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Making a Big Marketing Splash
This is an article from February 28. Now that it is April 1 we know that it is in fact 3rd place!
Nevada marketing students earned their way to the American Marketing Association International Collegiate Competition in New Orleans.
February 28, 2011
By Claudene Wharton
The Wolf Pack American Marketing Association chapter at the University of Nevada Reno is a top-10 finalist in the international AMA competition. Pictured front to back, left to right: Sara Klinger, Danielle Ballard, Advisor Igor Makienko, Brittany Haggerty, Geane Mara, Anita Bowers, Joelle Lipsman, Chelsea Hejny, Diana Perazzo, Tim Walenta, Bryan McNutt and Cody Haener. Not pictured: Ryan Johnson. Photo courtesy of Tyler Harding, AMA and Nevada College of Business alumnus.
The student chapter of the American Marketing Association at the University of Nevada, Reno has been named one of the top 10 finalists in the AMA International Collegiate Competition, joining the ranks of students from other institutions such as Carnegie Mellon and Penn State. The AMA team from fellow Nevada System of Higher Education institution University of Nevada, Las Vegas was also named a top-10 finalist, setting the stage for yet another great showdown between the two friendly state rivals.
The Wolf Pack AMA chapter will compete against UNLV and the other eight finalists March 24 in New Orleans, where they will present their marketing plan for Nintendo to a panel of judges chosen by Nintendo. All teams had to target the non-gaming population of the United States, which Wolf Pack team leader Diana Perazzo said wasn’t much of a stretch for her and her teammates.
“Not a single member of our team was an avid game player,” she said, with a grin in her elegant Russian accent. “So, we were part of our own target market.”
The senior marketing major in Nevada’s College of Business is representative of the over-achieving, hardworking personalities of the 12-member team, according to chapter advisor Igor Makienko, assistant professor of marketing.
“They don’t have time to play games – they’re all too busy,” he chuckled.
The team spent a lot of their time conducting research – primary, secondary and focus groups.
“You cannot do anything without research,” Perazzo said. “The more we got to know Nintendo, the more we loved it. It’s a really good company with strong research and marketing. They support good causes and are very profitable.”
“They integrated research throughout their whole plan, not just the research section,” Makienko explained. “They backed up everything they said with research, giving a clear rationale for everything in their plan.”
Perazzo said that the team learned a lot from competing last year, when they finished in the competition’s top 20. Because they didn’t finish in the top 10, they didn’t get to present at the finals, but Perazzo said, “We watched, took notes and learned a lot. I think that’s one reason why we are so strong this year.”
According to Judy Strauss, associate professor of marketing, “I have never seen such high scores from industry professionals in a student competition. It is evidence of the high-quality instruction and real-world applications that our students are learning in our College of Business. We are very proud of them.”
The team scored 95 to 99 points out of 100 from five of the six judges. The sixth judge gave them a score of 87, to which Perazzo reacted with the true spirit of a competitor, “That’s okay. We don’t mind at all. That’s what makes you better and how you learn.”
Perazzo said that with both the Wolf Pack team and the team from UNLV being named top-10 finalists, she feels great pride, commenting, “We all must be getting a very good education here.”
But, she also admits that the friendly intrastate rivalry between the two institutions adds a little additional incentive.
“Seeing UNLV on that list does get my competitive nature going even more. We are Wolf Pack, so now it’s personal and we want to beat them,” she said.
The Wolf Pack team began working on the project the second week of September, meeting twice a week at first, then several days a week, and then every day in December, when the preliminary plan was due.
“Now we get to improve upon our plan, just continue to fine-tune it until the final competition,” Perazzo said, carefully guarding any more specific details of their plan until the actual final competition, as a true competitor would.
Those who wish to support the team’s trip to the competition in New Orleans can attend a Sushi Night at 7 p.m. March 3 in the University’s Joe Crowley Student Union Ballrooms. Admission is $10. Also, the group earns $1 for everyone who joins myEdu for free at this link: http://www.myedu.com/free/nevadaAMA#. For more information on assisting the team, contact Perazzo at 775-378-0297 or dianaperazzo@gmail.com.
Claudene Wharton is a media relations officer in University Media Relations.
Learn with me: Schedule your Twitter posts
One of my job’s functions is to schedule Facebook posts. After doing it for a couple of weeks, I found that it is easy to forget to post important information unless you post it right that second when you remember about it. However, usually such information has a time and a date when it should go out. How delighted I was to learn about the HootSuite! With this great Social Media Dashboard you can schedule your posts ahead of time. Moreover, it supports several Socia Networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and some others.
It is only Monday, let’s keep on learning!
Learn with me – Social Media Strategy
This semester my MKT 495 class had a challenge to come up with an integrated marketing campaign for a local casual dining restaurant. It is no news for anyone that during this economy consumers are looking for deals. With the popularity of such websites as Living Social, Groupon and others, consumers can arrange their restaurant trips in a way that they would not have to even pay a full price. Add to that specials restaurants offer during Happy Hours, and here comes a recipe for tasty lasagna paired with a recipe for disaster.
On the day of the presentation every team spoke about offering deals and promotions, including the team I was in. From Happy Hour specials to Day-of-the-week specials, we offered it all only to find out later that week from the client that she does not want to make the place look cheap. And this is when I got reminded (again) that marketing is not about offering a cheaper deal – it is about eliminating the “selling” part by making customers fall in love with you and your product.
One of the tactics we introduced was to create Facebook Business Page and update fans about deals and promotions. However, when all you do is post on your page about discounts, then you will only get online community to come to your place when you have those discounts. So what I learned today is a way to revamp your Social Media strategy. Here it comes…
SOLUTION!!!
Create really personal experience on your page. Introduce an owner, let fans know what the owner’s personality is, what he/she likes to do and anything interesting about this person. Let them know the owner’s face. Why is that important? Well, imagine you are the owner of a small local restaurant and you are shopping for groceries. One person recognizes you from the video they have seen on Facebook (any other social media) and tells his/her friend that you are an owner of that restaurant. Here is their possible conversation:
– Oh, that’s an owner of “Little Joe’s”
– Really? I never been there!
– You should go, the food is great and the owner loves wine, so they really have a great wine-selection!
You can also give customers a peak in the kitchen. Introduce the Chef, after all, Chef’s talent should be celebrated, show how food masterpieces are made and decorated, and share your expertise in food-making and administrative process. When you convince your customers that you are an expert that is when they will share their wallets’ contents with you!
Constant contact – learn with me
I like to stay ahead of the curve and normally do. I don’t refer to myself as to a “Know-all” marketing specialist, rather a savvy student that catches new ideas fast. But I did not with this one! During the last class presentation for a local restaurant I felt a bit behind. This is when I heard of Constant Contact for the first time! And now I am on their website learning of what they have to offer.
Email marketing.
- Tools to create email campaigns. Choose from designs and customize it with your information. You can also view and analyze results and use them
- You are also given a “Join my newsletter” box that you can place at your website. If you already have a list of contact, you can easily export them.
- Email archive lets your customers look at all past emails you had. Can also add “View our archive” box to your website.
- Prices start at $15 with no limit of the amount of emails you can send. Try their 60 day trial for free!
Event marketing.
- Set up your event with getting started box. You enter your event details here. Constant contact can set up an easy pay option with Pay Pal. You can also cap the number of attendees and record their meal preferences. Constant Contact lets you customize registration form.
- Now publish and promote your event: You can get your event homepageand send professional looking email invitations.
- When registered customers get email conformation.
- You can track your event’s progress with the tools provided, such as how many people registered, how many opened your invitation, etc.
- Prices are also $15 per month with a free 60 day trial.
Online Surveys.
- You can choose from over 40 customizable themes
- Constant Contact gives you tools to create the surveys
- You can analyze the results with the reports
- Again, $15 per month and 60 day free trial
Note: Pretty much looks like Survey Monkey. However, Survey Monkey only lets you ask 10 questions for free and analyzes 100 responses. You can use Constant Contact for free for 60 days and get the full service. Also, Pro service on Survey Monkey costs more that $15.
Social Media.
- Constant Contact lets you create a post only once and post it to several social media at the same time
- Get NutshellMail that would tell you all about what is being said about your business on the web
- Social Stats feature measures tweets about your emails, discussions on LinkedIn, and shares on Facebook and much more
- Social Buzz is a feature on your email letting customers to spread the word about your company
- “Follow me” icons available for your emails
- Social Media marketing templates – looks amazing. I see it used once or twice only, though – just to let your customers know that you have Social Media pages. Otherwise, your customers might get overwhelmed by inofrmation
Personal coaching.
- Free coaching is available via phone, email, online chat, FAQ’s no matter if you are a client or on 60 day trial.
Blog.
- Make sure to follow their blog. Just from glancing over it for a minute I learned one new thing (Hashtag anyone?)
- Trends, ideas, case studies, news and much more – all about marketing!
Community.
- I would say this is purely marketing social network, where you can share ideas, get answers and learn how others become successful
- You can use this community to get more customers – via directory listing
- You get to be in this community if you are a Constant Contact Customer (60 day trial is included)
MarketPlace
- Find service marketing/design/management service providers in one place
- Find applications for your business needs
Constant Contact also has seminars in 18 cities in the U.S. (not in Reno, though) and 2 in Canada. I am already liking what they have to offer and wich I knew about them about a month ago before I analyzed survey results for my IMC competition with SPSS!
Case Study: ASUN Facebook Page
Case Study: ASUN Facebook Page
This page was launched I believe in April 2010, just before I started working with Inkblot. Now, 8 months later, we have 1,600 fans. We still have lots of growth opportunities, but looking back at our page with just about 50 fans, I feel that we came a long way.
What did we do to promote it? Well, word of mouth is your friend. With about 100 employees it was easy to spread the word. My personal favorite was ordering fridge magnets with our logo and Facebook link and distributing it everywhere on campus, including the residence halls. We go to different events put by ASUN and take pictures of the attendees and give them those Facebook magnets to find their pictures on our page.
Of course, we have a link to our page on our website and in every employee’s email signature. We also ordered a lamp banner with the same look as the fridge magnet. A key here is that even if students don’t remember exact URL, they will at least know that we have a Facebook Page and once they get home they will try to find it. Besides, our page is really easy to remember http://www.facebook.com/NevadaASUN
We also have 10 TV Monitors in different areas of campus, we placed this screed ad on those screens as well. Every single piece of publicity that goes out from Inkblot has the link on it. This coming semester we are planning on printing a big banner and hanging it over the staircase in the student union. That sure is to get a lot of attention.
So … just a bit about campus publicity for those who work on campuses, too.
Commercials trend in Russia
This summer (just two month ago) I spent two month in Russia, mainly in Moscow and Ufa. It stroke me, that TV advertising there is a bit different from TV ads here in the U.S. The main trend I have noticed was that ads messages concentrated around promotions, giveaways and any type of swag and goodies. One commercial was promising a trip to “the desert of Nevada’s Burining Man festival”, another asked me to collect the lids from the bottles of the beverage they sold and look for a price.
Such ads happen in the U.S. as well, but in Russia it seemed that almost every commercial was talking about promotions. How fascinating! How different are the cultures 🙂
Let’s talk about value
Value to me is getting more for the price I pay than just that price. As a millenial, I browse websites, check product reviews, and compare prices before I visit a brick store. When I make my final decision, I already have expectations for the product performance. But how delighted I am if the product exceeds my expectations!
A lot of times marketers go all in with product advertising. That is when it is hit or miss. Consumers may expect a lot, but get less. On the other hand, consumers may expect a lot and get just what they expected. It is so hard these days to exceed their expectations. Why? Because advertisement tells them all about the product.
Good news – there is a fix to this problem. Don’t give away all your cards! Just let them find some things out on their own.
Examples:
- Serve a free muffin at a breakfast restaurant.
- Put a free sample in a bag (don’t tell, let it be a surprise when a customer gets home)
I recently came across the website of women’s magazine All You. This magazine definitely brings value to it’s customers. Daily free samples, coupons, budget-friendly ideas and giveaways. Not only they know their customers – they bring value to them every day! And they get people hooked. Oh, and their tagline is Enjoy Life for Less. Are they staying true to their promise? I believe so. They could just offer free suggestions for less-expensive fashion, meals and healthcare, but they offer so much more. All those coupons and free daily samples are value. Moreover, customers don’t expect that. I believe All You is the best example of how you can delight your customers.
Bump – New Hot Social Media?
I read about his new Social Media just this morning and found it extremely cool.
What is bump
Bump was born in August of 2009 and it is a platform for drivers. Stuck on the road and want to communicate with the driver in front of you? All you need to do is send a message to the driver’s license plate! If that driver is not on Bump yet, they will receive a message when they claim their plate. Bump enables communication not only through license plates, but also through physical addresses, online profiles and mobile phones. As the authors put it, Bump enables “reverse communication marketing and profiling”.
What it is for
- You can use Bump to let fellow drivers know that their headlights are off, Gas Pump handle still in the car or the blinker is on.
- Car parked right next to your office and its alarm is going off? Just Bump the car owner.
- Someone in the parking garage left their Headlights on – let the owner know to check the car.
- You think the cute guy/girl driving right next to you is your life match? Take a picture of their license plate and seal the deal!
How to Bump
Send a message to “license plate number”@bump.com, where “license plate number “ is the actual plate number of a driver.
Bump for Marketing
How can you use Bump for your business? Idea for Radio Remotes: Go to DMV and get a license plate with your Business’s name and claim it on Bump. Ask those attending the event to send you a message on Bump to enter into a sweepstake.
UNR is going to Orlando IMC competition
This year IMC competition class worked on State Farm integrated marketing campaign. The challenge was to raise awareness among 18-25 year olds, keep in mind the diversity and raise awareness about property insurance.
I started dreaming about this class 2 years ago. Finally, a senior, I got selected to be a part of it. First, not everyone gets to take it. Students are chosen from both Journalism and Marketing departments and have to go through an interview process. The professor has to personally approve you. Both me and my boyfriend got in. He, in fact, is one of the presenters of the case.
On the first day of class Bob Felten told us that we will cry and laugh, and work hard, and become friends for the rest of our lives. I learned that it was absolutely true. No other class ever caused me so much stress, and anxiety, and, yes, tiers. But no other class ever gave me so much joy and opportunity. Our team has won the district competition, now moving on to the National competition in Orlando (in 3 days!). We came up with the plan for State Farm and put it all out into a beautiful book, that I get to keep.
Marketing students, if you want to learn more in college, take a Competition class (of course, if your school has one).
http://www.unr.edu/features/09-10/marketing/
UNR IMC team
Yet another creative on a skyscraper
There must be something about skyscrapers that draws my attention. I was staring at this image for over a minute (pretty long for a Y-er) trying to figure out how they got the billboard and the construction work together like that. And I got it! The note at the bottom of the image says that the whole campaign was built around the construction site. Pretty interesting. 
Matryoshka 