Jeanna Eddleman
Fall 2024
Market Research
Research Problems Studied
To conduct our market research, we used two questions to guide our inquiry:
1. How familiar are students with CAPS and their work on campus?
2. What types of grief counselling services would students use/prefer if CAPS began offering grief resources?
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These questions are best answered in the form of a survey since they are dependent on the opinions of a specific student demographic at IU Indianapolis.
Market research assists students in making informed decisions in the final marketing plan
Research Instrument
A survey was created to understand students' perceptions of CAPS, mental health, and what grief counselling resources would be helpful.
Take the Google Form survey here!
https://forms.gle/SXXfGA1JT4Vtnwjd6
Part Two
Initial data was collected through a survey of seven Indiana University Indianapolis students all between the ages of 18-21. Six participants are female, one male. Of the six female participants, three are Hispanic, one is black/Ethiopian, one is African American, and the last is Indian. The male participant is African American.
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Three participants said that they struggle with mental health ‘sometimes’ while two said that they struggle with their mental health ‘often’ and two said ‘daily.’ About half of the participants had not dealt with loss before. On a scale from 1-5, three were interested in a grief support group at a level ‘3’ while three others were interested at the ‘4’ and ‘5’ level. Three respondents would be interested in a grief support group, while three others said that they would not be interested but would possibly refer the group to others. The majority of the participants expressed that helpful resources for grief support could be support communities or groups dedicated to grief support.
These results support a CAPS-sponsored grief support group. Mental health topics are becoming less stigmatized, promoting the usability of mental health resources. Moreover, this data demonstrates the power and healing nature of groups dedicated to grief support as most of the participants would find them helpful.
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Updated Marketing Plan: The objectives include increasing awareness for this service by creating and hanging flyers in highly frequented student spots including bathrooms, on-campus restaurants and coffee shops, libraries, dormitories, etc. These flyers will provide a brief overview of the service and a QR code to a website with more in-depth information and a social media page. The fliers will also make the service appealing by marketing it as a safe place for grieving students looking for community.
The social media and website will provide more details about when sessions are held and what students can expect to gain from them. They will also note calendar events like informational booth, freshman mixing events, and our annual mental health mixer. We will work hard to make sure we establish partnerships with administration to send out emails about this service, as well as being able to present at partner events. Lastly, a timeline will be created to develop marketing materials, launch campaigns, host workshops, gather feedback, and reassess our strategies to adapt based on engagement.