owners put up on campus. It would be great if instead of this, students can just visit
one website which would have information on housing availability or just pictures and
information on the housing.
WSNP is already a SA chartered group, however there are minimal to no events on
campus. GIMs can be held for those who are interested in helping, or just to introduce the project
to students. This will create more awareness on campus about the project.
Pipe Dream: SA Groups:
All SA groups are permitted one standard size (3.65 × 3.175) ad space per week.
In order to place an ad the SA group representative must email business@bupipedream.com with the
following three things:
SA Group name and account number
The date they would like the advertisement to appear
A digital copy of the ad in JPG or PDF format
Larger ad sizes are available. Please contact business@bupipedream.com for more details.
It is important to get the project known throughout campus. Even if there is no big event coming
up, it would help to have the logo in the newspaper to increase awareness. Other opportunities
for on campus promotions besides flyers and pipe dream include dining hall table tents and
coffee holder labels.
2 To Businesses
People are usually only willing to invest in things that are low risk and high return. In
order to attract these people to your neighborhood, put together a portfolio about the returns
which the neighborhood has to offer. How many people there are in the neighborhood, the
availability of stores in the neighborhood, income statistics of the neighborhood, etc. If there are
very few stores in the neighborhood, then there will be less competition and higher demand if the
store offers something convenient. Give factual data about where demand lies, how the west side
is an ideal location for them to set up business, how the WSNP will add on value to their current
business. How will helping WSNP help them?
3 To Sponsors
Sponsors would want to know exactly where their money will end up. A proposal
towards sponsors must include information such as what kind of media coverage the event will
have, overviews of the program, and detailed plans for the program. If a similar event happened
previously, sponsors would want to know how many people attended the event, who else was
involved in the project, and other metrics of the success. What will the benefits be for sponsoring
the event, asides from getting their name on a banner? Will the sponsor be able to develop long
term relationships with customers and with WSNP through this event? Sponsors are looking to
build preference, loyalty, brand value, and sales. Pitching logo recognition and exhibit space is
no longer enough. What are the benefits of working with WSNP? How many people will the
sponsorship reach?
4 To Volunteers
Have specific goals which should be accomplished within a period. Many people would
like to help make the west side a better place, but do not know what exactly they can do to help.
Are there any activities that WSNP have that volunteers can go out and do? For example, they
can help post flyers around, or door knockers, or speak to neighbors about the cause. What can
people with no background in marketing, or policy making, actively do to help? Are there any
activities besides the neighborhood watch? To obtain more volunteers, it is crucial to have more
reach in terms of the WSNP name.
5 General Promotion
In addition to gaining more presence on campus and around the neighborhood, WSNP
must have a stronger web presence. Although WSNP makes an effort to post on Facebook and
Twitter, there are only a few people who reply to or read the posts. In order to gain more
likes/followers, WSNP must post information directly relevant to Binghamton, and the
Binghamton West Side. For example, many people turned to BingSpot for news during hurricane
Sandy, which constantly updated about emergency meetings, or neighborhoods affected. WSNP
must also strive to be able to reach out the residents with important information. Also, although
the West Side may have much to offer, there is no exposure on the website or the Facebook
about what exactly there is. If possible it would be best to put together a website which actually
highlights what the neighborhood has to offer, in addition to having a more organized portfolio
of student housing available in the neighborhood. Creating stronger relationships between WSNP
and landowners is a must, so that you can mutually help each other. WSNP can feature a
different store in the neighborhood every few weeks, or a park or etc. This would increase the
image of the neighborhood as a whole.
Section Four: Recommendations
Social networking overhaul
Social networking has become increasingly used by all types of persons and businesses.
After FaceBook reached over one billion users, it became immediately apparent that many could
be reached through it. Our recommendation is that WSNP should utilize social networking,
specifically FaceBook and Twitter, as much as possible. Begin by hiring an intern for credit, who
is familiar with social media, to make at least one post a day.
It would be best to engage the community, to bring more people into the conversation.
Very few of the posts that WSNP makes on Facebook seem to get “likes” or comments, so ask
them questions, create polls and hold contests. For example, you could make “What is your
biggest concern with the West Side?” as your status to gauge the awareness and interest of your
fans. Alternatively, create a poll asking “Is crime a growing concern for the West Side?” to see if
the perception is that it’s decreasing. You could also have “like” contests, saying whoever likes
this specific picture will be entered for a chance to win a free T-shirt or something of that nature.
For even more fun, ask for user submissions; have West Side residents send in pictures of their
activities and events. One of our members, attended Seminary Day, for example, why not have
some pictures of that up there to showcase how much fun living on the West Side can be?
Facebook should be taken to the next level as well. For more strategic timing of posts,
preschedule them for times when the site is populated, particularly in the afternoon or evening.
Use pictures or links for each of yours posts, as something clickable will increase your traffic,
and extend your reach. Most importantly, consider Facebook advertising. Specifically, use it to
reach out and get the likes that you haven’t already found using the “Get More Page Likes”
option. We would recommend that you can create two separate ads: One for students in the
Binghamton/Johnson City/Vestal areas, and other for Business owners or potential entrepreneurs
in New York City/East Coast cities. This way you could bring students into the area, and
advertise the West Side as a new business prospect. You can target towns and areas specifically,
and you will see through “Audience” just how many people you could reach through the
advertisement. Be careful with interests, as only people with those specific interests will see
those ads. For students, we wouldn’t think it’s necessary, but for business owners, you might put
something more specific like “Small Business Owners”. At this point, you will have to make a
bid and set your campaign length. You bid will be optimized based on your budget for the
campaign, and you will review your ad and submit it. As we have mentioned previously, discuss
the cheap prices compared to other options for housing and land as well to attract people. The
campaign length should be for a full three months, starting two months before housing sign ups
are considered, and persist through that time, as to optimize the number of students who will
consider moving to the West Side. While the second ad may not be for students, running them
concurrently will help to understand their reach.
Above is an example of a Facebook ad for the Southern Tier region.
Twitter could be used in much of the same way, thought everything needs to be more
brief. Ask for your followers to retweet what you tweet, for example, “Retweet this if you would
like to see the OCCT bus routes changed!”, and have them respond to questions, “Tell us what it
is! @RT My biggest concern in the West Side is _______.” Currently, your Twitter account only
consists of your tweets. To remedy this, when you are not tweeting to your followers, find tweets
you find interesting or relevant and retweet them to your followers! This will expand your
audience and notify those who made the original tweet know that you are interested in what they
have to say. You might also take part in somewhat unofficial advertising as “Follower Friday”,
when you tweet the names of some of your followers or those you find interesting and encourage
them to retweet. This will help get your name out there. Finally, we discussed the use of hashtags.
This will let people quickly find you and your posts on Twitter. For your use consider using
#WestSide, #WSNP, #Binghamton, and, for the utility of your crime watch so they may easily
report suspicious activities (you may notify the Binghamton police to watch this hashtag),
#WestSideWatch. When your followers can easily find what you’re tweeting, it makes you much
more accessible.
One major reform we strongly suggest you implement is a social media campaign to
strengthen ties between the community and the Binghamton Police Department. Many police
departments across the nation are utilizing facebook and twitter to help them. With the use of
social media as prevalent as it is today, it can provide a strong link between citizens and the PD
in crime prevention and detection. We recommend meeting with the BPD to establish joint social
media program to deter crime. The structure of this joint venture would give the PD the benefit
of having significantly more manpower to detect crime without having to hire any new officers.
On twitter the user could tweet the location and suspicious activity being committed followed by
#westsidewatch. The police would create a simple scan of tweets to detect and alert them if
someone tweeted #westsidewatch. The community would have an easy and direct way to alert
the police without ever having to call 911.The popularity of smart phones and their internet
access allow citizens to report suspicious behaviors 24/7. The glory of this system is the person
reporting the crime can remain anonymous as they are simply a concerned citizen of the West
Side Watch.
Regular Twitter and Facebook use are free, so there are absolutely no cost considerations
there. Facebook advertising will costs as much as you like it to cost, but we recommend that for
starters, you run two ads simultaneously: one targeting Binghamton Students, and another
targeting Small Business prospects for the area, for two months each, with a lifetime budget of
$150.00 per ad. In total, the advertising will cost you $300.00 for three months.
Website revamp
Create credit opportunities directly geared towards improving the website. The website is
the face of WSNP that people see when they are looking up the project, so it is important to leave
a good first impression. Interns can work together so that the website will improve at a faster rate.
Some skills to look for when creating these opportunities are: Familiarity with Wordpress,
HTML, PHP, Javascript and CSS. Wordpress is a great content management system, because
plugins can easily be installed and implemented into the website, with minimal coding
knowledge.
The website should be remade so that it can include more information about what WSNP
is about. Although it does offer a description about WSNP, it should be stated on the front page
how WSNP will achieve its goals. The front page must also include more information about
events, or what WSNP has been recently doing so that WSNP will leave the impression of being
an active organization. For the front page, instead of having only one picture, it is possible to
creating rotating slideshows and descriptions. These pictures can include WSNP events, popular
West Side This will allow people to visually see what WSNP has been doing. A Twitter feed can
also be integrated into the main page so that people can easily be updated about things on a short
notice. In addition to this, an interactive map can be placed on the bottom of the page showing
the areas which the West Side include.
One of the main segments which WSNP is focused on is student housing. In order to get
more people interested, it is imperative to have a neat collection of the housing available on the
West Side. This can be made in a subsection of the website, or as a new website altogether.
Instead of being a simple list, available housing can be plotted on a map, and clicking on them
can bring up more details. The details can include more pictures, information on amenities
available, and landlord information. Students can also have the option to search based on price or
rooms available. Landlords will also have an incentive to work together to get this done because
it will create more exposure for their housing. In addition to this, the website must highlight what
the West Side has to offer asides from affordable housing. Popular stores and cafes can be linked
to the neighborhood, in addition to parks and other recreational areas. These can be shown in a
different page of the website, and each week a different store or location can be the main focus
of the page. This page should also include a rotating image pane where various “featured shots”
can be exhibited.
A main concern which people had with living on the West Side vs University Plaza or
Twin River Commons was “What if I get a horrible landlord?” To quell these concerns it should
be made possible so that tenants can post anonymous reviews on certain properties. While some
landlords may be concerned about this, it will give them more incentive to become better ones.
Easily accessible positive reviews about the West Side would draw more people into the
neighborhood.
Hire interns for credit
Many students on campus are always looking to gain work experience while they are still
attending school. We recommend that WSNP utilize various on-campus career services such as
the School of Management (SOM), the Career Development Center (CDC) and the Center for
Civic Engagement (CCE). Since WSNP has a relatively tight budget, it would be best to offer
college credit to the student interns. Making use of the university’s resources will be an
inexpensive way for WSNP to put themselves out there and let students know about the
organization.
1 School of Management
Career Services Office
SOM has a dedicated career services office. The directors of SOM career services are constantly
emailing students with internship opportunities that become available, so it would be the easiest
way for WSNP to reach all the students in SOM for internships. The email for SOM career
services is: somcs@binghamton.edu. Now would be the best time to reach out to them with
opportunities available in the winter or spring terms.
SOM Career Services Staff
Christina Whitney, Director of Career Services
(607) 777-6849, AA-G16G
Denise Lorenzetti, Assistant Director of Career Services
(607) 777-6176, AA-G16C
Tammy Richard, Career Services Secretary
(607) 777-6191, AA-G16B
SOM E-Recruiting - http://som.experience.com
SOM has a dedicated employment website for employers to post job openings in their company.
This can also include non-profit organizations or for credit internships. To post positions on this
website, sign up through the Sign-In button under the Employers section. After creating an
account and company profile, an email will be sent notifying if it has been approved. This is
great to those students who do not check their email daily, and to have job openings available for
viewing for a greater amount of time. Also, WSNP would have full access to post jobs at any
convenient time.
Courses
There are many SOM courses which include working with an outside company in addition to
Professor Agarwal’s classes. Brian Perry is the SOM Undergraduate advisor, and would be a
valuable contact about which courses are offered which term, and which may entail working
with an outside organization.
Perry, Brian - Undergraduate Advisor
(607) 777-2316, AA-140, bperry@binghamton.edu
MIS 473 & 573 Information Systems Project is a course offered by Surinder Kahai in which
students are dedicated to solely working with an outside company. The projects for this class
usually involve managing databases, creating links between databases and a front end, or
websites. It would be a great opportunity if a project could be created to create a database of
landowners and their properties, and show it in a subsection of the website, along with
interactive maps. This way people interested in the West Side will be able to more easily see the
properties available. This class is offered in Spring 2013, so make contact as soon as possible.
Kahai, Surinder - MIS
(607) 777-2410, AA-310, kahai@binghamton.edu
2. Career Development Center
The Career Development Center is available to all students on campus. For WSNP to make
themselves present in CDC, it will be exposed to a wide reach of students looking to find an
internship and gain experience. Through CDC, WSNP can publicize information about the
organization and its values and reach out to students who would be willing to contribute their
time.
General Information including Service Hours
607-777-2400
Employer Services Contact Information
Eileen Bauer-Hagerbaumer, Assistant Director-Employer Relations
Job & Internship Fair contact
(607) 777-4898
Brandy Smith, Recruitment and Assessment Coordinator
On Campus Recruiting contact
(607) 777-2553
Fax: (607) 777-4499
E-Mail: cdcemp@binghamton.edu
eRecruiting: CDC uses an online system, eRecruiting, to manage on-campus recruiting and to
post job and internship listings locally, regionally as well as internationally.
To post a job onto the eRecruiting website through Binghamton University’s CDC go to:
http://www2.binghamton.edu/career-development-center/employers/cdc-job-submission.html
or
e-mail your posting to: cdcjobs@binghamton.edu.
CDC also has a useful program, the Career Development Center Internship (CDCI) Program,
where we recommend WSNP should predominantly look to. This is a credit-bearing program,
where students do an internship while taking an academic course during the semester. In order
for a student to participate in a CDCI, they must first attend an information session the semester
before they begin interning. Since CDCI already had their information sessions for the upcoming
Winter 2013 semester, it would be best that WSNP contacts CDC to participate in the
information sessions for the Spring 2013 semester. We recommend you do this as soon as
possible so that students will have the opportunity to learn more about WSNP and contact you
with further questions before applying for their internships.
The general credit offering for the CDCI Programs are as follows:
Fall /Spring Internship: 4 credits
Full time Internship: 8 credits - 12 credits
Summer and Winter Internships: 2 or 4 credits
For more information on the CDCI Program:
Laura O'Neill
Academic Internship Program Coordinator
loneill@binghamton.edu
(607) 777-2545
Leverage ties with the Student Association
1. Fundraising
Since WSNP is an organization under the Student Association, it is subject to the same
benefits as any other student organization. We understand that WSNP is aware of the budget
allocated by the SA. However, fundraising is an opportunity that is rather underused. Under the
SA’s Treasurer Handbook, it states that “For every dollar of net profit raised in a fundraiser, your
group will be allocated an additional $0.50 per dollar up to a maximum payout of $500. After
which, you will receive $0.10 per dollar up to a maximum of $1,000 for every dollar of net profit.
Maximum: $1500 per group.” As an SA group, WSNP is also allowed to table in the Old Union
Tillman Lobby on campus and is also able to reserve rooms on campus to hold events. WSNP
can utilize this window of opportunity to not only gain recognition of the organization on
campus but to receive additional funds from SA.
2. LateNite Binghamton
We also recommend that WSNP takes advantage of LateNite Binghamton. As a student
group, it is an easy way to hold events to just get the word out there about WSNP. All events are
completely free and are held in the University Union on Friday and Saturday nights from 9pm2am. Also, the organization will be allowed up to $100 of reimbursement, with a receipt for
approval, if supplies, equipment, etc need to be purchased to hold a LateNite event. Reserving a
spot in LateNite must be done at least TWO weeks ahead of time. Some possible events include
a holiday themed arts and crafts for Christmas decorations or stockings since the fall semester is
ending soon or a karaoke event, or game night that can be held next semester. A lot of students
come to LateNite looking for a night of fun so it is definitely a great opportunity for WSNP to
capitalize on..
For more information about LateNite:
Campus Activities Office - UUW208G
Binghamton University
PO Box 6000
Binghamton, NY 13902
Phone: 607-777-2812
Fax: 607-777-2819
Email: latenite@binghamton.edu
3. BU PipeDream
As we already mentioned earlier, it would be beneficial for WSNP to take advantage of
BU Pipe Dream. Whether you want to place an advertisement or just to get the word out there
about WSNP, this will create more awareness on campus about the project.
Pipe Dream: SA Groups:
All SA groups are permitted one standard size (3.65 × 3.175) ad space per week.
In order to place an ad the SA group representative must email business@bupipedream.com with the
following three things:
SA Group name and account number
The date they would like the advertisement to appear
A digital copy of the ad in JPG or PDF format
Larger ad sizes are available. Please contact business@bupipedream.com for more details.
It is important to get the project known throughout campus. Even if there is no big event coming
up, WSNP should make its organization known by placing the logo in the newspaper to increase
awareness.
4. Creating an Executive Board
Creating an executive board on campus for WSNP would greatly help in tying together on
campus activities with off campus ones. Most e-boards contain positions for President, Vice
President, Secretary, Treasurer, Event Coordinators, and Publicity, and hold weekly meetings.
While the positions of President and Vice President may be reserved for Alycia and Tobey, a
secretary would be responsible for taking minutes, room reservations, and lighting and
equipment reservations. A treasurer would be able to take care of the budget provided by OC3 in
addition to taking the treasurer’s test and learning the monetary rules for on campus activities.
Event coordinators will team up with the WSNP founders in brainstorming events, and
contacting on campus officials, and the publicity chair will be in charge of creating posters,
updating B-Line, emailing the listserv, reaching out to other groups, and finding any way
possible to get the word about WSNP out.
Landlord Convention
Many students in their junior and senior years at Binghamton are interested in moving to the
West Side, but don’t really know where to look. Landlords have to be more active and readily
available, almost campaigning towards the students. It will be very beneficial to have a
convention, where landlords collaborate and attempt to gain prospective tenants. Landlords
should have information sheets, their business cards, and a poster board display (with pictures of
the property, a map with location, and other appealing traits for the apartment/house). Leases can
be signed at the event, and those who need more time to decide can stay in contact with the
landlord and view the property at a later time.
The appeal to live on the West Side is already there. Not only do students like the flexibility of
living off campus, but they are saving a ton of money. For an academic year (which is two
semesters, not including breaks), students have to pay between $7500 to $9000 to live on campus,
depending on the quality of the dorm community. A student who lives in the West Side or
downtown area will typically pay between $4000 and $5000 per year, with the freedom to come
and go as you please assuming a 12 month lease. That’s plenty of extra money for the student to
use on food, partying, and other college expenses.
At the start of every Spring semester, students are already thinking about where to live in the
upcoming school year. For the Spring of 2013, classes start on January 28. On February 25,
Binghamton University issues a $200 room deposit due for Fall 2013 campus housing. Within
that month time period, WSNP and landlords have to team up to gain student tenants.
The first option would be to host this convention on campus (free), preferably in the Mandela
Room or another large room in the University Union. This would not only bring in students who
were initially planning to attend, but you would also gain a few people who are passing by.
Possibly offer pizza and drinks at the convention, to appeal to more students. As an SA chartered
organization, WSNP should have no problem reserving a spot in the University Union. Though
Binghamton University is in direct competition with West Side housing because of campus
dorms, if they give you any trouble then you can argue that off campus living makes Binghamton
overall more appealing and also allows the school to accept a few more students than before
(more tuition).
Who to contact? To reserve a date and space for the convention (or conventions, if you want to
make it a week event) you can call James Koval, Carl Darling, or Penny Mabee at 607-777-3300
from Monday to Friday, between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM. Requests are at a first-come first-serve
basis, so it would be best to reserve a date at the very beginning of next semester (once enough
landlord support is available) for a time in the middle of February. To reserve sound equipment,
talk to Carl Darling. To reserve tables and chairs, call the same number and ask to be connected
to the Tillman Lobby. A schedule viewer for events in the University Union can be found here:
http://darla1.cc.binghamton.edu:8080/wv331union/wv3_servlet/urd/run/wv_space.DayList?spdt
=20121130,spfilter=255234,lbdviewmode=grid
Another option (or if Binghamton denies a campus convention) would be to hold the event at a
public venue, like the Broome County Arena or the Forum Theater (also free). Both places have
open dates where you can request space. They can be contacted at 607-778-1528 (Arena) and
607-778-2480 (Theater). To confirm the date at either place, call the Arena’s number on the day
of.
How to promote this event? Try and get B-Line (Binghamton’s daily email news service) to
make announcements, starting two weeks prior to the event. Call 607-777-3535 for Binghamton
Connection and 607-777-2174 for Communications and Marketing. Or you can request
announcements right on their website, http://b-line.binghamton.edu/events/new .
You can also create posters or flyers to put around campus dorms, dining halls, the lecture hall,
Union, or even on OCCT buses. The advertisement for the convention would have to cater to
students looking to save money and live somewhere appealing. An example would be to have a
picture of a student smiling, in front of a nice house with a nice lawn. The ad would say
“Campus Housing - $9000 per year and nosey RA’s.” Under that would say “West Side Housing
- $4500 per year and a house with your best friends.” The $9000 could be in red font and the
$4500 can be in green font, maybe even with a circle around it or check-mark next to it. At the
top you would put “Student Housing Convention” as well as the location and a date/times. At the
bottom, you could put the WSNP logo and maybe even a phone number. There could be a series
of these “attack ads” which make West Side housing seem much more appealing than living in
the dorms. Assuming you have an intern to make the poster and put them up around campus,
materials costs should be no more than $50. Maybe even have landlords donate for the
promotional aspect of the convention.
Marketing materials
Physical marketing materials should be created to advertise the West Side and the West Side
neighborhood project both on campus and in Binghamton. We recommend that the number of
brochures made for WSNP be smaller than the original seven. Based on the segmentation we
identified earlier, we recommend that two brochures be produced, one for Students, the other for
potential Owners (a.k.a. Landlords) and Businesses which may develop on the West Side.
The theme of the brochures would be the lower pricing of renting and land in the area,
which make it a great choice of all three groups. The brochures would also, however, offer more
specific information for each group. for students, it may have which attractions are in the area, as
well as the bus schedule that makes it easiest to get back and forth to the West Side and campus.
You may also highlight the freedom of living off campus. For Owners/Businesses, you may
highlight all the reasons to own: to make money, to give yourself something to do, or to give
back to the area. Additionally you should highlight all the benefits to owning: access to a large
student population, profits, proximity to Binghamton attractions, growing economy and
opportunities. We recommend printing at least 200 of each brochure. After you have them, the
next step is finding out where to put them. Look for businesses and offices in the area (Dentistry,
Pediatric, Ihop, anything really) where they keep brochures for people to peruse, and ask them if
they wouldn’t mind having some of yours. I think each business or organization could get along
fine with 10 to 15 brochures at most. Additionally, they could be given to offices on campus,
such as the Counseling Center, each community’s main office, the Registrar, etc. Alternatively
you could hand them out yourselves at events for WSNP and the community in general.
Next, we heavily recommend that you increase your presence with posters, specifically
on campus. This is the way that Hawley advertised successfully, and WSNP may wish to do the
same. Create one specific poster which students would see around campus. It should specifically
highlight the accessibility, freedom of living off campus and most importantly, the low price.
Make sure they know where to go from the point of seeing it: go to the website, find the listings
for houses, talk to landlords, etc. Without a next step, students will be baffled. Make sure that
your name is prominent on the poster. If they remember one thing, it should be the “West Side,”
so put a large version of the West Side Neighborhood logo at the top. Also it should be
mentioned that WSNP is a campus chartered group. I would recommend that these are hung in
all the buildings on campus which allow for it: Residential Halls (one for each RA even), Dining
Halls, Bartle (on two separate boards), Lecture hall (another two boards), Academic A/SOM
Offices (approximately 8 boards), and any other locations possible. So, for every cycle of posters
hung, we would approximate that 300 color posters should be made.
We recommend, using your account through OC3, that you utilize the Student
Associations print shop, SA Ink, to print all of the posters and brochures. SA Ink is located in
UUW B09 in the basement of the New Union. After sending in your poster to
saink@binghamtonsa.org, you will need to fill out the paperwork. The office is open 10am-7pm
Monday through Thursday and 10am-5pm on Friday. in the paperwork you can choose many
options, but just color printing single sided on a regular sheet (8 and ½:” by 11”) of paper. Using
this service will cost $0.14 per page, so printing the posters will come out to approximately
$50.00, and for the brochures approximately $65.00.
Alumni investment: The network of BU alumni could be very beneficial to WSNP. Despite the
economic status, the majority of BU graduates are able to find stable jobs. These alumni could be
convinced that right now is a great time to invest in the West Side. They could invest in a house
that they renovate to rent out, or look to start their own business. With property costs as low as
they currently are, the West Side can offer alumni an excellent return on investment ratio.
Alumni landlords are the type WSNP should look to recruit to the area. They immediately bring
a working knowledge of what students look for in housing .Alum will also have direct
connections to current students and possible tenants.
Section Five: Financial Considerations and Budgeting
Financial Considerations
After discussing the budget with Alycia, we understand that we have anywhere from
$1,000 to $2,000 for a budget. Our aim is to use as modest a budget as possible. This is
easily achievable, as many of the services we recommend are offered at no cost to
Student Association Chartered Groups. The largest portion of it will presumably be spent
on posters for on-campus and in-town advertising, but much of it may be tailored
specifically depending on the scale of advertising you would like to do.
Budgeting
Our costs and allocation of budget is as follows:
All On-Campus Resources: Free
Social Media Pages for Twitter & Facebook: Free
Facebook Advertising (Two ads for three months at $150.00 each): $300.00
Advertising WSNP and the West Side on and off campus (300 posters): $50.00
Brochures for WSNP to be placed on and off campus (400 brochures): $65.00
Flyers/Posters to promote Landlord Convention: $50.00
Timeline of Implementation
We recommend WSNP proceeds with the following primary recommendations within this
coming year.
Prior to Spring 2013, which starts January 24th
● Frost Fest http://b-line.binghamton.edu/events/2137
● Contacts made with CDC and SOM to begin recruiting for internships
● Make posters and have them printed through SA Ink
● Reach out to B-Line about weekly ads
Throughout Spring 2013:
● Interns should be updating Facebook and Twitter accounts as soon as possible
● Website Revamp
● Brochures should be designed and printed for use at all events
● Facebook advertising should start at the beginning of March
● Posters should be hung across campus at the recommended locations, replaced when need
be
● Sign up for LateNite Binghamton events
We recommend WSNP proceeds with the following secondary recommendations after the
primary recommendations are started off.
●
●
●
●
Recruiting investors at alumni weekend
Tailgating Booth
Spring Fling Booth
Creating an on campus Executive Board
Comments By Agarwal:
Have all the ideas but dont link with which goal, which marketing plan
Talk about which goal we are focusing on, or goals
Find preliminary issue -> plans for all of them or for some areas?
Decide which one amongst student, businesses and investors
-> Increasing residents in west side
-> actionable marketing ideas for these goals
-> for increasing awareness
-> ideas for increasing that
SWOT analysis
positioning - come up with some slogans we can use to capture what the west side is for the
businesses or students -> capture the essence
make a positioning statement then build marketing campaign
Web exchange? Like a forum
Get more quantitative about binghamton students
how many people off campus, on, dorm #s, etc
+, - factors
Cost to move
Seperate into sections focus on, and other smaller recs on other goals
Bullet points for recommendations
While all these goals should be achieved, here are some which we are focusing on