Even+One+Out

CCT356 Final Project March 27/2012 Mike Jones Sujana Alahari, Harkamal Japra, Aanchal Katyal, & Matt Lee Poy

FINAL PROJECT REPORT: INDIAN STUDENT SOCIETY
The Indian Student Society (ISS) is an honorable establishment whose goal is to compose and integrate harmony within Indians and members of other communities, which reside on campus(Indian Student society). With award winning performances at the St. George campus, ISS has a desire to further spread the energy in UTM transporting its live spirit bringing out the wealthy cultural diversity found in India(Indian Student society). ISS fights towards putting efforts into presenting UTM students to the fine nature of Indian culture, heritage, food, festivals, dance, music and more(Indian Student society). UTM’s ISS executive team is run by Keshav Uppal (President), Anirudh Nanda (VP – Internal), Arpita Johar (VP – External), Shruti Sodhi (Head of Board), and Ankit Miglani (Events Coordinator). ISS provides state-of-the-art events by exploring the diverse Indian cultures. ISS is unique and one of a kind as the target is to unite the Indian community by conquering separation amongst fellow Indians based upon religion, caste, and language. In an attempt to help tensions and celebrating diversification ISS is devoted to organizing various events such as Diwali, Eid, Holi, Christmas, and more(Indian Student society). ISS wishes to help individuals achieve a feeling of togetherness, as everyone should be treated fairly with respect to each of our differences. ISS has a vision to instill passion for Indian cultural diversity. ISS is a great fit to help International Students into the U of T Community and regardless of differentiations ISS promotes and endorses unity amongst all its members(Indian Student society). ISS’s driving force attempts to provide funds for various children’s education charities in India and Canada(Indian Student society). The primary vision of ISS is to greet all Indians and anyone from other social, ethnic, or religious backgrounds in joining the ISS family uniting individuals and contributing in bringing a piece of India to UTM.
 * __ Company Profile __**

History of the Indian Student Society (ISS): The Indian Student Society (ISS) was first established in the St. George campus and newly, it has also been introduced to UTM after its success in the St. George campus. The student group originated to promote authentic Indian culture including Indian festivals, music, food, dance, etc. It is dedicated to unify the Indian community, encouraging members to overlook differences of language, religion or caste. The group celebrates numerous festivals and holidays celebrated widely in India such as Holi, Christmas, Eid, Diwali, etc and it welcomes all students of the UTM community to partake in their events. ISS also fundraises for several reputable children’s education-based charities across Canada and India.
 * __ Background Statement __**

**__ Mission Statement: __** The Indian Student Society is an association that wants to promote Indian culture and believes in harmony amongst all. ISS is shaped around making everyone on campus closer together using the cultural lens of India promoting events around Indian cult ure, heritage, food, festivals, dance, music and more. ISS primarily believes in promoting India, Indo-Canadian events, and much more. ISS is an open group for all individuals no matter their race, ethnicity, or religion.

As a marketing company our enforcement on strategic planning is crucial for the company to follow. In our strategic planning process we will be using a six-step model, which follows as shown below: Image from: http://www.smartdraw.com/blog/archive/2010/02/08/smartdraw-com-s-strategic-planning-process-from-start-to-finish.aspx (Stannard)
 * __ Strategic Planning: __**

The first step to follow from our six-step model is to propose a mission (goal). We are marketing the company in a way, which defines what the Indian Student Society is and why the Indian Student Society exists. This way everyone can stand on common ground knowing why there is a Indian Student Society, What this Student Society does, and How it plans on improving. The second step follows, as the company will set and try to achieve short-term and long-term goals for the company. For example, a list of short-term goals would include things like: having more events, making events even more inclusive to outside cultures, and providing group members with a feeling of unity and togetherness as if we are like one big family at UTM. This can be achieved by having heavy quality advertising around the campus, using resources such as e-mail marketing, Facebook, and Twitter as the company currently only has Facebook. Long-term goals could include: supporting more charity work, expanding the ISS to a larger scale. The company can further enhance the feeling of unity, as members should be able to represent the company by giving their feedback on what ISS should do next or what they can improve on. This can be greatly beneficial, as the group members would be stating the changes they want to see. In turn, this could lead to a positive outcome as management follows member suggestions. If management fulfills member wants and needs ISS could be a very successful group, as it would directly be catering towards the needs and wants of their members to keep successful. Additionally, this would lead to better and motivated members, as they would feel truly valued. The third step and fourth step involve examination of internal/external issues. The following chart will show how the internal/external issues chart should be set up and what some factors of consideration may be for ISS. Image from: http://www.smartdraw.com/blog/archive/2010/02/08/smartdraw-com-s-strategic-planning-process-from-start-to-finish.aspx (Stannard)

The Indian Student Society is bound to face many challenges as they have direct competition with the Hindu Student Council (HSC) as both group are oriented using the rich Indian culture. The major challenge that ISS may face outside of competition involves technology, rapid changes, responsiveness, and stakeholders (blurtit). ISS is currently not up-to-par with the use of technology for advertising, which is an issue as they are completely missing a possible segment of members or stakeholders by limiting their use of technology only to Facebook. Additionally, ISS needs to be more responsive towards challenges, threats, and opportunities, as they need to make the most of what they have by empowering their competition driving towards success. Moreover, with altering internal/external environments ISS has to be open and flexible with changes. Unlike their adaptation to technology, ISS has to be open to creative new ideas offering their members something more each time. Which will ultimately leave members coming back to events.


 * __ S.W.O.T Analysis __**
 * Strengths **
 * Cater towards individuals outside of Indian culture (i.e. Christmas is also celebrated)
 * Events offer mutual unity and respect feeling as everyone is welcome no matter their ethnicity, race, or religion
 * Having events raising money is also helping charities in India and Canada making an incentive for people to go
 * Weaknesses **
 * Using only one form of online marketing when this is the digital era and much of everything is done on the computer or online
 * Funding may be limited due to competition on such a small campus
 * Opportunities **
 * Adapt to new technology
 * Can have even more diversified events
 * Be innovative using new methods and techniques to enhance peoples experience at events (i.e. free giveaways, appreciation gifts, raffle draws)
 * Threats **
 * UTM not a huge campus meaning market is not all that big compared to other schools
 * Hindu Student Council – Direct competition
 * Other cultural clubs on and around campus

The last step to strategic planning is formulating and implementing a strategy. In case of the Indian Student Society, they have to update their means of advertising by having more interactive social media sources to promote events. They can do this by having more online advertising by email marketing and other social medias. ISS needs creative and innovative methods to develop a way to differentiate events from HSC so they are not over lapping by doing the same events. Direct competition is a problem, as events are not creating as much traffic as they should because audience is being split between ISS and HSC in such a small geographic location. ISS can benefit from making their organization even more welcoming to other audiences as well having all-inclusive events promoting unity as a whole rather than primarily focusing on just India. With that being said, the business needs to advance on its terms of technology and diversify their group so they are unique and distinct as UTM geographically is too small for having two extremely similar groups.

There are five primary SMART objectives known as specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time. Each of these categories is important in order to make smart choices for the business to achieve and reach company targets. Specific stands for goals a company may want to reach. For example, ISS can set a target to plan to have at least 8 events in the coming year. Second comes measurable, a company should be able to measure its success in terms of it is achieving targeted goals. So in this instance, ISS would have to follow up with the amount of events they have planned and how many they have actually had to keep up with targeted objectives. Achievable stands for the tasks being set; are they attainable and achievable or not? It seems unrealistic for ISS to say they are going to have 16 events right after they see this report because it is not realistic and achievable right away. Moreover, the fourth step leads us to being realistic. Are the goals and strategy being set for ISS realistic and achievable with the resources they have available. In this case, in the event of having at least 8 events a year it is achievable and realistic as it is only one event a month. As long-term goals they could plan to reach higher heights and maybe start doing at least 2 events a month. Lastly, the last step involved in the SMART objectives is Time. In this instance, ISS is to set time frames for when they would like to see results by. For example, ISS can first set a small goal for having 3 events in 3 months and if 3 months were enough to get things going; this would show that they are setting realistic time frames. It can be said that, SMART objectives are extremely important for ISS to make use of, as this would be a great tool for precautionary steps towards achievement and this way it is also easier to measure success.
 * __ SMART Objectives __**


 * __ S.M.A.R.T For Indian Student Society __**
 * Specific **
 * ** ISS organization should hold 8 events a year **
 * ** Company should be up-to-date with technology **
 * ** Company needs to find its uniqueness **
 * ** Company should see total revenue increase **
 * Measurable **
 * ** All these tasks should be considered for next school year. Better advertising with updated methods of communication will lead to events with increased response, leading to increased revenue, leading to better/more events and higher amounts of funding going to charity (leading to company goals). **
 * Achievable **
 * With the amount of resources available all tasks are achievable
 * Realistic **
 * ** Realistically a drastic change won’t be seen right away. However, with the use of the new business strategy changes will be made throughout the year and summer term. Therefore, the plan is realistic and attainable. **
 * Time **
 * ** The change process will take some time. Therefore, all changes should be made now so everything is prepared for the next year and everything is do-able is there is a 8 month study period and 8 events can be planned. **

To this date the ISS-The Indian Students’ Society @ UTM does not have an online presence in social media. Our group would like to propose that they utilize this new media to create further awareness and interest in their society to not only Canadian Indians and newly immigrated Indian but to Canadians of any social, ethnic or religious background. Through the use of these new social mediums the society can advertise them selves in a much greater demographic and would be able to promote their events and activities faster and efficiently than traditional online advertising like websites or email. These online media’s would be vital in personalizing their society, encouraging participation from their members, and promotes peer-to-peer awareness of the society. Through the usage of social media web sites like Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Podcasts and YouTube, the ISS can promote themselves through digital marking tactics such as virtual trades shows, radio advertisements and television advertisements to promote awareness of the ISS and information on their causes and activities. Through the use of these social medias the ISS will not only be able to promote themselves to the demographics of UTM students but would be able to also extend their presence outside of University of Toronto campuses but also to individuals within and outside of the Greater Toronto Area.
 * __ Social Network Marketing __**

Twitter has been one of the fastest social media outlets in the world. Created by Jack Dorsey on March 2006, Twitter has reached a massive increase of followers from its release. With statistics of 1 billion Tweets around the world in a week and an average of 150 million Tweets in a day, Twitter has reached an average of 460,000 individuals around that world that create new Twitter accounts in a day. Twitter has reached a level of growth that cannot be un-recognized by the ISS in promoting their society. Especially with the increase of social networking capabilities in cell phones, Twitter has grown even further from the creation of new accounts and a further boost in tweets. As mentioned before email as an online marketing strategy is an effective way to promote ones product online coming in second to traditional online marketing tactics after a company website, consisting of 81% of the marketing tactics of many online marketing. But, because of the length of emails companies must limit their usage of sending emails, as they can be tiring to read for the target audience and to many can ultimately be considered as spam mail to prospective clients. Through the use of Twitters micro-blogging service with the limitation of only allowing 140 characters per a Tweet, the ISS would be able to send more frequent updates to their activities and their services which in turn can be shared by any user with a cell phone, computer or tablet. Allowing for greater circulation of information and awareness of the ICC. Twitter also allows the ICC to provide members with a constant flow of information about their society and allows them to provide constant reminders of events and activities in the society. With the introduction of Twitter, the ICC will also be able to promote themselves to larger demographics than University of Toronto students to anyone with a computing device in Ontario. This way Tweets can also direct individuals to the web site, have them sign up for the email list and follow the ICC even further.
 * __ Twitter __**

Like Twitter, YouTube is another social media outlet that has gained instant success when it was created in February 2005. With the ability to allow anyone around the world to create a YouTube account and share their own content to anyone across the globe YouTube has instantly become a staple in anyone’s lives and a game changer in the entertainment industry. YouTube has propelled artists into fame, nobody’s into celebrities and awareness to many social causes. With statistics of 4 billion videos viewed in a day, 3 billion hours of video watched in a month and a presence in 39 countries and 54 languages, YouTube will be able to promote the ICC in a international level to Indians across the globe with a high average of 100 million people across the globe taking social action on YouTube. By using YouTube as part of the online marketing strategy, the ICC would be able to put a face to their society, and provide Indians across the globe a welcoming image of whom they are and what they have to offer. This in turn will personalize the society image wherein they can advertise their mission statement to the world. Like Twitter, YouTube ads and campaigns can be shared from peer-to-peer that would further the awareness of the society’s events and activities, and hopefully with enough social action towards an ad campaign, the ICC would be able to gain even further awareness on a major level that can contribute towards their charity efforts. In regards to costs of producing an ad campaign on Twitter and YouTube, they would be minimal. Creating a Twitter account and a YouTube account is free and anyone can have access to these accounts. In keeping a constant presence in a Twitter account, volunteers can be promoted in taking the responsibilities in updating Tweets, adding photos to Tweets and promoting events and causes for the ICC. For the YouTube ad campaign, the ICC can employ volunteers to produce an ad for the ICC that is professional and promotes the society in a welcoming light. The ICC can utilize students from media programs at UTM to help them produce these ad campaigns
 * __ YouTube __**

In order to run a successful email campaign for Indian Student Society (ISS), the email campaign will run on an opt-in only database; the database contains emails and other information such as names of those who opted-in to the emails (Stokes, 2011). It is essential to receive permission of the people who will be receiving the emails in order to maintain a reputable, respected student group who can be trusted not to send spam emails (Stokes, 2011). Collecting emails and other information such as names and year of study for the opt-in database will be collected in-person and online and this information required to sign up will be kept minimal as asking too much information may result in fewer sign-ups (Stokes, 2011). Furthermore, ISS will have a visible sign-up form available on its website as those interested in the student organization would enter the website and users would be able to learn more and receive updates through newsletters (Stokes, 2011). There will also be an option to sign up for emails where it is visible on the blog and on the Facebook/Twitter page providing links to sign up but not excessively to refrain from annoying potential members (Stokes, 2011). Our anti-spam and privacy rules will be clearly stated as well as details on the frequency of the emails, which is a monthly email newsletter (Stokes, 2011). As part of the Indian Student Association’s customer outreach program, there will be a confirmation email after a membership purchase. Also part of the initiative, members who sign up will receive something free to motivate more people to sign up, such as a free food like cookies, cupcakes, pop or a complimentary pen which still keeps the small budget in mind (Stokes, 2011). Email Execution Members will have the option to choose whether they want to view the emails in a HTML or a plain text format, since both formats have advantages and disadvantages (Stokes, 2011). Though HTML emails have a more intricate and engaging design involving graphics and images, they take a longer time to load and more space in the mailbox unlike text emails which are simple; this is why members will have an option to choose what’s best for them (Stokes, 2011). The pre-header of the email will include the option to view the mobile version of the email for users using smart phones and the email header’s from field will be personalized to include the organization’s name (i.e.- Bob_ISSpresident@gmail.com) (Stokes, 2011). The subject line for the email will include the student group’s name and the month’s main focus or topic like promoting an upcoming event (i.e.- March ISS Newsletter: Holi Festival Tickets on Sale). The greeting will be personalized to include the user’s first name for building familiarity while the body message of the newsletter may include one or two images (no background images) that does not include text which prevent users from reading the message if the images do not load (Stokes, 2011). Every email newsletter will also include a footer which includes the option to unsubscribe which is easy to find; the footer will also have contact information such as the group’s Facebook page, twitter account and website (Stokes, 2011). Overall, the email newsletter will be kept short and concise yet informative in promoting upcoming events for the month and stories of success involving previous events.
 * __ Email Marketing __**

The Indian student association started in 2011, years after their major competition had settled and became a big name. Their competitors the Hindu student council (HSC), started their club in 2005 and with various cultural events they managed to win the award for the best cultural club consecutively two times (Ulife, “ Hindu Student Council “). The common thing about both the clubs is that they target the market of; South Asians. Although the name Hindu student council indicated the target population consisting of everyone who belongs to the religion Hinduism but that is not the case in reality. A lot of events by the HSC are attended by a large group of south asians belonging to various religious backgrounds( Ulife, “Hindu Student Council”). This also poses a problem for the ISS because even though they have a broader name that can attract a bigger audience but their main target still remains shared by the HSC. The competition is stronger in this case because the geographical location, the age, gender and incomes are fairly same and because the general population (UTM Students) is not too big the target population is very specific and shared by both the clubs. That is why they need to differentiate themselves on the basis of the 4P’s (Stokes 53). The first being Product & services; the service ISS is providing is slightly different from HSC in terms of the events they are hosting. ISS recently had an event called the Hindi night (ISS, “Events”), which was to encourage poets to come present their poetry in Hindi (an Indian language). This is an event that HSC has never done. They are very specific to celebrating Hindu festivals so even though the target market is same the events provided are very different and that adds to their company distinction.
 * __ Competitive Marketing __**

The second P is the Price, although the price varies for different events, their non-food events have generally been free which is a bonus for university students. The price for their bi-weekly lunch is around $5 (ISS, “Events”) which is pretty reasonable but compared to some of HSC events which provides performances, food and dance in $3(HSC, “Events”), it is a little expensive and it would really work for them if they lower their prices and then advertise their new price to show students that they care about their product. This would lead them to their third P, which is Placement or distribution, they can place their new lowered price advertising in their lunch and use affiliate marketing for the publicizing of their new price. This leads to promotion; they can either do direct promotion, promotion through social networks or promotion through other groups. Their promotion can involve further discount to people who buy food in the first hour of the sale. One of the marketing strategies they can use is to advertise events that are different from the HSC events. HSC focus on events that celebrate the Hindu festivals accompanied by cultural food and dance. ISS has done previous events that are just food based so it is easier for someone who has an hours break to go to their stand and grab some good instead of having to attend a whole event. So, in a way ISS has a way to differentiate itself from the competition and stand out as its own organization. They can advertise ISS as a club that is interested in doing more short time events rather than a long night event. People do not have to make special time for their events they can just walk by the campus and grab something to eat or take out some time to attend a short event.

To deal with their competition they should highlight their strengths in relation to their competitors. They should also compare the event prices, if both the organizations are going to organize an event for the same religious or festive reason then if one has a lesser price then it is likely to invite more crowd.

The next thing they should do is explore options of advertising that are not used by the competitor that will help a person

In relation to the competition the company's unique selling point is that it aims to raise funds for charity while having festivities that are not separated by religion or case. They are very attractive to an international student who might have trouble adjusting into a new culture. The benefit of the events is that they are generally bi-weekly so their club is very visible to UTM students. They can easily advertise through banners and coupons at their events. Anyone who buys their lunch can get a discount coupon for their next lunch this helps them gain more customers for the current lunch and encourage people to buy at their next event too. This also gives a chance for direct marketing. The executives of the company can have an open conversation with their clients and this also gives a chance for feedback, which is very important. When a person receives feedback about their organization then they are more likely to make some changes for the good and attract more people towards their group.

Another strength they can focus on is customer satisfaction. HSC has big events and they are not able to cater to everyone's needs or able to listen to individual feedback. ISS is a comparatively smaller club and it is fairly new so they have the advantage to listen to their customers and act on the student voice. If they are able to get the customers attention due to the personalization of their products it is a big step for the organization (Stroke 49).

Affiliate marketing for ISS will include working with other student-run organizations on the UTM campus such as Orphan run, Lifeline, Red Cross, etc. Affiliate marketing involves affiliates sending targeted traffic and it is similar to face-to-face, word of mouth marketing, which recommends friends and peers to explore something new (Stokes, 2011). ISS will work together with other student groups by letting their affiliates advertise for them to promote events and membership on their websites in exchange for promoting their own student groups; both student groups will benefit with no cost on either groups (Stokes, 2011). Competitors include other similar student groups such as Hindu Student Council (HSC) or Pakistan Development Fund (PDF) but working and integrating events together such as fundraisers with other student groups other than our competitors can be advantageous for both parties involved ISS and the affiliate group may reach a wide base of new students through such events. Online, ISS will be promoted on other student groups’ websites as well as have ISS’ advertisements visible on their site and in exchange for the free advertising space, ISS will also provide the same amount of similar, minimal advertising space on the ISS website. The best target will be groups that are working to raise funds for similar charities and organizations (such as Orphan Run) while ISS’ competing student groups such as HSC or PDF may not be the best target as ISS cannot afford to lose too many of their market to these similar student groups. Furthermore, to ensure what is and is not working, there has to be successful tracking- In case of multiple referrals where a member signed up after clicking multiple affiliate links, the most recent referral will be credited (Stokes, 2011). Another thing to consider is asking new students signing up for membership where they heard about ISS, face-to-face and online as another method of tracking progress.
 * __ Affiliate Marketing __**

After implementing the above marketing strategies it is very important for the organization to see how these changes are affecting the organization. They should check for some of the following things: 1) if the sale of their event tickets/ food / or number of people attending their events increased (Tourism Nt 1). This will give them a good estimate if their advertising is working or reaching out to the public. 2) Check if a particular advertising technique worked more than the others for an event (Tourism Nt 1). 3) Give out feedback survey online or a face to face because then people have space to give more opinions instead of doing a structured survey with limited questions.
 * __ Monitoring the Results __**

The company should also keep in mind their budget. A budget that is able to support their event marketing and advertising cost. A lot of clubs do get money from the University of Toronto Mississauga Student Union (U.T.M.S.U) and in addition to that they also can use the money they gain from memberships and the profit from food they sell.


 * __ Bibliography __**

Blurtit. __What Are The Challenges Faced By Organizations In Today's Environment?__ 6 March 2012 .

Indian Student Association. [ca. 2011]. In Facebook Group. Retrieved March 22, 2012, from http: [|www.facebook.com/issEvents]

Learn Marketing. __SMART Objectives__. 6 March 2012 .

Nt, Tourism. "Monitoring and Evaluation." //Norther Territory Australia//. Web. []

Stokes, R. (2011). EMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing. Cape Town, South Africa: Quirk EMarketing (4th Edition).

Stannard, Aaron. __SmartDraw.com’s Strategic Planning Process from Start to Finish__. 8 February 2010. 6 March 2012 .

"Twitter Statistics." //The @KISSmetrics Marketing Blog//. KISSmetrics, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. .

Ulife. "Hindu Student Council (UTM) (HSC)." //Ulife- What Are You Doing after Class?// Web. []

Wagdy, Jilan. "eMarketing Strategies: eMarketing Strategies." //eMarketing Strategies//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. .

" YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. ." //YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.//. YouTube, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. .