Hands-on experience is important to grasping many of the curricular components in LSBE classes, such as in Assistant Professor of Marketing Marat Bakpayev’s Advertising and Marketing Communication Class.
“Learning theory is important and fundamental,” he said. “But until it’s applied in a real-life setting, it is not the same experience. I strongly believe that we produce better outcomes for the students if they work in a real scenario setting.”
“These are the experiences that prepare us for our lives beyond the university more so than classroom work can,” said Brianna Westrup.
“The textbooks and PowerPoints can only teach students so much,” added Nathan Smith. “When we are forced to put our work and ideas into a hands-on project with a real client, it really drives us to put our best work forward.”
As such, Bakpayev is always on the lookout for local clients that could have an experiential project for his class. Attending the Twin Ports’ region’s Social Media Breakfast last semester, he heard about Yodit Gidey, owner of Heaven on Earth Wellness Spa. And it turned out that this was the perfect business for the Fall semester project—putting together a full marketing plan. What makes this class unique is the fact that it is required for Marketing and Graphic Design (MGD) students. So instead of developing the work theoretically, there are designers who actually produce creative work.
“Students have to reach out to the client, do a creative briefing session, understand what needs to be done,” said Bakpayev. “Then they do a comprehensive study of the consumers and search for consumer insights. Afterwards they develop a set of creative executions, like a logo, brochures, billboards, digital, TV commercials, etc., and present that to the client. Clients receive a “ready to go” campaign that they can start after the presentations, and many clients have used the materials in their marketing efforts.
“Students usually work as if they are a real agency—some are involved in designer roles, some in copywriting, some in account management, and some in planning," Bakpayev said.
One student group working on the project consisted of junior Brendon Marti, senior Greta Ness, senior Sydney Wertish, senior Smith, and Westrup, who graduated in December. (Each student’s project contribution is listed at the end of the story.)
Students did find that working with this real scenario to be important and fulfilling.
“This type of hands-on classwork is important because we are examining a real business and a real industry that is operating in our own community,” said Ness. “It was interesting to see Heaven on Earth's goals and develop a real plan that could help it get there.”
“I think it was a great learning experience to work alongside an actual company and go in and ask questions, take tours, and look into their marketing metrics that they had compiled,” added Marti.
“Meeting with the Heaven on Earth Spa and Wellness staff members and owner was helpful and made me feel like I was working on a real marketing campaign with my marketing team,” said Wertish.
During the project, the students learned many skills that will help them not only in business, but also in life.
“This is a group project. It comes with challenges and the learning experiences that come from those challenges,” said Bakpayev. “I often tell students that this is where you can practice your leadership skills, project management, time management, and things like that.”
“I think this will help with my career because of the teamwork that was necessary to succeed within this project,” said Marti. “It was essential that we found time in between our busy schedules to get together and work through problems and ideas and to polish the work that we had already implemented.”
Added Ness, “in the future, I will be able to refer back to the tactics and strategies that we developed and use some of those same things in other situations.”
“These projects can also be a way to showcase your work and talent to companies where you’d like to work,” Smith said.
While students do present to the class for a grade, they reach out to the clients separately to share everything that they have accomplished.
“The best part is that we were able to see the project from the beginning to the end, not just parts of the project, and we were able to gain an understanding of all the processes and factors that must be considered to create a successful campaign,” said Westrup. “It was a full and complete communications plan that actually helped a local business. That felt really good.”
“I also liked how in-depth the project was as it challenged our creativity and knowledge that we have attained throughout our years here at UMD,” said Smith.
Brendon Marti: Created the video, media plan, marketing metrics, milestones, and a few of the graphics.
Greta Ness: Developed the survey on Qualtrics and conducted additional research about the business’s target.
Nathan Smith: Helped with in-depth interviews, conducted health and wellness spa industry research, and wrote the radio advertisement script.
Sydney Wertish: Led graphic design creation, specifically logo development and print ads.
Brainna Westrup: Led client communication and coordination, worked on consumer insights, directed the TV commercial, and finalized team objectives, strategic initiatives, and tactics for the marketing communications plan.