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MKTG 422: Create A Promotional Video for the Food Science Major

Activity Description

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In this upper level marketing course, teams of students create a marketing plan for the Food Science major which incorporates the creamery. About 1/3 of the projects included the creation of a video commercial. The Food Science Department selected the top three projects to become the basis of an actual marketing campaign.

 

“I think videos are really the future….It’s a natural interest of students. It’s a natural interest of businesses these days. When our students are getting hired, they end up going into jobs where they need these skills or they have to learn them very quickly.” – Jennifer Chang Coupland

 

About the Course Project

Course: MKTG 422 – Advertising and Promotion Management
Instructor: Jennifer Chang Coupland, Smeal College of Business
Number of Students: 120+ students across three sections
Semester: Spring 2009
Duration of Assignment: Several Weeks

Benefits

Students gain skills in researching and conceptualization a video ad and will have a tangible product they can show to future employers. Students also gain an appreciation for the technical aspects of shooting an editing a video.

“You can develop a commercial or you can develop a promotional piece and have something in your e-portfolio or have something on YouTube. That’s something that really goes beyond just a PowerPoint presentation that sometimes doesn’t frankly go beyond a classroom or maybe the client’s office door to something that’s really tangible and becomes completely universal.” – Jennifer Chang Coupland

 

Applications to Other Courses

This project is effective in any marketing, public relations, communications or writing course in which students may need to learn how to conceptualize a video piece.

Description for Students

Each student will participate in a project as a member of a five (or so) person team. The purpose of the project is to use qualitative consumer research to develop an integrated marketing communications strategy for the Penn State Food Science major. Your client is particularly interested in leveraging the Creamery in doing so, so keep this in mind when developing your strategy. Deliverables to the client will constitute 20% of your course grade. Teams have two options regarding client deliverables:

  1. Present a concise ten minute persuasive summary of their project in class, and turn in an 8-10 page double-spaced team report (+consumer insights portfolio); or
  2. Present a video project in class with analysis, and turn in a 1-2 page single-spaced executive brief (+consumer insights portfolio). The video project may be a 30-60 second promotional piece, or a longer, informational video of project highlights.

In either case, grading will be based on your careful analysis and thoughtful presentation of the following points:

  1. Brief statement of your client’s problem/goal(s)
  2. Description of consumer behavior (e.g., decision making, learning, and sociocultural influences) concerning both the Food Science major and the Creamery
  3. Description of your target audience and why you chose it
  4. Positioning statement
  5. Advertising strategy
  6. Promotions strategy
  7. Consumer insights portfolio

Objectives

Course Objectives

  1. Research information relevant to the client's industry, competition and consumer base.
  2. Develop an integrated marketing communications plan, with a focus on issues related to advertising and promotions management.
  3. Relate the elements of the marketing mix to the various aspects of communications that take place between the firm and its customers.
  4. Integrate qualitative consumer insights as a way to skillfully manage advertising and promotions.

Project Objectives

  1. Create a promotional video which is creative and appealing to the target audience yet is based on information gathered about the client.'
  2. Become familiar with copyright issues and resources for legal stock images, music and archival video footage.

Project Stages

  1. The project begins with a research phase of all relevant information (e.g. Food Science faculty and students, potential majors, the Food Science industry). Students collectively post data in ANGEL for all groups to use in the later phase of their projects.
  2. Students write a brief outline or storyboard for the video.
  3. Students need to identify key contacts within the Food Services program and the Creamery and contact them to schedule shooting of any needed footage of facilities.
  4. Students are advised to Contact MediaTech services to borrow a video camera (if needed) at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/mtss and to schedule time with a Digital Commons consultant to learn how to operate the camera (if needed): digitalcommons.psu.edu/
  5. When the video is complete, students upload video to YouTube and tag it with 'marketing422'.

Skills Utilized

  • Demonstration
  • Storytelling
  • Teamwork

Equipment and Software Used

Duration of Assignment

The video production phase last several week

Grading Process

The video is graded as a component of the larger client marketing plan project. Teams which complete a video are allowed to submit a shorter written research paper.