Kalamazoo Athletic Club Client Evaluation Report: Kalamazoo Athletic Club Introduction Client Overview Located conveniently in the

lower level of the Radisson Plaza, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club provides a unique fitness experience. The Kalamazoo Athletic Club focuses on creating a personalized

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fitness experience for all of its members by offering personal training, group exercise classes, nutritional counseling, diet analysis and health and fitness assessments. All of these services are complimented with recently renovated space, state of the art equipment, and executive style locker rooms. The staff and space create a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere that fosters an engaging, membership-based community. Class Overview Throughout the sixteen-week semester class, I have created a thematic public relations campaign. The campaign addresses three overarching objectives that were determined at the beginning of the semester based on an initial meeting with the Kalamazoo Athletic Club. This campaign was created with the intent to provide a real-world application of the public relations tactics learned throughout the semester. Target Audiences The Kalamazoo Athletic Club recruits members from two main audiences. The primary audience is the working, businessmen and women of Kalamazoo. Seventy percent of the current members of the Kalamazoo Athletic Club are working or retired business professionals. The secondary audience is recently retired business professionals between the ages of fifty and seventy. Public Relations Goals The Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs largest goal is to achieve greater brand recognition within the Kalamazoo community. As an organization, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club just celebrated its eighth year of conducting business. In celebrating its eighth anniversary, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club is now focusing on how it can become more involved in the community as an engaged organization.

Kalamazoo Athletic Club Objectives To achieve greater brand recognition and establish a positive reputation in the Kalamazoo community, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club must set attainable and achievable objectives. The following objectives were set at the beginning of the thematic campaign to achieve the public relations goal to increase brand awareness and establish a positive brand reputation:

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1. To increase the Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs Facebook fan page to 500 likes by January 1, 2014. If the Facebook page gains a total of 500 likes, this signifies that 305 more individuals willingly elected to receive information about the Kalamazoo Athletic Club. 2. To establish three strong partnerships with local businesses in Kalamazoo by January 1, 2014. By creating business partnerships with other organizations, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club will improve its reputation among the Kalamazoo community because of the indirect endorsements it will receive from the partnering businesses. 3. To increase brand awareness by ten percent within Kalamazoo community members by January 1, 2015. This objective will allow the Kalamazoo Athletic Club to measure the amount of awareness that the public relations tactics are creating in the Kalamazoo community. Tactics The thematic public relations campaign, including both social media and print, was created for the Kalamazoo Athletic Club based on the aforementioned objectives. Each tactic addressed one or more of the objectives. To clearly demonstrate how each tactic fits under an objective(s) the next section will outline each objective and which of the tactics address that specific objective. Objective One: To increase the Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs Facebook fan page to 500 likes by January 1, 2014. o Twitter and Instagram: The two social media platforms will create an overall social media presence that allows the Kalamazoo Athletic Club to connect all three accounts, so its Facebook page can become more interactive and intriguing.

Kalamazoo Athletic Club o Blog Posts: The five blog posts created over the last sixteen weeks encourage readers to

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answer questions on the Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs Facebook page. Traffic from the blog is therefore directed to the Facebook page and vice versa. o Email: The professional email is a welcome to all new members to the Kalamazoo Athletic Club. Within the email, members are encouraged to like the Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs Facebook page, as they will find important information and upcoming events on it. o Newsletter: The newsletter was created for all current members of the Kalamazoo Athletic Club and includes a call to action to visit and like the organizations Facebook page. Objective Two: To establish three strong partnerships with local businesses in Kalamazoo by January 1, 2014. o Speech and Presentation: The speech and PowerPoint presentation were created for the sole purpose of visiting local businesses in order to establish working business relationships. The components of the speech focus on the benefits a local business gains by creating a business partnership with the Kalamazoo Athletic Club. o Newsletter: One of the stories featured in the newsletter discusses the Jingle Bell 5K Run/Walk for Arthritis, and it encourages members to sign-up and join the Kalamazoo Athletic Club staff in supporting the Arthritis Foundation through running. By participating in other community events, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club demonstrates its commitment to the community and other local businesses. Objective Three: To increase brand awareness by ten percent within Kalamazoo community members by January 1, 2015. o News Release: The news release created discusses the Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs group classes, especially the TRX Suspension Training course. If the newspaper and other media

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sources publish the article, more individuals in the Kalamazoo area will be exposed to the purpose and services provided by the Kalamazoo Athletic Club. o Fact Sheet & Media Advisory: Both of these documents can be disseminated to the media in order to explain and inform the media and the Kalamazoo community about the Kalamazoo Athletic Club. o Feature Story: The feature stories, similar to the news release, can be sent to local media sources. They can also be posted on the Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs website and Facebook page. The feature stories show readers the culture of the Kalamazoo Athletic Club. o Public Service Announcements: The Public Service Announcements can be aired on the local radio stations and include the Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs name as the sponsor of the announcements. These ads can increase awareness by associating the Kalamazoo Athletic Club with a cause. Measuring Success Each of the above listed tactics must be measured through various methods. In the following section, each objective will be outlined and then an explanation of how to measure the tactics that achieved that objective will be given. Objective One: To increase the Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs Facebook fan page to 500 likes by January 1, 2014. o The tactics used to achieve objective one can be measured using a variety of online sites such as Technorati, Google Alerts, Radian6, and more. These sites will compile all the information on the Internet that includes mentions of the Kalamazoo Athletic Club. Furthermore, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club can utilize Facebook Insights to determine what content is being viewed by followers and what posts are receiving the most interactions

Kalamazoo Athletic Club Objective Two: To establish three strong partnerships with local businesses in Kalamazoo by January 1, 2014. o The tactics created that achieve objective two can be measured in a variety of ways. The speech and presentation can be measured through a quick audience survey after

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they are given to a local business. The newsletter can be measured based on how many individuals respond to the call to action and join the Kalamazoo Athletic Club in participating in community events. Objective Three: To increase brand awareness by ten percent within Kalamazoo community members by January 1, 2015. o The tactics utilized to achieve the third objective can be measured through pre-postsurvey of audience awareness. In this survey, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club can include a question that asks respondents where they learned of the Kalamazoo Athletic Club. This answer can demonstrate which tactics are most effective. Furthermore, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club can measure how many stories were published in media sources based on the aforementioned tactics. Future Steps The Kalamazoo Athletic Club should utilize several of the tactics listed above to achieve greater brand recognition among the Kalamazoo community. Below are the three most important ways the Kalamazoo Athletic Club will most likely achieve their public relations goal. 1. The Kalamazoo Athletic Club should utilize social media, their website, signs, emails and newsletters to create a Call to Action Campaign that asks all current members and employees to like the Facebook page. The more individuals who follow the Facebook page, the more reach the Kalamazoo Athletic Club will have as they create dynamic and interactive content.

Kalamazoo Athletic Club 2. The second way the Kalamazoo Athletic Club will achieve greater brand recognition within the community and create lasting business partnerships is by maintaining a presence at the major community events in Kalamazoo. If other organizations and individuals see the Kalamazoo Athletic Club at community events, it will demonstrate the organizations commitment to being an involved member.

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3. The Kalamazoo Athletic Club should also utilize the business magazine within Kalamazoo and the traditional media such as the Kalamazoo Gazette, MLive, and radio stations through press releases, new features, media advisories, and fact sheets in order to communicate to outside audiences what the Kalamazoo Athletic Club offers. The Kalamazoo Athletic Club would most likely be successful in achieving its goals by utilizing the above listed tactics. While those tactics would be successful, the following tactics would most likely not be as successful in reaching their target audiences. Twitter and Instagram: Due to the fact that the target audiences are older, the Kalamazoo Athletic Club should focus on its utilization of Facebook. Public Service Announcements: Most public service announcements will not air during peak radio times when business professionals are in the car and listening to the radio therefore the tactic would not reach the target audience effectively. Conclusion The Kalamazoo Athletic Club provides a unique fitness experience to all its members through its dedication to personalized fitness and community atmosphere. The thematic campaign executed this semester strengthened the Kalamazoo Athletic Clubs community by reaching out to the broader Kalamazoo area and interacting with other businesses and individuals. Furthermore, the campaign assisted the Kalamazoo Athletic Club in achieving it public relation goals of creating greater brand recognition and establishing business partnerships because the campaign provides the Kalamazoo Athletic Club with

Kalamazoo Athletic Club the ability to extend its reach and interact with numerous new audiences that were not being reached

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before the campaign. The Kalamazoo Athletic Club will continue to grow and provide an individualized fitness experience if it utilizes tactics that demonstrate its commitment to the Kalamazoo community.