SWOT+Analysis+&+Strategies

__**SWOT Analysis:**__

//Strengths// - Will attract many of students who are enrolled in the program to join - Easy to promote throughout UTM since it deals with a program offered in their school - Already credible and established program - Strong partnerships with companies willing to promote VCCA - Allows people to share and create ideas together - Allows prospective students collaborate with professors and people who are already in the field - Bringing people with strong and advanced learning in visual and digital communication together - Able to market ourselves to various forms of social and traditional media such as twitter

//Weaknesses// - Only available to students at Mississauga campus - Tailored mainly to students enrolled in VCC program only - Could be difficult to reach out to people to join outside of UofT - Deregulated program, students having to pay more money

//Opportunities// - Association that is focused on a growing field that is increasing with students each year - Many online marketing methods that can easily attract newcomers - Strong partnership with Astra Zeneca a company in alliance with UTM and supports many of the ICCT and Science programs - Able to attract newcomers by face to face promoting around campus - Promote our association through CCT lectures, have banners around campus, pubs, UTM radio and during school sports events - Further branch out to people outside of UTM and show others what the program and our association can offer for them - Members are able to promote our association through word of mouth throughout schools

//Threats// - People might consider online marketing and emails as spam - Might be hard to find our association in search engines when people look us up - Low funding might limit the amount on advertising - Competition from another programs might limit the amount of space to advertise around UTM

__**Strategies:**__ With the creation of VCCA our goal was to start an organization dedicated to the students who are enrolled in the UTM program of Visual Culture and Communication program. We did not however limit ourselves to targeting our marketing only to VCC students but also a broader array of people ranging from anyone who has an interest in visual communication to prospective newcomers. While, there are various methods we are going to market our association towards students already in the program such as promoting ourselves through lectures, posters around the campus, school newspaper, UTM radio station and the VCC website. We plan to spend a lot of our marketing outside the realm of VCC to get people outside of UTM to join and companies to continue to sponsor us. The way we plan on doing this is through online marketing, in which we intend to pull in a lot of new clients through the digital realm of advertising. Some of the ways we are doing this is through online banners and through relevant websites focused for student learning. The links would re-direct users onto our website where they would learn more about what the organization is about. Other methods of marketing is through emails that would inform people who we are, we plan on using Mailchimp to send emails throughout Utormail to inform students around UofT about our association. Additionally, we will utilize social media to further extend our marketing through Facebook, Twitter, online memes and online school blogs. We plan on rewarding people part of the association by featuring their work online on our website, as well as, showcase events hold at UTM’s Blackwood Gallery. We intend on making our website sticky which will get users to constantly come back to our web page. We plan on doing this is by having our tweets constantly updated on the side, artwork being added regularly by users and up to date internship positions available, this will further get users to constantly to stay hooked to our association in the incentive of being rewarded.

Since we have a strong sponsorship with Astra Zeneca a company that has close ties to UTM and the ICCIT and Science programs we are lucky enough to get noticed by a very highly acclaimed company. We plan on holding events at the AstraZeneca Canada Center for information and technological literacy where other people interested in our association and VCCA members can come together, talk and share their work. Lastly, we also plan on using logos and slogans to have our company embedded in people’s minds; we plan on using a simple and effective slogan “We live in a visual world.” This way we can see if we are successful or not would based on the amount of views, the turnouts, and the members who respond and eventually who join in to help and become part of our company.


 * Sponsorship:**