Table of Contents:

Letter of Introduction.
About Us.
About the Company.
Communication Plan.
Objectives.
SWOT Analysis.
About the Consumer.
Geography.
Purchaser/Influencer.
Product Purchase Cycle.
Reach Goal.
Frequency Goal.
Frequency Planning Matrix.
Media and Advertising Tactics.
Internet/Social Networking Resources.
Traditional Advertising.
Menu Selection.
Budget Breakdown.
Frequently Asked Questions.

Page 1

Letter of Introduction
Branch Out
At the North End Entertainment District of Tahlequah, tourists and townies alike
can enjoy the finer side of life by dining at The Branch. The natural creek passing close by,
the outside patio, and cozy fireplace offer solace to guests looking for more than just the
corporate experience of a restaurant.
The Branch appeals to the young and old alike. By offering cheap specials like the $5
Burger every Monday night, college kids can afford a dinner outside of the campus
cafeteria, and with the 20+ beers and twice as many specialty wines, the 21 and over crowd
is always welcome for after dinner drinks and cocktails. The Branch strives to maintain an
atmosphere of fun while keeping with the mood of finer dining. Three times a week, The
Branch hosts a live band to play in their atrium, separate from the main restaurant.
Anytime during the week guests can hear old country, red dirt music, or new age folk.
Guests are encouraged to hang out and drink long after the restaurants kitchen has closed.
In this media press kit, readers will find a full year outline of a media plan for The
Branch, located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Students grouped together this spring semester in
Media Management and Planning class to form yearlong media plans for local businesses.
The students are to find ways to increase foot traffic, raise profit or anything the managers
of the businesses would like to see improve internally, and present them at the end of the
semester.

Page 2

About Us

Atlanta Proctor: Junior; Tahlequah, OK

Journalism and Broadcasting
Kyle Kidd: Junior; Sapulpa, OK
Journalism and Broadcasting

Jacob Shrum: Junior; Owasso, OK

Communication Studies/Public Relations

Page 3

About Our Company

The Branch offers the following accommodations
for their guests:

Upstairs outside balcony

Warm inside fireplace

Big comfortable chairs to dine

Double sided fully stocked bar

For dining purposes guests can find:

In-house cut steaks

Complimentary potato chips at dinner

Sandwiches and burgers priced less than $10

Aged cheese and fresh fruits for appetizers

For guests 21 and older The Branch offers:

10+ beers on draft, with over 20 different selections in all

40+ wines, both

red and white

Any type of liquor

from Fireball to
Johnny Walker Blue
Label

Page 4

Communication Plan
We are trying to reach our target audience ages 35- 65 through the targeted hours
of 11:00am - 2:00pm for lunch and 5:00pm- 10:00pm for dinner. Along with successfully
reaching our audience at prime eating hours, we have objectives to better the business. Our
objectives include expanding our target audience to a younger crowd, creating more visits
and activity on social media sites, and creating more foot traffic in the restaurant with
hopes of increasing sales. These objectives are attainable with The Branchs budget of
about $10,000.
Our channels of communication will be billboards on the outer city limits of
Tahlequah, commercials that air primarily during the months that incoming students are
moving to Tahlequah, monthly newsletters through email, and special discounts offered
through social media.
These channels will be effective because by placing the billboards outside of town,
tourists new to Tahlequah are more likely to see the advertisements for the Branch as they
enter the town and make their way to the Entertainment district. The commercials and
discounts offered through social media will appeal to more of the younger audience that we
hope to expand our targeted audience to. The newsletters will grab consumers attention
and be a constant reminder as to why they should visit The Branch by being constantly
aware of all specials and any upcoming promotions and events.
Listed throughout this media plan are the communication objectives and strategies
that we plan on using to promote The Branch.

Page 5

Objectives
Expanding the target audience by reaching a younger crowd primarily
from NSU. We plan on doing this by strategically running TV
advertisements as well as billboard advertisements during the Summer
and Winter seasons.
Creating more visits and activity on social media sites. Currently The
Branch is very active on Facebook; however, we want to get to a more
interactive way of running the social media platforms.
Creating more foot traffic in the restaurant by promoting to visitors and
tourists of Tahlequah. We plan on doing this by adding billboards to the
south end of Tahlequah. Doing this would create impressions on not
only the travelers coming from Tulsa & Muskogee, but also incoming
freshmen and their families.

Page 6

SWOT Analysis
Strengths

Weaknesses

Location

Location

Competition

Limited Audience

Products and Specials

Marketing

Promotions

Pricing

Opportunities

Threats

Northeastern State University

Local Competition

Events of Tahlequah

Natural Disasters

Tourism Advertising

Neds

The Revamp of Downtown

Parking

Page 7

About the Consumer

The Largest Consumer Group for The Branch is 45 to 65 in age. These consumers typically
live in two member households, specifically, middle aged couples whose children have
reached adulthood. This consumer group makes on an average, middle to lower-upper
class in pay and career.
They typically live in middle to lower-upper class suburban neighborhoods. The
largest customer base of this consumer group is in the local Tahlequah area, but extends to
the surrounding communities as well.
This consumer group listen to Tulsa based country, and Christian music radio
stations, as well as Muskogee based country radio stations. They also frequently watch
local Tulsa news station such as News On 6, Channel 8 News, and Channel 2 News. National
stations consist of primarily Fox News and NSNBC, with CNN as well. The most common
newsprint is the Tulsa World, Daily Oklahoman, Tahlequah Daily Press, and Muskogee
Phoenix.
Entertainment television and media consist of Netflix, AMC, History Channel, and
Discovery Channel. This group typically shops within the local Tahlequah area with a few
other communities being Tulsa and Fayetteville. This group chooses finer dinning more so
than any of the other consumer base groups that are known to frequent the Branch. This
leaves local competition to be The Grill, The Iguana, KTK, and Muskogee based dining.
The second largest consumer group is the college to late 20s age group. This age
group is also the lowest pay group within the Branchs consumer reach. This is due to bar
sales, more affordable lunch specials, and daily discounts on certain menu items being
chosen over typical dining.
This age group is largely single member households with unemployed to lower
income financial brackets. They also prefer more contemporary lifestyles, choosing more
liberal and national news media over local and conservative news outlets. They also have a
much different media outlets such as more pop, hip hop, and alternative rock music radio
over country radio.

Page 8

Geography

The geography of The Branchs target audience is centered within the Tahlequah
area but also extends to the surrounding communities of Hulbert, Keys, Fort Gibson, etc.
The primary age group that visits The Branch is from 45 to 65 years of age. This group
typically consists of middle to upper class, two member families whose children have
reached adult hood. They are primarily found in middle to upper class suburban
neighborhoods, and typically follow a typical 9:00am to 5:00pm work schedule.

Page 9

Purchaser/Influencer
As the Woman of the typical household makes the majority of all financial decisions
for the household, the average purchase Influencer is female, age 35 to 65. The actual
purchaser of The Town Branch is much less specific and can be both, male or female that fit
within that age and class demographic. The purchase decision on a daily basis is typically
made from 11am to 12pm, and 3pm to 5pm. These times fit within the two largest sales
rushes of the day.

This means the day to day advertising for the Branch would need to reach its peak
from 10am to 12pm, and from 2pm to 4pm. This leaves an hour advance for the lunch rush
and an hour advance for the dinner rush. The largest source of advertising for both of these
times will be radio broadcasting, both public radio, and through radio apps such as
Pandora and Iheartradio. The ad would not need to be longer than ten to fifteen seconds
long and would be fairly inexpensive to make.

Page 10

Product Purchase Cycle

The Town Branch primarily collects the majority of its sales from 5:00pm until
9:00pm on a daily basis for its larger dinner crowd that comes through, along with bar
traffic as well. With a moderate lunch rush that is mostly seen on weekdays, this helps
boost overall revenue; however, dinner rush and evening alcohol sales are the primary
profit benefactors for the Town Branch.

This gears the prime advertisement cycle to be mid-morning (10:00am to 11:00am)

and mid-day (2:00pm to 4:00pm) in order to match the Product Purchase Cycle. This leaves
the product purchase cycle to a daily base that fits around a four week cycle. This is a pro
for The Branch, as it makes advertisement cycles easy due to the fact that it is a very
regulated cycle, and there are hardly ever any discrepancies or changes in their purchase
cycle.

Page 11

Reach Goal

Since the Product Purchase Cycle has been set to a daily base for a four week period,
the Reach Goal can be adjusted appropriately around 70-80%. Since the Town Branch has
strategically marketed to such a niche target audience, until the target audience is
expanded through new advertising, 70-80% is a comfortable percentage to reach while also
attempting to reach a younger, unreached audience. This percentage will allow the Town
Branch enough space to not waste money on unsuccessful advertisement, while also not
leaving available audience space unreached.

As for our younger, unreached audience, we will be incorporating different styles of

advertisement for The Branch in order to reach this new audience that we have not to date.
With this push for a more expanded audience, we will hoping to have an overall reach goal
of at least 80% due to having an entirely new audience that we have not had before.

Page 12

Frequency Goal

With a Reach Goal now set to approximately 80%, the frequency goal will be set to
two times a week over a four week cycle. That will leave an overall frequency goal of 8.0
over a four week cycle. This will account for all lunch advertisements as well as daily
special advertisements. These will include advertisements such as $3 tacos every Tuesday
for our Taco Tuesday Special. With specials such as these and others that will be
implemented, we are positive that we will reach our younger target audience as mentioned
above.

With half of the 8.0 frequency goal being geared towards lunch and specials, the
other half can be left solely for dinner and alcohol sales. This will allow half of the
advertising plan to reach a newer and younger target audience, while the other half reaches
the current target audience of the higher-income/middle-aged audience.

Page 13

Frequency Planning Matrix

The Town Branch has very high brand maturity with several successful years in the
market, allowing for a lower ad frequency since it has already established a name for itself.
With an average awareness, the Town Branch can gear its advertisement to a younger, less
targeted market to increase its brand awareness. With a fairly low level of competition, the
Town Branch can focus less on add frequency geared towards its competition. With very
little past advertising, the Town Branch can direct more effort towards creating a
successful advertising campaign compared to the past few years. Seeing how the Town
Branch relies upon a repetitive target audience, long term advertising can be used to slowly
establish a wider base market. All together, this creates a frequency plan of +1 for its target
audience.
Objective

Frequency

Medium

Audience

Cost

Place billboard
south of
Tahlequah to
draw in incoming
visitors from
Muskogee/Tulsa
areas during peak
travel times.

One Month Long,

Twice per Year
(January &
August)

Billboards

Northeastern
Oklahoma

$2800 (Lamar
Advertising)

Ads will air

during listed
months to draw in
new customers.
Placing ads in
these months will
reach new NSU
students, along
with locals.

Daily for 2
Months, Twice
per Year
(January February &
August September)

Commercial

Northeastern
Oklahoma

$5000

Give locals a
constant monthly
reminder of what
all is offered at
The Branch along
with discounts.

Monthly

Newsletter
(Email)

Tahlequah

N/A

Increase NSU
student customer
traffic through
The Branch.

Monday-Friday

Student Discount

NSU Students

N/A

Page 14

Media Strategy (Ways We Can Reach Our People w/

Paid Advertising)

Our media strategy will be a key component in the Competitive Analysis. This is because the
Town Branch does not do very well in their advertising categories. There are quite a few ways we
intend on reaching our people through advertising. One of the best ways for us to reach our
audience is more television advertising on commercials. Getting actual air time will give many more
impressions for a potential new audience. On top of that, we would like to use the college, NSU, as
an advertising strategy by using discounts and newletters through email form. One other form of
advertising we are looking into is billboards. Even though this is more old-fashioned, the town is
somewhat old-fashioned so it will be good for our target audience. With all of these advertising
strategies coupled together, our overall sales should possibly increase 25%, and hopefully we will
acquire a new target audience that we did not have prior, nor did we even reach out to before.

Page 15

Media Tactics (Description, Cost, Impressions &

Rationale)

To be more specific on our Media Strategies, the television advertising will be geared more
towards channels/stations that younger crowds are on, so that we can reach a new audience. We
also will be airing the commercial advertising during the months of August and September so that
we will potentially reach the incoming students at NSU. This will work great for our Media Plan due
to the fact that we want to offer a NSU Student Discount.
Billboards are also going to be one of our best forms of advertising to get the most impressions.
We will be placing billboards at the south end of town. We want to do this to increase impressions
due to potential customers driving up from Muskogee and Tulsa areas, along with new students and
their family. This will be less cost-effective than the rest, but will definitely reach the most people.
We also will be doing an email newsletter for The Branch. We will be sending it out to residents of
Tahlequah. Our plan to get email addresses is to work with the college, and then also add an extra
card with receipts in the restaurant to request emails if wanting to receive a newsletter.
Lastly, as mentioned above, we will be offering a student discount for anyone who can present a

valid NSU Student ID. The discount will be a 10% discount on food only, which will be enough to
increase student customer numbers, but it will not be much of a hit on the restaurant itself as an
expense or cost. This is because that the state sales tax is currently 8.517%, so all this discount does
is eliminate the tax off of the bill for the students. By increasing our sales with increased student
customers, along with the rest of our media plan, The Branch will still see an increase in overall
revenue.

Page 16

Two Types of Communication (Non-Paid Advertising)

Word of Mouth
o The cheapest and easiest free advertising is word of mouth for anyone. This technique would not
be difficult for us as a brand due to the local and frequent regular customers that go to The Branch
on a daily basis. By making sure that the staff and customers are communicating effectively and
telling the guests about specials that the restaurant might be having that week, guaranteeing their
return to spend money.

Social Media
o By actively participating in social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other outlets, The
Branch could raise sales by at least 50% and actively receive feedback from the community.
Possible social media techniques would be to set up a Facebook competition and offer a free dessert
or appetizer to every 500th like we get on The Branch Facebook page. Since The Branch also serves
as a music venue, also on the Facebook page, the restaurant could take a poll as to who the town of
Tahlequah would like to see perform there. By doing this, it gives the customers the option to
customize their experience and they are more likely to go to a restaurant and spend money if they
are also listening to a performer that they asked for.

Page 17

Annual Budget Breakdown

Media

Cost

Times

Goal

Billboards

$2800

One month long, twice

per year (January &
August)

By placing billboards at the

south end of Tahlequah in
January & August, we will
leave impressions on
incoming students and their
families, plus locals of
Tahlequah, and also visitors
from Muskogee & Tulsa.

TV Ads

$5000

Daily for two months,

twice per year
(January-February &
August-September)

By running by ads through

the listed months, we will
leave more impressions on
the local population of
Tahlequah, but also the new
students on campus through
local television. We also
intend on listing our new
student discount in the
commercial to grab the
viewers attention.

Student Discount

10% of Sales to
Students

Daily

By offering 10% off of food

items to NSU students, we are
hoping to increase our
audience with the student
population of Tahlequah as
we had not quite reached out
to them before

Newsletter

If we are out any

expense due to
the newsletter, it
would only be
for a program to
send out mass
emails.

Monthly

By sending out monthly

newsletters, we are hoping to
keep reminding our
customers of what specials we
will be running in upcoming
months, and to get more
impressions to keep guests
reminded of us as an option in
Tahlequah.

Page 18

Thank You!

Page 19