Topics

The plan: marketing and people

Marketing

The marketing section answers: who is this for, what are we offering them, at what price, and how will they find out?

The customer

Name them specifically. "Residents of the retirement village who eat lunch in the communal dining room" is a customer; "the community" is not.
Say how you know they want it — a conversation with the coordinator, a short survey, the organisation's own request. This is where AS90846's market research skills transfer directly.

The product or service

What exactly is being produced, in what quantity, to what standard.
What makes it worth choosing over the alternative — including the alternative of doing nothing.

Price

State the price and justify it with the two figures that matter:
- the unit cost — what it costs you to produce one
- what the customer will actually pay
A price below unit cost means every sale increases your loss, which is a decision you can make deliberately (subsidised by fundraising or sponsorship) but must not make accidentally.
In a community activity, price is often a well-being decision: a price the community can afford may matter more than the surplus.

Promotion

How the customer will find out, in enough detail to be actioned: posters in the village foyer by Friday of week one, an item in the club newsletter, a notice at assembly, a stall at the market.
Match the channel to the customer. A social media campaign aimed at retirement village residents reaches their families, not them, which may still be useful — but say so deliberately.

Place / distribution

Where and when the customer gets it. For a community activity this is often the hardest logistics problem: access, transport, timing, and permission to be on site.

People

The people section answers: who does what, and what happens when someone cannot?

Roles

Assign every task to a named person, with a deadline.
The teaching guide encourages selecting tasks based on individual strengths and interests, and rotating leadership rather than fixing permanent roles — modern project teams work this way, and it gives more group members experience to write about.

Cover

Name a second person for every critical task. Absence is the most common disruption in a student activity, and it is entirely predictable.

Decision-making

State how decisions are made — who can decide alone, what needs the group, and how a disagreement is settled.
This is worth five minutes at the planning stage and saves an argument during cycle one.

Communication

How the group stays coordinated: a group chat, a weekly ten-minute stand-up, a shared task list.
How you communicate with the community organisation — one named contact person, so the organisation is not receiving messages from five students.

Skills and training

What anyone needs to be able to do before cycle one: food handling, cash handling, using the equipment, dealing with customers.
Do the training before cycle one, not during it.

Motivation and the group

Motivation is examinable in AS90847 and it applies here: a group whose members have chosen their tasks, can see the purpose, and are recognised for their contribution works differently from one where tasks were assigned arbitrarily.
Whanaungatanga is the practical concept for this section: the group's relationships, and the relationship with the community organisation, are what carry the activity through the difficult week.

The plan: marketing and people

Covers AS90848

Marketing

The marketing section answers: who is this for, what are we offering them, at what price, and how will they find out?

The customer

Name them specifically. "Residents of the retirement village who eat lunch in the communal dining room" is a customer; "the community" is not.
Say how you know they want it — a conversation with the coordinator, a short survey, the organisation's own request. This is where AS90846's market research skills transfer directly.

The product or service

What exactly is being produced, in what quantity, to what standard.
What makes it worth choosing over the alternative — including the alternative of doing nothing.

Price

State the price and justify it with the two figures that matter:
- the unit cost — what it costs you to produce one
- what the customer will actually pay
A price below unit cost means every sale increases your loss, which is a decision you can make deliberately (subsidised by fundraising or sponsorship) but must not make accidentally.
In a community activity, price is often a well-being decision: a price the community can afford may matter more than the surplus.

Promotion

How the customer will find out, in enough detail to be actioned: posters in the village foyer by Friday of week one, an item in the club newsletter, a notice at assembly, a stall at the market.
Match the channel to the customer. A social media campaign aimed at retirement village residents reaches their families, not them, which may still be useful — but say so deliberately.

Place / distribution

Where and when the customer gets it. For a community activity this is often the hardest logistics problem: access, transport, timing, and permission to be on site.

People

The people section answers: who does what, and what happens when someone cannot?

Roles

Assign every task to a named person, with a deadline.
The teaching guide encourages selecting tasks based on individual strengths and interests, and rotating leadership rather than fixing permanent roles — modern project teams work this way, and it gives more group members experience to write about.

Cover

Name a second person for every critical task. Absence is the most common disruption in a student activity, and it is entirely predictable.

Decision-making

State how decisions are made — who can decide alone, what needs the group, and how a disagreement is settled.
This is worth five minutes at the planning stage and saves an argument during cycle one.

Communication

How the group stays coordinated: a group chat, a weekly ten-minute stand-up, a shared task list.
How you communicate with the community organisation — one named contact person, so the organisation is not receiving messages from five students.

Skills and training

What anyone needs to be able to do before cycle one: food handling, cash handling, using the equipment, dealing with customers.
Do the training before cycle one, not during it.

Motivation and the group

Motivation is examinable in AS90847 and it applies here: a group whose members have chosen their tasks, can see the purpose, and are recognised for their contribution works differently from one where tasks were assigned arbitrarily.
Whanaungatanga is the practical concept for this section: the group's relationships, and the relationship with the community organisation, are what carry the activity through the difficult week.