Marketing

= = = = =__//**WORK IN PROGRESS**//__=

If BruinLife is a battle cruiser, the editorial staff (those involved in making the content of the yearbook) is in charge of running the ship, but the Marketing and Business staff is the engine of the cruiser. Without us, the ship would be sitting duck. That is how important Marketing and Business is to yearbook. Without us, there would be no sale, which would defeat the purpose of creating the book in the first place.

Selling yearbooks at UCLA is different than selling yearbooks at your high school. We are dealing with a larger and more diverse group of potential customers, and we have to promote BruinLife to them with limited financial capability, resource, and help from the school administration. My hope is that the information on this site will help start your marketing campaign so that you can surpass previous sales.

Train of thoughts:
 * Before you start, understand who you're working for, the product you're trying to sell, and who the customers are:
 * Company
 * Understand **__who__** you're working for (Student Media - BruinLife Yearbook)
 * Sales records
 * Strengths and weaknesses of BruinLife
 * Problems and opportunities of BruinLife
 * Any competitions?
 * Products: how does BruinLife make revenue?
 * Three ways:
 * 1) Yearbooks
 * 2) Parent / dedication ads
 * 3) Corporate ads (we don't worry about this. Student Media deals with this)
 * Understand **__what__** you're marketing
 * What are the features?
 * What's special about it?
 * Why should people buy it?
 * Who you're marketing to
 * Segmenting the markets
 * What does it mean to segment the market?
 * What are the segments?
 * Primary market: the group that garners the majority of the sales
 * Secondary market: the group that is second to the primary market in sales
 * Potential market: a potential group of customers yet to be exploited
 * Planning the marketing campaign
 * Campaign objective --> product objective --> segments --> tactics (I suggest using a flow chart)
 * Start with a marketing campaign objective
 * Ex: Increase the revenue of BruinLife by $10,000
 * How do you achieve this objective?
 * BruinLife takes in revenue through the sale of yearbooks and parent ads
 * Come up with an objective for each product
 * Ex: increase the sale of yearbooks by 400 books, increase the dedication orders, etc
 * For each product, find out who the primary, secondary, and potential markets are
 * Ex: for yearbooks, based on sales records the seniors have been the primary market

//uh ... I think I am confusing myself with the planning the marketing campaign part ...//

There is no set formula of how to market the yearbooks to the students, but before you get all excited and creative, you got to sit down and know exactly **what you are marketing** and **who you're marketing to**.

So, what exactly are you marketing? Obviously, it is BruinLife Yearbook. BruinLife Yearbook is on an annual production and is, as of the 2008 book, on a Spring release (as opposed to Summer release). The book has been the official record of UCLA events and traditions since 1919. It has undergone many transformations since the first book; the most recent change being that we print the entire yearbook in full color. In the 500+ pages, we do our best to give a good representation of the UCLA campus, from campus and ORL events, student groups, and special issues to Greeks, sports, and graduating seniors. It is a book of stories and memories, a proof that you have gone to UCLA.

Who are you marketing BruinLife Yearbook to? The question is most likely more complicated that you think. The simple answer is: you are marketing the book to parents and students. The more complicated answer involves segmenting parents and students into categories. For instance, you have senior parents & senior students, incoming freshmen & parents of incoming freshmen, athletes & parents of athletes, sports fans & parents of sports fans, 2nd- and 3rd-year students & parents of 2nd- and 3rd-year students, and ... well, you get the idea. You might ask, "What is the point of segmenting?" Segmenting groups people who are similar (year in school, major, parents, students, etc), and you should be able market to that group using the same marketing strategy.

For the 2007 book, the majority of the sales came from graduating seniors and their parents, while the rest of the population constitute approximately 25% of the revenue. If we segment the market, we can group people who

Marketing is very open-ended; you cannot come up with a inclusive list that covers every method of marketing strategies. Marketing is an art that requires creativity, a data that requires analysis,