Running head: PERSONAL FINANCIAL BUDGETING 1

Financial Budgeting

Tyler Campbell

Alec Bentson

Fernando Cortez

Sarah Kendall

Salt Lake Community College

Business Communication

27 February 2019

Lon Schiffbauer
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Financial Budgeting

College is expensive, yet a degree is becoming more and more mandatory as time goes

by. Salt Lake Community College is a good place to start if you aren’t sure which direction to

go. Even with that being said, college is still expensive. In this campaign, we will show incoming

college students that paying for school can be easier than expected.

Purpose

The purpose of our campaign is to provide personal financial management resources to

incoming, new Salt Lake Community College students. We will reach our target audience before

the beginning of the semester, at orientation, with a variety of channels such as flyers, face-to-

face, and on the Salt Lake Community College website. Why? To prepare students for the

financial stress of college.

Audience

Our Audience is incoming college students that are lost with all the information on how

to receive financial help to pay for school. These incoming college students are going to be

confused and perhaps frustrated because they haven't had experience applying for financial aid or

making a financial plan. All financial aid and financial tools are accessed online through the

community colleges website, but there is a wide range of students of all different ages

(FactBook, 2018). Computer literacy may be lacking with some students and so navigating the

financial aid page may be foreign to some.

Demographics

● According to the most recent demographic statistics provided by Salt Lake Community

College, there were 22,999 students enrolled during the 2017-2018 school year.

The median age for enrolled students was 23.

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Female to Male Ratio = 1.04:1

■ 1,052 Male, 732 Female

Student Distribution by Race/Ethnicity

■ 67.35% White Non-Hispanic

■ 18.42% Hispanic

■ 3.80% Asian

■ 2.91% More than one Race

■ 2.49% Unknown

■ 2.12% Black Non-Hispanic

■ 1.17% Pacific Islander

■ 0.97% Non-Resident Alien

■ 0.77% American Indian/Alaska

Average Annual Salary of College Students in Salt Lake City (ZipRecruiter, 2019)

■ Range $12,723-$54,192

■ Average $32,591 annually

Non-white population = 26.3%. This is the largest Non-white population of all the USHE

institutions.
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According to the Salt Lake Community College website, tuition for 2 Semesters is:

● Resident

● $3,468

● Non-Resident

● $11,010

Tuition for 2 years:

● Resident

○ $6,936

● Non-Resident

○ $22,020

Psychographics

Primary data was collected through email surveys on 100 former SLCC students. From the data

collected we were able to determine:

● All 100 participants worked full time to part time job while going to school because they

did not think they could afford not having a job while going to school.

● Only 4% stated they did a bi-weekly or monthly budget, while the remaining 96% stated

that they wanted to but just kept putting it off or did not start because they did not know

where to begin.

● 84% stated they signed up for student loans because they did not think they could pay for

it on their own.

● 87% stated they spent money loosely while attending school because of the thought of

making more money after attaining a degree.

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● 87% stated if they had easy access to simple budgeting tools that they would have used

them.

● 90% admitted to stress spending while attending school.

· $6,000 is what the majority of college students spend on basic living expenses each year

The main source of student’s income comes from

· 45% Parents

· 40% Jobs

· 15% Loans

Non-essential spending (students report spending their money in these seven areas. Multiple

selections were allowed)

· 99% Restaurants

· 76% Beauty

· 70% Fashion

· 60% Electronics

· 59% Live Music

· 57% Media

· 38% Gyms & Fitness

Context

Our target audience will be contacted during the Fall 2019 orientations and through the

Salt Lake Community College website.

According to First Year Experience (n.d.), orientation is a requirement here at Salt Lake

Community College, it comes with many benefits and will guide your transition to SLCC. You

will learn how to register for classes, be given information about our campuses and facilities, as
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well as being shown available services and resources. Orientation can be done in person or

online.

All first-time, first-year students must complete an orientation — that includes new

students, former-concurrent students, and early high school graduate students. Returning and

transfer students do not have to complete an orientation but can register earlier for classes if they

do so.

In person, orientation offers students a unique opportunity to connect with staff within

their area of study. Students will not only receive helpful information regarding major and career

exploration, but they will also acquire useful tips on what it takes to be a successful college

student. Students will also receive assistance with the course registration process (First Year

Experience, n.d.).

Online orientation is a free, 90-minute online session for international students who live

outside of our country; transfer students who are already familiar with college procedures but

want a refresher; School of Applied Technology (SAT) students who are pursuing a workforce

certificate; or students who cannot attend a face-to-face orientation at one of our campuses. (First

Year Experience, n.d.).

The Salt Lake Community College website offers a Future Students tab for new, and

incoming students. This tab includes a paying for college section where it shows tuition

comparisons for residents, non-residents, other institutions. You can also find a link to learn

more about SLCC Promise. The paying for college tab offers helpful information regarding

tuition, however, it lacks useful personal financial budgeting information to help you pay and

budget for college expenses. This is a great place to insert our campaign.
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Our campaign’s context goal is to reach new and incoming students at face-to-face

orientation times and on the SLCC website. We would include our personal financial budgeting

information under the paying for college tab. At orientation, we would set up a booth outside or

near the orientation room. Our booth will provide information regarding our personal financial

budgeting campaign. To reach online orientation we would provide a pop-up link to the paying

for college tab.

Audience Analysis

Our goal is to help and inform incoming Salt Lake Community College students on how

to manage their personal financial college expenses. Our target audience is new and incoming

students. Our demographics show a range of $12,723-$54,192 income levels for college students

in Salt Lake City. With a mean of $32,591 annually. Salt Lake Community College claims the

average tuition price to be $3,468 for residents and $11,010 for non-residents. According to these

statistics, tuition will account for 10.64% of your annual expenses if you attend college for 2

semesters as a resident. Tuition is a significant expense and proper financial budgeting is

required to have a less stressful, and more enjoyable college experience.

Our psychographics indicates lots of financial stress among students. 96% of former Salt

Lake Community college students surveyed, stated they wanted to construct a bi-weekly or

monthly budget, but kept putting it off because they did not know where, or how to begin.

The context of our campaign will be at orientation hours. During orientation hours we

will come in contact with our target audience and offer our campaign’s information. We agreed

on orientation because it is mandatory here at Salt Lake Community College and is done before
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the semester begins. Our information will also be available online, on the College’s website,

under the future student's tab on the main page, and under the paying for college section.

Messaging Goals

Think

● The message of our campaign is to inform and demonstrate to incoming college

students how to go through school affordable.

● Know how to properly budget their finances in order to finish out their degree

with little to no debt.

Feel

● By the end of our campaign, incoming students should feel confident that they

will be able to receive financial help throughout their college experience.

● Feel encouraged to continue their education at Salt Lake Community College.

● Feel less stress and anxiety about attending college.

● We want them to feel confident that a budgeting tool is worth their time and easy

to do.

Do

● Select a budgeting tool and use it in their everyday life.

● Seek financial resources offered by Salt Lake Community College.

● Keep track of where the individual's income is going and/or to where it could be

going i.e student debt, loans, tuition fees, etc.

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Key Messages

College can be more affordable and less stressful than you think. It is possible to get a

degree without going into major debt. A degree will help you in the long run financially, and

mentally so it is worth it. Our campaign will demonstrate how to accomplish all of these goals by

teaching and encouraging incoming students on how to be financially smart.

Channels/Media

For our campaign, we considered channels that would be most receptive to the average

age range that attends Salt Lake Community college. According to SLCC’s Factbook the median

age for enrolled students is 23 (2018).

● SLCC’s Website

○ The community colleges website is always going to be the greatest source

of information for incoming students looking for help with their financial

budgeting. We are going too put a lot of information here.

● Social Media

○ Social Media is ever becoming a greater source of information through

advertisement. We will make sure to put a good focus on Instagram and

Facebook while advertising our financial budgeting resources.

● Posters posted at local high schools and around SLCC campus

○ The greatest feeder to the community college is the surrounding high

schools. We will advertise to local high schools to convince them that

SLCC is the best and cheapest choice.

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Tactical Plan

Who? What? How? When?

Incoming college To provide and SLCC website, New student

students to Salt Lake inform students on posters, flyers, face- orientation before the
Community College. how to be financially to-face, Instagram. start of the semester.
minded throughout
the course of their
college experience.

Debrief

Together, we are proud of our final communications campaign. Our strategic

communications plan is very neat, clean and organized. We took the feedback given to us in the

initial submission and used it to revise and better our plan. What went well is that we took our

ideas and made them look real. With the posters and social media posts, they were

photoshopped, but it made it look real. Making it look real helped us see the campaign come to

life a little bit better. Something we could have worked better with was our time management,

we got a little stressed when it came closer to the final submission date. It felt as if we were

rushing to finish everything on time. When working on the posters, it was hard getting the right

color of blue. We learned how we can use our individual talents usefully in a business. Constant

communication is key when it comes to business communications.

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Works Cited

First-Year Experience. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2019, from

https://www.slcc.edu/fye/orientation/index.aspx

SLCC. (2018). Salt Lake Community College: Fact Book. Retrieved from

http://performance.slcc.edu/Factbook/test/B_student_demographics/index.html

Future Students. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2019, from

https://www.slcc.edu/future/index.aspx#paying-for-college

Purpose Retrieved March 14, 2019, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/02/25/student-loan-debt-statistics-2019

ZipRecruiter. (2019, April 1). College Students Annual Salary in Salt Lake City, UT. Retrieved

from https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/How-Much-Does-a-College-Students-Make-

a-Year-in-Salt-Lake-City,UT