The Key is Hope

The prompt I chose is as follows:
Loras College emphasizes the value of experiential learning and has worked to incorporate greater opportunities for students to learn and reflect on these types of structured out of class experiences.Reflect on the diversity of your learning experiences at Loras and analyze how they have contributed to your growth and competence in relation specifically to the Loras dispositions (at least two), discipline specific skills and your future goals.

See How Far I've Come

As a senior, thinking about what I want to do after I graduate is so overwhelming-only because of the endless opportunities I will have.  As of right now, my plan is to move back home to Chicago, and find a job that is relevant to my marketing major.  Of all the marketing aspects I have studied, I enjoyed creating an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Campaign. I have high hopes of creating multiple campaigns in my future job, thus this blog is targeted toward future potential employers.

Up, Up, and Away

As a liberal arts college, the Loras administration is confident in the student body's ever growing knowledge in the students' areas of study but the administration does not expect the student’s knowledge to stop there.  The administration makes sure that the students are well rounded by implementing advanced general education courses that revolve around the four dispositions of the college:  active learning, reflective thinking, ethical decision making, and responsible contributing.  While most of the four dispositions are covered in the advanced general education classes, there is the possibility that their areas of study have covered it, and it is such the case in this blog.  Throughout this blog you will hear about how during the spring semester of my junior year here at Loras College I was enrolled in a major-specific class called Advertising and Marketing Communications in which I was involved in a semester-long group project.  Throughout this group project, my group created an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Campaign for the launch of Mueller Sports new line of QuenchX gum.  While working on this project I demonstrated how Loras has made me an active learner, through creating a presentation that was not only going to be graded by the professor, but also by a handful of Mueller Sports employees.  I also grew into a reflective thinker which will be discussed in terms of how I took what I learned in class and contributed it to the group when working on the IMC campaign. Then discussing how being a reflective thinker helped the project move along easier rather than not understanding what I was doing and expanding more upon that.  As this blog continues I will talk about the strengths and weaknesses of my group's IMC campaign as well as what I learned from the project.  Being the sole creator of the Power Point that was used to present our semester long IMC campaign for QuenchX gum to Mueller Sports is something that you will see in this blog.  What I have learned through the project will then be demonstrated through pictures that represent how my group as a whole managed to differentiate itself from the others in the class, followed by another picture of what happens when hard work pays off. 

A New Challenge Awaits

It was the first day of classes in the spring of my Junior year here at Loras College, and I was starting the last class of my day, Advertising and Marketing Communications.  After roll was called, we began to go over the syllabus that contained a bunch of deadlines for papers, which was part of a bigger, semester long, project. 

Wednesday rolled around and we began talking about our semester long project in which we would be put into four separate 'firms' each having a 'CEO'.  Each firm was competing for the prize, which was not having to take the final, and the sweet taste of victory.  

A week later we were introduced to Mark. Mark is an employee from Mueller Sports, a company that specializes in sports medicine, who told us what product we would be using throughout the duration of the semester.  We were to create an IMC Campaign for the launch of their new QuenchX gum, but they had limited time and a limited budget which could be hard to work with.  Before he left he gave us samples to try, and a bunch more to hand out when we held our focus groups. 

A quick background on QuenchX gum:  Mueller sports has a brand of gum called Quench gum that most athletes chew on the field when they can't get water.  This gum helps athletes avoid dry mouth, but doesn't last for long.  QuenchX gum is the new and improved Quench gum, that now contains xylitol which is actually good for the health of your teeth, is a bigger piece of gum, and  lasts longer!

     
The following week we were 'hired' by our firms CEOs and our firm wasted no time getting started on our SWOT analysis and figuring out how we were going to gain a larger part of the target market.  

We Move Along

As the semester progressed, so did our IMC Campaign. First we figured out what message we wanted to send, who our target market would be, our SWOT analysis, what our objectives were,   and what type of awareness and promotion we were going to use on such a small budget.  We created a video to put on youtube, eye catching advertisements, a facebook group, revamped the Mueller Sports website, and created coupons.  Even after all of that, my firm was still unsure if all of that was enough to differentiate us from the rest of the firms out there, so we decided to make sure we were different enough.  We created t-shirts with our main campaign slogan on them 'what does X mean to you?' on the front and 'an X-cellent marketing campaign' on the back. 


This whole project shows how we are active learners, taking something we are given in class and figuring out what we are going to do. We had to figure out if our target market, which was people who partake in leisure sports, would like the gum.  We conducted a focus group in which we had 12 people come in to try the gum, talk about if they would buy it, and if they actually liked the taste.  Holding a focus group is not something I would think typically happens for a college class assignment, but in the spring of my junior year I held one.  We figured out that our target market would indeed buy this gum, and they also enjoyed it.  Holding a focus group shows active learning, and by learning what our potential consumers like we created a t-shirt, to gain their interest.  My artifact of the t-shirt we created was not only for us to wear when we presented to Mueller Sports, but one that was similar to what would be given out for promotional items, which you will see later in the Power Point attachment in this blog.  

I chose to use my firm's t-shirt to show how my group was active learners.  Having to create an IMC Campaign and present to a firm is not something most colleges get to do, but here at Loras College we did.  

Our Dreams, Our Imaginations

We picked up our t-shirts two days before our big presentation, and were so excited to have something the other groups didn't.  We practiced our Power Point over and over to make sure we didn't mess anything up, and knew what we were talking about all the way to Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin where the Mueller Sports headquarters is located.  By the time we got there, my stomach was in knots, and as we waited I grew more nervous.  Our firm, by now we had named the Marketing Mix-A-Lots, was called and there was no turning back.  This was what we worked all semester for.  We went into the conference room there and knocked the competition out of the water.   We were sure of it, but only time would tell.  We had to wait the whole hour and a half ride back to Dubuque to find out if we won and were exempt from the final, or if we would have to attend the final.  

The Power Point that was shown is what I take the most pride in, because I was the sole creator of this Power Point.  I chose this as an artifact for reflective thinking because of  the fact that any of the things we did to attain knowledge of what a target market is, what a SWOT analysis is, and how to use advertising and promotions effectively came from the classroom.  However, during this campaign we needed to put those terms to use by creating who would be in our target market, creating a SWOT analysis specific for our firm, and how we were going to promote QuenchX.  It wasn't something I could dig out of a book and learn, I needed to create my own and make it work for everything else in our campaign, and our firm did that.  

They're Going To Judge Us Anyway...So Whatever

We finally made it back to our classroom in Dubuque and we all sat there impatiently waiting for the results.  As we were waiting doubts went through my head, the Marketing Mix-A-Lots had a lot of fun from our name to laughing every time we met, to having cool t-shirts to wear when we gave our awesome presentation.  We gave it our all, but was our all enough?


The time was here. 


As our professor opened the envelope which contained the winning groups name on it that was chosen by Mueller Sports employees, everyone sat there quietly in anticipation. He turned the paper around, and the name that was on it was the MARKETING MIX-A-LOTS!


We were so excited, victory tasted so sweet.  Not only did we have the taste of victory in our mouth but we were then given an award.  Not only did my Advertising and Marketing Communications class educate me on two of the four dispositions through this semester long IMC Campaign, I now have something wonderful to put on my resume, and know better as to what direction of marketing I would like to pursue.