Bridge to Business Program – Rachel Steinberg

Bridge to Business Marketing Project

Rachel Steinberg — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 17:23:40 +0000

As a final project for Agnes Scott College’s Bridge to Business Program (B2B), I worked on a team of six to collaboratively design a strategic marketing plan for B2B. We were tasked with designed B2B Program’s strategy, marketing plan implementation of strategy, and a promotional video. I have included our project below.

Mission Statement

Bridge to Business (B2B) provides a brief, yet comprehensive, educational opportunity for Agnes Scott students to study the functional areas of business, including international business, project management, finance, strategic management, marketing, and investing. The program uses an interdisciplinary approach to allow students across all majors to study how these different functional areas of business can be used in their career fields. B2B fosters a fast-paced and innovative environment in which students can practice new skills during lectures, site visits, panels, and case studies. Throughout the program, students will develop new tactical business technology skills as well network with Georgia Tech professors and Agnes Scott alumni.

5 C's of Marketing Strategy

Competitors

B2B must compete with jobs, internships, and college courses during the academic summer.

Customers

B2B’s customers are solely Agnes Scott College students.

Collaborators

B2B collaborates with the Agnes Scott College, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, and Turner Broadcasting Company.

Company

B2B is a part of the greater Agnes Scott College organization, specifically the Business Management department.

Context

B2B operates in the context of higher level education and summer intensive experience programs. Typically, many college students spend their summers gaining professional experience via work, courses, or intensive hybrid programs.

4 P's of Marketing Strategy

Price

$2,700 course

$546 housing

$3246 total cost

1,700 potential scholarship

Promotion

Presence on Agnes Scott College’s Website

Professor Testimonials

Alumni Testimonials

Free Program Merchandise

Campus Print Promotional Media

Word-of-Mouth Promotion

Email Marketing

Product

3 Week Program

6 Credit Interdisciplinary Course

Designed for Agnes Scott College students to study the functional areas of business

Place

Agnes Scott College

Calendar Outline

August 5

Club Fair

A table staffed by B2B alumni volunteers will generate publicity for the program. The program will reach early adapters at Agnes Scott College’s annual fair for student campus life and organizations.

November 27

Newsletter Announcement

There will be a a campus-wide “Save the Date” announcement in Agnes Scott College’s weekly newsletter The Irvine. The message will reach a campus-wide audience via email.

January 10

Professor Testimonials

Professors who have collaborated with or observed B2B will be asked via email to promote the program. Professors will act as program ambassadors to generate student interest by speaking about the program in the classroom setting.

February 7

Undergraduate Email

The B2B program director will email the Agnes Scot College undergraduate listserv, providing an overview of the program. This email will provide a concrete program outline, including the official start and end dates. This email will reach all undergraduate students, serving as a reminder for many to begin registering.

February 12

Program Alumni Panel

The program director will moderate a B2B alumni panel hosted on the Agnes Scott campus. Panelists, who will be current undergraduate students, will share their experience and answer questions about the program. This event will targets invested students who are interested in learning more before registering for the program.

March 18

Program Print Media

Print media brochures, posters, and table tents will be posted in key spots on the Agnes Scott campus. High traffic campus locations, including resident halls, academic buildings, and student amenities, will post print media to remind students of the program. The print media wave will reach late adapters to prompt registration action.

April 1

Deadline Email

The program director will send a final email to the undergraduate listserv prompting students to register for the program before the deadline. This email will prompt late adapters to take action before the registration deadline.

Promotional Merchandise

Each program participant will receive a complimentary “Agnes Scott purple” water bottle. Alumni will inadvertently promote the program and identify themselves to peers by using their B2B water bottles on campus. This will generate word-of-mouth promotion.

Promotional Video

Agnes Scott College will feature the following video in its digital marketing activities. The video will be included on the Agnes Scott College Bridge to Business Program webpage. Additionally, it will be attached to the newsletter announcement as well as promotional emails to the undergraduate listserv.

Conclusions

Through the course of the project I learned how to design a comprehensive marketing plan from inception to completion. I applied marketing strategy concepts like the 5 C’s and 4 P’s of marketing. Additionally, I practiced creating promotional concept material including the merchandise image and informational video. In short, our final project allowed me to apply theoretical concepts as well as generate marketing materials.

Interested in learning more? Reach out to me via email

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Project Management in Bridge to Business

Rachel Steinberg — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 19:26:51 +0000

Professor Michael Smith’s lecture on project management during the Bridge to Business Program helped me to further understand my leadership goals for the next few years. During Professor Smith’s lecture, I realized that every aspect of my professional life is an unofficial project, which I really enjoy managing. Often, the roles and experiences I have thrived in have been unofficial project management positions. From my internship with the Women’s Resource Center to End Domestic Violence to my job as an Agnes Scott College Center for Writing and Speaking tutor, I have worked and thrived in several project management roles.

I was very drawn to the efficiency and structure of project management. Risk register, stakeholder register, and stakeholder management were especially fascinating for me. I realized that I often naturally organize my thoughts using these factors. Therefore, I learned that I want a job where I can manage projects like Professor Smith described and I am even interested in pursuing a project management certification in the future. As I apply for jobs over the next year, I plan to keep an eye out for positions that provide opportunities to lead projects so that I can follow this interest.

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International Relations in Bridge to Business

Rachel Steinberg — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 23:03:17 +0000

During Professor Arn Rubinoff‘s on international business, I realized that my summit global learning specialization his significantly more vale for my business aspirations than I had thought. When Professor Rubinoff discussed folkways, I found that I understood from my own experiences studying abroad with Agnes Scott.

My Travel Experience

At one point during the lecture, he used the example of differing talking spaces between regions of the world. He noted that in the United States, a comfortable speaking space is about five to eight feet, whereas in Latin America, a comfortable distance is closer to three to five feet. This was a really impactful example for me because I remembered noticing this difference when I traveled to Panama on my Summit Journeys trip with Agnes Scott in 2016. After he gave this example, I started generating my own examples, particularly from my recent study abroad visit to Ireland this past summer. I was able to see that my own global travel experience was easily transferrable to the business world.

Global Learning Specialization

This sessions was really impactful for me because it allowed me to revalue my global learning specialization as something that would really help me in my future career in the marketing industry. Professor Rubinoff spent time discussing the example of the Chevy Nova’s marketing in Mexico failure because the name Nova is too similar to the Spanish command ” No va,” or “do not go.” This example really made me see my global learning as a useful too that I can use in my post-graduate career. I realized that I already approach my work with a detail-oriented sensitivity to international context because of my global specialization. I have already cultivated a lens that looks for potential cultural blunders and mishaps that will be very useful to me in international marketing as I develop logos, slogans, and product names in a multi-cultural context.

Interested in learning more? Reach out to me via email

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Marketing Basics and Innovations in Bridge to Business

Rachel Steinberg — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 23:37:11 +0000

Professor Michael Buchanan‘s two Bridge to Business sessions on marketing basics and digital marketing helped me to better understand my own interest in a career in marketing.

Tactics, Strategy, Objectives, Goals

During his lectures, Professor Buchanan outlined how marketing elements come together to create a greater strategy. He explained that the lowest element in marketing is tactics, which include tasks like running social media or generating newsletters. Tactics support marketing strategy, which is the theory behind a target market. In turn, strategy supports objectives, which measure what a firm would like to accomplish. Objectives ultimately support goals, which are the highest level of the marketing strategy. During the course of the lectures, I learned that my first job in marketing may be more focused on tactics, but that ultimately, my promotions will likely follow this chain upwards into the more strategic marketing.

Marketing Tactics Experience

During these sessions, I was able to insert my existing marketing experiences from my internship with the Dahlonega Lumpkin Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau into a larger theoretical framework. I realized that my internship had been highly tactical, like many entry-level positions, because it focused primarily on managing social media, graphic design, data analytics, and newsletter campaigns. As a result of these two lecture sessions, I felt even more confident that my internship experience had prepared me for tactical entry-level digital marketing positions.

Strategy Mindset

When Professor Buchanan advised us on the value of critical questioning in marketing, I realized that my critical thinking and analytical skills from my degree in Women’s Studies were incredibly applicable to marketing strategy. Because of this skill set, identifying a firm’s company, customer, collaborator, competition, and context (five C’s) came very naturally to me. My liberal arts background also provided me with the strategic background necessary to feel confident generating customer personas, meaning profiled to represent key attributes that are specific to a target demographic.

Through these two marketing sesssions I realized that my internhsip experiences had helped me to bolster my tactical marketing skills, while my liberal arts education had helped me to build my strategic marketing skills.

Interested in learning more? Reach out to me via email

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