Out of the box thinking from LSBU marketing students
LSBU graduate Ed Sexton made a welcome return to the University to challenge our students to devise a marketing strategy for his new retail businessEd now plans to use their ideas for his new website launch for his family company, Glencroft, and to grow his customer base.
He said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process! From briefing the students, through to seeing their presentations and the creative ideas that they came up with. The winning team accurately understood the brief and extensively researched the organisation and industry, which quite clearly showed in the presentation.
“The quality of the work was that of what I’d expect from a professional marketing agency, and I would have no hesitation in recommending them.”
The challenge
Ed’s Yorkshire-based business sells products to other businesses globally, and he knew that launching a good website with a communication plan to boost website traffic, awareness of the products and consumer hype were key to its success.
He challenged the marketing students to work in groups and create a six-month marketing strategy using both traditional and digital channels.
In December 2017 he returned to hear their presentations, choose a winning team and give feedback.
“Having a background in digital marketing, some of the ideas suggested as part of the PR campaign were really impressive,” he said. “For example, I hadn’t originally considered pop-up shops in Edinburgh to garner more attention for our campaign launches but this was a welcome idea that I plan to look into further.”
One of the winners said: “The whole project was extremely interesting. We undertook situational analysis and identified the target market, outlining potential benefits to the business. Our presentation culminated in a number of both online and offline suggestions to support the launch of Ed’s new website.
“It was the perfect opportunity to apply classroom learning in the real-world. I truly feel it has been an invaluable part of my studies and has greatly prepared me for interviews.”
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