Strategic Brief

The Preble County YMCA of Greater Dayton is a charitable organization that is based on
Christian principles. Its overall goal is to enrich the quality of spiritual, social, physical, and
mental wellbeing for all people in an inclusive environment. It also desires that the surrounding
community recognizes that it is not just a gym, but that it wants to be helpful in solving
important issues affecting the community such as childhood obesity, drug problems in the
county, and children without meals. Aside from its long-term goals, the other significant, specific
goals of the Preble County YMCA include growing its youth programs, such as swim lessons
and youth sports, as well as increasing memberships and the number of visits from “silver
sneaker” members (ages 65+). This strategic brief touches on all three of these specific goals.
The first buyer persona is Jackie. A fairly new member of the Y, Jackie is a 35-year-old
mother of three who just moved to Eaton, Ohio, and works as a night shift emergency room
nurse. She has a very hard time fitting exercise into her schedule. When she does have time, she
often can’t go out to exercise because there is no one to watch her kids, and to complicate things
even more, she has a chronic foot problem. She uses media such as Facebook, Pinterest, Email,
and Instagram. Jackie loves all things natural, and frequently shops at places like Whole Foods
and likes to make ethical purchases. She also loves kayaking, crocheting, spending time with her
husband and kids, and cooking healthy meals.
To address Jackie’s needs, the Y should put an advertisement on its Facebook page
telling about its free child-watch program, where members can drop off their kids while they use
the facility and pick them up when they are done. Many people do not know about this option,
and this would help the Y’s short-term goal of increasing its membership, especially among
young parents. The Preble County Y’s target demographic includes moms between the ages of
25-50, since they often make a lot of the decisions for the family, and better publicity about the
free child-watch program would potentially bring in more of this desired demographic. The
reason for adding the advertisement on Facebook instead of a medium such as the local
newspaper is because many moms do not have time to search through the newspaper for
advertisements, and instead find out their news through a platform like Facebook where they can
search for the information they need and easily access it. Secondly, to address those with injuries
(such as Jackie and her chronic foot problem), the Y should produce a blogpost that includes a
detailed list of exercises that people with specific injuries can do. For example, included in the
list could be something about how the swimming pool helps to rehabilitate those with chronic
muscle pain. The Y could then also come out with a demonstrational video to advertise its yoga
classes, and cater the advertisement to people with injuries who would benefit from daily
stretching. The stretches in the video would immediately help those with various physical
impairments, hopefully causing them to actually sign up for a yoga class in order to feel even
better and learn more stretches. This would coincide with the specific organizational goal to
increase Y memberships. Another way in which the Y could cater to people like Jackie would be
by posting an advertisement on Facebook and its website about the many youth programs
offered, such as swim lessons, countless youth sports leagues, day camps, and classes. This way,
busy parents could have a little break from watching their kids, and the kids would learn healthy
habits at a young age. Again, this type of advertisement should pique interest in the various
youth clubs and help them grow, just as the Y hopes.
The second buyer persona is Tom, a 72-year-old army veteran from New Paris, Ohio,
who wants to be healthy and active as he gets older. He loves to stay in shape by lap swimming,
but knows he is very slow and is afraid of having to share a lane with other people. The only
medium he uses is Email, and he barely even knows how to use that. He likes to go to his local
diner for coffee and a muffin each morning while he reads the newspaper, and almost never buys
new things. His interests include watching Jeopardy, playing bingo, swimming, collecting coins,
and following the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.
To address Tom’s needs, the Y should produce a video demonstrating how to improve
the four main swimming strokes. It should focus mainly on the freestyle stroke, as the majority
of people (especially the elderly) use this stroke most often. Tom could then feel more confident
when swimming, and the video would help others who are slower swimmers because of their
improper form. Secondly, the Preble County YMCA website should add a subsection in its
“swimming” section that includes a short announcement about the “up to three lanes at a time”
policy. This means that though there are usually two lanes available for lap swimming at all
times throughout the day, if the lanes are all crowded, members can ask the lifeguard on duty to
section off another lane for that purpose. A third thing that the Y should consider doing for
people like Tom is to record and publish an interview with a few members who are 65+ in age
about the various programs for older adults, such as SilverSneakers, Silver & Fit, and Renew
Active. This would allow the older members to learn about a community that enjoys similar
activities to them, such as staying fit in a nonthreatening environment, having potlucks, playing
bingo, and going on other various outings. All three of these ideas tie back into the Y’s specific
goal to increase visits from its elderly members. The first two suggestions including the pool
would give older members more confidence to head to the Y and try lap swimming, like in the
case of Tom; the last example would increase the actual membership of “silver sneaker”
members.
The third buyer persona is Kayla, a 16-year-old high school student from Oxford, Ohio,
who is on her school’s volleyball team. She uses media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
Snapchat, Email, and Pinterest. Kayla loves everything trendy – Chipotle, Starbucks, American
Eagle clothing, hipster coffee shops, cute Instagram pictures, and Nicholas Sparks novels. She
wants to start getting in shape for volleyball season, but doesn’t know how to use many of the
machines in the weight room, and is embarrassed to work out in front of a bunch of guys her
same age. She ends up resorting to the elliptical for a few minutes each day, and then
immediately leaves when she sees someone she recognizes.
To address Kayla’s needs, the Y should have a member who uses the ACTIVTRAX
program (a program that plans out a person’s workouts each day, according to his or her goals)
write a blogpost about his or her experience and how the program works. This would not only
allow people to learn about its efficiency, but it would also get the word out about a free tool for
members that lots of people do not know about. Secondly, every member of the Y is able to go to
the front desk and ask someone there to show them how to use the machinery in the weight
room. An advertisement that details this information could be printed out and hung at various
places around the weight room and other places in the Y, in case there are people like Kayla who
do not know this information and feel helpless. For those who feel embarrassed by asking for
help, an informational/demonstrational video showing all of the different machines in the weight
room, how to use them, and which muscles they employ would be helpful in cutting down on the
stress and anxiety about looking clueless. All of these ideas tie in with the Y’s goal of increasing
its membership because the more programs offered, the greater the likelihood that lots of
different types of people will show up and want to try them out. Better advertising for some of
these programs will aid towards this goal.
 The success of this strategy will be measured quite easily, as the Y can track the number
of new members that join after these different advertisements come out and compare the data to
the number of people who joined during the same month in previous years. In a similar way, the
Y can keep track of the number of “silver sneaker” members who come to the Y over a certain
period of time, detecting the growth or decline in frequency. Additionally, noticing how many
new followers on Facebook and the number of views on the Preble County YMCA website is a
good way to tell the effectiveness of the new advertisements and demonstrational videos.
 Reflection

I interviewed an employee of the Preble County YMCA, and also interviewed an active
member of the Y for this project. Ashleigh, the Aquatics Director, provided a lot of insightful
information into the Y’s goals and its role in the community. When asked about short-term goals,
she responded that the main thing they would like to see is an increase in memberships and
involvement in their youth programs. This tied right in with the content strategy, as those were
two of the main focuses in the buyer personas and therefore their principal targets.
Kelly, a new member of the Y, told me that she does not have social media, but saw a
large banner hanging in town that advertised membership to the Y. She has plantar fasciitis, a
painful foot injury, and found that swimming is a form of exercise that does not hurt her foot.
Because of this, I used this same condition in the buyer persona of “Jackie,” addressing the needs
of those who want to stay fit but are injured and don’t know what to do.
Ashleigh’s input about the Y’s target demographic (moms ages 25-50) was especially
helpful in this strategy, as it gave me an idea of the reasoning behind why the YMCA advertises
as it does (emphasizing lots of free kids’ events and programs, for example). Also, hearing that
the Y is always trying to grow its membership and youth programs was very helpful in allowing
me to craft content that advertises its assets that people may not know about or recognize.
If given more time, I would conduct additional research on the opportunities for teenagers
to become involved at the Y. After talking with Ashleigh, it seems as though the majority of the
focus is on young children, moms, and seniors, but there are not many programs designed
specifically for teens. I would investigate this further and see if there were any plans on the
horizon for including this age group more. I think this would help me build a better strategy
when it comes to the buyer persona of Kayla, a teenage girl, because there was not any
advertising that specifically targeted her or her age group – all of it was pretty generic.
The news release aligns with this content strategy in that it is geared towards families
with little kids who may not have thought about going to the Y in the past. Advertising for
Trunk-Or-Treat brings attention to the Y and places it on the radar for a wide range of people.
The blogposts could talk about furthering these advertising ideas and address some of the
members’ needs, such as in the example of “Jackie” and the blogpost about someone with an
injury, detailing how they used the Y for rehabilitation.
The infographic will further the strategy to increase membership by appealing to the
interests of a wide range of age groups. There will be information about programs that range
from small children to seniors.