Big Hollow Food Co-Op
Final Project Portfolio
Chelsee Dellinger
Colleen Dorfler
Michaela Jones
Emily Lescure
Kelsey Lowrey
Introduction
Over the course of
the semester, our group from English 2035, Writing in Public Forums, has had
the opportunity to be paired with Big Hollow Food Co-op. The objective of this
project was to assist Big Hollow with problems they may be having as a business,
and then propose potential solutions to these issues. The main goals of both
groups will be explained in brief throughout the proposal, overlapping with
each description. An overview of this proposal includes information about the
project and partner, the tasks that our group aspired to complete for Big
Hollow, and why we chose to tackle those specific goals.
Partner and Group Description:
Big Hollow Food
Co-op is a cooperative that provides locally produced foods and goods in
Laramie, WY. Their goals include increasing their membership and client base,
educating the community of the importance of cooperatives, and to continuing to
provide products to better serve the community so individuals can adhere to a
healthier, natural lifestyle. As a cooperative, the Big Hollow Food Co-op aims
to serve the community, local farmers, charities, citizens, and other locally
owned businesses in downtown Laramie, WY. Because Big Hollow Food Co-op is
owned by its members, it gives the customers exactly what they want. Overall,
they strive to support local agriculture, provide healthy food and empower the
community.
Our group is
composed of five individuals with varying majors and diverse backgrounds. We
are all currently in the course English 2035, Writing for Public Forums, and
our ultimate goal is to assist Big Hollow with their advertising needs.
Additionally, as college students, we have been able to experience Big Hollow’s
marketing tactics directed towards the University of Wyoming population. Our
group serves to assist Big Hollow with advertising and educating the community
about cooperatives.
Project Description:
Our group’s main
concern was to notify the Laramie community of Big Hollow’s passion for
operating as a co-op and their dedication to abiding by the seven cooperative
principles. In order to complete this task, we collectively decided that a
crafting a video would be the most effective way to spread the word of Big
Hollow to the Laramie community. We also proposed the idea of hiring an intern
for the 2016-2017 school year. This individual could assist with advertising
and marketing tactics in order to help promote business. As a result, Big
Hollow employees could have more time to focus on managing the store, while the
intern worked on marketing/advertising techniques.
Outline of Documents:
The first
component of our portfolio includes our initial interaction with Big Hollow via
e-mail. Following the initial interaction is our group proposal regarding the
areas Big Hollow could improve upon and our proposed solutions. Additionally,
we have included the PowerPoint presentation that was presented to all class
community partners. Lastly, we have a copy of our follow-up email with Big
Hollow that was sent to them directly after they attended our presentation.
Components of Client Project
The following
assignments set up the stage for our client project. Because of our
interactions with Big Hollow, we were able to know what was expected of us
throughout the course, as well as from the cooperative. This section is
essential in the explanation of our progress in completing the proposed tasks
and they way in which we went about solving these problems.
Initial
Correspondence:
Preliminary
Proposal:
PowerPoint
Presentation:
Follow-Up
Correspondence:
Client Project
Throughout this
project, we identified some areas Big Hollow could focus on to increase the
awareness of their Co-op. Some of the areas we identified are as follows:
clarifying sections on the social media websites, increasing the size of their
logo on advertisements, creating an internship packet for selecting an intern
for the store, and making a video to advertise for the store.
Social Media:
After searching
through Big Hollow’s Facebook page and their website, we found minor issues
that needed to be fixed. One of the problems we identified on their website was
their News and Events section. We noticed there were no events posted in this
section. As a group, we felt that if there is a section for News and Events,
there should be events in there. Another problem we identified, was on the
bottom of their main page when they state that they list the vendors for their
store, but they actually do not have any posted. Since we brought this problem
to Jeff’s attention, they have updated the website to include the list of
vendors for the audience.
Logo Size:
Our group noticed
the logo size on all of Big Hollow’s advertising was fairly small. We suggested
enlarging the size of the logo to draw attention to the store. We informed Jeff
that it is important to let customers know who is advertising in order to bring
more people into the store.
Internship Packet:
After speaking
with Jeff, we found out they were interested in recruiting an intern to help
out around the Co-op. We have compiled an internship packet to provide Big Hollow so they can
work on getting an intern in the near future.
Video Advertisement:
One of our main
goals for this project was to increase the awareness of the Co-op by increasing
their advertising methods. Our focus audience for the advertising was college
students because Laramie is heavily populated by college students. Being
students ourselves, we felt that visual media is a great way to get information
to younger individuals. This is what led us to create a short video
about Big Hollow and why people should shop there. This video was created in
the Co-op and we used real customers to share their experiences with the store.
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