​​​​Brenna Arslanian
Business Marketing Graduate
Project 1: Ecommerce Innovation
Develop and Launch a Unique Ecommerce Business
Description and Goals of Project
The goal of this project was to develop and launch an ecommerce business and website. This entailed coming up with a product, developing a business plan with a complete budget and marketing strategies, and creating and designing a website where one could buy the product. The project was also to be completed within a team setting.
My group developed a product and brand called S’mores Galore. S’mores Galore would be pre packaged, individually wrapped s’mores product. These could be bought individually, or in bulk. This product is targeted towards families and young people. While this product comes as a room temperature, mess free snack, it can also be put in the oven or used at beach bonfires to create an authentic s’mores experience. They could be taken in school lunches or used in special events as candy bar snacks or party favors.
Methodology, Findings, and Recommendations
The project was broken down and executed with the following sections in mind: target and positioning, suppliers, logistics, marketing communications, and strategies and recommendations.
Target and Positioning: S’mores Galore falls under the category of fast-moving consumer goods. It is targeted towards families and young adults. We are positioned specifically to be the only s’mores brand that features a variety of creative flavors.
Suppliers: All of the suppliers we chose for our products are local. By using local suppliers, we are able to produce our product faster and more efficiently.
Logistics: The logistics behind S’mores Galore includes details about the cost breakdown, procurement, inventory, order taking, packaging, order fulfillment, and our customer service plan. One clear advantage that my group had in this category is that our product has a long shelf life despite being a consumable. Also, the packaging is nice and simple so it can easily translate between a product for families and special events. S’mores Galore would also have a very understanding customer service plan.
Marketing Communications: This section included the website design and all marketing communications. The website is based around a craftsmen, family friendly feel. It is also important to note that the website is mobile friendly. S’mores Galore would use SEO and social media marketing to promote the company. The company would accomplish all of these things through platforms that provide marketing statistics, for example Google Adwords, Mail Chimp, and Hootsuite.
Strategies and Recommendations: S’mores Galore would increase brand awareness through various social media platforms. The company would also try to test out and analyze the statistics gained through online marketing platforms.
Personal Reflections and Contribution
It was my responsibility within the group to assist in creating and designing the website, and come up with a marketing strategy. Our entire group contributed equally with a presentation and the making of a video relating to S’mores Galore.
This was one of my favorite projects I did in college. I had a very helpful and supportive group that worked well together. It was also very helpful to go through the process of creating a business in its entirety. The thought of it can be rather intimidating, but once you break it down into steps it becomes less daunting. Overall, this project was a fantastic learning experience.
Project 2: Internet Persona
Start a Social Media Marketing Campaign With a Model Target Persona in Mind
Description and Goals of Project
In this project, we were to conduct a social media marketing campaign within a group. This marketing campaign was to be targeted towards a certain target persona, based off of a Cal State Fullerton student. The end goal was to drive traffic towards Cal State Fullerton Marketing Department social media accounts. As a result, more people would be directed from these accounts to the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics website.
Groups within the class would be in charge of certain social media accounts for the business college in different intervals. During these time frames, we were responsible for creating posts on social media accounts that related to marketing and the interests of our target personas. These social media accounts included Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, and LinkedIn.
Methodology, Findings, and Recommendations
This social media campaign was based off of a target persona who is very accomplished. She is in her third year in college. She has a double major and is part of a social sorority and is the president of a business fraternity. Our focus was to create content that would appeal to people like our target persona. In order to do this, we posted articles and other sources that would help our target persona deal with stress, time management, and assist in a job search given their upcoming graduation.
After conducting the social media campaign over all six social media platforms, we concluded that our efforts over Facebook were the most successful. Facebook posts received the most response out of all of the platforms.
For improving future social media campaigns, our group had a few recommendations. We concluded that the campaign would be more successful if groups were able to post on many different social media platforms at once instead of being limited by time intervals. This way, target personas could be reached in a more consistent manner through all of the platforms. When conducting social media marketing campaigns, it is also useful to note that companies might want to keep their campaign names, social media handles, and hash tags short enough for people to remember. On certain platforms, long names and hash tags also used more characters that may be needed to post real content.
Personal Reflections and Contribution
This project was helpful, because it gave me experience using different social media platforms that I do not often use. It also motivated me to better plan out and organize future posts by requiring me to keep a calendar.
Aside from actual experience gained from the project itself, this project taught me a lot about group assignments and working in a group setting. I was the leader of the group. This allowed me to direct the project in whatever direction the group and I saw fit. At the same time, I learned a lot about what happens when there is dysfunction within a group setting. This group did have one member that did not participate as well in the group as the rest of us. As the group leader, I took it as my responsibility to get some of this member’s work done. Still, I was very lucky to have the other group members volunteer to help out when things were not running very smoothly. While the group situation was at times not ideal, I feel that I learned a lot about how to work with others to get projects done as efficiently as possible.
MARKETING PROJECTS
Business marketing students at Cal State Fullerton are exposed to many different real life experiences through marketing projects assigned in marketing classes.
Project 3: Casual Cuisine
Analyze the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Casual Dining Industry
Description and Goals of Project
Through this project, groups would choose an industry of their preference to perform a deep and detailed analysis on. This analysis includes identifying any trends and issues in the industry. Finances and key success factors were also analyzed. In the end, recommendations were made to improve business for the lowest performing firm.
The group I was in focused on the casual dining industry, which includes restaurants in between fast food and fine dining. Casual dining is usually defined by a relaxed environment, and a complete, moderately-priced menu. Customers at a casual dining restaurant are looking for a sit down meal that costs $15 per person on average, and is served to them by a wait staff.
Methodology, Findings, and Recommendations
The focus of the industry analysis was on the five main incumbents within the industry: Dine Equity (IHOP, Applebee’s), Darden Restaurants, Inc. (Olive Garden, Yard House), BJ’s Restaurants, Inc., The Cheesecake Factory, Inc., and Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. Among this group, Dine Equity is the top-performing restaurant and BJ’s is the bottom-performing restaurant.
Through the analysis, a few key success factors were recognized. The first being that Dine Equity is run off of a franchise ownership model, where they do not absorb a lot of costs but gain royalties. Cash flow generation was also found to be helpful to a company’s success. This allowed them to expand, and through expansion create even more cash flow in return. Differentiation also helped improve business. Many of the restaurants in the casual dining industry follow a cookie cutter format where they are all very similar from one restaurant to the next. Restaurants like Buffalo Wild Wings has found success through differentiating themselves as a high energy, sports oriented setting. Location is another aspect that can greatly affect business. Casual dining restaurants do not often have a popular following. Even when customers had a preference to a casual dining restaurant, they did not spend the majority of their money at one primary restaurant. Most of the time, casual dining restaurants are located in busy shopping centers by malls to gain business through foot traffic. Cost cutting abilities also allowed businesses to become more successful. This was characterized by decisions that could often cut costs in the long term. Last, the company’s ability to provide healthy options is important to their success. There is currently a trend within the restaurant industry that is veering towards healthy food options. These factors were all things that casual dining restaurants should consider in order to remain competitive.
After this analysis, our group had a few recommendations for the bottom-performing restaurant. These included things like taking on debt in order to expand their chain. Differentiating strategies like sourcing produce from local producers were also suggested to appeal to a healthier community. BJ’s also does not put much emphasis on marketing. It is suggested that they change this to bring awareness of new and upcoming offerings to their customers.
Personal Reflections and Contribution
My responsibility for this project was to come up with, write, and present about the recommendations our group had for the least profitable company in the casual dining industry, BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery. Of course this was accomplished with the help of the rest of my group.
This was another project where I had a very reliable group. Everyone worked well together, and did their assigned parts. Learning about and researching the casual dining industry was actually very interesting. It was personally, an industry that I never thought about or put much attention to. As it turns out though, the casual dining industry was very interesting to look at from a business perspective.