Commercial Services Marketing & Communications Project Brief
We are looking for an experienced communicator to help us identify audiences and create opportunities to promote our services, increasing footfall and sales across all our areas of business.
While the team is full of ideas, we need help to pull these together from someone who understands the impact of different communication channels and has the headspace to create a clear actionable plan – that can be delivered on a small budget.
Background
The Commercial Services department at Queen Margaret University is tasked with driving income and value for the University, which in turn supports its academic vision and student experience.
Commercial Services activity within the University includes:
Catering
- Guthrie’s – A street food-style canteen
- The Nook – A barista-led coffee and deli offer
- Starbucks - 24hr self-serve
- Maggie’s – The Student Union café bar. Prioritising the student experience during Semesters 1 and 2, summer (May-September) provides an opportunity to grow income from community and staff customers.
Conferences & events
From small meeting space bookings through to 500+ residential conferences. Using our busy campus spaces for teaching is always the priority, so we need to work hard to maximise bookings around the academic timetable. Our customers are a mixture of QMU staff and external organisations.
Summer Business
- May and June – A focus on our conference business (in particular academic conferences), as well as working with international universities who may bring classes looking for extra credit.
- July – Little room for growth as we host a language school in July, where 650 international students live and learn on campus.
- August – Event and conference business, with an additional ‘Fringe Village’ with up to 500 performers living on campus.
Sports & Fitness
- Membership – Approximately 500 students, 250 public, 55 staff.
- Student Union Sports Clubs
- Studio and Sports Hall available for bookings.
Merchandise
A new income stream for the department with mainly on-line sales.
While some customer areas are very distinct and separate, many of our areas of business cross over and we share audiences.
- Students: Circa 5,000 with 800 living in accommodation on campus. Semesters run from September until the end of April.
- Staff: 500 staff members, of which up to half will be on site any given weekday.
- Community: We aspire to be a ‘campus without borders’ that aims to be a true asset to the local community. Musselburgh is on our doorstep and new housing is being built around the campus. Our grounds benefit from cycle routes and paths that are well used by walkers.
We are now looking for support from an experienced marketer and communicator who can help the team to understand their customer profiles, and promote the QMU commercial offer.
Key output of the project will be to create a comprehensive communication plan that can be followed by the team. This will include:
- Identifying stakeholders.
- Defining communication goals and strategies.
- Reviewing current communication channels, recommending improvements and determining channels for future use.
- Agreeing key messages, including tone of voice.
- Creating templates as appropriate e.g. Sports member newsletter.
- Establishing a communication schedule.
- Assigning communication responsibilities.
- Identifying key metrics and creating a reporting structure to measure impact.
- Recommendation for paid-for promotions (specifically for Sports membership and engagement).
Project fee: £4,000
Project timeline: Completion mid-July
Application: Please send an email to both Sarah Whigham and Rachel Athey outlining your experience and how you would go about the requirements to deliver the project outcomes.
Please also get in touch if you would like to discuss the project or have any questions about the Commercial Services team or Queen Margaret University.
Application deadline: Friday 3rd May 2024
Contact details:
Sarah Whigham
07970 710 934
Rachel Athey
07786 807 722
