Data in Communication Projects

Research Analysis

Demographic Data Analysis

The new branch of Pasta Amore restaurant is going to be located in one of the US States-Texas. It has around 7,344 square miles covered with water and spans a total area of 261,180.5 square miles (Schuler, 2017). Its neighbors include Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and New Mexico. Its demographic analysis for better establishment of the restaurant will include age, income, education and other factors like the economy and market competitors. The city of focus for establishing the restaurant within the state of Texas will be Houston City, due to its high population size of about 2, 320, 268. This is because, a high population size translates to a large customer demand base. 

Age

The population of Houston city in Texas can broadly be broken down into three sections when considering age and sex. The three groups are in terms of age: below 5years, above 18 years, and persons 65 years and over. Each has a percentage of 7.6%, 25.1%, and 10.5%, respectively (US Census Bureau, 2020). The large percentage of persons aged above 18 years and below 65 years implies the city enjoys a large active population size, that can easily be tapped into as they are in their active working age; hence, with considerable amounts of disposable incomes. A small population of the people of Houston belong to the old persons category, as only 10.5% of the population belong to this group.

When analyzing the target group, age is an important aspect to remember. Cultural generations are named individuals that grow up at the same time, and often have the same experiences as other people of the same era. A cultural generation has a collection of universal principles, beliefs, and habits that must be taken into account to prepare any form of conveying a message (Vespa et al., 2018). With age comes along different types of generations depending on when they were born. A good example is the millennials born between 1981 and 1999 and generation X, born between 1965 and 1981. Age or generation will dictate the type of media to use and form of acceptable language.

Education

Education in Houston, Texas can broadly be put into two categories: high school graduate or higher and bachelor’s degree and higher. The high school graduate or higher category comprises of 78.9% of the population in Houston, while the bachelor’s degree or higher category comprises of 32.9% of the population (US Census Bureau, 2020). From these statistics, tit is evident that majority of the population in Houston, Texas is literate, at a percentage score of 78.9%.

Information can be passed in different ways to the audience, especially given that the large section of the population is literate, hence, can discern information on various communication channels. When communicating, it is essential to ensure that the audience gets to understand the message appropriately, as that’s the only way to capture the audience (Hollensel et al., 2017). Additionally, the level of language to be used must be in tandem with the educational level of the target audience. 

Income

Data from the United States Census Bureau’s most recent income statistics for Houston, Texas indicate that the median household income is $52, 338 and the per capita income is $32, 521. Additionally, the persons in poverty in Houston, Texas account for 20.1% of the population (US Census Bureau, 2020).

Employment rates are directly linked to consumer confidence and affect the way companies market their products and services. If consumers make a stable income and continue to expect steady income, their purchasing power is more likely to increase demand (Hollensel et al., 2017). The wages earned by consumers determine their spending power. Consumers have a more discretionary income if their earnings rise to the extent of expenses. If the wages do not increase accordingly or decrease unexpectedly, it will not be easy to persuade consumers to purchase high-quality products, such as jewelry or luxury vehicles. If jobs and pay are low, companies may have to create lower prices to attract customers.

Additional Information

Companies do not function in a void but in a complex world that directly affects how they are working and the achievement of their goals. The external organizational environment is made up of many external organizations and forces, which include competitors ("AgBioForum 3(1): Marketing Functional Foods: How to Reach Your Target Audience", 2020). Business viability can be measured by assessing the potential market in terms of revenue to be produced, host country hospitality to foreign business, and possible rivals and developments in the future market. Therefore, any marketing communication must take into account the aspect of the overall economy and competition.

Audience Engagement Data Analysis

Engagement is a critical force that offers better feedback that all those involved in the publication can use. Working as a team to interpret information and learn how readers respond to specific items is one way to create targeted contents that can drive sales in return. Qualitative and quantitative data will be used in the formulation of various strategies to reach the audience. Qualitative data refers to the descriptive data of observable phenomena; such as an aspect of language spoken. Quantitative data refers to statistical information that involves the capturing of numbers of quantities and values, such as identifying the exact population of Houston, their figures of per capita income and among others the numbers of males and females in Houston, Texas. Understanding the dynamics of qualitative and quantitative data helps know which descriptive population loves a particular product and how to plan pricing given the exact breakdown of the overall population income levels. 

From the survey, I will know which media to focus more on and where to improve. It will also help avoid some relevant media that only contribute to advertising costs without any returns. The survey shows that Facebook is the most frequented and most trusted, followed by Instagram and YouTube ("Login - Southern New Hampshire University", 2020). However, YouTube is worth no more effort since it has low trust levels. Instagram is another media to pay attention to, as it has the highest interaction, which typically leads to effective communication.

Apart from the information attained from the survey, additional information like why the customers rarely interact with the posts as much as they see them would be helpful (Kordzadeh & Young, 2020). It will help develop better designing and content representation to make everyone stop to check out the communication, instead of just passing by.

Communication Plan Proposal

Campaign

An optimized social media marketing campaign with about 3.2 billion social media users worldwide (about 42 percent of the world) is a fantastic way to communicate with customers and develop your brand identity (Kordzadeh & Young, 2020). The social media channels that we will mainly use are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Most respondents preferred and used Facebook than any other channel. The plan will look into harnessing Facebook and improving all angles and using customer feedback online. The negative sentiments received will instead be used to improve the channel. 

Social media is not just about interacting but socializing and giving appropriate feedback. Customers will be encouraged to review the brand and our communication efforts. Also will provide actual testimonies from our users of how satisfied they are with the services, to show people that this is a tried restaurant and actual people are experiencing the restaurant services. The technical team will be working 24/7 because social media does not sleep (Hollensen et al., 2017). The team will be monitoring all activities on the platforms and providing appropriate response where queries are raised.

Pew Research Center will be referred to identify the appropriate channel to apply alongside the survey data collected. From the survey, most people liked and interacted with postings on Instagram. It is, therefore, going to be the next focus media to make it more vibrant ("Login - Southern New Hampshire University", 2020). Videos will be posted on YouTube, and a more convincing and authentic tone applied to redeem the trust that clients lack on it. The communication will be made consistent and in line with the restaurant’s vision and mission. Behind the scenes clips will be uploaded to show clients what really happens in our kitchen and make them feel part of the whole process of providing meals. It will also improve transparency and improve trust on the brand.

Traditional methods like the use of flyers, a good restaurant outlook, and one on one promotion will be employed. As much as social media is on the rise, not all clients that have adopted it. For this reason, that was ascertained from the survey, methods other than social media will be applied. Our restaurant does not only aim at serving one sector of society but everyone (Kordzadeh, & Young, 2020). For that reason, as time goes by, which is in line with the restaurant’s vision of growing and learning along with the customers, more channels will be adopted in the future as per the customers' liking.

On Facebook, I will recommend using a casual, humorous, and interactive tone of voice. When making notifications, I will strive to be personable, polite, and friendly. From the survey feedback, Facebook users were on the watch out for new posts to engage in the restaurant profile and even groups ("AgBioForum 3(1): Marketing Functional Foods: How to Reach Your Target Audience", 2020). Twitter will require a more human tone as it is all about interacting, to raise its interaction level from twelve as per the survey. YouTube and Instagram, where it is all about pictures and videos, will recommend an inviting and lighthearted tone. This attractive tone is the same one that has made customers interact more with the posts, which was evident in the survey.

Goals

At the end of this communication project, I will desire to have spread the message to at least 75% of the total population in Houston, Texas; with majority showing positive responses and interactions on social media. I my social media goals will include the ability to clearly discern customer preferences and respond to their queries and concerns in real time. I will also employ social media polls regularly to help evaluate the impact of all the strategies put in place towards the realization of enhanced client satisfaction levels. The prime goal will however be the ability to reach and implore the large customer base on social media towards loving our products and embracing our brand. On the actual day of the restaurant's opening, I expect a high customer up, because of the intense marketing strategies I will employ. Trust issues experienced in You Tube will have dropped to an insignificant percentage and as majority come across the restaurant’s ads, they will be interacting at higher rate even more than Instagram. The anti-social media section of our clients will be well attended to and the traditional methods will have led to at least 45% of the total sales.

References

AgBioForum 3(1): Marketing Functional Foods: How to Reach Your Target Audience. Agbioforum.org. (2020). https://www.agbioforum.org/v3n1/v3n1a05-gilbert.htm .

Hollensen, S., Kotler, P., & Opresnik, M. O. (2017). Social Media Marketing: a practitioner guide. Opresnik Management Consulting.

Kordzadeh, N., & Young, D. K. (2020). How Social Media Analytics Can Inform Content Strategies. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 1-13.

Login - Southern New Hampshire University. Learn.snhu.edu. (2020). Retrieved 14 December 2020, from https://learn.snhu.edu/content/enforced/512566-COM-30108-XH043-OL-DAC-CFA.20DA08/course_documents/COM-30108%20Pasta%20Amore%20Audience%20Engagement%20Survey%20Results.pdf?_&d2lSessionVal=zg4Pd1vyp7wIyaKIwU0vl6KwZ&ou=512566 .

Schuler, D. (2017). Demonstration of Census Data Tools: American FactFinder. https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=sd_demography_conference

US Census Bureau (2020). QuickFacts, Houston city, Texas. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/houstoncitytexas

Vespa, J., Armstrong, D. M., & Medina, L. (2018). Demographic turning points for the United States: Population projections for 2020 to 2060 . Washington, DC: US Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, US Census Bureau.