Created by RONA PR

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 The RONA PR Team

Tim Ullman Bekah Cartlidge

Izzy Thompson Danny McCue

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 Situation Analysis
An environmental scan (research on the situation) is conducted, examining
the political, legal, economic, community, technology, and social and
consumer factors that impact an organization’s ability to do business.

It is crucial to be able to identify the situation revolving around Midwest

Food Bank’s social media use. Through extensive research and
comprehensive meetings with the non-profit executives, It can be seen
that the infrastructure of Midwest Food Bank’s social media is
inconsistent. Our campaign team has found various areas of risk involving
Midwest Food Bank’s internal and external social media techniques.

We noticed that Midwest Foodbank has major inconsistencies across their

social media platforms, this leads to unclear information given to their
audience. Most of their posting comes from Facebook because they
believe that their target demographic is pre-retired and retired
individuals.

The problem is that they are not trying to reach younger demographics
like Gen X and Gen Z. RONA PR hopes to build this audience in order to
encourage more donations and volunteers. Food insecurity is an issue that
will always exist, so why not try to get as many people as possible to help?

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 Social Media Audit
Midwest Food Banks is minimally using their social media platforms. They
mainly focus on utilizing their Facebook because Facebook is what their main
demographic uses most. The volunteers who give the most hours to Midwest
Food Bank are pre retired and retired. This age demographic primarily is
active on Facebook. Their Facebook reach is good in relation to their
competition; however, their other social medias are lacking. They do not
engage with their followers on a regular basis. Questions asked on Facebook
typically get a reply; however, their posts such as those on Instagram do not
have replies to comments but have liked comments from Midwestern Food
Bank. The main purpose of their social media pages is to get messages out to
volunteers and food donors. Their voice is the same on all their platforms
sending out similar messages and posts.

Social Media Platforms

Facebook LinkedIn
876 Followers 534 Followers
801 Likes Following 355

Instagram Blog
545 Followers Average 200 hits
Following 354 2 posts per week

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 Social Media Audit
The Midwest Food Bank use of social media is mainly presented
through the Facebook platform. This is in order to reach their older
target audience in an attempt to inform them on different events and
opportunities. The older generations tend to use Facebook more
frequently while also being the leading age range of return-volunteers.
While their media efforts are weighing heavily on Facebook, they have
other media resources such as Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The
second most prevalent media output used to promote their non-profit
is Instagram. Recently, their locally branched Instagram pages were and
still are outdated, inconsistent, and providing different images of the
brand via lack of communication between branches. By increasing
traffic on their Instagram and Twitter pages, Midwest Food Bank will be
able to reach a broader scope of individuals in hope for new volunteers
and donations.

This broader scope would allow them to reach the younger generation
of Gen Z. Midwest Food Bank's location in Normal, IL is in close
proximity to Illinois State University. Utilizing the students at Illinois
State and the many RSO's that they belong to would increase the
amount of Gen Z volunteers that Midwest Foodbank hosts.

Social Currency is almost nonexistent in retrospect. Being one of the

largest food banks in America, Midwest Food Bank has a very low reach
on social media. If the organization spent more time, effort, and money
into revamping their online presence, their Social Currency would
increase dramatically.

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 Competitive Analysis
Midwest Food Bank is a non-profit organization therefore, they
choose to see others in the same business as them not as
competition, but as partners who have the same goal. They
compete in funds but partner in providing food. However, if they
were to see other food banks as competition, Feeding America
would be their main competitor. They heavily interact with
Eastern Illinois Food Bank which is a food bank that falls under
the Feeding America Organization. While both Midwest Food
Bank and Feeding America are food banks, they have completely
different methods in distributing their food, furthering them even
more from being competitors.

Local Competition
Eastern Illinois Foodbank
Helping Hands
Peoria Area Foodbank

National Competition
Feed the Children ($288 million)
Houston Foodbank ($209 million)
St. Mary's Foodbank ($172 million)
Foodbank of Central and Eastern North Carolina ($167 million)

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 SWOT
Aspects Implications Possible Actions

Strengths Understanding their main Due to their lack of Focusing heavily on

demographic is retired so consistent posting, their content delivery on
they choose to focus on targeting demographic Facebook or exploring
Facebook as their main may struggle because they routes like mail flyers to
social media. are looking for updates reach their target
and cannot find them. demographic.
The Midwest Food Bank
has grassroots in the
Bloomington-Normal
Community

Weaknesses Does not have consistent Followers lose interest Create a calendar to
posts or user-engagement and struggle to create a encourage consistent
across social media. relationship with the posting and routinely
company. check social media
Struggles to engage with engagement with
Illinois State and Illinois followers.
Wesleyan students.

Opportunities Ability to collaborate with Provides them with a Creating a nation-wide

other food banks with larger audience to engage day of volunteering where
outreach because they do more partners and people go to their closest
not see each other as volunteers. food bank.
competitors.

Gen X is starting to get to

an age with a large
amount of free time and
capital. They are at a stage
of wanting to give back to
the community.

Threats Lack of volunteers due to Will not be able to donate Posting out their COVID
COVID and lack of updates as much food if there are guidelines and the
across their social media. not many increase in demand for
volunteers/donations. volunteers/donations
COVID restrictions and through these trying
guidlines have made it times.
harder to recruit for in-
person activities

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 Key Insights

The largest key insight is that Midwest Food Bank needs to

update their social media plan. They are having a companywide
meeting in December with creating a plan to update the social
media on the agenda. They not only need to update the current
social media that they use, making them more uniform, but they
need to expand and branch out into other social media.
Midwest Food Bank does not have to worry about competition.
They do not consider other food banks competition because they
are all working toward the same goal and often work with other
food banks.

Goals

1. A campaign can be started to bring awareness to the need for

more items in bulk that can then be sent out to different food
pantries especially with Thanksgiving coming up.

2. A campaign needs to be run to bring in more volunteers. The

largest volunteer group are retired and pre retired age. These
volunteers do many of the jobs such as working the front
desk. A campaign needs to be started to bring in younger
volunteers who can do the heavier physical work that needs
to be done.
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 Target Audience

GEN X
1. Gen X is currently aged at 39-55. People of this generation
are moving into their community orientated phase. They are
becoming activists and want to help their community.
2. Many are empty nesters. Their children, typically, are grown
and moved out of the house.
3. They are getting close to the retirement age and will soon
have more free time.

GEN Z

1. Gen Z is currently aged at 9-22. People of this generation are

those that grew up a large focus on technology
2. The Midwest Food Bank needs to be proactive with
advertising and marketing the organization. Local, much smaller
food banks exists on campus, therefore it’s important for the
Midwest Food Bank to have a bigger presences

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 KMP
The key message platform (KPM) features the overall
external messages that make Midwest Food Bank one of
the most successful food banks in the nation.

Key Message Platform:

Midwest Food Bank will help those in need through various means
of help including food and spiritual relief.
Key Messages:
1. To give back to the communities in which we are a part of.
2. To feed the hungry while providing productive opportunities as
well.
3. To maintain and uphold the most effective food bank in the Mid-
West.
Values:
1. Serving those in need
2. Empowering volunteers
3. Embracing our communities
4. Working with integrity
5. Executing through teamwork
Mission:
To share the love of Christ by alleviating hunger and malnutrition
locally and throughout the world and providing disaster relief; all
without discrimination.
Vision:
To provide industry leading food relief to those in need while
feeding them spiritually.
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 Objective 1
To increase awareness to the people of the Gen X and Gen
Z community by 20 percent over the next year.
(Knowledge)

Benchmark : No Current Benchmark

Strategy : Recruitment

Tactic 1 : Recruit a spokesperson that is very

notable to the Bloomington-Normal
community and within the age range to Gen
X, so that it is possible to raise more
awareness about the Midwest Food Bank.

Tactic 1A : A notable spokesperson could be

Jane Lynch. Lynch attended Illinois State
University in the early 80's, graduating in
1982. She was born in 1960, but fits more in
with Gen X. She has been very active in pop
culture with a major role on the Fox show,
Glee.

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See Appendix 1
 Objective 2
To change behavior within the ISU student body towards volunteering
at the Midwest Food Bank over other local food banks by 15 percent
over the next year. (Behavior)

Benchmark : No Current Benchmark

Strategy : Knowledge Building, Social
Media

Tactic 1: Host more events and create

better communication with ISU's
Registered Student Organizations (RSO).

Tactic 2: Hosts events in which legacy

families can get involved.

Tactic 3: Host a Holiday Food Drive for

the Thanksgiving holiday where we
need extra hands to fill donation boxes.

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See Appendix 2
 Objective 3
Increase the number of followers on Instagram to 1000

Benchmark : Currently there are 546

followers
Strategy : Social Media

Tactic 1: Require a social media online

training course for existing and new
employees and volunteers.

Tactic 2: Weekly meetings/briefings on

social media status and updates

Tactic 3: Create uniform hashtags

that promote events
and encourages individuals to sign up
for weekly newsletter.

See Appendix 3 14
 Strategies and Tactics

1. Recruit a spokesperson to increase brand reach

▪ Jane Lynch be a spokesperson (similar campaign strategy to
how ISU features her in ads)
▪ Facebook video ad with Jane Lynch promoting Midwest
Food Bank
▪ 3-month ad @ $50 a month = $150
▪ Production Fees: $853.79
▪ Est. Cost: $1,003.79

2. Show legacy families volunteering in the facility

▪ Wear ISU or IWU gear while assembling boxes or
donations on a line
▪ Make sure they are wearing their respective clothing

3. Showcase boxes of donations and what a family may receive

▪ Post images of the contents of boxes on Midwest Food
Bank's Instagram and Facebook to increase donations of
exact items needed.

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Budget

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 Executive Summary
Something that every person in this world needs is food, and the volunteers at
Midwest Foodbank want to make sure that no one goes hungry. The Bloomington,
Normal location helps to serve over 377 agencies across 50 counties throughout
Central and Eastern Illinois. This organization depends on volunteers in the
community, their engagement across social media platforms is a key factor in
recruiting those volunteers.
RONA PR has created this campaign with hope of reaching the Gen X and Gen Z
generation. Midwest Foodbank is more important than ever because of COVID-19,
the amount of individuals in need of food is increasing daily. This means that
Midwest Foodbank is in need of volunteers more than ever, so they need to be
targeting the generations in close proximity. Luckily enough for them, their non -
profit resides close to three colleges, so we believe that this is reason enough to
create a campaign about reaching college students.
Our research shows that the main audience that Midwest Foodbank has consists of
pre-retired and retired individuals. With that being said, this means that Facebook is
their main form of communication and most of the interactions come from these
demographics.
RONA PR goal is to increase engagement with the Gen X and Gen Z audience in
order to boost social media presence as well as increase volunteer rates in the
community. In order to achieve this goal, we will follow these four objectives:

1. To increase awareness to the people of the Gen X community by 20

percent over the next year. (Knowledge)
2. To change behavior within the ISU student body towards
volunteering at the Midwest Food Bank over other local food banks
by 15 percent over the next year. (Behavior)
3. To Increase number of monthly Gen Z volunteers by 10%.
4. Increase the number of followers on Instagram to 1000.

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Appendices
The following appendices feature the social
media tactics surrounding the overall
objectives for the campaign. It is here that
you can find sample Instagram and Facebook
posts related to Midwest Food Bank.

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Appendix 1: Instagram
Post

midwestfoodbank We are so excited

to partner with one of ISU's top
alumni @janelynchofficial to bring
awareness to the need for donations
and volunteers this holiday season!

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Appendix 2: Instagram
Post

midwestfoodbank We are grateful

today and every day for our
wonderful volunteers! What are you
grateful for today?

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 Appendix 3: Facebook
Post

Midwest Food Bank

Midwest Food Bank welcomes you to a day to give back! Stop in on November 24th
so that no one is hungry in the Bloomington/Normal area on Thanksgiving day.

Midwestfoodbank.org
Join Now
Sign up for our weekly newsletter!

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