Five students at the UCLA Anderson School of Management stepped
outside of their classrooms this month and into the competitive and
cutthroat world of marketing.
In an annual competition held by the University of
Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, business students
from across the country competed in the Elite Eight Brand Strategy
Competition, meant to test their marketing and strategy skills. And
the group hailing from the Anderson School showcased their talents
for a first-place finish.
In Minnesota, business students were presented with a real-life
marketing situation and asked to respond. The open-endedness of the
scenario caused a ripple of laughter to emanate from the UCLA
students as they sat and listened, but the fun soon turned serious
as they realized they only had 30 hours to come up with a
professional marketing strategy and presentation.
“One of us was saying how everything made sense. Then they
gave us the question,” said Alice Keh, a second-year student
pursuing her masters in business administration, who was also on
the team last year.
Essentially, the students were asked to brainstorm the
implications of Best Buy’s new “customer centricity
program” and how to go about reaching customers effectively,
said Jesse Ross, a first-year MBA student on the team.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Best Buy was
undergoing a controversial program which would focus its
advertising toward “good” customers ““ those who
buy high price products without cutting corners and using rebates,
refunds and coupons ““ instead of all potential customers.
Students at the competition were also told that Best Buy would
be gearing its strategies toward five segmented groups within their
customer base, such as “soccer moms” and the
“savvy techie.”
“We had to think about how to execute this program without
alienating customers,” Keh said, and Jeremy Vandervoet,
another first-year student on the team, added that their strategy
had to be “segmented, targeted and focused.”
Vandervoet said once they started working they realized that one
advertisement which would appeal to a soccer mom could be seen as
“soft and fuzzy” to the tech whiz.
The UCLA business students contributed their unique and diverse
perspectives, helping to cinch the win, and in the meantime learned
a lot about marketing in the real world. Among the strategies and
tactical approaches which helped the group win was creativity and
team work.
“We bought over $70 worth of magazines and looked at the
advertisements. We got everything from Fortune to Better Homes and
Gardens and compared the advertisements to see if they were
confusing or relevant,” Vandervoet said.
Another of the UCLA team’s innovative tactical approaches
was conducting primary research. The students conducted a survey of
Anderson students, who themselves had been broken into five
segments, and received “unbelievable results” with over
300 hits, Ross said.
A team from the a Kellogg School of Business also used survey
data, but the UCLA team differed in that their results were
“dynamically segmented” and mimicked the situation that
Best Buy was dealing with, Keh said.
Another reason for the first place finish, the students said,
was their team work.
“It was amazing how well we got along and how well we
worked. We were able to hammer out any debates fairly
quickly,” Ross said.
The experience, which consisted of about five hours of sleep,
helped the students gain an inside look into the world of
marketing.
“There was no doubt (Best Buy) appreciated it. … The VP
of Marketing at Best Buy walked over to talk to us to give us his
input at the end,” Keh said.