Re: PR

[Matthew Somers <chak@hangar18.crinos.com>]

'ello,

I just thought my 2 cents in here and share the glorious eduaction
that Purdue bestowed upon me. :)

1. The name.  I know the name is steeped in tradition, but in all
   honesty, it doen't convey the club's purpose to the common
   person.  In fact, in my experience, it conveys that it is a
   club of dubious activities.  I have been the butt of many a
   joke at at least 3 seperate Purdue Administrative offices on
   several occasion.

   *shrug* It doesn't bother me, but from a PR standpoint, it
   may keep people away.

2. What is the club's market position?  That is, why should some
   one join Fantasy Club?  What makes the club stand out?

   In my opinion, the club greatest strength is the fact that it
   is a steady game that has an existing campaign that stetches
   back longer than the freshman will have been alive. 

   Another nice feature is the cadre of players.  Meet lotsa new
   people.  I dunno if it's true now, but back when I was in school,
   the Fantasy Club was "the largest role-playing organization on
   campus".  And we had GMs with "years of experience" -- a nice
   prospect to the guy that got to play once eveyr couple of
   months in high school (me).

3. What is the club's greatest weakness?  How do we spin it so that
   it is minimized?

   Once again, in my opinion, I think that the fact we only play AQ
   turned away about 1 in 4, perhaps 1 in 3 people when I manned
   the booth.  Don't get me wrong, I love the AQ system, but for a
   guy that's played AD&D all his life, that may be all he wants
   to play.

4. Advertise.  Take an ad in the Exponent, use the note-boards
   around campus, flyers inside of buildings and local restatrants,
   the dorms table cards, etc.  When I joined, I was a tag-along.
   I had no clue the Fantasy Club existed until I walked into the
   room.


Most this is probably common sense, but questions 2 and 3 could
use some discussion if you want to make a serious effort at a real
PR campaign.

Matt