1990-2000s Thrift shop

Authors:
Mariia Bashkeeva
Thu Mai
Elizaveta Suderevskaia
Kseniia Otvarukhina
Nikita Karpov
Anna Semenova

March 2017
Marketing Communication
Degree Programme in International Business
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Table of contents
1 Introduction..................................................................................2
2 Event content...............................................................................2
3 The concept..................................................................................3
4 Timeline........................................................................................3
5 Marketing......................................................................................3
6 Budgeting.....................................................................................4
7 Contingency plan..........................................................................5
7.1 Place.......................................................................................5
7.2 People.....................................................................................5
8 Legal aspects................................................................................5
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1 Introduction

Spring ball is the traditional event for International Business students,

teachers and staff. The theme of IB Spring Ball 2017 is 1990-2000s thrift
shop. The aims of Spring Ball are collaboration among participants, informal
way of communication among students and teachers and enhancing internal
environment in International Business department. And also to have fun with
all IB family almost at the end of studying year!

To enhance the marketing strategy and attractiveness of the event, and to

simplify the navigation due to posting all information about Spring Ball 2017 at
one place we have created a web-site: http://thriftshop2017.weebly.com

2 Event content

We wish to organize IB Spring Ball 2017 in Ilokivi. Our team consider this
place as the most suitable one, because of the financial issue, location and
the advantage of organizing both dinner, award ceremony, contests and party
at the same place. Our guests do not need to change the location during the
whole event.

First of all, traditionally IB Spring Ball includes the award ceremony. We want
to award our teachers and to thank them. Obviously, the event will also include
the dinner. Catering was offered by Ilokivi.

The dress code for the Spring Ball 2017 has two options:

1. 90-2000s costume. Be free to wear neon colors, leggings and have

bright make-up.

2. (For daredevils) Thrift shop costume. Wear as much weird costume as

possible. Do not follow fashion rules, be strange and cool.

We motivate our guests to follow second option by organizing the Weirdest

costume contest with voting.
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We organize themed contests, for example, How low can you go? and
Freeze dancing. Moreover, the whole atmosphere will be in context of 90s
and early 2000, including decorations, entertainments and snacks. There will
be cotton candy machine and gum machine.

After the dinner, the party starts. Music and lights are provided by Ilokivi too.

3 The concept

We want to use 5 senses concept in order to provide the best offering and to
organize a memorable Spring Ball and raise experiences in peoples minds.

Music (hearing), decorations (sight), contests (hearing + sight, touch) and

even snacks (taste and smell) will provoke all five senses and make fell the
90s atmosphere. For instance, guest can you cotton candy machine to come
back to previous year, smell and try the childhood taste.

Decorations, such as posters, enhance the visuals and might remind guest
their previous idols.

4 Timeline

The whole timeline is posted on the web-site in event program tab.

Basically, the event starts at 19:00 and might be till midnight or further (till
04:00). This aspect could be discussed with Ilokivi and event participants.

5 Marketing

Our target group is people, related to International Business department. It

consists of students, teachers, alumni and staff.

However, with our team we came to conclusion that marketing strategy would
be different for them.

For students, the main marketing campaign will be provided online, using
advantages of Facebook. Our team plan to post a small event description with
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the link to web-site in Facebook IB 2017 Group. Therefore, the majority of
students will see the post on Facebook. Furthermore, we rely on word of
mouth. Obviously, all team members are ready and glad to answer any
questions about the event directly, face by face.

For teachers, alumni and staff, we prefer direct marketing. We consider to

know everybodys emails and send them invitations to the event by email. The
link to the web-site and whole event description would be attached.

The competitive advantage of creating a web-site is that people can access on

it whenever and wherever they want. Information is very detailed and people
are aware of the whole schedule, dress-code, what is included and location
and could check it as much as needed.

At the same time, we create an event on Facebook in order to better control

how much people (mainly students) are going to Spring Ball and provide only
the basic structured information about the event: theme, date, price and dress-
code. They can repost and share it with peers very simply. Hence, the amount
of interested students would be bigger.

6 Budgeting

Budgeting issue includes expenses on:

Renting the place for the Ball

Catering and drinks

Decorations and attributes expenses

Snacks and additional themed stuff

DJ + technique, security

The most valuable part is renting expenses. Ilokivi offered us 1000 euros for
100 guest. The cost depends on number of guests. It includes drinks, DJ,
technical music issues and cloakroom. However, considering the question of
alcohol, this price covers two glasses of wine per person, but not free bar and
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do not have a right to bring the alcohol. From the other hand, the price of the
tickets would be lower than in previous years (less than 20 euros).

Catering is about 2000 euros.

The whole financial part is posted on the event web-site.

7 Contingency plan

7.1 Place

Unfortunately, at this moment we do not know the date of the event, therefore,
it could be a situation that the place would be occupied already. Besides, we
have contacted not only Ilokivi and have another offering as Plan B for the
Spring Ball location.

7.2 People

We could not be sure that peoples behavior would be appropriate. However,

security could solve such problems.

Moreover, considering the team, we could have some problems on

organizational stage, because none of us speak Finnish fluently and have a
car. Hence, we need some volunteers to help us. We believe that our peers
can help us, because we are all interested to make IB Spring Ball perfect and
unforgettable.

8 Legal aspects

As far as the event includes alcohol, we need to contact police and inform
them that such an event will take place.