Marketing can be done in a variety of ways, and should be tailored to the specific communities you are trying to reach. Different groups may require different marketing strategies: consider literacy, language barriers, and the age of your target population when marketing your program. Teenagers, for example, may require a different messaging strategy than younger children. Messaging should always focus on the many benefits that summer meals programs have for communities and individual children (e.g., economic, health, academic achievement).
Spotlight on Alabama!
To spread the word about summer meals throughout the state, the Alabama Department of Education contracted with a design firm to develop and launch the “Break For A Plate” marketing campaign. Break for a Plate is a multimedia campaign with a website http://www.breakforaplate.com, logos, graphics, print advertisements, billboards, flyers, brochures, posters, and yard signs to raise awareness and enable sponsors to conduct outreach efforts to promote summer meal programs across the State of Alabama. All the materials are located on the website for free download. This marketing campaign produced dynamic results for summer meals, yielding huge increases in the numbers of sponsors and sites providing summer meals!
What worked to make Summer Meals a success?
- Ability to leverage community resources and
- State agency support.