Campaign for Community Education & Engagement

BACKGROUNDBarnes & Noble Education, Inc operates bookstores in more than 750 U.S. colleges and universities. Barnes & Noble Education is a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. It was formerly a separate company, with Barnes & Noble chairman Leonard S. Riggio owning a controlling interest in the company. Barnes & Noble is headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.While there are currently 689 Barnes & Nobles stores nationwide (that number excluding the 674 college stores), the company’s retail CEO, Marshall Klipper, has stated that the company plans to close an average of 20 stores a year over the next ten years. The reasons for this downshift are varied, but can be attributed to the advent of online book retailers, chiefly Amazon, who rakes in $5.25 billion in annual revenue from book sales alone. While Barnes & Noble once faced the competition of similar book retailers like Borders and smaller independent bookstores, the ability and willingness for customers to buy books online has flourished, aided by discounts, deals, an extensive selection of genres and automatically generated recommendations. The other reason for the downshift in the brand’s popularity has been the proliferation of e-books. Calculating data on what percentage of book sales are e-books versus print books, as well as the total of e-book sales, is difficult because collected data on book sales is based on ISBN numbers. The unspecified majority of e-books are published by independent authors that are not

required to have ISBN numbers. Even without a precise number on e-book sales, GeekWire has suggested that e-books compose a third of all book sales. Even Barnes & Noble has acknowledged and adapted to e-book dominance with the development of their e-reader, the NOOK, and NOOK Books, their online platform for selling e-books.AUDIENCEThe target audience for this campaign is college students, ages 18-30, who consider themselves book lovers and engaged members of their communities. This audience has the highest likelihood to be heavy readers and purchasers of books (both print and digital), while at the same time being most feasibly engageable for our communication plan. As a younger audience, they present a risk in that their disposable income as a collective may be lower than older demographics. However, engaging younger audiences has the potential to build brand loyalty, and educated consumers are more likely to be in possession of - and willingness to spend - a higher disposable income. While Barnes & Noble operates almost 650 bookstores nationwide, Barnes & Noble Education has 736 campus bookstores that serve over 5.3 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities. The media used by this audience is primarily social media, followed by tradigital media. Use is constant, throughout the day, but primarily in the mornings (9-10a), peak afternoon hours (12-2p) and evenings after 6p. Combining event promotion with the audience’s social media use hours will maximize visibility and attendance without flooding their social media channels. OBJECTIVESThe primary drive of this communications plan will be to address Barnes & Noble’s profitability issues by transforming our retail locations into interactive gathering spots, and to maintain relevance by growing our brand equity. Our objectives, deadlined for evaluation at the end of one year: ● Increasing BN sales by 25% ● Increasing foot traffic by 30% ● Puting BN back into conversation / Leverage brand name

○ Increase Twitter followers by 50,000 ○ Crafting large-scale Facebook engagement

STAKEHOLDER RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Stakeholders were identified by considering relevant parties and who would be directly or indirectly affected, as well as how. They are placed in order of importance:● College students – In addition to being our target audience for this communication plan,

students are the primary consumer of books. A 2013 Pew Research Center study found that, of the 79 percent of adults that have read “at least one book in the past year,” 79 percent were in the 18-29 age group, 83 and 88% had “some college education or were college graduates (respectively). Additionally, 77% of book readers lived in urban areas.

● Local communities – Interactivity, for us, will mean community engagement. By making our retail locations less focused on retail sales and engaging the community by being a space for events, we can increase foot traffic, which will increase relevance and visibility, and likely increase sales. Although BN currently engages in community involvement, hiring community business development managers to do community outreach, organizing in-store events, working with local schools to promote literacy, sponsoring summer reading programs, hosting book fairs, these efforts have primarily targeted young children. We are open to the possibility of adapting the aforementioned initiatives for an older audience.

● College professors/faculty/administration – BN campus stores operate in conjunction with the school’s administration. It is necessary that we remain cognizant of each campuses’ administrative wishes and environment when implementing our own plan.

● Publishers – In addition to being a retailer, Barnes & Noble also is a publisher, the owner of SparkNotes and Sterling Publishing. In 2010, they launched PubIt! (later renamed NOOK Press), a platform that offers independent publishers and authors a lucrative way to digitally distribute their works through BN.com and the Barnes and Noble eBookstore. While BN has its own ability to publish and the means accrue material to publish, maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship with traditional publishers will be essential. It is unlikely publishers will provide discounts in the form of “marketing development funds” in the same manner Amazon.com receives. Both traditional and e-book publishers remain a valuable stakeholder group to be cognizant of as we implement our plan, particularly textbook publishers.

● Independent bookstores – These are competitors with BN on a print book front and on an audience front. According to the American Bookseller Association, the number of member independent bookstores has increased 27 percent in the last decade (1,651 in 2009 to 2,094 in 2014). They have been successful at selling books to a selective audience by building relationships with their local community and audience.

● Starbucks – In 1993, Starbucks partnered with BN, providing an in-house cafe within stores. Starbucks has a branding synonymous with reading, writing and as a gathering spot. A successful communication plan will involve leveraging Starbucks in a mutually beneficial manner.

● Authors – Authors are secondary stakeholders that are affected by our sales. Part of the

engagement aspect of our communication plan will be soliciting author readings and book signing at our stores. Similar to college professors and administrators, we must be constantly aware of how our plans might have a negative effect on authors.

● Musicians – In addition to being a book retailer, BN is a leading music retailer. Adele’s 25, which released on Nov. 20, is expected to be BN’s best-selling album in 2015.

● Multimedia suppliers – In addition to music retailing, BN sells audiobooks, e-books, movies and DVDs.

● Employees – Barnes and Noble Education has 5,300 employees. KEY MESSAGESOur primary competition has been the online marketplace, Amazon.com, and the primary technology that has been competing with our sales has been e-books and audiobooks. We’ve adapted in the past by building an online presence and the digital infrastructure to sell e-books and audiobooks, primarily through Barnes & Noble NOOK, our e-reader line. These actions have had mixed results, but are larger perceived as a flop.The key message for this communication plan will be based on the plan’s theme of interactivity: “We aren’t just a bookstore; we’re part of your community.”For a time, “interactive” meant digital, electronic and online, effectively being a euphemism and shorthand for “technologically engaging.” By shifting back to our roots as a bookstore, we’ll be able to innovate on a plain that Amazon cannot compete with, better serving the needs of our customers and stakeholders. An essential aspect of being “interactive” will be our allowing non-BN personnel and community leaders to lead in-store events, including the promotion of those events. By not advertising events as “Barnes & Noble’s ____,” we succeed in appearing less corporate and more community-oriented, while still maintaining the benefits of hosting the event. CHANNELS/MEDIA● Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) ● Traditional local media (news coverage of events, campus media) ● Trade magazines ● Book club newsletters

STRATEGIESOur strategies will primarily focus on increasing foot traffic in our target stores. In addition to this strategy being a behavioral objective that aligns with our communication objective (interact), our physical locations offer a key advantage over online retailers like Amazon, as well as independent bookstores that have smaller, less accessible real estate. It is necessary that our strategies are inclusive of our specific community and accessible for all persons, including people with disabilities and minority/underserved populations. ● Host special events to inspire local communities to get involved with their own Barnes &

Noble. ● Leverage existing relationships with corporate partners to reinforce brand identity, rather

than reinvent the wheel. ● Currently, Barnes and Noble Education does not have its own Twitter account separate

from the Barnes and Noble account. Because our branding will be different, it will be necessary to create our own separate Twitter account.

● By branding all of our tactical events on social media with uniform, creative hashtags to promote new initiatives, Barnes and Noble Education can flesh out its brand identity, successfully target specific audiences and directly answer inquiries from customers.

TACTICS

Tactics will differ per selected stores, building on capabilities provided by the campus environment. All of the following events and activities will be posted on media channels, with the relevant media advisories ● Bookstore-specific events like book signing and book sharing with Pulitzer Prize-winning

writers and authors. (In reference of Politics & Prose events). These events like often be campus-specific to best increase participation and attendance. Event managers will be encouraged tie these events in with campus events.

● Special workshops including book club meetings, language events and mom-and-kid events, flash-fiction contests. These workshops and events will similarly be campus-specific and event managers will be encouraged to recruit campus clubs to help manage and, if necessary and appropriate, fund these events. An added bonus of events like a flash-fiction contest is that they can generate future collaboration with BN for the individual.

● Forming partnerships with local community organizations or movements. For example, if a particular community has a strong art scene, tailoring the store to appeal to that genre, both in book selection, events and decor will encourage foot traffic and sales. Partnership extensions will also include events like NaNoWriMo (the international annual novel writing project), in which during the month of the event (November), participants can use our locations as a place to work on their novels, receive assistance from other participants, showcase their novel after finishing, and use our NOOK Press service to print and publish their novel as well. Further engagement can be formed by featuring participants at the end of the month on our social media and in-stores and encouraging the authors to do a reading.

● Periodical activities like monthly discounts or annual book fairs. These are in-place already in many stores, but lack uniqueness in application. By encouraging the target audience to select what genre or authors receive the monthly discount, or are featured in the book fair, we empower them and offer the audience a better selection of what they want.

● Creating Starbuck style bookstore with nap pods in the bookstore and charge students to take naps in a more comfortable setting on campus. Numerous research has boasted of the importance of naps and often campuses will not have suitable areas for commuter students to nap. Promotion of the nap pods can be done in conjunction with campus health groups and research on the dangers of drowsy driving.

● Live and local music nights. The musician stakeholder group can be activated, analyzed and employed here. These events will be focused on promoting small, local music groups, in the style of NPR Tiny Desk concerts. Campus culture will be important to consider in these events.

● Installation of kiosks where buyers could figure out “what they should read next,” then shows where those suggestions are located in-store. A large advantage consumers feel

when using Amazon or online retailers is the ability to receive recommendations for books while shopping. The digital infrastructure for our own recommendation system is roughly in-place, but is not tailored to an individual’s account/reading history; by adapting the digital infrastructure and constructing the physical kiosk, we’ll be able to successfully combat Amazon’s “advantage.”

● Create a landing page on the main BN website to house our videos, etc. The current landing page is unengaging and needs to highlight our original content.

TIMELINE OF ACTIVITIESJuly 2016 - July 2017By beginning at the start of the academic calendar, rather than the calendar year or fiscal calendar, we will be better able to measure our progress and move in synchronicity with the

academic year. IMPLEMENTATIONKey cities are determined by the presence of colleges, campus population, city population. Cities include:

● Syracuse, New York ○ Home to Syracuse University, Le Moyne College, SUNY College of

Environmental Science ○ Population: 145,000, ○ Student Population: 24,000

● Amherst, MA

○ Home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst

○ Population: 37,999 ○ Student population: 30,000

● Minneapolis, MN

○ University of Minnesota, Augsburg College ○ Population: 400,000 ○ Student population: 58,000

● Pittsburgh, PA

○ Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh ○ Population: 300,000 ○ Student population: 95,000

MEASUREMENTS & EVALUATION PLANAll objectives can be measured and evaluated by reviewing bookstore revenue and social media metrics analysis.Evaluations will be divided into financial and social: ● Financial evaluations will be made every three months for each target store to gauge the

relative outcomes (successes and failures) of the plan’s tactics. ● Social evaluations will be reviewed on a weekly basis, considering overall engagement,

mentions, views, and other relevant criteria.