Julia Laimans 1

Scheels Media Plan Prepared by J. Laimans April 10, 2013

Hunters as a Target Group Scheels

Target Bullet-List Summary: Psychographics: Enjoys Hunting Safety for their families and general gun safety Cares about maintenance and upkeep of their weapons Owns hunting dogs Hotel locations/rates near hunting grounds

Demographics: Gender: Male Marital Status: Married Age Range: 45-64

Geographics: Metro Priority No. 1: Salt Lake City, Utah Metro Priority No. 2: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota Metro Priority No. 3: La Crosse-Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Client Description: Company Overview: Scheels was first founded in 1902 when Frederick A. Scheel sold his potato crop in favor of opening a hardware and general merchandise store in Sabin, Minnesota. In 1954 the store added sporting goods and in 1989 the Grand Forks, North

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Dakota, location was the first store to open with a 100 percent sporting goods inventory (Peisner). Scheels strives to be a retail location that serves as both a means for purchasing sporting goods, but also a place where families feel like they are welcome to shop there. This is demonstrated by their various attractions, such as bowling alleys, giant aquariums, Ferris wheel and Nascar simulators. They also provide dining services in certain locations, along with fudge and gelato shops. The attractions and the dining services lead Scheels to be a place where one could bring their family, shop around, go to the attractions, get a meal or treat, then continue shopping (Sports) At the moment there are 24 Scheels stores strategically placed around 10 Midwest and Western states. The company tends to open one store each year in a new location that is strategically placed so that it is the only location for that store for a 50-150 mile radius. This is important because it provides customers with an experience that is unique to Scheels. The company prides itself on having excellent customer service by hiring employees that are experts in the departments that they work in. If someone were to approach an employee in the gun department, that employee would be able to tell that person all about their department because they are experienced with the equipment there (Sports). Client Offerings: Scheels offers food and dining services in their stores, such as gelato shops, restaurants and fudge shops that aid in the desire to keep customers in the store rather than having them leave the store to get food. This provides the shoppers with an experience where they can stay in the store without having to leave to get food. They

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also offer a department for home dcor, tools that help train dogs and items to help beef up ones game room (Scheels) Something unique that Scheels offers are their tourism packages. In some areas that the Scheels stores are located, the stores serve as a big attraction for the area. Scheels teamed up with several hotels and offers tourism packages for the hotels in those areas that feature discounted hotel rates. These packages also come with gas cards, Scheels store gift cards, tokens for the Ferris wheel, and tokens for the simulators in the store, such as the gun range and Nascar simulators (Scheels). Something else that their stores offer that is unique is a gunsmithing team that is offered in almost all of its locations. This teams services include metal finishing, general rifle and shotgun repair, muzzle brakes, camo dips and to in general breathe life back into your firearm (Sports). My Target Audience Choice: Hunters Introduction: There are a variety of ways that a person can hunt; there is bow hunting, fishing, and the more traditional rifle methods of hunting. Along with these methods of hunting, there are also a variety of game that people can hunt, be it big, small, or migratory game. People that hunt require licenses that must be renewed and they must follow several rules and regulations, such as purchasing land permits and abiding by the hunting seasons that each state regulates (i.e. deer or pheasant season) (Special). Psychographic Elements of Hunters: Hunters primarily care about what kind of game they are permitted to hunt and when it is in season (Special). They also tend to care about what kind of weapon they are using, general upkeep of said weapon, but most of all hunters care about safety; be it safety while they are out hunting or the safety of their

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families. According to the 2010 National Shooting Sports Foundation article about hunting trends, hunters that hunt fowl game tend to own hunting dogs. Migration patterns of the desired game are also important to hunters because depending on what state they are in, the hunting seasons vary and can impact when they will be able to access their desired game. Hunters generally read hunting and game magazines (Number). Hunters also care about where they will be lodging on their hunting trips, so they pay attention to where their accommodations will be located while on their hunting expeditions (National). According to The Lifestyle Market Analyst 2007, hunters also enjoy going on a variety of other outdoor excursions including fishing, hiking, and camping. Demographic Elements of Hunters: According to The Lifestyle Market Analyst 2007, about 75 percent of hunters own their own homes. Hunters are commonly between the ages of 45-54, with the second highest age range being between 55 and 64 (National). According to the 2011 Hunters Census, 94 percent of hunters are white and tend to live in urban areas. Hunters can be married or single, but most hunters tend to be married with

children (Number). The average yearly income for hunters tends to be about $50,000. Through my research I have found that hunters are predominately male, with 89 percent of hunters being male and 11 percent female (National). How Target Aligns with Scheels Offerings: Scheels offers a wide variety of services that cater to the needs of hunters. The company provides hunters with a wide variety of guns and ammo, such as hunting rifles, airsoft guns, and BB guns, along with hunting bows and arrows that the hunters can choose from. With Scheels Gun Smithing team, hunters are able to go into the store and have their guns cleaned or repaired while

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shopping for other hunting equipment or goods for their families. This teams services include metal finishing, general rifle and shotgun repair, muzzle brakes, and camo dips. Since most hunters tend to have families, Scheels also provides a place where hunters can purchase gun safes, which provide a safe place for hunters to store their guns without worrying about their children stumbling upon them. Also with their Ferris wheel, fudge and gelato shops, families can try out some of the simulators like their shooting range simulator and Nascar simulator. This gives the parents a chance to have the kids be excited about visiting the store and with the shooting range simulator in particular, the kids can start to get interested in hunting as well. If someone has a hunting dog and they need to learn how to train it to hunt, Scheels has dummies and animal pheromones that someone can coat a dummy with and train the dog to be able to find it. They also have various animal calls, how-to books and DVDs, and gear for being camouflaged while hunting (Scheels.com). Geographic Choice Explanation: Metro Area Priority No. 1: Salt Lake City, UT Salt Lake City, Utah, is the top choice for an ad campaign launch for Scheels. To begin with Salt Lake City is located roughly 20 miles away from the Sandy Scheels location. This provides the 211,000 people, according to The Lifestyle Market Analyst, that are hunters a close place to purchase, repair, and maintain their chosen weapons for their desired game (Hunting/Shooting). The mix of big game, such as deer, moose, and elk, and large bird game, such as swans, geese, and duck, in the Salt Lake City area provide hunters with a wide variety of

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game to hunt, all of which require certain supplies, (ammo, scopes, camouflage), that can be easily accessed and purchased at the Sandy Scheels (Salt). Metro Area Priority No. 2: Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, is the second best choice because of its close proximity to not one, but two Scheels locations. The full service Saint Cloud location is within a 70 mile drive from the city, while the Eden Prairie Scheels is within 20 miles of the city and is exclusively a Clothing and Shoes location. This provides the 426,000 hunters in Minneapolis-St. Paul area with a place to purchase hunting apparel near their city and then proceed to hunt where they please (Hunting/Shooting). If hunters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region require having their weapons repaired or if they need to stock up on ammo or other supplies, they are welcome to go to the Saint Cloud location. If they are bow hunters and they go to the Saint Cloud area, they could participate in the Saint Cloud Archery Hunt, which is a deer hunt that has been created to help curve the rising deer population in the area (Welcome). Metro Area Priority No. 3: La Crosse-Eau Claire, WI La Crosse-Eau Claire, WI, is the third best choice because of the variety of game that one has access to in Wisconsin. According to the Lifestyle Market Analyst, the La Crosse-Eau Claire area has a little over 80,600 people that are hunting households (Hunting/Shooting). With a Scheels location located in Eau Claire, the residents have easy access to the Scheels store and all that it has to offer. With Wisconsins variety of offered hunting game, such as deer, bear, pheasant, turkey, and many others, this provides hunters with many different types of gear and ammo that is required to hunt their specified game (Wisconsin). Since Scheels is located on the western side of the state, this also offers hunters on the Minnesota/Wisconsin border an

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opportunity to shop at the Eau Claire location. It also provides a second location for Minneapolis-St. Paul hunters to purchase their gear from since the two cities are within 120 miles of each other. Scheels Media Plan: Introduction For this Media Plan, I approached it by focusing on newspaper, television, magazine, internet, and radio outlets as a way to advertise Scheels to my potential cities. My 25 media vehicles were strategically chosen to appeal to the psychographic, geographic, and demographic characteristics of hunters that I had researched. Media Type Priorities My top media choice for this campaign is to use radio. With two of my cities, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Salt Lake City, having between 200,000 and 450,000 hunters residing in and around said cities, I decided that radio would be the best way to reach out to all of the people. According to the psychographics listed in the Lifestyle Profiles from the Lifestyle Market Analyst, hunters enjoy listening to music and using electronics, as well as traveling places to go boating our camping (Lifestyle). Based off of this information, I deduced that between the travel from home and work as well as their recreational activities, radio would be an extremely effective way to reach out to hunters and potential hunters about Scheels and their many services that they offer. My second media choice for the campaign is to use magazines. I chose magazines that cover a variety of hunting topics, such as different methods of hunting and hunting dog information, that have high circulation rates among hunters. Magazines are specialized interest vehicles that people choose because they want to have the information in them. People desire

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them so much that they pay a subscription so that they can possess said information in the magazines. For that reason I believe that by putting ads for Scheels in the magazines, the target audience would be able to see the ads in a vehicle that they trust and then go to Scheels for their hunting needs. Specific Media Choices Magazines: American Hunter: I chose this magazine due to its high circulation and the variety of topics that the magazine covers, from methods of hunting to the types of different gear used in hunting expeditions. This magazine also has a website that people can go to for more information on subjects that the magazine directs them to. I chose to use the third cover of the magazine because it is one of the covers that is most visible to readers. I chose to do a four month campaign for this magazine because it is a monthly magazine and has the ability to reach the target audience every month of the campaign. Petersens Bowhunting: This magazine was chosen because it has a reasonable back cover rate for each ad, it has a website that is tied in with the magazine, and contrary to what the title might suggest, it writes about hunting methods other than bow hunting, which can appeal to a wide variety of hunters. I chose the back cover, or fourth cover, for this ad campaign because the back cover is the part of the magazine that gets the most views other than the front cover. There are only two times that I am running my campaign on this magazine due to the fact that the issues are for two months at a time. Gun Dog: This magazine was chosen because many hunters that hunt fowl or smaller game use hunting dogs according to psychographics of hunters from my research. The magazine goes over different training methods and other information on the proper ways

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to care for ones hunting dog. I decided to place the ads for this magazine on the inside pages of the magazine due to its cheap page prices, however I am only running the ad twice due to its low subscription rate. North American Hunter: This magazine was chose for its high subscription rate and variety of topics it covers in regards to hunting, from game to types of hunting equipment such as bows or guns. The inside pages were chosen due to the magazines high price point. North American White Tail: I chose this magazine to its specificity of dealing strictly with white tail deer hunting. I chose to do four insertions of the second cover due to the reasonable price point and the fact that white tail hunting is popular amongst my chosen cities. Successful Hunter: This magazine was chosen due to its reasonable price point and because the title suggests that if one were to read this magazine and apply the practices they see in the magazine, they will become a successful hunter. I only chose to run my ad twice in this magazine due to the fact that it is a bimonthly magazine and the only issues that I would be able to run are the Nov/Dec and Jan/Feb issues. Wisconsin Outdoor Journal: I chose this magazine due to the fact that it focuses specifically on the different types of game and hunting resources in Wisconsin. Since Minneapolis-St. Paul and La Crosse-Eau Claire are the two locations closest to/in Wisconsin, also helped with my decision to choose this magazine. I am only running three ads on the back cover due to the magazines low circulation rate.

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Newspapers: Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul): I chose this newspaper due to its popularity in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. I chose to run it on Mondays in the Sports section 10 times over the course of the four month campaign due to the price of running an ad during the week, as well as the fact that, according to The Lifestyle Market Analyst, hunters are very interested in sporting activities (Lifestyle). The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City): I chose this newspaper due to its popularity in the Salt Lake City area and its reasonable ad price. I chose to run it on Mondays in the Sports section 8 times over the course of the ad campaign. I chose to mainly focus on the end of November through the beginning of January since it is around the holidays and has the potential for gift card or equipment sales as gifts. Desert Morning News (Salt Lake City): This newspaper was chosen because it is the second most popular newspaper in the Salt Lake City area. I decided to run it on Sundays in the Sports section 8 times over the course of the ad campaign. I chose to mainly focus on the end of November through the beginning of January since it is around the holidays and has the potential for gift card or equipment sales as gifts. Leader-Telegram (Eau Claire): This newspaper was chosen because of its popularity in the Eau Claire-La Crosse area. I chose to run my ads on Sundays in the Sports 14 times due to its close proximity to one Scheels store and the nearness of another Scheels location in Minneapolis-St. Paul. I chose to mainly focus on the end of November through the beginning of January since it is around the holidays and has the potential for gift card or hunting equipment sales as gifts.

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Radio: Minneapolis-St. Paul KEEY: I chose this radio station due to its popularity in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and the fact that it is a Country station, which is a popular music type amongst Hunters. I decided to run this in both AM and PM day-parts due to the large market size and popularity in the area for a total of 350 insertions. La Crosse WCOW: This station was chosen due to its price for each ad and the market size of the La Crosse area. WCOW is a Country station and I decided to run 450 thirty second insertions during the AM day-part. Salt Lake City-KSOP: I chose this radio station due to its popularity in the Salt Lake City area and the fact that it is a Country station, which is a popular music genre amongst Hunters. I decided to run this in both AM and PM day-parts due to the large market size and popularity in the area for a total of 500 insertions. Television: Hunt Masters: I chose to run my ads during this show due to its specifically geared towards hunters. I am running my insertions in all three of my cities because this is a special interest show and an ad during a show that is specific to hunters can almost guarantee that hunters that watch it will see the ads for Scheels. There will be 60 insertions in Minneapolis-St. Paul and 160 split between La Crosse-Eau Claire and Salt Lake City for a grand total of 220 insertions. Hunt TV: I chose to run my ads during this show due to its specifically geared towards hunters. I am running my insertions in all three of my cities because this is a special interest show and by choosing to run an ad during a show that is specific to hunters can

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almost guarantee that hunters that watch it will see the ads for Scheels. There will be 100 insertions in Minneapolis-St. Paul, 80 insertions in Salt Lake City and 150 insertions in La Crosse-Eau Claire for a grand total of 330 insertions. Primos Truth About Hunting: I chose to run my ads during this show due to its specifically geared towards hunters. I am running my insertions in all three of my cities because this is a special interest show and an ad during a show that is specific to hunters can almost guarantee that hunters that watch it will see the ads for Scheels. There will be 200 insertions split between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Salt Lake City, with 80 insertions in La Crosse-Eau Claire for a grand total of 280 insertions. Websites: AmericanHunter.org: I chose this website because it is a tie in website to a magazine that I chose. I believe that if people buy or see the magazine they will go to the website to check out more, and that because it is so specific to hunters other hunters will go to it for hunting information even without the magazine. This website has information about different types of game, (white tail, turkeys, big game, water fowl), as well as the different types of equipment that hunter use and advice on how to use their equipment in the most efficient ways. I will run 1,800 impressions over the course of my four month campaign due to the number of hits that the website receives each month. Fieldandstream.com/blogs/whitetail-365: This website is extremely specific to the hunting of only white tail deer. White tail is an extremely popular game for hunters and as the website discusses, there are different methods that one can use to hunt white tail. I decided to run 3,800 insertions over the course of four months because the website has a high visitation rate and is very popular amongst white tail hunters.

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HuntingNet.com: This website covers a lot of different aspects of hunting from ways to care for your hunting dogs to articles on different kinds of game. This website is less popular than the white tail site, so I chose to only run 1,600 insertions over my four month ad campaign.

Bowhunting.com: I chose this website due to its specificity. This is a website that is strictly about bow hunting. Scheels has a large bow and arrow department in the store so an ad on this site would be able to potentially guide a large amount of bow hunters towards the Scheels website. However I did choose to run only run 600 insertions over the four month campaign due its unique view count being so much lower than my previous websites.

Weather.com: This website was chosen after I conducted many different searches for the top websites that hunters use. Weather conditions are extremely important to hunters because the type of weather can affect what type of ammo, gear, and where they would hunt for their desired game. Since this website has such a large number of unique visitors per month, I decided to run 4,000 insertions over the course of my campaign.

Outdoorlife.com: This site was chosen due to its ability to appeal to hunters by not only discussing a variety of types of game, but because it also has links to other activities that hunters enjoy, in this case fishing, and links to weather in different areas. Due to the wide spectrum of subjects that it covers, I decided to run 2,000 insertions on this website.

Huntingclub.com: I chose this site because it also has a magazine that ties into it, similar to the AmericanHunter.org website that I first listed. Something that I found to be particularly interesting is that there are different forums and message boards that members of the website and magazine can interact on as another means to spread

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information about products that they use or of the type of game they hunt. Since this website does have a magazine tie in that I am already hitting with my campaign, I decided to only run 700 insertions over the course of my campaign. Google Keywords: hunting gear, bow hunting, hunting dogs, hunting boots, white tail deer hunts: When I was searching for keywords to use on Google that would provide me with the optimum level of hits for this campaign, I first plugged in a couple of my chosen hunting websites. I then chose the keywords that had the highest amounts of daily clicks. For the course of my campaign, I am running 18,200 clicks due to the fact that Google will only charge Scheels when the website is clicked on the side of the Google pages. This is great because this way if all of the clicks are not used, Scheels wont be charged the full amount estimated for the cost per clicks. Media Plan Schedule I decided to run my campaign from the beginning of October to the end of January. My reasoning for this is that from October to January, there are a variety of hunting seasons that are running that can appeal to an equally large variety of hunters. Since Scheels has gear that is versatile and can be used for more than one hunting season, I believe that these months will be extremely effective for running my campaign. The other reason that I decided to run my campaign during these months is that it goes through the holiday season. Equipment can be expensive and as hunters go out and begin hunting, they could notice that they are running low on ammo or need a new kind of deer or duck call and could ask their loved ones to gift it for them for the holidays or the loved ones could gift

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their hunters with gift cards to Scheels so that they can choose what equipment to get for themselves. Justification of Money Spent I am recommending that for this campaign Scheels spends around $1.5 million. This will cover all 25 of the media vehicles that I have found to be the most optimum for the company. This is also under the $2 million budget, which means that if Scheels desires to run more ads, it is able to with a window wide enough that it would be able to without going over budget.

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Works Cited "Hunting/Shooting." The Lifestyle Market Analyst, 2007: A Reference Guide for Consumer Market Analysis. Des Plains, IL: SRDS, 2007. 842-45. Print "National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife." National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife. United States Census Bureau, 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/fhw11-nat.pdf>. "Number of U.S. Hunters Greater Than Expected." Nsff.com. National Shooting Sports Foundation, 2010. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://www.nssf.org/PDF/HuntingLicTrendsNatlRpt.pdf>. Peisner, Lynn. "SCHEELS: Conservative Company, Wild Ride." SCB - PRODUCTION. N.p., 31 May 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. "Salt Lake City Hunting & Fishing Guides." Salt Lake City Utah Hunting & Fishing Guides. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. <http://local.ksl.com/ut/salt-lake-city/hunting-fishingguides>. "Scheels." Scheels. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://www.scheels.com/shop/en/scheelscatalog> "Special Licenses & Permits." ERegulations.com. N.p., 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://www.eregulations.com/oklahoma/hunting/special-licenses-permits/> "Sports Insight March/April 2012." Sports Insight - Sports Insight March/April 2012. Sports Insight, Mar.-Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://digital.turn-page.com/i/59764/67>.

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"Welcome to an Engaged Community." St. Cloud, MN. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://www.ci.stcloud.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=395>. "Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources." Hunting Regulations. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/hunt/regulations.html>.