Donors and Diners - Concept Papers

BOYSTOWN

Focus:
 

This will be an image video placed on Facebook that highlights the comprehensive continuum of care that is provided by Boys Town across the nation for at risk young men and women. By highlighting these extensive programs they can tell the story of how they not only help educate boys and girls, but they also provide a much needed alternative to the nation’s fragmented and overburdened child- and family-care system.

 The image piece will be used to educate current and prospective donors on the more comprehensive offerings from Boys Town that extend beyond (just) educating at risk youth. The key message will focus around the following:

“Right now, in communities throughout the country, hundreds of thousands of children are living in fear, seeking guidance and in desperate need of compassion. Powerful forces are also at work tearing at the fabric of our families. Wherever these children and families are hurting, Boys Town is helping” (www.boystown.org).

 Brand:

According to the Boys Town website, their mission is to reunite kids with their families, find foster homes for others, provide a Boys Town family for those with nowhere else to turn, and finally, help these youth in their own homes where they can remain together as families. Boys Town is so closely identified with Father Flanagan and the home in Nebraska that most of their donors are not aware of the other services they offer that go beyond this stage of life. They have a unique Integrated Continuum of Care^SM that is unique, but awareness seems to end at their intensive residential treatment centers. In addition to this aspect of their cause, the Integrated Continuum offers these additional levels of care:

§  Specialized Treatment Group Homes

§  Intervention and Assessment Services

§  Family Homes

§  Foster Family Services

§  In-Home Family Services

§  Community Support Services

Audience:

Boys Town is heavily supported and dependent on individual donations from Middle America. These grandmothers are 70+ years old, support multiple social causes, are active in their church and are mostly catholic. Their songbird is that they feel strongly in making a difference in the lives of young boys by providing a Christian based lifestyle and education that sets them on the right path in life.

They are traditional, nostalgic, and represent the silent generation’s values. These traditionalists grew up during lean times and are civic-minded and loyal to their country. Raised in a paternalistic environment, they were taught to respect authority and believe that philanthropy is important to leading a fulfilled life. While they are less technologically adept than younger generations, they are very active on Facebook. These grandmas have embraced the social network to stay in touch with their grandchildren and extended families, and spend a considerable amount of time on the network.  The chart below from emarketer shows the adoption rate of social networks by age:

 

Content Points:

• Boys Town’s Continuum of Care is unique and research based
• Children with serious emotional or behavioral problems receive care outside of the home.
• Family reunification is always the ultimate goal.
• Services for children at lower risk help families stay together through training, counseling and other measures available to any family.
• Boys Town is also committed to fundamental values such as safety, permanency and well-being; family engagement; and religion and faith.

LETTUCE ENTERTAIN YOU (LEYE)
 

Focus:

This will be a video that introduces diners and guests to Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE) as the company behind great dining concepts in Chicago, Minnesota, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., Arizona, Georgia, and California.  This image piece will be placed on identified dining and local entertainment sites in selected cities.  

Lettuce Entertain You provides a fine but no fuss dining experience for their guests where you can “impress without stress” (Minor, 2012). Their cadre of restaurants is a destination where family, friends, and associates can build memories, bonds or friendships.

Brand:

While LEYE is one of the most successful restaurant companies in the country, many consumers do not know who they are. Recognized across the industry as the most innovative and adventurous restaurateurs, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises began in 1971 when Rich Melman and Jerry Orzoff opened a Lincoln Park restaurant called R.J. Grunts.  The name, R.J. Grunts, combined their first initials with a word that described the noise made by a girlfriend of Jerry’s while she ate.   The restaurant was a true innovator in terms of the salad bar it offered.  Before Grunts, salad bars only offered a few kinds of greens and dressings.  Rich’s girlfriend, who later became his wife, suggested that the new company be named Lettuce Entertain You in honor of the Grunts’ salad bar.  The quirky character of the original joint is still evident today on its website. Over the years, these entrepreneurs opened new concepts with playful twists on themes such as Fritz That’s It, The Great Gritzbe’s Flying Food Show, Jonathan Livingston Seafood and Lawrence of Oregano.  Expanding beyond the fun and playful, they opened fine dining restaurant concepts including TRU, Mon Ami Gabi, and Osteria Via Stato. LEYE is now considered one of the most diverse restaurant operations in the U.S.

You may know Maggianos and love their home style Italian dining, or you may hang out at Wildfire for martinis and steaks – but the corporate name is mostly downplayed.  Since guests and frequent diners do not want to go to a “chain” restaurant and they want a unique neighborhood experience, LEYE has focused on the uniqueness of each restaurant concept and not promoted their corporate brand. However; there are a lot of consumers who appreciate good food and value but want to play it safe when it comes to white table dining, and knowing that they are at a LEYE restaurant removes all doubt.

Audience:

LEYE diners enjoy high disposable income, are adults 45+ who own their homes, are empty nesters and live in either urban cities or affluent suburbs. In the suburbs they tend to drive to the restaurants in destination mall locations and frequent the same establishments. In the cities they can be visitors, or they can live or work close by the restaurant where they can walk to dine.

Imagine that you are meeting your future daughter-in-law for the first time. She is arriving with your son in tow for the official “meet the parents” and you want the occasion to be special, but no fussy; intimate but comfortable; entertaining but memorable. Where do you go to ensure that this evening turns out just right? This scenario describes the audience’s songbird. These are boomers who enjoy the experience of dining out – not just eating out. These consumers are NOT adventurous foodies, but they are well healed and know good quality and good service. They want to know that when they dine out, they will have no surprises and no challenges on the menu and they can count on the experience to be predictable every time.

However; they also want to feel that they are having a special experience every time. For example, if you want to attend a PJ party New Year’s day, go to Mon Ami Gabi. Or if you want to learn how to Tango, visit National 27 on the weekends.

Content Points:

·         LEYE brings you unique concept restaurants that feel like one of a kind experiences

·         You can count on their quality food, service and style every time regardless of where you go

·         From steak and seafood to tapas, there is a restaurant for you with dependable quality and service

·         Considered one of the most innovative restaurateurs in the country, Rich Melman is continuing to re-invent the restaurant experience with new concepts

You will always feel like a local in your neighborhood but you will be transported around the world with menus that reflect the unique cuisines of unique cultures

3 films that tell a universal story of transformation

TITANIC

In the 1996 movie Titanic, James Cameron explores the clash of the classes in a world that is on the precipice of change. What is at stake is the maintenance of power and status quo in Britain. The movie takes place in 1912 in the period immediately prior to World War I when Britain is struggling with discrimination against the Irish and Catholics and the upper class are struggling to maintain their status quo against a coming social revolution.

The main character is Rose who is modeled after an actual passenger on the Titanic named Rose Dawson Calvert 1895-1996). In her life, Rose was a very optimistic individual, who felt constrained by the first-class life she was being pulled into by her family, her fiancé and society. While it seems in the film that Rose has it all, it is simply a veneer and she considers that the only solution is to commit suicide. It is through Rose’s eyes and story that we see the hope and desire for passion and love, the dreams and struggle of the lower classes for respect and equality, and the fears of the upper class to hold onto their power. All of these themes are played out through Rose’s personal journey as she goes from the rich girl in first class to a woman fighting for the life of the man she loves amidst the sinking of the ship.

Through the course of the film you see Rose transformed in multiple ways. The film begins by showing Rose as a frail and elderly woman, living with her dreams and sadness. She is a survivor, but a weak and feeble character. As the film goes back in time to the Titanic’s voyage, Rose emerges as a strong willed, spirited woman willing to fight for what she wants against society and insurmountable odds. She begins to see a broader world and experiences the transformative effect of true love.

Rose has great courage to act against the pressures of her family, her fiancé and society as a whole in pursuing her relationship with the lower class drifter Jack. While she feels stifled by her status, she has much to lose by shunning her privileged lifestyle. At the onset of the 20th century, society still maintained views about the separate, and indeed opposite, natures of men and women. These views became further exaggerated by the industrial revolution in defining mechanized labor (and its invention) as the province of men and the domestic responsibilities as the natural domain of women, men and women’s relationships to and with each other and society change.  As held true in the past, we see that in times of anxiety, such as the intense and rapid change industrialization brought, there is a resurgence in the enforcement and belief in classical, or traditional, gender roles (Radek, 2001).

CASABLANCA

Set in Casablanca in World War II, what is at stake in this movie is life itself, as well as loyalty, patriotism and friendship. With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point. But, not everybody could get to Lisbon directly, and so a tortuous, roundabout refugee trail sprang up and Casablanca became a hotbed of freedom fighters, Nazis, and desperate souls seeking freedom.

The central character is Rick Blaine, exiled American and former freedom fighter who runs the most popular nightspot in town. Blaine comes into the possession of two valuable letters of transit that allow him to escape. Rick represents the bravura of an American freedom fighter with a broken heart.

Rick begins the movie as a cynical and angry lone wolf, having trusted and been betrayed by a woman. As the movie progresses he is transformed into a selfless man who risks his life and makes the ultimate sacrifice for love and friendship.

Rick has many reasons not to act. He has been betrayed before by women and his countrymen, and he is being hounded by Nazis in a dangerous place. The easiest thing for him to do is to do nothing. The hardest thing for him to do is to forgive and to trust again.  

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

Set in 1916 in the Middle East, this film explores the complexities of identity and the struggle for freedom and sovereignty. What is at stake is the power of the British Empire set against the battle for sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. But to win their freedom, one man must convince disparate, powerful and independent Arab leaders to trust each other, a single man, and an ideal.

The central character is Thomas Edward Lawrence, a British loyalist and inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist.  Lawrence blazes his way to glory in the Arabian Desert in an effort to help the Arabs gain freedom while he attempts to rally them under the singular ideal of a greater kingdom, united under a single ideal.

How is the character transformed? The film is a romanticized version of the true story of Lawrence, and shows him being transformed from a rugged and cruelly detached individual, to an idealist with a desire to make a difference in the world. While he tries valiantly, bravely, and selflessly to change the attitudes of the Arab Sheiks, and to help them see the grander future of a united Middle East, the characters around him are not transformed. In the end he becomes a disillusioned and embittered man, whose dreams die tragically, as he does, in the sands of the desert. In reality, "Lawrence did not change the map of the Middle East — the spheres of influence had been drawn up secretly between Britain and France in 1916." (Lyden)

There are good reasons for the Arab tribesman and leaders not to act. Britain did not need another competitive power to British rule, and the Arabs had century old hostilities and distrust between them that would not easily be put aside in compromise. It would have been very easy for Lawrence not to act and to have abandoned such an effort which seemed doomed to fail from the beginning. In the end, the fact that he fights for this ideal against such odds of success makes him a tragic hero.