Marketing Students Gearing Up to Promote Honda Insight

“We’ve been able to come together as a team and share a lot of great ideas on how to target our market and really get the word out there about the newly designed Honda Insight,” said Jennifer L. Smith, one of the students in the class.

For the class, students have developed a fully functional marketing team called Red and White (R.A.W.) Concepts. “This campaign teaches students what it’s like to run a real life marketing agency and campaign for a highly publicized product. Not only does it teach everyone how to implement all of the marketing techniques that are learned in classes, but it gives them experience in all areas of business, from entrepreneurship to basic budgeting and finance. This is one of the best opportunities that these students have to gain real life experience in any NC State class,” Kimbrough stated in a press release.

The group’s campaign, entitled “Boost Your ECO”, is “designed to increase awareness of and excitement for the Insight, positioning it as a ‘must-have’ in the minds of the Generation Y target market.”

The class of 45 students was broken up into six different groups to handle different sectors of the marketing project. Separate “departments” were responsible for reports and presentation, research, campaign strategy, public relations, advertising, and finance. Two agency coordinators served as management heads of the whole agency.

The groups have already begun work on different phases of the campaign. The research department obtained over 600 responses from NC State’s student body, detailing what they knew about hybrid vehicles. To obtain an accurate sample, the research department surveyed all of the different colleges, not just the College of Management. Once the results of the research were in, the campaign strategy department began to design a campaign. So far, the public relations team has created a contact list, two press releases, and a media kit. “The campaign has been designed, some of the details are still being worked out, but we know the big idea,” Smith said.

One of the biggest challenges that the agency has been facing so far is the communication dilemma. Smith said, “Our entire agency consists of 45 students and it is very hard to get everyone together because everyone has such busy schedules, so we’ve been dependent upon email as our main form of communication. At times this is difficult, especially when we have strict deadlines.”

The knowledge and skills the students have learned in College of Management classes have come in handy now that they are applying classroom principles in a more practical environment.

“I think each student is getting a different experience based on their skill level and position within the program,” Smith said. “Personally, I have been getting a lot of public relations experience. I am also one of the leaders of the department, so I have been gaining leadership and teamwork skills.”

At this phase in the process, the agency is already learning valuable lessons about teamwork. Smith said, “The success of this marketing campaign depends on the performance of every person in the agency. Also, we’ve learned to be proactive about meeting deadlines in order to make progress toward implementing our campaign.”

Related Events

R.A.W. Concepts is hosting the following two events to promote the Honda Insight on the NC State campus. Both events will include food, games, prizes, and performances by the NCSU Clogging Team, the Fusion Dance Team, and local hip-hop performers Bryce Snow and DJ Lil Bee.

• Tuesday, October 27: information/display on the Brickyard, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Honda Insight will be on display.

• Thursday, October 29: information/display at Harris Field, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Honda Insight will on display.

The marketing campaign will conclude after these events. The agency will then conduct post-campaign surveys regarding the success of their venture in capturing its target audience.

About the Honda Insight Marketing Competition

NC State University is one of 21 universities across the United States (and the only one in North Carolina) participating in this competition, which is sponsored by Edventure Partners, Honda, and Honda’s advertising agency, Rueben Postaer. Each participating school was provided with a $2,500 campaign budget. The goal of this year’s campaign is to increase awareness of the vehicle within the Generation Y market. At the end of the semester, these schools will compete to show their ideas to a panel of Honda executives in a formal presentation. The top three teams will participate in a final competition for a chance to win a $5,000 donation for the college. The competition will be held in Los Angeles, Calif.