The Wall Street Journal is working to be more relatable.
Challenged with working on a creative new outlook on the brand known for wanting people to “read ambitiously” students started working on the campaign before the fall term.
NCC students this year involved in the AMA Case Competition were assigned to work with the Wall Street Journal as their marketing client. In helping to create an IMC plan, students placed in the top 10 out of 90 other colleges competing.
In the top 10 are schools such as Providence College, University of Pennsylvania, Texas State University and others.
NCC has placed in the top 10 three of the last six years they have been a part of the case competition. Other campaigns were for eBay and Hershey’s Take Five bar.
According to Donnavieve Smith, associate professor of marketing, this year’s competition was different because students revised their established logo and position statement. The process of the case project spanned over several months.
Becoming a part of the case team was a selective process. Students had to meet with Smith and interview about their interest in the competition.
“They did some work before school started, they worked on examining situational analysis,” said Smith. “At school, we reviewed the basic concepts and theories mentioned in marketing courses to ensure everyone is on the same page. From there, they work to create their creative ideas by studying the positioning statement and logo.”
Students were able to get hands-on experience with adapting a business’ marketing strategy. They discussed communication objectives, marketing objectives and a creative plan. Other aspects the students worked on in putting together the document were aspects like commercials and social media.
According to Julia Pachla, ’19, the company they would be working with was released in August. The AMA competition was Business 370, a Tuesday, Thursday course in the fall. Students worked through the second week of D-term until submitting on Dec. 5.
“Every year is different, but this year the Wall Street Journal wanted to change our generation’s and student’s perspectives of Wall Street and try to get more students to use it,” said Pachla. “Our challenge was to try and redo their marketing plan to change the perception of Generation Z and make it more personable with that generation.”
Pachla worked on researching our generation and what they’re into the get a better understanding of how to craft the Wall Street Journal’s marketing plan.
The project involved long hours as well as a team-driven spirit.
“We know how group projects in class work, but that’s just a one-time thing. This was a whole marketing process and everything is done in a team in marketing,” said Pachla.
According to Smith, students working on the project had a wide range of different skills. It created a better sense of a group dynamic.
Jimmy Bright, ’19, worked with new students involved in the team.
“I had done the case competition last year, so this year I was appointed a part of the Integrated Marketing Communications team to guide the others since they were new. My team and I wrote a big bulk of the paper and designed a lot of the graphics for the plan,” said Bright.
Bright said the process was a great experience because it covers a lot of aspects of a good marketing department. The process went right up to the deadline and involved student work during D-term.
“The last weekend it was due I worked over 30 hours to finish everything with Julia before submitting. We worked on it to the very last second,” said Bright.
The whole process stands out when hunting for jobs.
“The students have garnered hands-on experience that they can use if they intern at a marketing company… They are exposed to advertising and to developing web-based strategies and more importantly, they work as a group. They get a better sense of group projects and group dynamics,” said Smith.
Students will present their findings in front of Wall Street Journal executives on April 11 at an international conference. The top finalists will all share their findings here. Other students will compete in individual competitions of different marketing placements.
