PR CAMPAIGN

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The Welsh Rabbit Cheese Shop and Bistro

Public Relations Campaign

Client: Dean Hines

Kaylyn Sanderson

April 10th, 2017

Executive Summary

The Welsh Rabbit is a locally-run, family-owned business in Fort Collins, Colorado that aims to satisfy three main objectives committed to pleasing their local community. These goals include: their love of family, their appreciation of Slow Food and listening to the community. The Welsh Rabbit has done very well in Fort Collins since taking off recently in just the spring season of 2012. However much success The Welsh Rabbit has earned, there is still room for improvement with their media presence and public outreach. The majority of patrons that frequent The Welsh Rabbit for their gourmet cheeses and delectable wines from around the Tworld fall under one general demographic – middle-aged family members. However, there is a vast community that The Welsh Rabbit does not target, like students attending the local Colorado State University (CSU). The assumption is that younger adults cannot afford such an upscale vendor, but this judgment is not as true as people may think.

Recently, The Welsh Rabbit’s main customer base has switched over from local residents to visiting tourists. On top of targeting a younger audience, this campaign also targets tourists. It is important to appeal to the local, family-owned business side that The Welsh Rabbit has to offer. With so many restaurants in Fort Collins, it’s hard for one business to stand out from the next. On top of being The Welsh Rabbit’s main customer base, tourists coming in town are especially important to target because their itineraries usually solely consist of local Colorado attractions rather than corporate entities like McDonald’s. With irresistible coupons, directive Twitter posts and an informative promotional video, The Welsh Rabbit will be able to target both current and future tourists of Fort Collins. Through a variety of multi-media, including a high-production promotional video, carefully strategized Twitter posts and a visually-pleasing infographic poster, this public relations campaign addresses The Welsh Rabbit’s limitations in both increasing their media presence and expanding the demographic of their patrons to young adults and tourists.

1. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

2. OBJECTIVES

3. AUDIENCE

4. STRATEGIES

5. TACTICS

6. CALENDAR

7. BUDGET

8. EVALUATION

9. CONCLUSION

Situational Analysis (SWOT)

STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES:

The Welsh Rabbit is already extremely established within Fort Collins and has developed a great reputation. Despite a company’s reputation, that can only get it so far, so media outreach is still exceptionally significant. The Welsh Rabbit is not starting from scratch; they definitely have the basics of media outreach already established, including both company social media pages and a website. But there are other ways in which to improve their overall communication with the public, while simultaneously targeting both a younger and a traveling audience, including through a variety in both content and diction of their social media posts.

OPPORTUNITIES:

As stated before, with so many corporate restaurants operating in Fort Collins, The Welsh Rabbit has an advantage in Fort Collins being a family-owned and operated, local business. The Welsh Rabbit is also subject to many other “opportunities” for this PR Campaign including the target audiences. Targeting young adults will not pose as a challenge with CSU so close by. Although targeting tourists could be difficult for The Welsh Rabbit, their customer-base has began shifting from mostly locals to tourists, so since that relationship has already been established, outreach should be seamless.

THREATS:

Despite quickly establishing themselves as a business in Fort Collins, The Welsh Rabbit still has competitors to think about. Although their business is separated from other businesses as a high-end vendor that offers intricate cheeses and wines, there are other businesses in town that not only offer similar upscale environments and services, but there is even another competing gourmet cheese shop in town called The Fox & the Crow. Unfortunately, they have an extremely similar menu – both cheeses and alcohol options. However, The Welsh Rabbit stands out from The Fox & the Crow for offering a broader selection of alcohol and cheeses with the option to either quickly take it home or to sit-back and relax in one of the two coordinating locations – the Bistro or the Cheese Shop.

Objectives

The purpose of this public relations campaign for The Welsh Rabbit is to bring in more customers through a stronger, more frequent media outreach targeting both young, local consumers and incoming tourists. This campaign will bring in new customers implementing five key tactics:

Two press releases targeting both local youth and incoming tourists
An infographic targeting local youth
A video release informing tourists about The Welsh Rabbit
15 different twitter posts to be released throughout the year
Coupons that target both CSU students and incoming tourists

Audience

The audience is definitely mostly going to be young adults and they will be easiest to target through the local college, CSU. Although The Welsh Rabbit is trying to target a younger audience, the business still needs to target their current consumers to keep them frequenting The Welsh Rabbit. The other audience this campaign is targeting are incoming tourists to Colorado. Denver and Fort Collins are both becoming hot spots to travel to and are the perfect clientele to target. Once an impression is made, they will always come back to The Welsh Rabbit on future visits, and potentially recommend The Welsh Rabbit to their friends back home, a.k.a. potential future patrons.

Strategies

The Welsh Rabbit is looking to expand their outreach to newly twenty-one-year-old young adults and with the rise of tourism in Colorado, and they are also looking to target tourists. In order to accomplish this, The Welsh Rabbit needs to strategize the timing and content of their media outreach implementing three different methods:

Molding the diction of The Welsh Rabbit’s Twitter posts to reflect that of the digital age, including both visual graphics and relevant hashtags paired with the posts
Shifting some of The Welsh Rabbit’s content to be more visual, including producing a video release informing tourists all about the business, and representing the family-owned and operated nature of the business
Offering affordable options for CSU students and incoming travelers enticing their patronage through various coupons and select offers on Twitter

Tactics

In order to meet these objectives, including expanding The Welsh Rabbit’ outreach to young adults, the best community to target is CSU, the college located in town. Each semester, CSU releases books full of coupons with participating local vendors ranging from discounted haircuts to various restaurant deals and specials. On top of participating in these coupon books offering a small discount to CSU students, The Welsh Rabbit will also be offering a Mother’s Day cheese package special for only $40 to the college students. To generate discussion and just general awareness of this special, especially since students don’t frequent the business already, The Welsh Rabbit will publish a news release, ideally in “The Collegian,” CSU’s campus newspaper, that details the specifics of the special, how to order it and a general background on the owners of The Welsh Rabbit. The Welsh Rabbit will also hand out infographic posters on CSU campus to students. The infographic includes various, fun cheese facts and a graphic regarding the cheese-making process.

Since tourists are somewhat harder to get in touch with than locals, the best methods of outreach is through The Welsh Rabbit’s Twitter page and website. Another great method of outreach, and an extremely effective incentive, is coupons. Both CSU students and tourists can be targeted with their own coupons, one for students offered in the Campus Cash coupon book handed out each Fall, and one for tourists offered at the Visitor Center in Old Town. Another great method in which to reach tourists will be through an informative video that highlights the best parts of The Welsh Rabbit, so on their next visit, when looking for what restaurants to go out to, they will think of The Welsh Rabbit first. This video will be available on the website and can be posted to Twitter sometimes as well. The Welsh Rabbit will also publish a press release informing tourists all about The Welsh Rabbit, and representing it as a family-owned and operated business, so they can connect with The Welsh Rabbit before visiting Colorado. This press release will be published both in “Colorado Life Magazine” and on “Colorado Tourism Guide’s” website at www.getyourguide.com/Colorado/Activities.

COUPONS:

Calendar

Budget

Although The Welsh Rabbit is targeting two specific audiences, the complexity of this campaign did not affect the costs. As far as printing costs go, the posters would cost about $2 each and the coupons would cost about $0.30 each, using Dean’s connection to FastPrint, CSU’s discounted printing facility. The mailing costs of the Mother’s Day’s baskets would average around $5 each package, but that will be covered in the $40 for the basket. Beyond the general printing costs, the bulk of the charges are allotted to the media contact costs for hiring Kaylyn Sanderson, the campaign manager. Estimating about 100 hours of work for the campaign, charging at $40/ hour, her billable hours will be $4,000 in total.

Evaluation

To determine the effectiveness of the strategies and tactics this public relations campaign is implementing for The Welsh Rabbit, there are a few different methods in which this data can be collected, including:

How many likes and shares did the video release get?
How many coupons were used as compared to how many were handed out – both CSU and travelers coupons?
How many special orders for Mother’s Day gift packages did they get?
- What percentage of those were ordered by college students or young adults -- 25 and under?

Conclusion

After careful consideration and evaluation, this public relations campaign for The Welsh Rabbit will bring in more patrons, expanding their customer-base to a younger and tourist audience. Although already booming, this will completely spike business and sales for The Welsh Rabbit, leading to maybe even a third location. This campaign is cost-effective because beyond printing costs this campaign mostly re-designs platforms and content that will better target the audiences The Welsh Rabbit is looking to bring in and keep returning.

How many likes and shares did the video release get?
How many coupons were used as compared to how many were handed out – both CSU and travelers coupons?
How many special orders for Mother’s Day gift packages did they get?
- What percentage of those were ordered by college students or young adults (25 and under)?

Fact Sheet

FACT SHEET

Press Releases

PRESS RELEASES

April 25th, 2017

Kaylyn Sanderson

This spring, don’t give your mother just another last-minute, hand-made card for Mother’s Day. Make your mother feel special this Mother’s Day and represent your eternal gratefulness with a gourmet cheese package delivered to her door from your local vendor The Welsh Rabbit.

There are three different cheese packages to choose from that cost only $40 each. The Welsh Rabbit consistently offers their customers membership to a Cheese of the Month Club at only $29.95 each month, consisting of two types of cheeses and crackers. This is a one-time order and one-time deal that will not come back again, including three types of cheeses from three different countries, crackers and a bottle of local vino. Do not miss your chance at this exceptional deal.

There are additional items that can be added to your package for small upcharges to make your package more personal and unique, including extra cheeses and salami.

The Welsh Rabbit is locally run by Dean, Nancy and Nate Hines, who moved to Fort Collins in the mid-80’s and never looked back. It wasn’t until recently, in the spring season of 2012, that they opened up The Welsh Rabbit.

On top of his current business ownership, Dean has also established himself as a business expert teaching in the College of Business at local school Colorado State University. Although recently established, The Welsh Rabbit has taken off and is a community favorite for local vendors in Fort Collins.

“I like having a foot in both worlds because I feel like it really keeps me grounded. That whatever I’m teaching, I’m already living out. I’m very congruent in that way, where I am talking about it, teaching and expressing it at the academic and educational level, but then on Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays, I’m deep in the weeds with the business,” Dean said.

The consumers of The Welsh Rabbit have typically maintained the same demographic of middle-aged Coloradoans. However, the business has recently set a goal to reach young adults, including the local college students, offering specific deals, including this Mother’s Day’s gourmet cheese package special.

Student to Dean, Lauren Wells was more than excited about the Mother’s Day special when she heard about it, and even said that she was planning on purchasing one for her mother this Mother’s Day. “This cheese package sounds like such a great deal, and something I can actually afford. I’m such a poor college student, so I usually just get my mom flowers,” Wells said.

If you are interested in purchasing one of the three gourmet cheese packages that The Welsh Rabbit is offering, either come by the cheese shop at 200 Walnut St., Unit B during business hours Monday through Sunday or go online to The Welsh Rabbit’s website at www.thewelshrabbit.com/gifts.

About The Welsh Rabbit:

Recently established in 2012, The Welsh Rabbit is a family-owned and run local business in Fort Collins, Colo. that caters to Fort Collins residents’ craft cheese cravings, wine wishes and strong connections among friends. After thriving since taking off, The Welsh Rabbit has expanded to become two conjoined businesses, both The Welsh Rabbit Cheese Shop and The Welsh Rabbit Bistro. The Welsh Rabbit is run by Dean, Nancy and Nate Hines. Their business is driven by three goals: love of family, appreciation of Slow Food, and listening to the community.

June 3, 2017

Kaylyn Sanderson

Imagine yourself in breathtaking surroundings – mountains in the distance, a nice warmth in the air from the sun with a convenient chill in the wind to match, a flight of four delicious wines and a slab of gourmet cheese to enjoy with your choice of delicate crackers. Where are you? You’re at The Welsh Rabbit, a local vendor in Fort Collins aimed at catering to making each tourist’s vacation unique.

With a rise in tourism in Colorado, Fort Collins has become a “hot spot” to travel to. With so many cities to see in Colorado and businesses available in Fort Collins, tourists have to narrow down the best-of-the-best to visit, increasing the competition for The Welsh Rabbit and other local vendors.

The Welsh Rabbit has two locations: a cheese shop, offering artisan-crafted cheese, charcuteries, chocolates and other cheese accessories that you can take with you to enjoy at a nice picnic or back at your hotel room and there is also the bistro, catering to a relaxing atmosphere with locally-brewed beers and ciders, and seasonally-selected wines that you can enjoy by bottle, flight, glass and half-glass.

The Welsh Rabbit is a family owned and operated business, consisting of Dean, Nate and Nancy Hines. Dean moved to Colorado in 1986 to attend business school at Colorado State University (CSU), where he met his wife Nancy. Later, his brother Nate moved to Fort Collins, and eventually, in 2012, they collaborated on The Welsh Rabbit.

After opening The Welsh Rabbit, Dean moved from CSU alumnus to faculty, when he became a professor at the College of Business, teaching Sustainable Business Enterprises.

Dean said that being present in both the business world and the academia world helps him stay current with business trends both for implementing in his business and his classroom. “I like having a foot in both worlds because I feel like it really keeps me grounded. That whatever I’m teaching, I’m already living out,” Dean said.

When he was at CSU, Dean said he really appreciated that his professors were historically business people. However, recently Dean noticed a change in the trend. That the professors that haven’t left the “Ivory Tower” have outdated knowledge, so being in the current business world, helps him establish credibility among his students.

“I think that’s what students really appreciate me,” Dean said. “They know that I can teach and impart my knowledge, but at the same time, they now that I am living exactly what I am talking about.”

In order to show both his appreciation for the local CSU students and incoming visitors, Dean arranged for multiple coupons to be offered in CSU’s Campus Cash coupon books and at Fort Collins Visitor Center. Don’t forget to grab a coupon at the visitor’s center on your next visit.

Dean and his family have loved both establishing residency and operating their business in Fort Collins. They really enjoy the outdoors and everything Colorado has to offer and would almost never consider leaving to live or operate their business anywhere else.

Come by The Welsh Rabbit on your next visit to Fort Collins to enjoy an array of gourmet cheeses, a flight of delicious wines or local beers and share your unique traveling story with Dean, Nancy and Nate.

About The Welsh Rabbit: