Students at Bob Jones University are given real-life opportunities to practice what they’ve learned. Recently, five of BJU’s junior business administration students—Nolan Silvius, Julie Fenn, Cody Tart, Chris Check and Caleb Harter—created an international marketing plan to market BJU to prospective students in South Korea. The team’s plan won the Global Marketing class competition.
The Timeline
Dr. Adele Dunn, who teaches Global Marketing, split her class into four teams that “worked as consultants on a live project for BJU’s international marketing team. They were required to research an international market and produce a market entry or market penetration plan.”
Dr. Bobby Wood and his international enrollment team shared with the class their vision for marketing to international students. The class used that information in the development of their global marketing plans, choosing South Korea, the Bahamas, Singapore and the Philippines from Dr. Wood’s list of top ten target countries.
The class worked on their projects all semester, researching their countries’ cultures and creating their plans for reaching prospective students. The class’s work culminated in presenting their marketing plans to the international enrollment team just before exams.
The Challenges
Winning team member Julie Fenn says the team started the project intending to work ahead on each part of the project, but ultimately tackled one piece at a time as each came due. “It ended up working pretty well, though, because everyone had an understanding of each section of the project.” And while college students are sometimes great procrastinators, Fenn says “sometimes those time pressures that occurred because of our procrastination helped us to produce better work.”
Another challenge Fenn says the team faced was research. “We are used to easily finding reliable sources about American business and the economy, but finding reliable sources about South Korea was a big challenge.”
The Winning Proposal
Of the four presentations, the enrollment team determined that the team marketing to South Korea had the best competitive analysis and the best workable plan for marketing BJU in the target country.
The South Korea team’s proposal includes the following:
- Increase awareness of BJU through social media marketing
- Provide financial aid resources for international students through services such as eduPASS and sponsorships
- Send promotional teams, alumni, and choirs to South Korea to hold week-long mini-classes and to establish a personal connection with students
- Leverage the influence of South Korean alumni such as Billy Kim
- Ease South Korean students’ transition to BJU through an online orientation app and a special international student orientation a week before the fall semester begins
The Benefits
Dr. Dunn’s goal for the project was “to give students the experience at working on a live international project, responding to client requirements professionally, [and] presenting their ideas to a senior management team.” Fenn says that “the project accomplished these goals for me. I really got an in-depth look at just how many details of a different culture change the way we as marketers have to interact with that country.” Each student received practical experience on a real-world project with a real-world client—invaluable when entering any career field.
But this global marketing project benefits more than just the students. By partnering with the class, Dr. Wood hopes to “leverage the value of what our academics are doing.” The international enrollment team will consider implementing the plans of all four teams, especially that of the South Korea team. According to Fenn, “Even though our project was focused on South Korea, a lot of our marketing ideas could be used in all international markets.”
