By: Nadia Lei
Oak Staff
Hours of rehearsals and sleep deprived nights, all leading up to one performance. The Menlo College Luau is an annual event hosted by the school’s Hawaii Club. Amazing food is prepared and club members rehearse numerous dances from the different islands of Polynesia.
This year I had the privilege and challenge of marketing the Luau several months leading up to the night of the event. Working with Mary Robins as my instructor, my goal was to create awareness to Menlo students and the outside the community. Although the overall job appeared stressful at first, considering the size of Menlo’s Luau, I was more than excited to be a part of the planning committee. And through this journey, I found that marketing is a process that is constantly evolving with the new trends and forms of communication.
The process began in January, with an outline and timeline of the overall plan. The outline consisted of three major tactics. One, was creating a postcard to send out to local companies, two was to created social media buzz, and three was to create awareness on campus through fliers, word of mouth, and bulletin boards.
Although all three approaches were effective in their own ways, I quickly found that social media buzz was the most efficient.
Marketing is only at its best wherever there is the most traffic. In order to use the Internet to its fullest potential, the marketing team and I created a Facebook event page and an Instagram account for the Hawaii Club. Both helped to build up the hype for the event. On the Facebook even page we consistently posted updates and two weeks leading up to the night of, we featured a senior dancer every day. On the Instagram we posted pictures of rehearsals, club events, meetings, and even the gym during the process of set up and decorating.
These two pages brought in several hundred viewers. We found that what was most important was to be consistent and responsive. By constantly posting pictures and information and responding to any questions or comments, we showed genuine care towards our viewers. I’ve learned that social media is form a friendship, and no body really likes that friend who’s only around some times and then asks to hang out. We had to be that friend that was around enough to be liked, but not too much to the point where we were annoying.
Leading up to the night of the event, we found that because there had been so much advertising that we had to cut back on some of our original plans. We passed out fewer fliers and banners around the campus. By cutting back we made sure that we didn’t over-kill the event and create so much hype that people got bored of the idea of the Luau before it even happened.
All the planning and hard work in the end paid off. By the week of Luau, tickets were sold out and students were still asking if there were any possibility of simply standing up in the back. Beyond that, our marketing team was constantly complimented for the various boards around campus and the pictures and creative posts that were put online.
However, although all the marketing proved to be a success, there were a lot of lessons that I took away from the process. For one, I learned that proof reading is vital and should not be taken lightly. Whatever you are marketing, the advertisements used to help you market, directly reflects the product’s or company’s image. If there is a mistake in spelling or if it is of poor quality, consumers will assume that your product will be of the same nature. If you can’t take the short amount of time needed to be sure words are spelled correctly, then why should a consumer trust the product you are selling.
That being said, one of the biggest errors I made while marketing the Luau was a spelling error on the postcards I designed. In the headline of the postcard I wrote the “Menlo College Lua’u.” In Hawaiian Language the ‘okina or apostrophe belongs between the first ‘u’ and the ‘a’. By putting the ‘okina in the wrong spot, it completely changes the meaning of the word. Although it may not be a big deal to those who do not know Hawaiian language, it does reflect Menlo’s attempt to be authentic with the Hawaiian culture.
Through it all, I learned a lot about advertising and marketing and felt that the night was a huge success. I am so sad to see it all come to an end, especially because it is my Senior year. But I am honored and glad to have seen a different side of the process.
Oak Staff
Hours of rehearsals and sleep deprived nights, all leading up to one performance. The Menlo College Luau is an annual event hosted by the school’s Hawaii Club. Amazing food is prepared and club members rehearse numerous dances from the different islands of Polynesia.
This year I had the privilege and challenge of marketing the Luau several months leading up to the night of the event. Working with Mary Robins as my instructor, my goal was to create awareness to Menlo students and the outside the community. Although the overall job appeared stressful at first, considering the size of Menlo’s Luau, I was more than excited to be a part of the planning committee. And through this journey, I found that marketing is a process that is constantly evolving with the new trends and forms of communication.
The process began in January, with an outline and timeline of the overall plan. The outline consisted of three major tactics. One, was creating a postcard to send out to local companies, two was to created social media buzz, and three was to create awareness on campus through fliers, word of mouth, and bulletin boards.
Although all three approaches were effective in their own ways, I quickly found that social media buzz was the most efficient.
Marketing is only at its best wherever there is the most traffic. In order to use the Internet to its fullest potential, the marketing team and I created a Facebook event page and an Instagram account for the Hawaii Club. Both helped to build up the hype for the event. On the Facebook even page we consistently posted updates and two weeks leading up to the night of, we featured a senior dancer every day. On the Instagram we posted pictures of rehearsals, club events, meetings, and even the gym during the process of set up and decorating.
These two pages brought in several hundred viewers. We found that what was most important was to be consistent and responsive. By constantly posting pictures and information and responding to any questions or comments, we showed genuine care towards our viewers. I’ve learned that social media is form a friendship, and no body really likes that friend who’s only around some times and then asks to hang out. We had to be that friend that was around enough to be liked, but not too much to the point where we were annoying.
Leading up to the night of the event, we found that because there had been so much advertising that we had to cut back on some of our original plans. We passed out fewer fliers and banners around the campus. By cutting back we made sure that we didn’t over-kill the event and create so much hype that people got bored of the idea of the Luau before it even happened.
All the planning and hard work in the end paid off. By the week of Luau, tickets were sold out and students were still asking if there were any possibility of simply standing up in the back. Beyond that, our marketing team was constantly complimented for the various boards around campus and the pictures and creative posts that were put online.
However, although all the marketing proved to be a success, there were a lot of lessons that I took away from the process. For one, I learned that proof reading is vital and should not be taken lightly. Whatever you are marketing, the advertisements used to help you market, directly reflects the product’s or company’s image. If there is a mistake in spelling or if it is of poor quality, consumers will assume that your product will be of the same nature. If you can’t take the short amount of time needed to be sure words are spelled correctly, then why should a consumer trust the product you are selling.
That being said, one of the biggest errors I made while marketing the Luau was a spelling error on the postcards I designed. In the headline of the postcard I wrote the “Menlo College Lua’u.” In Hawaiian Language the ‘okina or apostrophe belongs between the first ‘u’ and the ‘a’. By putting the ‘okina in the wrong spot, it completely changes the meaning of the word. Although it may not be a big deal to those who do not know Hawaiian language, it does reflect Menlo’s attempt to be authentic with the Hawaiian culture.
Through it all, I learned a lot about advertising and marketing and felt that the night was a huge success. I am so sad to see it all come to an end, especially because it is my Senior year. But I am honored and glad to have seen a different side of the process.
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