A Strategic Public Relations Proposal for

Ann-Marie Adams, Director, Lab16Department of Strategic CommunicationRoy H. Park School of CommunicationsIthaca College, 950 Danby RoadIthaca, New York 14850 November 14, 2016 Mr. George JohannAngry Mom Records 115 E. State StreetIthaca, New York 14850 RE: LAB16 Strategic Public Relations Proposal Dear George, It is my pleasure to endorse the effort by the student-run public relations agency Lab16 in developing this strategic proposal for your review and potential implementation in enhancing the brand for Angry Mom Records and build-ing a stronger online presence of the company. The content of this document is intended to inform, educate and guide Angry Mom Records in making future deci-sions that will directly benefit the awareness initiatives of your store. The strategic consulting experience of Lab16’s 17 staff members created a transformational learning environment for the students enrolled in this senior capstone course. It also provided each student with a rich learning opportu-nity to integrate theory with practice while making real-time strategic communication decisions. Your agreement to bring the Angry Mom Records forward as a client in simulation ensures that these students have the requisite knowledge and skills to enter the workforce upon graduation. Please feel free to contact me via email at aadams4@ithaca.edu or cellular telephone at 843.321.0430 should you need any additional information pertaining to this proposal or the work of Lab16. I will be in touch in the next sev-en days via email to solicit your participation in a short survey of your “client” experience. Thank you for placing your confidence in the professional skillsets of these remarkable young people. Sincerely,

Ann-Marie Adams, CEO/DirectorAdjunct Professor, IC STCM440 PRLAB “Lab16

Executive Summary

Angry Mom Records was invited to participate as a client in the Department of Strategic Communications’ Public Relations Lab “Lab16” during the 2016 Fall semester. Lab16 is a senior capstone course of the Roy H. Park School of Communications designed to operate as a real world public relations agency to enhance learning in an experiential setting.Two staff members were tasked to design and develop strategic initiatives that work to gain awareness by addressing the brand image and social media presence of Angry Mom Records. As such, the agency has designed a campaign to engage outreach efforts to the Cornell Uni-versity and Ithaca College student population and establish the company’s brand formation. We believe that Angry Mom Records currently lacks a clear brand awareness strategy and that a strategic branding campaign is necessary for its short-term success and, ultimately, to increase its customer draw. Angry Mom Records must utilize the resources of Downtown Ithaca and the two major educational institutions to draw more awareness and traffic to the store. The company must also sustain the proper branding efforts to maintain a positive im-age on digital platforms. The strategic initiatives suggested in this proposal will allow Angry Mom Records to increase their store awareness online and offline to the large population of students that live in Ithaca, New York. Angry Mom Records is a small record shop located in the basement of the Autumn Leaves Bookstore in the Ithaca Commons that sells everything from vinyl records to CDs to tapes,

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Table of Contents

Situational Analysis...................................................................................................................................6

SWOT Analysis..........................................................................................................................................8

Competitor Analysis.................................................................................................................................10

Target Audiences.......................................................................................................................................12

Objectives & Key Messages......................................................................................................................13

Objective One Strategies & Tactics.........................................................................................................15

Objective Two Strategies & Tactics.........................................................................................................18

Measurement & Evalutation....................................................................................................................19

Timetable...................................................................................................................................................22

Estimated Fees..........................................................................................................................................24

About the Agency.....................................................................................................................................25

Appendix Appendix A/B..............................................................................................................................26 Appendix C/D..............................................................................................................................27 Appendix E...................................................................................................................................28

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Situational Analysis

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Angry Mom Records is a small record shop located in the basement of the Autumn Leaves Bookstore in the Ithaca Commons that sells everything from vinyl records to CDs to tapes, and other miscellaneous music items. Along with selling these items, they participate in a buyback program to buy and/or purchase any old CDs, vinyls, or tapes. The shop was founded in 2009 by George Johann and his partner, Lee and their vision became a reality in 2010. In addition to selling records and CDs, Angry Mom Records owns their own record label, which primarily focuses on producing reissues and albums for local bands.

Angry Mom Records Mission Statement:Currently, Angry Mom Records does not have a mission statement publically recognized, but with the creation of an online website, the mission statement will be developed. Lab16 has developed several key messages listed later in the proposal that should be incorporated when creating the mission statement of Angry Mom Records.

Angry Mom Records Staffing:The primary staffing of Angry Mom Records includes founder George Johann and his partner Lee. There are two other full time staff members who work at Angry Mom Records. George is solely in charge of the the record label.

Website:Because Angry Mom Records is a small local store, they currently do not have a website. They are in the process of creating a website, but currently their “website” is their Facebook page, which has limited information and is not used to its full potential. There is also an Ebay store that Angry Mom Records uses to sell their records.

The Comeback of Vinyl Records:Vinyl records have been on the rise. According to a Forbes article, vinyl record sales have increased 260% since 2009. Because vinyl is such a big current trend, it is important to capitalize on that trend because it really has the ability to aid the business at Angry Mom Records. If you take a look at APPENDIX A, Amazon created an infographic about the primary genres of music that were being purchased on vinyl from 2004 to 2014. Inter-estingly enough, both graphics look similar. This shows that the genre interest in vinyl stays pretty consistent, especially with this new comeback. A Time Magazine article released in January 2015 states that vinyl is on the rise again is because of the high quality sound the records give. The sound of the vinyl creates a warmer and clearer sound than what is being produced online today. In the article, CEO of Digital7 Simon Cole said that the physicality of the record draws people in, especially placing a record on a turntable and placing the needle on the record. Cole thinks this is important because it’s exposing a new generation what it’s like to play a piece of music. (For a complete link to the article visit APPENDIX F)

Events:Angry Mom Records participates in a few major events throughout the year. The first one is the national event “Record Store Day” which occurs every April. Besides Record Store day, Black Friday is another huge day where sales largely increase. Another event that the store pushes is their Record Fair. The last one occurred on the after-noon of Saturday, November 5.

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SWOT ANALYSIS

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• Only record store in town.• Offer a buy/sell program in the shop. • Sell every genre of music.• Word of mouth is key to their business

through the usage of stickers.• Biggest audience is from Ithaca

College.• Lower prices than big music retailers.• Records have high quality & excep-

tional sound.

• Music streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple, and Tidal are more popular than ever and dominating the music industry.

• Online music resources such as iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, etc are increasing as less people go into stores to buy music.

• Urban Outfitters sells more modern records.

• Competitors offer similar or the same products.

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

• No clear indication of where the store is located.

• No website for consumers to learn more about the shop.

• Social media is not being utilized in the most efficient way.

• There is an eBay store, but it is not directly connected to anything of their own brand.

• Vinyl records are now a returning trend.

• The basement location of Angry Mom Records is very unique.

• There’s a huge network of students at Cornell University & Ithaca College.

• Offering online sales might draw more people to come into the store or just buy online.

• Affiliate relations with related businesses in the local area.

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CompetitorAnalysis

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Local Competitors Urban Outfitters:Urban Outfitters is a multinational clothing corporation, operating in 12 countries. Although it's inventory mainly consists of women's and men's apparel, the company also has a large section dedicated in their stores for vinyl and turntables. Their target audience is men and women ages 18-28. Store merchandise, including their large collection of vinyl, is also sold directly to consumers online through their website. They sell around 100 titles, from rare, vintage vinyl to new releases. Their local Ithaca store has 82 likes on Facebook. Barnes & Noble:Barnes & Noble is the largest retail bookseller in the United States. Operating in all 50 states, the company runs 640 retail stores across the nation. Store products include books, DVDs, games, music, magazines, and newspapers. Barnes & Noble carries a large selection of vinyl in their stores and online. On their website, the vinyl selection is divided by genre, price, customer favorites, and special collec-tions. Since they are a large national corporation, they do not have social media handles for their local stores. The store also houses the biggest, broadest, and most diverse collection of music compared to all competitors.

National Amoeba Music:Amoeba Music is the world’s largest independent record store chain with stores located in Berkeley, San Francisco and Hollywood, Los Angeles. Each store contains around 100,000 CDs and vinyl records. Similar to Angry Mom Records, the stores sell both new and used records and buy and trade records. Their online store offers free domestic shipping, along with new and used vinyl, DVDs, posters, books, merchandise, and CDs. The Hollywood location also hosts in-store live music performances weekly.They have 209,000 followers on Twitter and over 66,600 likes on Facebook. Amazon:Amazon is the biggest vinyl seller. The website gives consumers the option to pre-order popular music, and purchase a variety of vinyl ranging from new releases to best-selling. The selection of records on their website is organized by price point, genre, vinyl format, artist, edition, and more. (See APPENDIX B for more statistics about competitors)

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TargetAudiences

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From the research conducted and what we learned from Angry Mom Records, we found that there are two major segments that make up the customer identity at Angry Mom Records. Below we have highlighted both those segments.

College Students: The primary target audience that will be focused on are Ithaca College and Cornell University students. Within the city of Ithaca, the residents represent a population of about 30,000 inhabitants. When students are added to the mix, they contribute an additional 31,000 people to the population with about 20,000 coming from Cornell, 6,500 coming from Ithaca College and 3,000 at Tompkins County Community College (View APPENDIX C). Between the months of August and May, there is double the population in the city. This means that half of the population during these months are primarily college students ranging from the ages of 18-24. One of the primary focuses in this proposal is to work on increasing the awareness of the Angry Mom Records brand to Cornell University students. The biggest issue with Cornell is that there needs to be a mode of transportation to get students down to the store. There is the TCAT (spell out reference with acronym in parenthesis) to transport people downtown but besides that, a car is going to be necessary for travel purposes. We conducted a small survey with students at Cornell through Google Forms across social media chan-nels during the first week of October. Out of the thirty-nine responses that we received, 59% of respondents have not heard of Angry Mom Records. From the pool of respondents who have heard of Angry Mom Records, 81.3% of them knew where the store was located. Even though majority of the respondents did not really have an interest in buying or selling CDs and records, about 53.8% of the respondents would be more interested in the store if there was more awareness and promotion surrounding it (see APPENDIX D).

Ithaca Community: The secondary target market for Angry Mom Records would be the Ithaca Community. Looking back at the chart of how the population of Ithaca is divided up, there is still about 30,000 permanent residents. Ithaca is known to be a very artistic community and there are a lot of people in the town of Ithaca that are interested in and passionate about the arts. Just within the downtown area, there are several venues where performances take place all throughout the year. Besides the concert halls on Cornell University and Ithaca College’s campuses, there is the Community School for Music and Art, The Hangar Theatre, The Kitchen Theatre, The Cherry, The Haunt, The State Theatre and even the stage outside on the Com-mons where weekly concerts are held during the summer months.

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Campaign ObjectivesLab16 recommends the following strategic initiatives to increase the awareness surrounding the Angry Mom Records’ brand. • Enhance the Angry Mom Records brand.• Build a stronger online presence of Angry Mom Records. Furthermore, the agency believes the objectives listed above directly support the following organizational priorities: • Expanding the current brand of Angry Mom Records more efficiently and effectively across multiple

platforms.• Setting Angry Mom Records up for long-term strategic success, along with an increase of general brand

awareness, which will eventually lead to sales.

Key MessagesIn order for Angry Mom Records to establish itself as a trustworthy brand with a unique and publicly responsible product, our campaign would communicate the following key messages in conjunction with this campaign:

1. Angry Mom Records strives to bring an authentic and traditional music listening experience to the Ithaca community.

2. Angry Mom Records contributes an extensive collection of vinyl, CDs, and tapes, creating a one-stop shop for music lovers’ needs and desires.

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Objectives&

StrategiesBased on our two marketing objectives, we outlined a list of several strategies and tactics to implement over the course of a year. However, we realize that we provided you with plenty of strategies and tactics and a large amount of information regarding each. Therefore, we

have highlighted two fundamental branding and social media strategies that we believe are crucial to begin with. These strategies are starred (**).

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Objective 1Enhance the Angry Mom Records Brand.

Strategy 1: Increase the Promotional Presence and Accessibility of Angry Mom Records.1. One of the most unique aspects about Angry Mom Records is that it is located in the basement of the Autumn Leaves bookstore on the Commons. Right now, it is rather difficult to find the location of Angry Mom Records because there is no clear indication as to where the store is located until you walk right up to the win-dow. Even when you enter inside of Autumn Leaves, it isn’t clear where the exact location of the store is. A. Our tactic is to increase the visibility of your shop. To do this, we believe that creating signage outside of your store in a more eye-catching and distinct way will create more traffic because it will be more obvious to the prospective consumer when they walk by. The location of the store something that really intrigues people; consider it a great advantage. In the City of Ithaca, there is a permit required to have a sandwich board outside of the shop.

Strategy 2: Increase Brand Awareness on Cornell University’s Campus. 1. To target Cornell students, it is important to look at the interest levels and possible outlets to effectively promote your shop to get people to venture downtown. One tactic is to reach out to the students that live in the “Just About Music (JAM)” housing program. This program is designed to build a community of music lovers and give them the opportunity to perform, listen, and collaborate with the other students in the program. The house has a performance space and different events such as coffeehouses and listening sessions to discuss all different kinds of music. By participating in some of their events and hosting listening sessions, there is a great opportu-nity to engage with the students themselves. Building that relationship with them is going to get them to come to the shop more often than not. For more information see APPENDIX D. 2. Welcome Weekends for both Cornell University and Ithaca College are a brand new program partnered with the Downtown Ithaca Alliance that correspond during two consecutive Saturdays. Some of the different stores in the Commons hold special events and promotions specifically arranged for Cornell and Ithaca students coming back to campus. It will drive new students, transfer students, and current students into the store for the first time if Angry Mom Records participates in these events. Additionally, a push to visit Angry Mom Records during family weekends on both campuses is highly encouraged. This would entice parents who are seeking new and exciting ways to connect with their youth.

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**Strategy 3: Increase Angry Mom Record’s Presence Around the Ithaca Community.**1. Downtown Ithaca events are inclusive and wildly popular. Besides the Record Store Day event that is held every year, another tactic is to set up a mini pop-up shop during these events with some prominent genres and artists. The pop-up shop can be used as simply an advertisement to showcase what the shop sells or it can act as a mini store which allow people to purchase records. Angry Mom Records could also create a pop-up shop on both the Ithaca College and Cornell University campuses. Angry Mom Records does not necessarily have to have a pop-up shop at all of these events, but starting out with a few and even having a presence on Ithaca College and Cornell University’s campuses will be helpful in gaining awareness of the store.

2. Another tactic to drive people into the store during the Downtown Ithaca Events is to hold promotions throughout the different festivals and events.

Strategy 4: Create Volunteer Positions - Angry Mom Records Street Team.1. The purpose of a utilizing a street team is to personally reach out to local fans with the goal of ultimately improving sales. Similar to influencers and brand ambassadors utilized by large corporations, having a street team is a great promotional and marketing tool often adopted by record companies. This is a mutually beneficial relationship between your company and the team. This opportunity can be open to all college students, and it can be a great resume builder for team members. In exchange, they’re helping AMR promote their store. 2. On show nights at The State Theater or The Haunt, the Angry Mom Records Street Team can hand out branded fliers promoting the store, or even coupons, to those waiting in line outside of the venues. This will generate interest in the store, and drive customers in. After speaking with Dan Smalls Presents, the talent booker for both The Haunt and the State Theatre, we concluded that this is permitted as long as the team stays to pick up discarded material.

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Strategy 5: Special Events for Angry Mom Records to Host.1. Music philanthropy - This can be an annual event that can occur over a few weeks or a month where a cer-tain percentage of sales will go directly to a music-related charity or education program. 2. Green room interviews with bands and artists in town - Whether they’re playing at The Haunt, The State Theater, The Dock, Ithaca College, or Cornell University, there are a variety of artists that come to Ithaca to per-form every month. Interviews with renowned musicians will drive local fans to your website, social media page, or blog. 3. Record Store Day - Angry Mom Records participates in Record Store Day every year. Promotional materials should be eye catching and placed on Ithaca College and Cornell University’s campuses as well as in local shops and restaurants around town.

Strategy 6: Design and Implement a Membership Program.1. Another way to increase awareness and engagement in the store is starting a membership/loyalty program. They can be granted loyalty points each time a customer makes a purchase either in-store or online. The membership program can be administered and encouraged by having sign up forms at the counter when customers checkout and promoting the program at tabling events. The forms that customers fill out should include their name, address, and email address and they can be placed in an index card box for reference. In return, you can provide them with a punch card so that they can receive a punch after each purchase. After a certain number of punches, they can receive a discount or any benefit that you think would be best.

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Objective 2Build a stronger online presence of Angry Mom Records

**Strategy 1: Creation of a company website, which will act as a one-stop shop for all consumer needs and resources.**1. We noticed that Angry Mom Records doesn’t have a company website. With the creation of an all-encom-passing website, consumers will automatically visit the website in order to obtain all information about store hours, location, special events, social media pages, merchandise, and music inventory. 2. The website can also be very personalized. It can be a great platform to show your voice and illustrate what makes your business unique. For example, there can be a “Our Favorite Music” section on your website, handpicked by Angry Mom Records staff each week. 3. In terms of product promotion, this is a great opportunity to showcase the vinyl and CD’s that Angry Mom Records currently have in-store. Whether it’s new releases, old classics, or new arrivals, this will intrigue consumers and prompt them to visit the store to buy and see for themselves. Refer to Amoeba Music website for a benchmark.

Strategy 2: Implement podcast/blog series weekly or monthly. 1. In a blog or podcast, Angry Mom Records can discuss an array of topics. This can include any news about local music, staff reviews of new releases, news involving vinyl reissues, etc. This will inevitably increase brand awareness through word of mouth and when Ithaca students share these posts on their social media pages.first time if Angry Mom Records participates in these events. Additionally, a push to visit Angry Mom Records during family weekends on both campuses is highly encouraged. This would entice parents who are seeking new and exciting ways to connect with their youth.

Strategy 3: Social media promotions and giveaways.1. Give away free concert tickets sponsored by Dan Smalls on Angry Mom Records’ Facebook page. To be eli-gible to win, one must “like” Angry Mom Records’ Facebook page and share the post to their own timeline. The same can go with coupon and free record giveaways. This will inevitably increase Angry Mom’s social presence.

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Measurement&

Evaluation

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Objective 1

Surveys Surveys are a key element in tracking Angry Mom’s Brand awareness. In order to track the awareness surrounding the store, handing out surveys at various events or even in the store when customers check-out can be beneficial. The survey can be completed on platforms such as Google Forms or Survey Monkey. A postcard can be handed out to each customer with a link to the survey. To encourage people to take the survey, a prize can be rewarded of the store’s choice. It could be merchandise, a gift card to the store, or even a store discount on their next purchase.

Membership Program Because of the authenticity of your shop, we believe that keeping it that way is important for your image. To measure and evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign, we believe that including a manual analysis of anyone part of the loyalty program is essential. This way, you can log and keep track of how often your members are participating in the program monthly, quarterly and annually. There are other options to choose from, but we suggest this route in order to keep the authenticity of your shop intact.

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Objective 2

Social Media Analytics Social media will be monitored and evaluated through the amount of followers, likes, retweets, and shares AMR social media platforms gain per week. Social media platforms will be checked weekly and a record will be kept for any increase in followers. Specific posts will also be monitored for individual activity. Facebook’s tools and analytics will be used to monitor reach of posts and interactions. Klout scores will be monitored, if needed, to see if pages are gaining enough views and hits to make a change. Another way to measure all social media platforms in one place is to utilize a program called Hootsuite. On this one platform, you can monitor your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in one place, interact with your audience easier, and schedule/publish daily or weekly posts.

SurveysAn online survey can be created and distributed to Ithaca College and Cornell University students after one month of social media strategy implementation. This will measure the effectiveness of Angry Mom Record’s social media presence and whether it has anything to do with overall brand awareness.

Website Analytics Website traffic can be monitored by tracking URL shares, conversions, and clicks. Additionally, many website builders offer analytics based on volume, browser used, and region.

Facebook Ad Targeting To target Cornell University students, Angry Mom Records can utilize Facebook sponsored ads to reach that demographic, specifically tailored to Cornell students through their ages and interest.

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Timetable

Two strategies were starred above to indicate what Lab16 believes Angry Mom Records should immediately begin implementing.

Pop-Up Shop: College Campuses: August: Cornell University and Ithaca College January: Cornell University and Ithaca College

Downtown Ithaca Events: February: Chili Fest June: Ithaca Festival, Summer Concert Series July: Summer Concert Series August: Summer Concert Series August: Ithaca & Cornell Welcome Weekends October: Apple Festival and Wizarding Weekend December: Ithaca Ice Festival & Chowder Cook-Off

Website/Social Media Website Design: January 2017-July 2017 Social Media Implementation: All Year Round Podcast/Blog Series: All Year Round

(See the next page for a visual)

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Estimated Fees

BRANDING FEES:Tabling at Downtown Ithaca Events: $0 (application required)Loyalty Program (500 punch cards on Vistaprint): $9.992-Sided Sandwich board (gotprint.com): $116.87Sandwich board permit fee: $508.5 x 11’ Flyers (250 count from FedEx Printing for all promotional needs): $149.99Postcard-sized handouts for street team (1,000 count from FedEx Printing): $199.99

ONLINE FEES:Website Platform: Wix VIP plan $25 per month: $300/yearBlog: FreeHootsuite: Free or $9.99/month for a professional account (links up to 10 accounts) (119.88/year)Facebook Sponsored Ads: $10 per campaign (5 per year= $50)

TOTAL: $996.72

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About the AgencyThe strategic consulting experience creates a transformational learning environment for the students enrolled in this senior capstone course (PRLAB ~ Lab16) in the Department of Strategic Communication at Ithaca College. The agency simulation of Lab16 allows for situated cognition – or learning in context – a concept at the forefront of contemporary educational reform. As higher education moves away from strictly content-laden curricula to curricula that emphasizes experiential learning, it is critical that strategic communi-cation majors have the requisite knowledge and skills to use simulation as an apprenticeship that leads directly to securing employment. Lab16 operations consist of a set of activities that naturally overlay a business setting with a focus on three elements: business coaching, executive briefings and longitudinal assessment. The instructor assumes the role of a strategic consulting coach while mentoring students through a series of executive briefings. These briefings enable the instructor to evaluate 17 students according to a rubric designed after Bloom’s revised hierarchy of learning. As well, an element of learner self-reflection is core to the success of this simulation. Lab16 provides a rich learning opportunity for students to integrate theory with practice while making real-time strategic communication decisions in an environment that embraces failure as much as it applauds success.

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AppendixAPPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

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APPENDIX C

APPENDIX D

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APPENDIX E

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