Exciting Week, Blog #5 (supposed to be)

Marketing and what I have actually learned

Yesterday marked an exciting day for the St. Michael's Chapter Student Veterans of America. For about 4 months I have been working on a project that will raise awareness of our presence while establishing a corner "market" within St. Michael's. I designed and organized for the Men's and Women's ice hockey teams to wear digital camouflage jerseys. Now St. Mikes has a long history with the U.S. Military, and their story just got deeper. My chapter here now finally has income to start with the retention of the veterans actively on campus. We have been working to get funding for the recruitment of more vet's to come to St. Mikes and get an education, but my purpose now is to establish the groundwork for future vets and current vets to have better retention.

The jerseys are pretty sweet.

I chose to have the colors be St. Mikes proud (not traditional military colors), but also reflect the military uniform. The American flag on the right shoulder and all of this was on hockey jerseys. I knew I wouldn't want people who haven't answered the call (joining the service) to wear traditional colors, and some of my fellow vet's felt the same.

Here is where the marketing came in. All of these jerseys were sold with a $20 markup. We needed to sell 45 out of 60 to make even on our investment. Basically we had the pressure of having to sell jerseys or be out even more money. Very fortunately about 30 of the jerseys were instantly bought by the players. We told them that were going to try to do the jerseys every couple of years, not every year. We didn't want to flood the market. We created more than a demand, we created a need because they won't be around. I had as you see in the photo people walking around wearing the jersey (even if they haven't been bought by that individual). I also positioned the table to where we were the very first thing you see when you enter into the arena. There were very brightly colored poster-boards with a main message, and a lot of subtle hints. The poster 

This was a 2 fold purpose; we needed to sell for us to carry out our future plans, and we tugged at a bit of patriotism to accomplish this.

This whole project ate so much of my time, because I didn't know what I was doing, nor what to expect. I even missed last weeks blog because of it!! NO! Now we have the goals met for this fundraiser, and we have prospects for the next 3. St. Mikes basketball wants to do it with us in the fall, lacrosse in the spring, and possibly soccer in the fall or spring! This is the backbone we needed to continue operations. Now that this part is settled I can focus my attention to the retention of our local veterans.