GREENVILLE, S.C. (March 28, 2020) — Four Bob Jones University students were honored for their strategic decision-making and three others received individual recognition at the American Marketing Association International Collegiate Conference March 12-14 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The team of Benjamin Lewandowski of Taylors, South Carolina; Brandon Jackson of Homer, Alaska; Tim Hamersky of Oakhurst, California; and Aimee Tewes of Snellville, Georgia, placed third among 50 international and U.S. universities and colleges in the Marketplace Business Simulation competition.
“All the major universities compete and it is the essence of the Collegiate AMA. Placing in the top 10 is hard enough. The top three is a major milestone,” said Dr. Robert Hucks, chair of the division of management in the School of Business and advisor to BJU’s University Marketing Association.
In the project, students are challenged to start a marketing division for a large international company. They act as the executive team, analyze market research, form an overall business strategy, and make strategic and tactical business decisions as new concepts are introduced in six rounds.
“Our job was to create and market a line of bicycles to five different markets, with each market having different needs and preferences like specifications and price sensitivity,” said Lewandowski, a senior business administration major and president of the University Marketing Association.
“Based on this, we competed against four computer-generated opponents that do different things and target different markets. We were judged in each of six rounds on financial performance, market performance, marketing effectiveness, investments in the firm’s future and creation of wealth, which were added to create a total performance score.”
Additionally, the team of Tyler Chapman of Middleboro, Massachusetts, Lewandowski, Jackson and Hamersky placed ninth of 50 colleges in the Strategic Allocation of Business Resources (SABRE) Simulation. Each team makes a series of strategic decisions, including product planning, sales force deployment, R&D expenditures and market research purchases. A simulation, representing one year in the marketplace, is run to determine market share and profit.
Chapman and Jackson reached the semifinals of Perfect Pitch—rounds of 90-second interviews in which you position yourself as being “right for the job.”
Jessica Teruel, a junior journalism and mass communication major from Greenville, received an American Marketing Association Foundation Social Impact Scholarship. The financial awards recognize student leaders who are using their marketing skills to make communities stronger.
Teruel, the marketing communications director for the BJU Student Leadership Council, submitted an entry detailing the integrated marketing plans she created for Switch (which leads the effort to fight against human trafficking in Upstate South Carolina), Save the Storks and the Carolina Pregnancy Center.
The annual American Marketing Association International Collegiate Conference features competitions, workshops, networking events, and industry professionals addressing undergraduates about careers, technologies, best practices and strategies.
