This marketing proposal is inspired by Margaret Cavendish’s The Convent of Pleasure, published in 1668. This proposal was completed by Emily Trahan, a student at Texas A&M University.

Critical Introduction

The 18th century was marked by authors striving to rectify societal wrongs through their publications. This can be seen by the emergence of women writers who utilized their platform to create an environment that shelters women from the scrutiny of men and the inequality saturated world around them. The inequality that women in the 18th century faced is still present in our world today. My proposal is to give women an oasis that allows them to not only be intellectuals but also as self-indulgent as they desire. Women are continuously kept under a microscope where all of their actions are picked apart and tediously criticized. Women are subject to having the value of their actions and choices being assessed by men in a way that restricts their agency. Women are afraid to make the choices that they are entitled to in order to reduce the amounts of negative response they receive. A modern-day example of this is clothing choices, women are constantly being reprimanded for wearing clothes that are too tight or too short but are also deemed prudes if they dress modestly. This issue of women being unfairly treated in society is what pushed me to create the proposal for a reimagined Convent of Pleasure.

I offer statistics I found in an online article entitled “7 Statistics About Women’s Equality in America That Show the Fight Is Far from Over.” This article details the inequality that women face at every level including: business, politics, socioeconomics, globally, financially, and physically. I also found that in 2016 women were 50.52% of the population (according to TradingEconomics). I posed the question that if women make up half of the world that we live in why are we content with the blatant inequality that is present? I intended to create a place that gave women the chance to be the amazing, strong, independent people that we are supposed to be.

My proposal consists of creating a resort style sanctuary where women of all ages could relax and find satisfaction within themselves. The intention of this resort is to help women find happiness and pleasure within themselves not elsewhere. Elizabeth’s Haven is a place where together women remind themselves and each other what their value truly is. I got my inspiration for this sanctuary from the Convent of Pleasure which included women feeling confident and beautiful in their own skin and being so in love with who they are that they took time out of their day to admire themselves. I intended to recreate this self-love and appreciation by including wellness amenities and boutiques. I also drew inspiration from A Serious Proposal to the Ladies in which a monastery was created as a way for women to focus on their intellectual endeavors without the distraction of men and what women do in order to appear pleasing to them. I intended on giving women a platform to grow and participate in intellectual activities such as painting classes, cultural appreciation classes, and guest lecturers.

I detail the perfect location to build Elizabeth’s Haven. This is a property that has been in my family for many years but has wonderful potential because of its proximity to highways and the airport while still maintaining a private feel. The creek and abundance of trees also add to the simplistic and reflective tone that is critical to the identity of Elizabeth’s Haven. The historic town near the property also lends itself to the quaint and removed feeling of the resort.

Next, I detail my target audience, the focus of this resort is to be a place for all women to come and have a refuge from the mundane and sometimes unrewarding world around them. Stating that this resort will be marketed to females of all ages would be unreasonable. You must be at least 18 to be able to rent a hotel room on your own. However, since this is not a typical hotel I decided to make the target audience women ages 20-60. Elizabeth’s Haven will offer amenities that put emphasis on wellness and health which will make it easy to market to women because health is not something that only certain ages are interested in. I also intentionally made the goal of the resort to keep introducing new guests and activities so that there will be a larger audience. For example, by introducing the idea of having gest lecturers it allows for new authors to attend and host meet ups and thus each time a new author has an event at the resort a new group of women will be marketed to. This plan increases profit and publicity.

I thought of how to market the convent of pleasure to a modern audience while still keeping the focus on Elizabeth’s Haven being a place that allows all women to come to terms with their own beauty. I wanted to be intentional about having tactics for marketing prior to opening and then a marketing strategy for a grand opening. In terms of marketing prior to opening I determined that women’s interest magazines were the best place to advertise. I looked up the most purchased/viewed women’s magazine to determine where I would publish. I chose 3 of the top 10 most viewed women’s interest magazines which was published on Cision. I wanted to have a range of age specific magazines so I chose to use both Cosmopolitan in order to get attention from younger audiences and The Oprah Magazine to reach older audiences. I also detailed how I would get publicity for the grand opening without spending excessive amounts of money. By having a group of influencers (those who are popular on snapchat, twitter, YouTube etc.…) stay for the weekend at a discounted rate and allow them to use their platform to share about the resort and its amenities.

Works Cited

1. Fielding, Sarah. “These Statistics Show How Far We Still Need To Go To Achieve Women’s Equality In America.” Bustle, Bustle, 25 Apr. 2018, http://www.bustle.com/p/7-statistics-about-womens-equality-in-america-that-show-the-fight-is-far-from-over-77336.
2. Shapka, Jennifer D., and Daniel P. Keating. “Effects of a Girls-Only Curriculum During Adolescence: Performance, Persistence, and Engagement in Mathematics and Science.”  American Educational Research Journal.  vol. 40, no. 4, 1 Jan. 2003, pp. 929–960.
3.  “Top 10 Women’s Interest Magazines.” Cision, 5 Apr. 2018, http://www.cision.com/us/2011/09/top-10-womens-interest-magazines/.
4. “United States – Population, Female (% of Total).” Haiti Exports | 2008-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast | News, tradingeconomics.com/united-states/population-female-percent-of-total-wb-data.html.

Copyright 2018 Emily Trahan