The University of Kansas Professional and Continuing Education Integrated Marketing Communications Workshop Series Marketing Communications Plan

Abstract

Currently, around 16 million American adults are enrolled in some sort of educational or training services program and that number continues to grow. In 2013, corporations spent on average 1,847 per employee and total annual spending was around 150 billion. Employers see value in investing in employees’ professional development and education. The University of Kansas School of Journalism’s Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) graduate program and the University of Kansas Professional and Continuing Education (KUPCE) department look to benefit from the development of a higher-level IMC continuing education workshop series. This advanced- series is geared toward professional business communicators and marketers in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The objective of this workshop is to give attendees a competitive advantage alongside networking, confidence, and education and skills local marketing and communications professionals’ desire in their career. Three students from the University of Kansas IMC graduate program worked with KUPCE to develop a marketing communications plan to assist with launching this new marketing and communications continuing education offering for Kansas City professionals. During a span of four months, the team conducted both primary and secondary research to support this marketing plan. The research provided insight into what KUPCE is doing right, and what it could do better. The team developed a two-phase implementation approach with recommendations to allow for the launch of a successful continuing education offering that targets Kansas City marketing and communications professionals. In addition, the marketing communications plan contains specific tactics, a timeline for execution, estimated budgets, and measurements to determine success and areas for improvement. The purpose of the research and this proposal is to answer the following questions: • Is a KU IMC Continuing and Professional Education workshop series viable? • Who is the audience and what does the audience want? • How should the workshop series be marketed?