I have read through this whole thread, and while I observe some good thinking going on, there really isn't anything earth-shattering about the approaches being discussed.   Targeting businesses has been discussed in the past, but what I mostly hear being suggested is that we change our jingle.

News alert.  I don't think that we have failed in our marketing efforts at all.  In fact, I think the results we are getting are typical for the particular media approaches we are employing.

In general, it is pretty common for media marketing to produce very small percentage returns.  While it's a great approach for large companies who are targeting large populations, it is probably not in the BB's best interest.  I am sure all of you receive spam mail, and I suspect that 100% of you absolutely hate it or completely ignore it, but alas, probably about 0.00001% of people who do receive it become repeat customers which makes it a very lucrative business for its proprietors.  But ironically, it also means none of you probably become the customers.  These stats tend to be true with many types of media marketing.

Lets do some numbers.   Let's say we have a $70k budget and we spent about $25,000 last year, and Morgantown's MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) population is 118,506.   Let's say 40 people took our course last year.  That means, our costs were $625.00 per each individual, and our market penetration was 0.00034%.  Note:  I am guesstimating some of these numbers.

Just for demonstration, let's say that after everything is said and done, we are paying $525.00 in marketing costs for each person we are bringing into our program  What's wrong with this picture?  A lot.

Here is the solution I suggest.  Let's employ a traditional sales approach.   Initially, we will find people who are interested in marketing our program.   This is the fun part because we wouldn't have to pay them $525 for each person they successfully get to enroll in our program, we could pay them $50 or $35 or maybe even $25 for their effort.  I could see this approach being really successful at WVU.  First we would ditch offering free courses to WVU students.  If you were a WVU student and you could make $600 by convincing 12 of your friends to enroll and successfully complete the course, wouldn't that motivate you to market our program?  Yes!

Now here's a creative approach building on Aira's concept of raising our price.  Let's raise the price to $100, but lets give our marketers coupons with their sales ID written on it.  If their friend brings the coupon when they enroll, they will receive a 60% discount or maybe even a 100% discount!  Once they complete the course we will offer them a sales ID which they can use to invite all their friends and associates.  But, because good marketers aren't necessarily people who have taken our course, we could open up the marketing program to anyone who is a good marketer, i.e., we would interview them first, and if approved, hire them as an independent contractor and provide them with instructions on how we want our program presented to the public.

I say, let's get a good paid sales force because that's how the Bicycle Boards Education's 7,000,000 pennies from its Grant will be most effectively utilized to successfully build a large program that will produce a nice population of enthusiastic bicyclists.

-Jonathan


Gunnar Shogren wrote: 
On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 8:46 PM, Ryan Post <rpostwvu@gmail.com> wrote:
  
Ya, we got Old, Young, Woman and Cantankerous. Frank and Gunnar can fight
over which 2 persona they are.

I'm really liking the idea of getting word out to businesses. I'm thinking
it'll be a better bang for the buck, and also is probably less time spent by
BB members than working up a new commercial.  As much as I'd love to be in a
4th cycling commercial!

I'm expecting that word of mouth will be the most powerful advertising once
a bunch of people have taken it.
    

Oh, and how do we get to this "bunch of people"?

  
-----Original Message-----
From: bikeboard-bounces@cheat.org [mailto:bikeboard-bounces@cheat.org] On
Behalf Of Elizabeth Shogren
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 8:15 PM
To: Alice Vernon
Cc: Jim Rye; chip wamsley; Elizabeth Shogren; Bicycle Board; Frank Gmeindl
Subject: Re: [Bikeboard] Course participation

Thanks, Alice!

I am thinking the commercial could "introduce" our LCI instructors.
Sometimes people are more apt to sign up for something if they can see
that it is not taught by some scary hard-core freak.  Establish a
connection and all that...


On second thought, this idea could backfire.    HAHA!! Just kidding!!!



On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 6:52 PM, Alice Vernon <vernon.mail@gmail.com> wrote:
    
I think Betsy is right about the commercial and people not reading the
paper.
 Alice

On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 6:08 PM, Gunnar Shogren <gshogren@gmail.com> wrote:
      
On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 5:59 PM, Elizabeth Shogren
<elizabeth.schauer@gmail.com> wrote:
        
I say let's make another commercial!  Tons of people saw our PSAs,
while I am not so sure that many people actually read the newspaper
that often (especially students and other active types).
          
And the commercial that Betsy is talking about is one that promotes
the CLASS and not just safe riding in general.

        
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