DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... I'm at a loss, Dawgs

Quick background on me:
I worked for 16+ years in foodservice. I started as a dishwasher and eventually went on to be the Chef de Cuisine in a white tablecloth restaurant outside of Baltimore, MD.

When my daughter was born, we decided to move back home (100 hour weeks weren't conducive to family life).

We moved back to Steubenville, where I just worked in a local restaurant. I got the itch to be back in leadership, so I was hired as the Executive Sous Chef in a restaurant in Pittsburgh. Eventually, the drive and the knuckleheads we hired got the best of me.

I transitioned into education and worked at a local community college for 5 years.

An opportunity arose in Parkersburg, as they were starting a culinary arts program from ground up. I was hired on as the program director. We have had enrollment issues because the college has done no marketing of the program for the last three years.

Today, I had a meeting with the President and he informed me that if enrollment doesn't increase significantly, he will be pulling the plug on the program.

He might as well have kidnapped one of my kids.

My question to you, fellow Dawgs is: How should I proceed?
I am completely deflated and have lost all of my enthusiasm.

I could really use some honest advice from my anonymous online family.

Thanks, in adavance....

seems like you'd love to keep this program up.

Well here's my suggestion: Advertise yourself. it's free. and i'll help do it with you, and i'm sure other DT members might as well.

Get on FB, instagram, twitter, linkedn, Freakin myspace, and just start BLASTING the word out bro. hashtag absolutely everything.

let them know about your program, at what school, the tuition rate, and the credentials. it's gonna be huge. if the school won't do it, do it yourself.

#culinaryarts
#(name of school)
#your name
#(city name)
#(area code)

push it out there man.

I agree with Swish on his thoughts. But, I'll add in that you should probably consider starting to look for something else as well, just to cover your bases.

I'm not sure what culinary programs might exist in Pittsburgh, Columbus, or Cincy, but with both your hands on, and educational experiences, I suspect you'd be a very good candidate.

Or...what is your dream, and is it something you can start working on?

Strategies with him on how to improve enrollement.
Togther and with others layout the steps that should be pursued.

An attitude of blame, even if it is true, will get you booted when you are under the microscope.

It sounds like the lack of enrollment is what will get him booted...

WV, check out your rating on ratemyprofessor and other aggregates. You don't want a negative rating destroying your chance.

Couple of ideas from a PR hack..

Look for writers on the city beat. Pitch the program and its local uniqueness as a potential story.

Hit up the morning TV news shows and look for a spot- either inviting them to the school to witness students in action or yourself coming down to the studio to cook and talk about the program.

See if the school will throw a little support to you hitting career fairs.

Talk to local festivals and see if you can't swing some free food services using your students as cooks in exchange for sponsor advertising credit.

Like Swish suggested, use social media as an additional avenue to distribute the message. But remember- social media is just a tool. Its not a strategy unto itself. Think of what you want to be able to tell people and make sure that resonates in everything you say regardless of media outlet or avenue.

If you have a budget, find a small PR agency or an individual to run this stuff for you. It can take up a fair bit of time.

...and the lack of responsibility set forth to explain it. Even if it is not his responsibility, affirming that lack of responsibility to higher-ups buys a ticket out of whatever organization.

Its a legitimate point. If the director of the college doesn't acknowledge that a lack of marketing hurts enrollment and then, in fact, gets offended and wants to fire you for it- that's someone who should not be in charge.

Nothing wrong with pointing out a deficiency to your boss so long as you're equally able to provide a potential solution or three.

Great point. One caveat though... If your boss is like Jimmy Haslam, then your only hope is to become a "Ray-Ray" Farmer yes-man, along with all the front office middle-management business-side goons.

Gentlemen, thanks for the advice.
Here are some of the things that I have done to promote the program:
1.) Participated in over 100 community events in the last three years.
2.) Contacted the newspaper and local TV station, scoring a full front page article in the community section, interviews and a guest spot on the morning cooking show.
3.) Set up and run a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account where I post as frequently as I can.
4.) Teach a load of 21 hours per semester, the most allotted for faculty.
5.) Collaborated with other divisions to strength our worth to the institution.

This President was not the President when the program was developed. He started at the college this past January and has been splitting time between WV and MO.

Berea, I understand what you are saying about placing blame, but there are students on campus that literally have no idea we have a culinary program. My facility is located downtown, about 8 miles from the main campus. To me, that qualifies as a marketing issue, especially considering we have participated in several events on campus.

oh yea, you can make a cheap commercial with your iphone or something and throw it on all the social media sites, plus youtube.

anything counts.

You're doing the right things. So let's dive a little deeper...

Who is your real target audience? Is it high school kids? Adults looking for a meaningful career? People doing a career switch? Likely, its probably a mix...but if we can identify the audiences, we're better able to find communications mediums and tactics that will hit them.

Who is your competition? Are they doing better/worse than you? Taking a look at similar programs and what they are or aren;t doing might give some insight. Could also serve as a barometer on what success actually looks like and present a more realistic expectation for your President.

Why did current/ex students join the program? Understanding their motivations might help you see what points about the program you should be promoting. Quick survey can get you some good data to build off of.

Respectively disagree. Video is a great tool to communicate but having bad video is worse than having no video. If you're trying to present yourself as a viable, professional program, you don't want to push out poor quality amateur video.

If you want "guerilla" style video, take pictures or quick video of students doing something cool and using as social media content.

Do you have a website advertising your culinary program? A website with good SEO can bring in a lot of traffic. If someone Google's culinary schools in your area, your site needs to pop up.

good point.

I only said that cause that's what i did. got a few customers that came into the dealership and asked for me because of it. my homeboy couldn't keep the camera still to save his life.

Eve brings up a solid point so I looked you up.

I assume this is the webpage...

http://www.wvup.edu/academics/academic-d.../culinary-arts/

I'd definitely play with your content a bit here. While the cirriculum is laid out, it reads as a bit of a run-on bullet list. Take the stuff out that's a little less interesting and build out your more exciting bullet points a bit.

Also, why is it in the Science, Technology and Math section? I certainly wouldn't look for info on a culinary arts program in that section.

For you I think its a good tool because you're showcasing personality. A little cheese factor just makes you memorable!

true that. yea you're right. can't do that when trying to market a professional school.

I was waiting for the debate of "Is cooking an art or a science?"

Wow, Canada!! you probably have done more research than most interested in a culinary program. We have competition in Nelsonville,OH, about 45 minutes away from Parkerburg. We also have competition in Wheeling, WV (about 1.5 hours away) and Fairmont, WV (about 2 hours). The difference between mine and the others? They have all been around for 20+ years and had their struggles. I know. I worked for the one in Wheeling before accepting the position here.

Unfortunately, I have no control over the content on the official college page. Our marketing department control the content there. I do have control of the Facebook page, but don't have that much time to update it more frequently than I do thus far.

If you decide to look us up on Facebook, I'm the really attractive bald guy with CHEF tattooed on my knuckles.

Not sure if someone has mentioned this but one of the best ways to promote a product is offer free samples.

Is it possible to give a live presentation on how to cook something awesome at a local highschool /malls/parks ect.. so that you can show young people how its fun, easy, and can be a great career in cooking. The food will be like an icebreaker which could spark their interest.

First thing I'd ask myself if I were you is, if I want to stay. If the answer to that is yes, then figure out what you can do to bring enrollment up.

Swish said it very well. You need to take the bull by the horns and go forward.

But I suggest one more step before you start down that road. That is, get the Presidents agreement for a period of time and what's considered good enough enrollment stats to maintain the program.

In other words, tell him/her what your plan is, let him/her know it's going to take X number days, weeks months to achieve the goal he/she set.

If they agree to let you do that and agree to your timeline, then go forward.

If they tell you that you need to have 1000 students and you have a week to accomplish that task, then I think it's time to pack up and move on.

Again, swish is spot on but you need to find out what will keep the program alive in the eyes of your supervisor.

Some have mentioned updating the website, and that is really important.

Getting out the word in any way possible is important. When I managed for a national pizza chain, we took pizzas to radio stations, telethons, and such, and often got a mention. Some smaller radio stations may allow you to come on as a guest, and may even be willing to offer you a show if you push for it. Imagine that half hour show being used in your promotional materials for your classes: "Chef XYZ as heard on "The Chef" on 1234 AM".

You can also have your classes make food for all kinds of groups, and take it out to them as samples. I used to send my pizza drivers out with slices to the local ballparks in summer, along with menus and coupons. Imagine offering the next local school board meeting dinner .... or the city council meeting ...... or even for the actors in a play at the local high school. You would, obviously, need to get approval in advance, but getting your name (and that of your class) out to the public is what is important. Think of ways to get your name in front of your potential students.

Maybe ask your local grocery store if you can put flyers somewhere in your store. Maybe agree to buy your materials for your classes from them. Maybe agree to put their name on your class materials as a sponsor. Heck, maybe you could even get them to provide some of the food for your classes in exchange for a mention in the class materials. That could help cut your costs for the school.

Maybe it costs a little bit in food and time ..... but anything that creates goodwill and good word of mouth helps. The whole key is to get your name out to everyone you can, and to create as much good will as possible.

Pittsburgh has the Cordon Blu program which is a good school, and I believe Pittsburgh Technical Institute has a culinary program, you may want to check into those.

i live in weirton! were a skip away

1day, the Cordon Blue program closed a few years back. They lost their lease on the property and decided to just pack it in.

You all have given me some wonderful suggestions, but a lot of those I have already done. We've hosted Chamber after hours events, participated in fundraisers with various "neighbors" downtown and even help the local key club achieve their goal of $3000 for their fundraiser.

I spent two whole summers doing cooking demos twice a month at the farmer's market. There will always free samples.

My students and I have done everything that I think we could to promote what we do. I've put countless hours doing things to help boost enrollment.

Again, I appreciate the ideas and would love to get more suggestions. Something's bound to work!

I'd talk to your marketing department and ask them to liven up the copy a bit as well as see if you can place your information in a more logical landing ground.

Hell, while you're there, ask them to help you out. That should be what they're there for.

Given all that has been done, I'm not sure why you said the boss isn't committed to marketing the program. I'm not sure what else he could do.

The only thing I haven't seen you mention is going after the high schools to promote being a chef as a career.

I've read some of the thread but not all of it so if this was mentioned, disregard it.. but what about a competition? My wife loves those cooking challenge shows (she hates to cook but evidently loves to watch other people do it)... Could you do a competition for high school kids where first price is a one semester scholarship or is that too big of a prize?