This semester, I engaged in a project to increase sales, brand awareness, and customer loyalty for the White Deer café at Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) in Al Ain City, Abu Dhabi. The venture’s primary target market was students at HCT who enjoy reading away from home, school, or work environments while sampling the café’s desserts, freshly brewed coffee, and ice cream. We used tactics, such as issuing posters to students, creating videos and pictures on Twitter and Instagram to attract clients, and issuing product samples to potential clients. We designed a project proposal, discussed it with our instructor, and contacted the White Deer café management for tactics’ launch approval. In the end, we hoped to achieve desired objectives listed above, besides increasing the White Deer café’s popularity globally and regionally. My project teammates wish to use the public relations (PR) strategy to help White Deer café attain its goals for other small-scale businesses in Abu Dhabi and beyond.
Analysis of the Project
The White Deer café project aimed to increase brand awareness and traffic for the business through a PR campaign. We conducted extensive research concerning the food and beverage industry to conceptualize its dynamics. We then selected five small-scale enterprises in the hotel sector for analysis. However, we settled on the White Deer café for its proximity to HCT College, reducing research costs and saving time. We consulted our instructor on the viability of our choice, and after approval, we proceeded to contact the management at White Deer café. My project members then informed the direction of our intention to market the business to the local student community and asked if we could proceed. The White Deer café’s executive was impressed and accepted our proposal. We began brainstorming possible ways to help the White Deer café actualize its goal to increase sales and decided unanimously to use social media platforms, posters, and samples to achieve our purpose. We then actualized our project with frequent monitoring from the White Deer café’s management and our instructor. In four weeks, we received positive feedback on the exemplary effectiveness of our campaign.
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Resources Used to Complete the Project
We needed every member’s expertise to complete the project and to ensure its successful outcome. For instance, I was the senior social media graphic designer who designed content for the White Deer café and posted it on Instagram and Twitter. Other members undertook other roles, such as contacting and meeting the White Deer café’s management, creating budgets for the venture, designing posters, managing samples, and providing feedback to the instructor. We also used the money to pay for coffee and snacks samples from the White Deer café and sponsor our social media campaigns on Twitter and Instagram. We required students to participate in our campaign and set a stand on a strategic location in the HCT College to achieve the above purpose. Finally, we used peer-reviewed journals from Google Scholar to research the food and beverage industry, its challenges, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, which we applied in our project proposal.
Challenges Faced
Even though we completed the White Deer café brand awareness campaign successfully, we experienced several challenges. For instance, as the graphic designer for the White Deer café’s social media platform, I could not design a one-size-fits-all video or pictorial campaign for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linked In. Most students use the mentioned social media platforms for study, communication, and entertainment purposes. I had to customize content for every forum to ensure the target audience accessed it easily. For instance, many HCT learners use Linked In to connect and interact with professionals in their respective fields. Creating appealing content for Linked In required me to portray students reading at White Deer, which would not be appropriate for Instagram. I had to design pictures showing students laughing over a cup of coffee and enjoying desserts after an exhausting day at school for Facebook and Instagram. Twitter content had to use brief descriptions of the benefits proffered by the White Deer café while using trending hashtags to attract clients.
Moreover, I was conducted extensive, time-consuming research to understand the tastes and preferences of my target population to capture them accurately in my campaign videos and pictures. Furthermore, I designed a website for the White Deer café, and optimizing keywords was challenging. Other challenges I faced included inadequate resources to sponsor my designed advertisements on all social media platforms and were eventually limited to Instagram and Twitter. Furthermore, I had to train a staff member at the White Deer café for free how to manage the organization’s social media platform’s responses and client inquiries, which was time-consuming. Other group members reported challenges, such as harsh responses from students, fatigue after campaigning the whole day,b and offering free samples. The salesperson procured to print our posters was unavailable after being given a deposit. In the end, we had to settle for the in-campus poster printing staff for their cost-effectiveness, which was challenging. The school printer broke down on the eve of our campaign, and we had to contact our instructor during out-of-office hours to beg the school administration in charge of printing to procure a new machine or send a repairer. I was frustrated by the slow conversion of White Deer café’s social media clicks to actual sales, even though my campaign showed progress eventually. Therefore, in conducting our research, we faced multiple challenges, as highlighted above. I only wish we had printed our posters three days before starting our campaign because it would have enabled us to review the outlook, ask for feedback from a sample of students, and re-design it more appropriately. I feel the White Deer café would have more clients if our posters were more colorful or smaller-sized.
Personal Growth
After completing the White Deer café project, I am more experienced at graphic design than before. I can comfortably create a company website without excessive and time-wasting research and can optimize critical words better. I am a skilled social media graphic designer and aspire to seek graphic design jobs for small-scale companies as my side business. I am also a better team player and have improved my communication skills extensively after engaging in the industry. For instance, I can articulate my ideas more confidently to any small or medium-sized management when explaining why I selected a video or picture design to market its product. I listen to other people’s opinions more and accept responsibility for my mistakes. The White Deer project has taught me time-keeping skills, and I have learned to help people who have difficulties accomplishing a task I am well versant with. The project has also taught me how to be an excellent money manager because I had to use allocated funds wisely. I am satisfied that even when I leave school and gain employment, I will help my company increase brand awareness, create client loyalty, and earn more revenue through the skills acquired by completing the project.
Evaluation of Achievements
When we started the project, I was apprehensive of how a public relations strategy would help a coffee shop because of its small size and location near the school. I expected our campaign to have minimal effects because most students do not have a disposable income to support their consumption of luxury coffee. At the moment, I think the White Deer café project has been successful. My teammates were positive we would impact if we were persistent; we would help White Deer café improve its brand image, increase sales, and attract a large client base. On the first week of our campaign, 100 students flocked the White Deer café to purchase its cakes after we allowed them to sample some of the company’s delicacies. I am also astounded by the massive student response and interaction through the White Deer café’s Facebook and Instagram posts and the increased sales my graphic design content I have designed. I am also impressed by how my graphic design skills have improved. Below is a pictorial representation of a discussion ongoing at the White Deer café to lure more student clients. Overall, the project has been more successful than I had initially expected at the start.
Figure one: A social media pictorial campaign for White Deer café
Future Developments
If I were to re-do the White Deer café project, I would request more business owners and employee compliance. For instance, I had to ask for initial funding to sponsor the White Deer’s social media posts, and the company’s management barely acknowledged my efforts. If the White Deer allocated me at least 50% more of my initial investment, I would also sponsor Linked In ads, and the company’s sales would increase. My colleagues also indicated the need for adhering to allocated time schedules in the future because some were dissatisfied with the overtime they worked for the timely completion of the venture. Finally, in the future, I hope we can exploit other PR campaigns, such as Google ads or YouTube advertising.
Desired Grade
I would grade our project an A because of the beyond expectations outcome of the White Deer campaign. The café reported increased sales two weeks into our drive and reported a massive social media following from HCT students. Further, every team member was committed and involved in the project, which prompted its superior outcome. The instructor was pleased with our dedication to seeing the venture succeed and recommended we undertake similar works for other companies.
