MKTG 385: Consumer Behavior

Downtown Renaissance Final Project

Group 4
Sydney Austin, John McGrinder, Alex Ray, Brian Mollenkopf and Cole Martillotti
12/1/2021
 Market Analysis

Condition & Customers:

What is happening in the environment of JMU students?
Most freshmen do not have cars on campus making the ease of using amazon much more attractive.
Students value the small amount of free time they have which is why online shopping is more enticing
than in person shopping. Many college students also tend to be on a tight budget and since shopping
locally is usually more expensive students tend to shy away from that. Students are heavily influenced by
social media and opinion leaders. Call-to-actions and word of mouth seem to be the best way to attain
college students' attention.
Are the students learning more about certain brands?
College students are prioritizing the speed of food, convenience, and price. Therefore they are not
interested in learning about other brands that do not meet those ideals. For example, the price of a meal
from Chick-Fil-a is typically cheaper than a mom-and-pop shop in Downtown Harrisonburg.
Are students heavily influenced by social media ads and what they see there?
There is a mixed bag with people who see social media ads. Some people do not trust them due to not
knowing the brand, while others love the ease and simplicity of them. The results of a study showed that a
user's exposure to social media advertisements leads them to an attitude as well as behavior change in the
26-35 year age group. Moreover, results also revealed that male students are more affected by exposure to
social media ads than female students.
Do they shop more online?
College students are shopping online more than ever for a variety of reasons. One main reason is the ease
of shopping and the second is the lack of transportation to Downtown Harrisonburg.
How has the pandemic affected students' shopping experience both positively and negatively?
In the first 2 months of 2021, Adobe measured $121 billion in e-commerce spending. If this growth
continues we could expect to see $930 billion before the end of 2021. This seems to be negatively
affecting stores because students found it more accessible and affordable to do most of their shopping
online. 40% of consumers are expected to continue doing their shopping online post-pandemic.
Are they more concerned about social justice? Equity? Supporting local businesses?
52% of Gen Z consumers said they want the brands used by them to be involved in activism. About 30%
of Gen Z would pay a premium price for brands that support a cause they’re passionate about. Their
primary concerns are: opposing racial injustices (61%), supporting affordable healthcare (43%),
preventing climate change and supporting reproductive rights (35%), and supporting immigrants and
refugees (34%). (Horton), (Bryant)

Local businesses’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Strengths Weaknesses
Positive Personal Experiences Negative Personal Experiences
Personal Recommendations (Word of Mouth) Availability of stock
Customer care and emotional connectedness Time Effectiveness
No shipping costs Longer the shelf life larger the costs
Employees more committed job Risk of theft
Well known locally Negative financial impact caused by COVID-19

Opportunities Threats
Building strong and loyal personal relationships Increasing advances of digitalization
Product is in consumers’ hand directly after purchase Faster supply chains ensuring same day shipping and
Creating Online Presence delivery
Upgrading ERP and other CRM inventory systems AI used to recommend products due to Personal Data
Have face to face connections through events, flyers, Collection
and other local community interactions Big box retailers offer lower prices and can buy large
market data to better understand consumer behavior

Company
Who is Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance?
HDR was created to reactivate the downtown historic district as the economic and the social hub of
Harrisonburg. The community has volunteered over 100,000 hours to support HDR’s events, downtown
promotions, and beautification projects that attracted businesses, developers and commerce back into the
once-neglected streets and buildings (About hdr).
What will HDR capabilities be?
HDR has four impact strategies used to direct all organizational actions. These strategies include:
economy, design, events and story strategies. The economic strategy builds local economies by using our
intimate knowledge of the downtown ecosystem to connect people with funding, expertise, marketing
opportunities, promotions, and community. The design strategy designs urban spaces that connect and
uplift, making a stroll through downtown a memorable experience in itself. The event strategy brings
energy to downtown with community-building events, inviting ever-changing audiences to experience the
heart of our City. The story strategy amplifies the voices of downtown. HDR strives to tell a cohesive
story of vitality and community. They connect people to one another as much as we connect them to
downtown destinations, activities, and opportunities
Competition
What type of businesses are in the community?
● Yoga studios, Spas, Shops/boutiques, Breweries/cideries, Dance studios, Museums, Restaurants
(variety of cuisines), Thrift stores, Farmers market, Jewelers, Art studio, Sport shops, Hair studio,
Florist, Bookstores, and more!
 Current Strategy Analysis

Are they using different strategies to appeal to different segments? Could it be important?
Yes, they are using different strategies to appeal to different segments. The way they are doing
this is by how they relay the information to the desired segments and this is extremely important.
They use a variety of platforms to get information out about their deals and events going on. One
way they target college students and young adults is by having an active presence on Instagram,
where they promote events that are being held downtown and highlighting specific shops. This is
a very effective way to target this segment because of how much they use social media. Another
social media they use to relay information is Facebook, but this targets adults in the age range of
30-55, not college students. Facebook has shifted to become the primary social media for parents
and people in this age range. By having an active presence on this platform allows for them to
grab the attention of this segmentation. Other forms of advertising strategies that they have
include a youtube channel that is frequently updated with videos, buyer guides highlighting
specific stores during the holidays, and newsletters.
How is the company’s exposure?
The company’s exposure could be improved because the consumer can easily avoid exposure by
not following the HRD social media and/or never attending an HDR hosted event. One way to
surpass this selective exposure is through social media advertisements. The more HDR can
encourage event attendance the better their voluntary exposure will be.
Does the marketing mix grab attention?
The stimulus factors created by HDR are carried out very well. All the components for this factor
are demonstrated in their postcards, shopping guides, and videos. Areas where HDR could
improve are individual factors and situational factors. To improve individual factors HDR needs
to motivate students to shop downtown along with more product involvement around JMU
students. To improve situational factors HDR needs to team up with many businesses in the
community.
How could the marketing mix be interpreted by consumers?
HDR seems to use a lot of affective interpretation to catch consumers’ attention. This leads the
consumer to interpret Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance marketing efforts with a more
emotional lense. An example of these efforts is a Klines Dairy Bar post that showed downtown
struggling and explained how more people should be supporting more local businesses.

How is the marketing mix influencing memory and learning? Which learning strategies are
being used? What types of associations could it be creating?
Downtown Renaissance's Marketing Mix influences the consumers memory and learning by
utilizing different learning strategies to create a call-to-action and attempting to create positive
associations with downtown harrisonburg. Posting consistently on their social media pages
affects the customers short term memory as well as implements downtown Harrisonburg's
experiences, values, beliefs in order to engage the consumer and affect their decision making
process. Harrisonburg Renaissance is also trying to influence the consumers by attempting to
form new associations with the customers. Harrisonburg is often seen as ___ and changing the
consumer’s schemas is imperative to influencing the customer’s disposition about downtown
Harrisonburg. Further, the use of sales promotions, social sharing and event promotions will
incentivize customers to explore downtown Harrisonburg and form associations for the future.
Is the marketing mix related to any particular consumption motives? Do they help solve
any motivational conflict?
Some elements of the marketing mix are related to particular consumption motives. For example,
their youtube videos promote a lot of local businesses and events in the Harrisonburg area. They
consistently post features of some of the businesses in the area in order to let the consumers
know more about the store. This appeals to the consumers' need for belonging, as this builds a
sense of connection between the store owners and the user. They also try to showcase a lot of the
nicer areas of downtown Harrisonburg to appeal to the consumers safety needs, by trying to
convey that these areas are nice and safe (even though other areas are nowhere near as nice).
These could help solve motivational conflicts. For one example, if someone doesn’t like the
shops around them but wants to go shopping, then they are in an approach-avoidance situation.
Since they want to go shopping but have no knowledge of other shops that they may like, they
have multiple motivations driving their actions in separate directions. Downtown Renaissance
has helped solve this problem, by providing more information for the consumer they are more
likely to find a shop that fits their needs.
Are they appealing to any specific emotion? Is there a certain appeal that is commonly
used?
The main emotions they are appealing to is togetherness and friendliness. Downtown
Harrisonburg is nicknamed “The Friendly City” and Downtown Renaissance is clearly wanting
to glamorize and emphasize these values within the small business owners. The appeal is
commonly used, the words “friendly” and “together” and pictures and imagery of happy
residents and store owners with their arms around each other, or enjoying the activities of
Downtown Harrisonburg. Their “You Belong In Harrisonburg” campaign on youtube especially
highlights their emphasis to come experience for yourself the wonderful community and benefits
Downtown has to offer.
How might the marketing mix be influencing attitudes?

The marketing mix may be influencing attitudes through the way that they are trying to convey
and build a brand personality for downtown. To some students and other families in the area
Downtown may be associated with some homelessness, poor lighting at night, and majoritively a
bar scene. While downtown does like to showcase some of their bars as great activities for
getting community members together; the message their campaign sends to our team shows that
they are really attempting to brand themselves as a safe, warm, happy, and exciting city that has
so much to discover within. The bright colors and phrasing of their campaigns emit positive
emotions that can strongly influence a change in other not so fond Downtown conceptions or
misconceptions.

Are they appealing to any particular self-concepts? Any values?

Downtown Renaissance appeals to many self concepts through their influencing attitudes and
emotional appeal. As mentioned earlier, Downtown Renaissance is attempting to appeal to the
emotions of togetherness and friendliness. This could be used to appeal to particular self
concepts such as people who see themselves as extraverted, friendly, and who seek camaraderie.
The Downtown Renaissance can use multiple external influences in order to change the
consumers decision making processes and explore Downtown Harrisonburg. Also, The
Downtown Renaissance can use projective techniques to appeal to particular values. The
laddering technique will allow the company to suggest features, functional benefits, higher
benefits, emotional benefits and personal values and attract new customers.
 Focus Group
Description
We conducted two focus groups to determine JMU students’ current perceptions of
downtown Harrisonburg and what would make it more enticing to them. Each focus group
consisted of three males and two females and had a mix of transfer students in it. Our primary
objective is to improve student engagement with businesses in downtown Harrisonburg
(especially during the holiday season). We also wanted to determine ways to reposition the brand
image of Downtown Harrisonburg to be more friendly and welcoming, change the brand
personality to be more like-minded with a student perspective, increase the clarity of downtown
transportation and parking options, and increase awareness of shopping options downtown.
The first focus group was conducted on Tuesday, November 9th at Showker room 0215 at
8PM. The five participants included JMU students from varying grade levels (freshman,
sophomore, junior, senior, super senior). These students were from different areas along the East
Coast (including Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Washington D.C.). The second focus
group was conducted on Tuesday, November 16th at Showker room 0215 at 8PM. The five
participants include JMU students from the following grade levels: freshman, two sophomores,
junior, senior. These students hailed from areas such as Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and
Colorado.

Summary of Insights
We discovered lots of valuable insights through performing these focus groups. We found
that almost everyone we asked had never seen promotional material for downtown Harrisonburg.
Even though they prefer to shop in-store over online, they were still unaware of the ability to
shop at local stores online. The focus groups also mentioned how visiting downtown was limited
due to accessibility of public transportation and confusing signage regarding parking locations.
Overall, it seemed that students felt downtown Harrisonburg was very cluttered and difficult to
navigate. This highlighted a major gap between how students perceive the available options they
have downtown and the actual options available to them. Our focus groups also included lots of
suggestions for ways to improve the look and feel downtown. They suggested that we increase
accessibility by having a bus route that runs directly from Godwin Transit Center on campus to
Court Square. They felt that this quicker route would be more attractive to Freshman and others
living on campus who have busy schedules and limited access to personal vehicles. They also
suggested that increased signage describing ways to navigate through the abundance of one-way
roads would make navigation and parking easier to locate for those that choose to drive
themselves downtown. Our focus groups also suggested that downtown businesses attempt to
work with the university to include student deals or partner with the JMU Flex accounts to attract
more of the student population to the businesses downtown.
 Strategic Strengths and Weaknesses
Weaknesses
Through our focus group, market analysis, and strategy analysis, we found that
Downtown Harrisonburg has some considerable weaknesses, but that these weaknesses are only
a small gap away from playing on some of Downtown’s biggest strengths. One of the key
weaknesses was the disconnect between the students and the method of promotion and purchase
options that Downtown Harrisonburg offers. For many students, being efficient and effective
with time is an important factor when balancing classes and extracurriculars. While students may
want to engage with downtown restaurants or stores in-person, the inconvenience of driving from
off-campus locations or finding/paying for parking are very unattractive. This weakness is one
that is hard to resolve, but another weakness that can easily be resolved to increase the strength
of downtown businesses is the awareness of online store capability. With time being an important
criteria for students when making their purchasing decisions, many resort to online stores such as
Amazon, or other online retailers as found in our focus group. Yet in our focus group, there were
no students who knew about the online purchasing capabilities of downtown shops and stores.
Many students also when we presented the different promotional items, flyers, social media
pages, and deliverables were unable to recall any that were familiar or ones that they have
interacted with. One specific promotional item, the Downtown Harrisonburg Holiday Catalog,
when shown to our two focus groups received considerable negative feedback. The use of
catalogs in their eyes were tactics used before online and internet shopping, and the students did
not support the use or the effectiveness of the catalog. They instead suggested more modern
approaches to increasing product and service awareness.

Strengths
Now amidst these weaknesses there are many ways that the strengths we have identified
through our research highlight ways to build a stronger community of business for Downtown
Harrisonburg. First, through our research we identified that many students predominantly want to
get their shopping done online. This is a resource and strength that many Downtown
Harrisonburg stores have, we just need to make sure the students are aware of these purchasing
channels. Second, when we introduced the different promotional methods used in the past by
Downtown Harrisonburg to our focus group, there was strong positive feedback on their social
media, and general promotional styles (i.e. colors, fonts, graphics, photos, etc.). This is an
important aspect of raising students' awareness and gaining their attention to consider downtown
Harrisonburg in their purchasing decision. The next step necessary is to just present this
effectively styled communications in a more effective way. Finally, many students noted their
favorite parts of Downtown Harrisonburg being the food, restaurants, and other bars. The current
partnerships Downtown Renaissance has with these establishments are a strong and important
aspect that needs to be harped on in order to help connect students to smaller businesses that
need more support.
 Recommendations

Downtown Harrisonburg has many intriguing businesses and landmarks that will allure
College students to want to go downtown however, currently they are not doing a good enough
grabbing their attention. Throughout our course curriculum and listening to what our focus group
had to say, we have compiled a list of recommendations for Downtown Harrisonburg to
implement to increase student engagement. Some of our proposals include: better lighting
downtown, increased signage and more.
One of the top recommendations we have for Harrisonburg is to increase the lighting in
the downtown area. It was made prevalent during our focus groups that a lot of students did not
feel safe during the trips they made downtown due it being very dark. They voiced their concerns
about how they had to stay on alert constantly due to the minimal illumination around. Adding
better lighting will allow for people to come downtown because they will feel safer. They will
not have to worry if someone is hiding around the corner, because they can now see. It will also
allow for them to see the store fronts better.
Our next recommendation that we came up with is increasing the clarity, direction and
volume of signs. During our focus there were comments made on how confusing the Downtown
was to newcomers to the area. They were constantly having trouble understanding the one way
streets and being able to find parking. One way we would like to combat this is by adding more
signs in the area that will be able to grab the consumers attention while they are downtown. We
also would like to update the current signs that will relay information in a more clear and concise
way, to make the experience as easy as possible for the shoppers.
Even with increased signage, not all students are able to have a car due to university
requirements which leads us into our next recommendation. We want to implement a new bus
route that will make it easier for Freshman and students that live on campus currently to make it
downtown. At the moment there is a bus route, the only bus that takes students to common
shopping locations around Harrisonburg; however, this takes over an hour and a half to complete
one loop. Implementing a new bus route that only stops at Festival, Godwin Transit Center and
downtown will allow for students to access downtown much easier and also give them ease in
their mind that if they miss one bus they will not have to wait over 90 minutes for the next one.
Our last recommendation is centered around targeting freshmen on campus. Everyday
each freshman gets a care package in their dorm of papers for their room requirements and
promos from local businesses. We want to make a coupon book of deals from businesses located
downtown that students can scan on a QR code that would be in their “care package”. On this
QR code there would be a map to make it easier for students to navigate the area.
 Appendix 1: Outline of Focus Group
● What is their name, current year at JMU, and major(s)?
● Where do they shop in general?
● General shopping behavior (this includes services such as restaurants, too)
○ Do they shop downtown?
■ How often?
■ Where?
■ What do they like
■ What don’t they like?
■ In what context/what do they shop for downtown?
○ Have they shopped online from local stores before?
■ Are they aware that they can?
○ How do they feel about shopping in-store vs. online?
○ What brands are first that come to mind when they think of local Harrisonburg
business?
○ How many local stores do they recognize? How many have they shopped from?
● Holiday shopping
○ Who do you shop for on Holidays?
○ When do they start shopping?
○ How much do they spend?
○ Where do they shop from?
○ How do they decide what they are going to buy?
● Original Questions
○ What are your feelings towards travelling downtown and the options to park and
get down there?
○ What words come to mind when you hear “Downtown Harrisonburg”?
○ Explain downtown Harrisonburg as a person?
● Marketing strategy
○ Have they seen any ads promoting downtown shopping? Which one? What do
they remember? Did they like it? Not like?
○ Bring a few campaign materials to them and collect their reactions
○ Test out your own ideas with them
● Finalize by being honest
○ “We want you to shop more locally, what can we do for that?
 Appendix 2: Transcript of Focus Group
● What is their name, current year at JMU, and major(s)?
○ Enzo Escalante: Senior Transfer Student, Economics Major
○ Abby Sauro: Freshman, Marketing Major
○ Robert Melvin Snead III: Super Senior, Economics Major
○ David Shank, Management, Sophomore
○ Quinn Moore: Senior Transfer, Hospitality Major, Business Minor
● Where do they shop in general?
○ Enzo: Enjoys online shopping, amazon, online stores
○ Abby Sauro: Target, Valley Mall, Thrift stores,
○ Robert: online shopping for clothes, local restaurants for food
○ David- Malls, Thrift Shop
○ Quinn:
● General shopping behavior (this includes services such as restaurants, too)
○ Do they shop downtown?
■ How often?
● Enzo: Only a few times, 4-5 max since I’ve been at JMU
● Abby: Rarely, new to JMU campus
● Robert: Good amount, to visit the farmers market and restaurants
and food places
● David: Yes but only a few times a year
● Quinn: once every few weeks
■ Where?
● Enzo: Billy jacks, finnys, mostly only for food no goods, use uber
eats a lot, five guys, cuban run
● Abby Sauro: H&M, Pacsun, Plato’s Closet, Blacksheep Coffee
● Robert: Billy Jack’s, Rubies, Dukes, Mashita, Finny’s, Jack
Browns, Capital Ale
● David- The valley Mall, Dicks sporting goods, H&M
● Quinn: Jack Browns, Billy Jacks, Bella Luna
■ What do they like
● Enzo: Loves food, loves specialty restaurants, likes things quick
and efficient. I like the atmosphere, and when you can tell there is
history downtown, and not everything is shining, it’s a nice old
town.
● Abby: The aroma in some stores, environment, Small businesses
and coffee shops
● Robert: local place that feels unique and like people genuinely care
about the products [sold].
 ● David- He likes how close the businesses are to each other
downtown,
● Quinn: things are close in proximity, the shops are very unique
■ What don’t they like?
● Enzo: Hassle of going downtown with time
● Abby: Some people, One-way roads
● Robert: Infrastructure sucks. Finding parking is hard and the signs
make it very difficult to navigate.
● Quinn: not a lot of variety in terms of places to eat, need more
clothing stores
● David: He felt that it was too expensive for college students to go
to, and would not go there without his parents.
■ In what context/what do they shop for downtown?
● Enzo: Food mostly, never products, or goods
● Abby: Mainly restaurants
● Robert: Mainly food
● Quinn: food mainly
● David- food and restaurants
○ Have they shopped online from local stores before?
● Enzo: No
● Abby: No
● Robert: No
● Quinn: No
● David: No
■ Are they aware that they can?
● Enzo: I wasn’t aware of that
● Abby: Was not aware, never heard of it
● Robert: For restaurants yeah, but not aware of anything besides
that
● Quinn: restaurants yes, but did not think about shopping online for
local businesses
● David: he was not aware of this
○ How do they feel about shopping in-store vs. online?
● Enzo: Likes shopping online for the efficiency, especially due to
busy student schedule with classes and workload
● Abby: Prefers In-Store for trying on clothes and returns; likes
shopping online if purchasing goods like earrings or scarfs
● Robert: Shops around in person to find what he needs to buy online
since clothes are hard to get the right fit
 ● Quinn: convenience of online but like the experience of in person
shopping
● David- Prefers to shop in store if it has to deal with clothing, but
does not mind shopping around
○ What brands are first that come to mind when they think of local Harrisonburg
business?
● Enzo: Billy jacks comes to mind, but I don’t associate any stores to
downtown
● Abby: Belk and Cookout
● Robert: Billy Jacks, Jack Browns, Benny’s, Rubies, other bars and
restaurants
● Quinn: black sheep coffee, shirley’s popcorn, jimmy madisons,
ruby’s
● David: Dicks Sporting Goods
● Holiday shopping
○ Who do you shop for on Holidays?
● Enzo: Shop for my mom, dad, or sister
● Abby: Myself, Joined amazon accounts for family wishlists, get
family what they want
● Robert: Shops for family year round, during the holiday season he
mainly looks for himself because of all the deals
● David: Mainly his close family, mother and father
● Quinn: Parents, boyfriend, sister, dog, myself
○ When do they start shopping?
● Enzo: Procrastinates more than anything during the holidays,
doesn’t know what parents like, but wine usually does the trick
● Abby: Proactive, started now, want to get it out of the way
● Robert: Throughout the year just so he has something for them to
keep from stressing about it.
● David- Likes to procrastinate and save it for the week before
● Quinn: after thanksgiving
○ How much do they spend?
● Enzo: $1000 was the most I ever spent, try to get surprise gifts for
him, but money the money I used came from my dad
● Abby: $500 for many family members, expensive taste
● Robert: Spends his own money. Between $250-$300 on family
throughout the entire year, tries to make t sentimental
● David: 40-50 Dollars
● Quinn: $500-$1,000
○ Where do they shop from?
 ● Enzo: Online, amazon, but this year we got my dad tesla tequila,
but mostly online
● Abby: Amazon, name brand stores
● Robert: Wherever he goes on vacation or trips, mainly Lowes for
his Dad.
● David- Enjoys shopping online for his items
● Quinn: amazon, etsy
○ How do they decide what they are going to buy?
● Enzo: I don’t shop for myself, but money I save goes towards my
parents and sometimes my sister, and get a gift that shows
gratitude
● Abby: Typically buys from wishlist on amazon, shoes and clothes
● Robert: Off impulse; if he sees it he gets it
● David- His dad will typically point out things and make comments
on his gift, does not really get his brothers too much but gets
something nice for his mother.
● Quinn: emotional connection
● Original Questions
○ What are your feelings towards travelling downtown and the options to park and
get down there?
● Enzo: I don’t see myself there, mostly for drinking or end of the
week activities
● Abby: Hate downtown, roads, one ways, avoids it, freshman and
doesn't have a car, doesn't know where anything is
● Robert: Spends lots of time downtown because now he
understands the city a little more. It has more options to eat and
drink since he gets tired of the same food.
● David: Does not know what is downtown, looks alright, only 3-4
times there, only know about restaurants
● Quinn: parking sucks
○ What words come to mind when you hear “Downtown Harrisonburg”?
● Enzo: Ancient, relic, and monotone
● Abby: Stressful, unrealistic, terrifying
● Robert: Underdeveloped but certain parts are welcoming. Diamond
in the rough. There are good places and people, you fall in love
over time even though it smells bad.
● David: Unimpressive, boring
● Quinn: historic, ratchet, character, grimy
○ Explain downtown Harrisonburg as a person?
 ● Enzo: Communications major, can't get point across when telling a
story, not cookie cutter
● Abby: Sensitive, don't know what direction they are going in,
cluttered and unorganized
● Robert: Friend of yours that’s slightly annoying (always in your
ear), but is overall one of your good friends.
● David- Kinda attractive, Got places that have some points of
promise
● Quinn: old person because it is old on the outside with an
interesting story on the inside
● Marketing strategy
○ Have they seen any ads promoting downtown shopping? Which one? What do
they remember? Did they like it? Not like?
● Enzo: I saw a farmers market inquiry, other than that no
● Abby: Never, if so, it didn't make that big of an impact
● Robert: Yes. Mainly for restaurants or events (since they mess up
traffic)
● David: Seen restaurants being promoted, mostly by mail, and some
advertising, bennys pizza, never seen any event downtown
● Quinn: no
○ Bring a few campaign materials to them and collect their reactions
● Enzo: Never heard of DHR, Looks like an LL Bean catalog
(holiday catalog), College booklet vibes, It’s definitely for townies,
Cartoon aesthetic, Definitely not entertaining- would not go to
events, didn’t know prices and some were way to expensive, the
font is too hard to read it
● Abby: If the advertisements shown was a packet, too much clutter,
Outdated, after showing the video, makes high expectations and is
disappointed with actual downtown Harrisonburg, too much for the
drive, would want it to be more realistic. Doesn't know what she's
getting into, what they are doing after seeing advertisements
● Robert: Confused as to how it was dispersed, a website would’ve
been more effective. It would’ve been useful to showcase stores
with names because he didn’t recognize the places he saw.
● David: No one reads the catalogs, why is the first page orange,
holiday village is too expensive
● Quinn: shorten the holiday guides, make them more college
student friendly they were only kid friendly
○ Test out your own ideas with them
■ Coupon books
 ● Enzo: Make it digital
● Abby: As a freshman, too many fees, too far out of the way,
expensive
● Robert: Hard to put on the mappy because they don’t show ppl
around anymore. It would be good for freshmen because they get
to try different stuff. Delivery would be helpful because
transportation is difficult as a freshman
● David: Likes them a lot, put them on every freshman door, good
for parents too, two business coming together and give money to
an organization
● Quinn: good as long as rides are provided
■ Freshman rides
● Enzo: Have a direct shuttle go from godwin right to downtown.
What about issues with the bus not getting there on time or missing
it?
● Abby: More accessible, time constraints, bring a lot of business,
utilized who live downtown to want to get back to campus
● Robert: Thursday to Sunday would be best. As long as the
schedule is consistent it would work.
● David: thinks it would be an effective way to get students to go
● Quinn: goes well with coupon book
■ Social media accounts partnering with smaller other downtown shops
● Enzo: Have both come together and do 10% of proceeds you
would get people to go to both and show out more
● Abby: Taking flex could work as an alternative as better for budget
for college students
● Robert: Could present events and charities to get more of a
showout
● David- Thinks that it would be an effective way to have students
come downtown
● Quinn: this is a good idea and a good way to get awareness more to
students
● Finalize by being honest
○ “We want you to shop more locally, what can we do for that?
■ Enzo: Better signage downtown and sticky nugs on flex sounds great
■ Robert: Not enough places are open for students late, partner with flex
accounts, increase the amount of bars because it doesn’t feel like a college
town, make it easier to maneuver if you increase the signage to explain the
different ways to go, more lights and signs to increase modernity, do more
drink deals at bars to increase the student population (help increase feeling
 of safety since there would be more students around and late night food
places open)
■ Quinn: make it look more appealing and have more partnerships with a
variety of businesses
 References

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