PR & Communications Intern

We want to be recognized in our community for the work that we are doing. We have a great story to tell and we want it to be read by our membership and picked up by media outlets. We need students to create content and press releases for us. Students should be prepared to: Help us refine our story to something compelling and news-worthy Write up press releases around multiple news-worthy stories Write newsletter, social media, or other content to tell our story to YMCA members and the community Identify media outlets that are most beneficial to us/most likely to pick the story up.  Help to create a PR contact list of local media in the many cities we operate in Pitch/send press releases and establish positive rapport with media contacts Secure media exposure for our organization.  Support Content Director with additional storytelling projects as they arise

Competitor and Market Analysis of Consumer Appeals

Spring 2018, a project began to do basic work on our competitors in fitness membership, fitness programs, school-age child care, and summer camp. We serve a large geography and merely identifying our competitors and their product lines and pricing was a huge undertaking. We did accomplish that piece, but need to elevate it to better understand how our consumers interact with the brands in our market. The project description and deliverables in the overview were identical to what we need for the YMCA competitive analysis. It’s important for us to have a better understanding of how our target audience perceives our brand and competitors. We want to develop clarity on our competitive advantages and optimize our marketing strategy.  We believe this project will involve: A complete brand and competitor analysis, including identifying our current and future competitors and their market share. Building a competition portfolio of our competitors, their features, services, price, and logistics. Conducting empirical interviews and/or questionnaires for feedback on our brand compared to competitors. We will give you access to organizational assets to support this project such as personnel, website analytics, sales and brand collateral, and more. We hope to gain a comprehensive understanding of the competitors in our space and how we can differentiate. 

Competitor and Market Analysis of Consumer Appeals

Spring 2018, a project began to do basic work on our competitors in fitness membership, fitness programs, school-age child care, and summer camp. We serve a large geography and merely identifying our competitors and their product lines and pricing was a huge undertaking. We did accomplish that piece, but need to elevate it to better understand how our consumers interact with the brands in our market. The project description and deliverables in the overview were identical to what we need for the YMCA competitive analysis. It’s important for us to have a better understanding of how our target audience perceives our brand and competitors. We want to develop clarity on our competitive advantages and optimize our marketing strategy.  We believe this project will involve: A complete brand and competitor analysis, including identifying our current and future competitors and their market share. Building a competition portfolio of our competitors, their features, services, price, and logistics. Conducting empirical interviews and/or questionnaires for feedback on our brand compared to competitors. We will give you access to organizational assets to support this project such as personnel, website analytics, sales and brand collateral, and more. We hope to gain a comprehensive understanding of the competitors in our space and how we can differentiate. 

Sports & Rec Org Strategic Analysis

Many competitors are mirroring YMCA values and benefits in their advertisement and some of their facility amenities. The Y has always been "for all" which means we provide a fairly comprehensive list of programs and services to benefit the entire community.The focus area of this project could be any of the following areas as all are of high importance to our organization. Review of product line and recommendation of services to add and/or eliminate that will allow the Y to maintain true to mission and provide superior delivery of service to differentiate itself from the competition.Evaluation of marketing expenditures and development of measurements to assist the team in what marketing channels to invest in, what to invest more/less in, types of advertising, areas of focus to advertise for.Competitive analysis and evaluation of child care program (summer camp and school-age child care) to assist in pricing structure, services that should be included/discarded, how to maximize the child care portion of the YMCA's service portfolio. Evaluation of membership and recommendations to differentiate the Y from other competitors in the marketplace. The final deliverables for this project will be determined based on your organization's needs in the initial set of meetings with the instructor. The group of student-consultants will spend approximately 120 hours on your project.