St. Francis CARE Plans book..Spring 2011...

1. Advertising Strategy for
St. Francis CARE Mallory Henkelman
Krystal Saulsberry
Andrew Fines
Kate Feirick

2. History
St. Francis Community Animal Rescue and Education is a volunteer, nonprofit
501(c)(3) animal welfare organization serving all of southern Illinois. They provide
shelter and veterinary care to lost, unwanted and abandoned animals until they
can be placed in a kind and loving home where they will be cared for in a safe and
humane environment for the rest of their natural lives.
St. Francis also takes part in the community by educating the public about the
importance of spaying and neutering pets in order to prevent undesired breeding
and minimize the need for euthanasia. They also promote the adoption of animals
as pets from supporting inhumane puppy and kitten mills, which contribute to
overpopulation of domestic animals.
St. Francis opened its doors in Murphysboro, Illinois in June of 2006 after moving
from Anna, Illinois due to flooding of their facilities. They currently have nine
employees and approximately 30 volunteers. Volunteers include individuals from all
walks of life, but primarily consist of retired individuals.
St. Francis is the only low-cost spade and neutering facility in the area, and also
takes pride in the cleanliness of their facilities and quality of life of their animals.
All animal bedding is laundered on a daily basis while each cage is being cleaned,
typically while the animals play all day outside in the facility’s large playpens.
Current and Past Marketing
St. Francis has never done any form of advertising, mainly due to lack of funds.
However, they do host a Spring Open House and Fall Fish Fry to both thank and
keep in contact with their past donors and adopters. St. Francis also creates
awareness by bringing signage and a few animals to PetCo every Saturday. On
these Saturdays, the main goal for St. Francis is to have a presence in the community
along with putting stress on keeping local dollars local. While they typically only get
a few animals adopted while at PetCo, creating this awareness for the shelter brings
in more traffic throughout the week.

3. Observational Research
On our visit to St. Francis, we were given a full tour of all of the facilities by the staff. The first
area we were shown was the medical facility where animals with special needs were kept. The
smaller dogs were kept in kennels in the main building with attendants close by at all times.
We were then taken outside where we were shown the multiple fenced in outdoor play areas.
Outside, there was also a series of buildings where the other animals were kept. The larger dogs
were kept in separate buildings with larger kennel areas. Medium sized dogs and a separate
room equipped with play areas and obstacles were in the next building. The final building we
were shown was the puppy building. Overall, the facilities were a lot nicer than I expected. The
operation was also considerably larger than we thought it would be. This is most likely due
to the fact that St. Francis is one of the few no-kill shelters and they require more facilities to
accommodate the growing number animals.
We also visited PetCo, where the animals are taken every other weekend to promote
adoption of the animals. A surprising number of people showed up to see the animals and a few
people even brought there own pets to socialize. St. Francis holds special promotions on certain
weekends such as an all black dog event called “Black Out”. The event was to raise awareness of all
the animals in the shelters, 65% of which are black.
The Humane Society of Southern Illinois had fewer facilities. We determined that this was
because they are in fact a kill-shelter. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures, but there were only
about 25 dogs and maybe 20 cats. The cats were all confined to small spaces whereas St. Francis
had an entire cat room. They had some literature, but nothing that seemed overly promotional.

4. Focus Group Summary
We conducted 4 separate focus groups. Each group had 4 to 5 subjects in them. The age range
for our focus group was 19-26. Our first topic for our focus groups was volunteering. When asked
where they would volunteer, the first locations mentioned were children organizations, cancer
organizations and homeless shelters. There was no mention of volunteering at an animal shelter.
Self-fulfillment was the main reason participants gave for volunteering. One person said, “[It]
makes me feel like I made a difference,” another person said, “I feel bad for the people, they need
help.” There was an overall similar response from every respondent on this question.
After covering some general questions, we started to ask questions specifically about
pets. All of our respondents agreed that they would adopt a pet; however, there are constrictions
as a college student, such as having an extra financial responsibility and finding a place that
allows pets. When asked about considering buying a pet, there were a variety of different answers
on where participants would go. Places mentioned were a breeder, a family friend, and the
Humane Society. Some of the reasons why they would consider the Humane Society are the price,
cleanliness and treatment of the animals versus puppy mills. Conversely, one person said, “from
a pet store, not a shelter because I have a conception that those pets have been abused in some
way, and I don’t have time to train a traumatized pet.” Almost all the respondents said the main
difference between a shelter and pet store is that an animal shelter has all the “reject pets” and
pet stores have the “middle class” pets. However, one person mentioned, “a shelter gives more
attention and affection to animals, whereas at a pet store, they are viewed as more of a product.”
There were many strong views about this question. In one of the focus groups, it actually started a
two-hour debate.
There were similar answers about what qualities they wanted in a pet, most of the
qualities consist of loyal, cute, not shy, affectionate, protective and obedient.
We showed each focus group a photos of three different kinds of dogs and a cat. We asked
the respondents, which animal stood out to them the most. The Collie had a tremendous
response. Some of the responses to why people chose the Collie is because it “looks like a very
beautiful dog.” Also because it was following a command from a trainer, so it looks obedient. One
respondent liked the Boxer because it was short-. “Yorkies are stupid,” was the consensus on the
third dog. The photo of the kitten was mostly ignored because the participants were dog lovers.
Most of the respondents agreed that they would want a smaller dog because they do not need as
much space as others dogs.
Towards the end of each focus group, we started to specifically ask about St. Francis. Most
respondents were not aware of St. Francis. One respondent said he only knew of St. Francis
because he lives down the street. Conversely, most respondents have heard of the Humane
Society. Once informed what St. Francis was, we asked if they would consider donating or
volunteering at a place like St. Francis, most respondents agreed they would be most likely
volunteer. One respondent said they would like to donate but didn’t know if small donations were
accepted.

5. Email Survey Summary
What type of organization would you consider
Our survey was conducted using
donating money to? Organizations which.... Google documents, and sent out to
Benefit animals 54%
people in our target audience on
Promote ‘going green’ 30%
February 24, 2011 via Facebook and
My church or church groups 33%
email. We have received a total of
Help unfortunate people in
91 responses and which include 81
other countries
38%
respondents from our specific target
Use the money for research audience.
about diseases or other 59%
medical purposes
The demographics of our main
Help unfortunate people in
the USA
46% respondents are: aged 18-27 years old,
Benefit children 63%
a college senior, female, most have
Other 4%
an income ranging from nothing to
about $200 every 2 weeks and live
in Carbondale or Murphysboro. The
Would you be more interested in donating money majority were Caucasian and have never
to a local or national organization? been married.
Don’t Know Overall, the prominent results
of our survey told us that donating
National money to benefit animals is in the top 3
Both organizations people would choose to
donate their money. Many respondents
would donate to local charities rather
then a national organization. Most
Local people in our target audience can only
donate spare change, or up to thirty
dollars. They donate via donation boxes
or when physically approached by people
asking for donations.
Why do you, or why would you consider
volunteering at an organization? Respondents in our target audience
volunteer for two main reasons: to fulfill a
To fulfill volunteer requirements for an
organization or group I’m involved in
59%
requirement for an organization they are
To pass time in a beneficial way 35% in or because they are passionate about
Because I was passionate about the organization they are volunteering
59%
helping that particular organization for.
I was ‘volunteered’ by someone else 11%
As a fun thing to do with a friend 36% When it comes to adopting the pet
Other 3% most (36) would consider adopting a
pet and they would choose a dog who is
affectionate, happy, playful, and young.
Would you consider adopting a pet? It was shown that many people are not
familiar with St. Francis CARE; only 17 of
Yes 83%
our participants even knew it existed, and
No 16%
only 7 have ever visited there before.

6. Independent Media Usage Interview
We conducted independent interviews with 20 SIUC students
ages 18-27 by approaching them on campus. We asked them
about the type of media they use on a daily basis. Almost all the
respondents said they use social media (Facebook, Twitter) at
least once a day. Some people mentioned reading newspapers
like the Daily Egyptian, Nightlife and Southern Illinoisan. They
also mentioned listening to the radio, many referring to the
stations CILFM and TAO.
From analyzing our interviews, we came to the conclusion
that the most effective method to reach our target audience is
to use an extensive amount of social media, place ads in local
and college newspapers, and buy radio advertisements. Since
St. Francis’ main medium use is the website, we recommend
redesigning the website design to make it more user-friendly.

7. Competitive Analysis
TREATMENT
SERVICES OF VARIETY OF
PHILOSOPHY DESIGN & PRICES ANIMALS ANIMALS
Dedicated to rescuing Dogs $195 Prices include Multiple large play pens.
Okay Design,
St. Francis lost, unwanted &
Good Continutiy
Cats $95 spay & neuter Play outside all day, clean Dogs, Cats
abandoned pets Spay/Neuter $35-40 facilities, training
Staff members who are
Great Design, Clean store, Dogs, Fish,
Dee’s Pets experienced pet
Great Continuity
Puppies $300-500
Animals kept in cages Birds, Rodents
owners & lovers
Works to stop all Great Design,
PETA animal cruelty. Great Continuity
N/A N/A N/A
Enhances the dignity
Goodwill and quality of life
Great Design,
N/A N/A N/A
Great Continuity
of individuals.
Humane Encourages spay & Horrible Design,
Dogs $100 Small play pen,
Society Cats $80 Animals kept in cages Cats, Dogs, Rodents
neutering of animals Bad Continuity
Spay/Neuter $35 most of the day.
The main competitors of St. Francis Care are Dee’s Pets, PETA, Goodwill, and the Human
Society of Southern Illinois. Dee’s Pets and the Human Society are competitors for animal
adoptions, and PETA and Goodwill are in competition for monetary donations. St. Francis has
very reasonable pricing when it comes to the adoption of dogs and cats. The Human Society of
Southern Illinois has prices that may seem a little bit cheaper (Dogs, $100.00 Cats,$80.00), the
Humane Society’s price does not include the coast to spay and neuter the animal These costs are
included at St. Francis, totally animals at $195 for a dog and $95 for a cat. The national non-profit
organizations take in a lot more of the donations than the local pet adoption locations. Dee’s Pets
sells their pets at a very high price compared to St. Francis, with an average price of $400.00 per
dog. As far as perception, St. Francis is the least recognized, according to our survey, of all of the
competitors. Only 17 of our respondents even are familiar with it. The philosophy of St. Francis is
that they are a no-kill shelter compared to the Human Society that euthanizes their animals. St.
Francis currently has no advertising, but do visit Petco every other Saturday, which helps create
brand awareness and increase adoptions. The Human Society does not do much advertising; they
do not even have a brochure. Dee’s Pets has television commercials running on local channels.
PETA and Goodwill, being national organizations, have much larger advertising budgets due
to receiving much larger donations. PETA does a lot of advertising, and are most popularly
known for their, “I would rather go naked than wear fur,” campaign. Goodwill does some guerilla
advertising, but not really much other than that.
In addition to the competitors listed above, all local non-profit organizations that are
seeking donations or volunteers are also viewed as competitors.

8. Brand Analysis
St. Francis has made an attempt to achieve
continuity in all of their promotional and
informational material. The color scheme as well
as the logo are consistent in all representations.
The logo can be found on the buildings, company
vehicles, brochures, and on the website.
The brochure could be updated to use
a sleeker, more efficient layout. They could also
include more detailed information. They should
include information about how to donate. The
logo on the brochure also needs to be put on the
cover. More exposure of the logo will ultimately
give the brand more recognition.
The facilities include a main building,
which was originally built as a house. Inside, the
building still looked very residential rather than
as a professional business. Painting the interior
of the buildings is recommended to create
continuity throughout the facility and give it a
more professional appeal.
The staff was overall very knowledgeable
and friendly. The sales experience was personable
and they were more than happy to answer any
questions.

9. S
• Low-cost spay and neutering
• Clean facilities
• Happy animals
Strengths • Training of animals
• Large Playpens
• Good logo and color scheme
• One of very few no-kill shelters
W
Weaknesses
• Out of business district
• Hard to locate from road
• Low brand awareness
• “High” adoption prices
O
• Ad campaign can create awareness
and bring in more traffic
Opportunities • Hosting events to generate traffic
• More continuity with color scheme
• Fundraiser can raise additional funds to
execute a plan to action
TThreats
• Competition from Humane Society, pet
stores, and other animal agencies
• Lack of demand for adopted pets
• Poor economic conditions

10. Sales Objectives
• Increase adoptions by 20% over the next year.
• Increase Market Share by 5% over the next year.
• Raise $500.00 at Music/BBQ Fundraiser.
Advertising Objectives
• Specifically target and raise brand awareness with 18-27
year olds in Carbondale and surrounding areas through the
duration of the campaign.
• Increase number of volunteers by 20% over the next year.
• Increase monetary donations by 10% over the next year.

11. Budget
Friday Night Fair $280 Inflatable Dogs $119.96
Dog Walker $293
Daily Egyptian $1431
Bus Benches $600
Social Media $442
Nightlife $900
KGMO $810
CILFM $1458
The budget for the campaign that we have come up with totals at $6,495.96
which is the bare minimum we suggest for an effective campaign. We
kept the cost as low as possible because St. Francis CARE is a non-profit
organization with a current advertising budget of $0.00.
Traditional Media Budget $ 4,599.00
Non-Traditional Media Budget, $ 1,734.96
Total Campaign: $6,495.96

12. Creative Strategy and Executions
The Big Idea:
tH ap py!
Ge
“Get Happy!” is our big idea and will be consistent in our
advertisements. There’s no happier time then the time you
spend with an animal. St. Francis has some of the happiest
animals in their shelter and by people volunteering at St.
Francis CARE, they will be able to “Get Happy” by being
able to interact and help out with the happiest dogs of St.
Francis. The slogan “Get Happy” has another connotation
as well. If someone came to St. Francis to adopt a pet, they
can “get Happy” as in adopting a dog that’s name is happy
or naming him or her happy once the dog is adopted
in a loving home. We believe that this tagline really
encompassed everything that St. Francis CARE stands
for. Our goal is to not only maintain the happiness of the
animals, but adopters, volunteers and employees as well.

13. April May June July August September October November December January February March
Traditional Media
Newspapers
Daily Egypatian 9 ads 9 ads
Nightlife 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Radio
CILFM 54 ads 54 ads
KGMO 27 ads 27 ads
Nontraditional Media
Media Flow Chart
Social Media
Facebook 104 Posts
Twitter 104 Posts
Bus Benches 8 Benches 8 Benches
Dog Walker 9 Walks 9 Walks
Friday Night Fair 9 Booths 9 Booths
Inflatable Dogs 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12

14. Radio
[Sound of dog barking]
GIRL 1: I love volunteering at St Francis CARE because it is a
great place to go and relax after a long day of class
and play with the animals.
GIRL 2: I love volunteering at St Francis CARE because it
makes ME happy
ANNOUNCER: Come GET HAPPY by volunteering at St
Francis Care in Murphysboro. 6228 Country Club Road.
[Sound of dog barking]
Students tend to listen to radio stations with today’s hits
the most, but classic rock is also popular among students,
particularly with males. For this reason, the majority of
the radio budget should be placed on 101.5 CILFM, which
plays today’s hits. 100.7 KGMO plays classic rock and is
also a popular station among students. Ads should be
placed on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays because this is
when most of the Greek life and RSOs have their meetings.
Most of these clubs and organizations require mandatory
community service hours, so students listening to the
radio on these days will be reminded of the opportunity
to volunteer. The majority of the ads should be placed on
101.5 CILFM because today’s hit are more popular among
college students.

15. Newspapers
SIU students reported regularly reading newspapers. The
newspapers most read by students are The Daily Egyptian and
Nightlife. Both of these papers are free and can be found on
campus and in businesses all around Carbondale. Ads in these
papers are a great way to accurately reach our target audience.
We suggest running weekly ads in the Daily Egyptian on Mondays
and ads every other week in the Nightlife. The reason for this is
the heavier following of the Daily Egyptian than the Nightlife
among students. Running 2x3 black and white ads is the most cost
e ective way to reach the target audience.

16. Social Media
All of the students from our focus group and surveys
use some form of social media. Most students
reported using Facebook or Twitter on a daily basis.
Both of these services are free unless someone is
hired to update the sites. Volunteers or the staff
already on hand can perform maintenance of the
sites. Using social media sites is also a cost effective
way to promote awareness year round.

17. Bus Bench Advertisements
One of our suggested non-traditional media is bus
benches. Many students on Southern Illinois University
campus use the bus service, the Saluki express, to get
around to different places from the mall to the grocery
store. Our idea is to place advertisements on the bus
benches on four different popular saluki express bus stops.
They are SIUC Student Center, Thompson Point, University
Mall, and Southern Hills. We plan to have bus bench
advertisements out for four months, August, September,
April, May. The ads are $37.50 per month for non-profit
organizations, which comes out in total of $600. The ad
will read “Get Happy! There’s no happier time than the
time you share with an animal. Come volunteer with us to
keep them happy and healthy”.

18. Dog Walker
We suggest to plan
to have St. Francis
volunteers walking
dogs on SIUC campus
once a week for 18
weeks through the
months of August,
September, April, and
May from 11:30am-
12:30pm. We chose this
time because people
are on lunch breaks
between this time and
many people will be out of class walking around campus and will see the
dog walker. We also only made it an hour because we want to create buzz
about St. Francis dog walkers being on campus and making it a word of
mouth topic. We decided to pay the dog walker $8.50 an hour for amount
of $153. We plan on having 10 dog walkers rotating throughout the 18
-week period, once a week. Each dog walker will have a light green t-shirt,
which will say our slogan “Get Happy”, St Francis’ name and address on the
front, and on the back it will say, “Help me! Ask me about how to volunteer
for St. Francis CARE”. We believe this will be an effective guerrilla tactic to
use because there are thousands of students walking on campus everyday,
which will increase our exposure of people seeing the dog walker, and most
people like dogs, so that will also create an incentive for people to looking
in to what St. Francis CARE is about.

19. Friday Night Fair
To create more brand awareness for St. Francis CARE, we recommend
purchasing a booth in Carbondale’s Friday Night Fair. This is a weekly event
held every Friday night from April 22 to October 28 in Carbondale Town
Square, which is located in the center of Carbondale.
To set St. Francis aside from other booths, we recommend that they rent
booth #15 which has extra space on the side. This extra space can be filled
with cages with animals that visitors can interact with and possibly even
adopt on the spot. There will also be more probability for people to make
donations if they can see in front of them what they are donating to.
Along with having animals at the booth, we recommend having
promotional materials such as signage, fliers and brochures. Brochures
should focus on information of what St. Francis is, and the fliers should
focus more on how to get involved with donating to or volunteering for St.
Francis.
As a treat to visitors, we recommend that St. Francis bring bags of “puppy
chow” to hand out to anyone visiting the booth. Each bag should include St.
Francis’ logo and the tagline “Get Happy!”
Total cost for renting the booth each week will be $280.
Space for Cages

20. Inflatable Dogs
To create more brand awareness
and a buzz surrounding St Francis
CARE, we recommend a guerilla
campaign to take place on the SIUC
campus. This event will be every
other week in August-September
and April-May, every other week in
very populated areas of the campus.
To make this event happen
we are suggesting they purchase 4
dozen inflatable dogs at 29.99 per
dozen from partypalooza.com, and
place advertisements for St. Francis
around the necks of the dogs. We
are recommending they place these dogs in places like the SIUC student
center, WHAM education building COMM building, etc.
Along with having these dogs out we suggest they take them at night
and put them away. Then they can choose a random day, the next time they
put the dogs out to create an element of surprise to keep people guessing.
Total cost for this guerilla campaign is $119.96
Left your dog with
your parents?
G et H appy!
Come visit the dogs at St. Francis CARE.
Volunteers are always needed.
St. Francis Community Animal Rescue & Education
6228 Country Club Road, Murphysboro • 618-687-2079

21. Strategies for Evaluation
It is important to evaluate the advertisements
we are using to determine what is working with
people. We will evaluate the effectiveness of our
advertisements by doing concurrent testing during
our campaign by counting and evaluating the
number of new volunteers per month. We will first
start off with obtaining the number of volunteers
that regularly go to St. Francis. Then we will measure
the number of new volunteers per month and then
go back and look at the advertising that took place
that month and measure its effectiveness. Through
this testing we can see what is working and what is
not working in the campaign. Then we can decide
if we want to make any changes or not to the
remainder of the campaign year, or for the next year.