Target Customer Progression

We are targeting people who are physically active and interested in breast cancer, but who don't necessarily consider those characteristics as related.

Segmentation

Here I attempted to plot the market. Since I am engaging in an Acquisition/Stimulate Demand strategy, there is no market leader. While the big players like Susan G. Komen and American Cancer Society to partake in fitness-oriented fundraising events for breast cancer, their focus is not on prevention, but rather on fundraising for research and treatment. SOWF focuses on prevention through physically challenging fitness events. Does this make sense?

5 Box Positioning Statement

The Big Picture

Marketing Objective/Source of Volume

§ Acquisition/Stimulate Demand

o I want to create new behaviors among women (and men) who are already physically active, but who are not aware of how to reduce risks for breast cancer.

STP:

§ Main Variable: Emphasis on breast cancer prevention through exercise and education

§ Bodies/Target Audience:

o People who are physically active, but don't think about breast cancer prevention while they exercise. They either belong to gyms or partake in other forms of exercise outside of the gym (i.e. studio classes, physical training, running, walking, biking, etc). When they want to help fight breast cancer, they make a monetary contribution.

o Ellen is in her mid 40’s. She lives with her husband and two kids in an upper-middle class suburban community. She has a family history of breast cancer and is a sucker for any product or service with a pink ribbon attached. She is moderately physically active. She doesn’t belong to a gym, but she does pilates and yoga a few times per week. For cardio, she walks with her friends almost every morning. She has a big social network and likes to exercise with her friends. She considers herself a healthy eater, but finds it extremely difficult to lose weight. She hates dieting, but would like to lose a few pounds. She contributes to local fundraisers a few times per year and makes monetary contributions to charities that are close to her heart.

Register today!!

http://www.saveourwomenstore.myevent.com/

Our pick a registered ryder to sponsor and make your donation online!

Registration OPEN!

Please support this great cause, but checking out our new website. Registration is available online. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions on how to enhance usability on this website. Thanks!!

www.saveourwomenstore.myevent.com/

Q-Tips

What happens when you can't find the line between products and brands? This has become a bit of a blur for breast cancer organizations. Is the pink ribbon a product or is it a brand? What do you think? I think the pink ribbon started quite tactical and has become a large part of the brand today, much like bulls-eye for Target. One of the biggest challenges for breast cancer organizations is maintaining a positive and reputable brand. If the pink ribbon becomes tainted, what will happen to Susan G. Komen's reputation? What about the other breast cancer organizations?

I realize this is slightly off topic from my project, but Professor Nordheilm's lecture motivated me to jot some of these thoughts down for later reflection. Feel free to post your thoughts.

"the pink ribbon has become the Q-Tips of breast cancer" -Christie Nordheilm

website updates

So, unfortunately, the event progress has been at a stand still because my web guy's wife is expecting and having medical problems : ( I hope she is doing ok! I also hope we can get moving and finalize the new site ASAP. The reason this new site is so important is so that people can register for the event directly online and also accept donations online. This is the quickest, simplest, and most effective way to get people involved and committed to participate. If we don't get the site up and running soon, I'm afraid we won't get enough participants. Hopefully I'll have more updates tomorrow. As much as I look forward to the weekends, I hate them. I work 7 days a week... shouldn't everyone?!

More updates soon. I hope.

hyperlinks, for your convenience

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R68JNX6

Here's the survey as a hyper link. Please take it!

Also, check out the progress of our new site... not many images yet, but you can still notice the new interface

current website: www.saveourwomenshirts.com

new website: www.saveourwomenshirts.com/shop/

Enjoy!

Interesting Stats

Susan G. Komen for the Cure - the world's largest grassroots breast cancer organization in the WORLD had over 3 million unique website visitors in 2009. This number represents more than 9,000 unique visitors per day. Additionally, there were more than 18.8 million pages viewed on komen.org and more than 291,000 people visited the site, viewing a monthly average of more than 1.6 million pages. Komen.org also provided information and support to visitors from more than 100 countries throughout 7 continents.

As for social media, Komen had nearly 200,000 Facebook fans and nearly 12,000 Twitter followers.

Since Komen is the largest and most renowned breast cancer organization, I am going to use these statistics to help me uncover the market potential for people interested in breast cancer prevention. Furthermore, I will find out potentially how many active people (gym members) are interested in fighting this cause and how many of them I can reach and eventually convert to an event participant. Wish me luck!

Survey

Please take this quick survey to help me with data collection.

Thanks!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R68JNX6

Event Status

Unfortunately, we got an official rejection from the Och Fitness Center. We won't be able to hold an event there this year. However, we are really moving along with our event at Real Ryder Revolution. We have registration forms available and are finalizing our website so that people can sign up and donate directly online. As soon as that's finished, I will post the link for all to see. In the meantime, it will look something like this: http://saveourwomenshirts.com/shop/

Non-Profit Status

Save Our Women Fit is officially filed as a non-profit organization. We are just waiting on our pending 501(c)(3). We are also the owners of www.saveourwomenfit.com and www.saveourwomenfit.org. Thanks to Bob Pilcowitz and his staff for helping us out with this.

Problems with Och Event

I am not here to complain. I am here to reflect. The Ross School of Business prides itself on "leading in thought and action." One would think that administration would jump with enthusiasm at the idea of one of their own students (me) wanting to implement a charity event at the School's private fitness center. The event would be great for the school's reputation, for society, for community bonding, and not to mention, for showing off our fancy new gym.

Och Fitness manager Christian Wilds approached me with this idea to throw a charity event when he found out about my experience with philanthropy, event planning, and marketing. We had many ideas in place, all of which seemed promising. One idea we did not consider was the event that administration would decide not to pass our proposal.

In my bi-monthly meeting with Prof Nordheilm, I learned that this unexpected setback is actually a learning experience. I now realize how important it is to answer objections ahead of time, in whatever initiative I am proposing. However, this momentary upset does not mean I am prepared to throw in the towel. I am the kind of person who puts ideas into action, as Ross suggests and I am not about to walk away just yet.

Christian and I have already spoken with many students who have shown interest in our idea and I am prepared to speak with faculty about publishing any kind of article about our ambition and enthusiasm. Even if Save Our Women Fit is unsuccessful in tackling the Och Fitness Center this year, I am confident that we will have atleast began the process of starting a charity event at Ross - one which may have to take place next school year.

Non-Profit Organization

We are officially on our way to becoming a non-profit organization. Having two separate entities (Save Our Women and Save Our Women Fit) will allow the first to operate two different companies for different reasons. Below is a description of each:

Save Our Women (For Profit Entity)

This is our current apparel business (incorporated in 2006 as an LLC), which can continue to operate as a for-profit entity (although no salaries have ever been distributed from the proceeds of sales). We will continue to make and sell apparel with a portion of the proceeds benefitting organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure. While Save Our Women is not registered as a non-profit, we have always donated 100% of the net proceeds.

Save Our Women Fit (Non-Profit Entity)

This is our “spin off” business, which would better serve the public if registered as a non-profit entity. Save Our Women Fit is a program that can take place in any fitness facility from a national gym, to a neighborhood yoga center, to a cutting edge cycling studio. We can tailor our program to fit any type of exercise facility. In general, each program will involve forming teams, raising a minimum participation fee, and engaging in a day of friendly competition where participants will exercise with their friends while fundraising for a great cause.

Our inspiration for Save Our Women Fit comes from the fact that monetary contributions can only go so far. In addition to raising money for breast cancer, we are interested in changing the way people think about and take care of their bodies to reduces their risks for cancer. We want to actually bring people into the gym and encourage physical activity. According to a study by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, after menopause, being overweight increases the risk of breast cancer by 30-60%. While being overweight has not been proven to increase the likelihood of breast cancer before menopause, the study also found women to be at an increased risk for postmenopausal breast cancer if they had gained 20 or more pounds after age 18. These alarming statistics have encouraged us to look beyond the apparel business and directly impact people by reducing their risks before they occur.

Based on the number of gym members in the U.S.A. and the percentage of Americans who make donations to cancer organizations, we have already found promising figures to support our idea.

The charity purpose of this organization will be to encourage breast cancer prevention through exercise and physical activity in addition to fundraising.

Catch Up

Please excuse my lack of posts. I have been away on spring break. Now that I am back, I will share some updates with Save Our Women Fit.

First, we have run into a problem with the Och Fitness Center. It seems that politics and University legalities are putting a significant halt on our event progress. One major issue we have run into is the fact that Save Our Women is not registered as a non-profit organization. Upon incorporation in 2006, Save Our Women was set up as an LLC which acted as a non-profit. To uphold our reputation, we have partnered with non-profit organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure and FORCE: Facing Our Risks of Cancer Empowered. These partnerships have provided us with the same reputation as any non-profit organization. However, moving forward, we feel that since we have always acted as a non-profit, and wish not to rely on partners for credibility, Save Our Women should have its own non-profit identity. So before we can move forward with a charity event at the Och Fitness Center, we must secure non-profit status. I am currently e-mailing with my lawyer to figure out how quickly this change can happen.

The second update is regarding Real Ryder Revolution. Today, I had my second meeting with the company owner and we secured a date for our event (May 16th, 2010) at their West Bloomfield location. The next steps are going to be to start advertising, accepting donations, registering team members, and seeking donations (food, prizes, entertainment, etc). Time is obviously of the essence, which is why we need to move quickly. So far, I am completely pleased with the enthusiasm of the Real Ryder crew and think this event will be a huge success.

Third, and more directly correlated to the marketing component of my independent study, I am struggling to find statistics that relate directly to breast cancer. I have found information on people who have made monetary contributions to cancer causes, but have been unsuccessful finding specific breast cancer statistics (specifically, how many people had a donation to a breast cancer organization last year). I have reached out to the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, but so far all of the numbers I have found are in dollars, as opposed to in number of people. This should be tricky, but I'm still working on a way around this dilemma.

More soon.

Real Ryder Revolution

Yesterday, I met with the owner of a local spinning studio called Real Ryder Revolution. Real Ryder has taken indoor cycling to a new level. It's a unique 5-in-1 workout focused on teh entire body, especially engaging the core and burning calories. This new studio is the first of its kind in Michigan and already has two locations - 1 in Birmingham and 1 in West Bloomfield.

We met with the owner to discuss a partnership with Save Our Women Fit and received absolutely positive feedback. The Real Ryder team was totally on board and we are in the process of picking an event date. We are hoping to have the event in the beginning of May. The partnership is great for both parties because we will be able to raise money for breast cancer and Real Ryder will be able to gain great exposure from out marketing initiatives, which will assumedly bring in many new "ryders."

We thought Real Ryder would be a great fit for Save Our Women because they are the hot new club in town and already have the community talking about what a great workout this new form of cycling can provide. We think we can take this spirit and create a team event where people will for teams of four and commit to $100.00 per team. The team will ride for four hours total and we will have local restaurants donate refreshments. Any team to raise over $250.00 will receive free Save Our Women / Real Ryder t-shirts. This will help add to the team spirit and get people involved and raising more money. Another reason Real Ryder is a great fit for us is because they seem to heavily attract middle-aged women - the perfect target to be concerned about shedding those extra pounds before entering menopause. According to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, after menopause, being overweight increases the risk of breast cancer by 30-60%! This relationship can be explained mainly by the fact that fat tissue contains an enzyme called aromatase. This enzyme converts hormones called androgens (made mostly in the adrenal glands) to estrogens, and this extra estrogen can increase breast cancer risk.

If you know of a gym, studio, or fitness center that would be interested in having a charity fitness day to benefit Save Our Women Fit, please contact us at saveourwomen@gmail.com.

Why $500K? Can We Do It? Yes!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am setting an objective of raising at least $500,000 over the next 5 years for breast cancer research. I believe this goal is attainable because with 45.5 million gym members in the U.S., I found that 29% of Americans donated to a cancer charity in 2008. While "a cancer charity" does not exclusively mean contributions were made to breast cancer, breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women (next to skin cancer) and it is believed that a large portion of these contributions are donated to breast cancer.

Especially with cause marketing efforts by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, breast cancer has become a heavily marketed "product" in our society. Specifically, Komen has 16 "Million Dollar Council Partners" who have committed to invest a financial contribution of $1 million annually in the fight to end breast cancer. These partners are recognizable to the masses, with names like Yoplait, American Airlines, Bank of America, Ford, and General Mills, to name a few. Organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure and American Cancer Society have already created awareness about breast cancer through their partnerships and co-branding. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Save Our Women Fit is focused on breast cancer prevention through exercise. We aim to promote healthy lifestyles so that we can reduce our risks.

So, with the 45.5 million gym goers in the US, and 29% incidences of cancer donations, we have 13,195,000 people who are current gym members and who donate to cancer. Of this group, we aim to reach a conservative 1.5% (or 197,925 people) through advertising and promotions. Of these people, if we can convert only 20%, we will have 39,585 potential participants. We will ask each participant to raise a modest minimum of $25.00 per event, which will leave us with gross $989,625 at the end of the year (before marketing costs). With these rough numbers, I believe we can easily surpass our goal of raising half a million dollars in the next five years.

And I'm Back...

It's been a little while, but after repeated attempts to locate my forgotten password, I am finally black to blogging!

Today I had my bi-weekly meeting with Prof Nordhielm and we have discovered some next steps for our Save Our Women Fit project.

To recap, we currently have a business objective of donating atleast $500,000 in the next 5 years to breast cancer organizations, with a unique focus on breast cancer prevention. To get people thinking about prevention, we are implementing charity fitness programs called Save Our Women Fit. Save Our Women Fit will invade all types of gyms from local, stand alone fitness centers, to national chains. Through exercise events, we will build awareness about the effects of physical activity and weight control on breast cancer prevention.

Our first gym targets are the Och Fitness Center at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and Real Ryder Revolution - a new cycling studio in West Bloomfield and Birmingham, Michigan. The cycling studio just opened, but has not had a "grand opening" event yet. So far, classes have filled up from word of mouth advertising, but they plan to hold a grand opening event and are interested in linking this occasion with a charity benefit. I am meeting with the owner on Thursday, February 24th to discuss our first big event. More to come then.

Updates from Aspen

I just arrived in Aspen for the X-games. Can't wait to hit the slopes tomorrow. For now, though, I have a little work to do. I am currently updating my website (www.saveourwomenstore.com). An example of the new homepage will look something like this: http://brpwebdesign.com/demos/save-our-women/preview.html

Nothing is set in stone yet and I'm definitely open for suggestions. I want it to be more user friendly, more engaging, and easier to navigate and shop. I also want it to be more interactive - more than just a shopping experience. I want people to learn about breast cancer and about my goals of linking fitness and healthy lifestyles with breast cancer risk reduction and prevention. I am planning to add a page to go along with the fitness charity plans where people can visit to register their teams online, donate online, and monitor how close they are to reaching their fundraising goals. Please comment if you have any suggestions for the new site.

Och Fitness Project

Today I had a follow-up meeting with Christian Wilds, the manager of Och Fitness. As part of my first initiative to grow my breast cancer clothing company, I am looking into opportunities to use fitness to raise even more money for breast cancer. I am going to start locally, at my brand new business school gym.

I am interested in implementing a first annual charity event through the Och Fitness Center at Ross. After shooting around ideas about how to get people involved, my next step is to write a business plan and propose it to the Dean. Christian and I set an ambitious goal of raising $10,000 in this first event. Do you think we can do it? We don't have much time, but we are both very passionate and determined. I think we can do it. More details to come...

First Blog Ever

This is my first blog ever! The motivation for my appearance is Christie Nordhielm, my marketing professor. I met with her this morning and we have a great direction for the semester. We've established a business objective for my company (Save Our Women, www.saveourwomenstore.com) of donating half a million dollars to breast cancer organizations in the next five years (hopefully sooner!). Look out for more detailed posts soon. Sorry, this is a quick one.