{"id":58859,"date":"2012-04-19T08:24:55","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T12:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=58859"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:13:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:13:59","slug":"marketing-to-generation-y","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/04\/marketing-to-generation-y\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing to Generation Y"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A student checks out a Honda Civic Coupe. The car was on campus over the weekend in connection with a marketing campaign being developed by a class in the School of Business.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A marketing class in UConn\u2019s School of Business is one of 20 in the country selected to put together a marketing plan to help Honda motors reach Generation Y consumers and convince them to slide into a Honda Civic Coupe when they\u2019re ready for their next car purchase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great learning experience,\u201d says Ashley Greenwood, a UConn senior and head of public relations for one of six teams the students set up. \u201cIt\u2019s not every day a course gives you a real budget to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The budget \u2013 $3,000 \u2013 comes from Honda, which is hoping that the students, from colleges in different regions of the country, can provide valuable research on how they can reach Generation Y consumers, a market that doesn\u2019t relate to Honda\u2019s \u201csuits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Honda\u2019s perspective, this allows the market to talk to the market. They [Honda] can\u2019t do that,\u201d says Tony Sgro, founder and CEO of EdVenture Partners<\/a>, a firm that connects universities with corporations that need help with certain aspects of business, and provides hands-on learning for students. Since its founding 22 years ago, the firm has connected companies to more than 100,000 students.<\/p>\n

\"Marketing<\/a>
Marketing students tout the appeal of the Honda Civic Coupe to their peers at a table set up in South Campus during Southapalooza. The campaign is part of a nationwide competition sponsored by Honda.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are 40 students in UConn\u2019s integrated marketing communications class. When they received the Honda job, they first created their own firm, The Brand Storrs, then developed six \u2018departments\u2019 to handle different aspects of the semester-long project, much of which is done on their own time.<\/p>\n

Greenwood says the advertising department is the largest. \u201cThey really have to be, since their creative ideas are what drives our marketing campaign,\u201d she says. Other departments include public relations, research, campaign strategy and implementation, finance, and reports and presentation.<\/p>\n

On April 24, a team from Honda will visit Storrs to review The Storrs Brand\u2019s presentation. Other Honda executives will review presentations at other colleges, and leaders of the three best plans will be flown to the car maker\u2019s Southern California headquarters, wined and dined for several days, then given 25 minutes to present their concept a second time. All three teams will be awarded a monetary prize.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether The Storrs Brand is invited to California, instructor Maxim Polonsky says it will be an experience the students will remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very confident they will be very happy,\u201d says Polonsky. \u201cThe gratification is usually very high after an effort like this, even higher the harder they work. They\u2019ve never done anything of this magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>
Students with T-shirts bearing the slogan developed by a marketing class.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The students are certainly using marketing methods that would appeal to a younger crowd: posters, Facebook<\/a>, video ads for YouTube, and a campaign theme \u2013 Hook Up With Honda \u2013 that has ties to the collegiate experience and lingo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very modern, very professional campaign,\u201d says Polonsky. \u201cEven the music is original.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also running an advertising campaign to select Mr. Honda, asking students for a videotape pitching themselves as the personification of one of Honda\u2019s themes \u2013 stylish and sleek, ecofriendly, strong, efficient, and tech savvy. Four winners will be selected for the $100 prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re using the Mr. Honda competition as another way to try and get students involved and to gain awareness of the campaign on campus,\u201d says Greenwood.<\/p>\n

Polonsky says in the end, it all comes down to marketing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re learning that everything is connected,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s really a great deal. They\u2019re learning how to work with others, and they\u2019re learning that when you\u2019re part of a team some people don\u2019t work as hard as others. It gets them stressed out. It\u2019s a lot of work. But in the end it will all be worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially if they wind up in California next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A marketing class is competing with schools around the country in developing a plan to help Honda market to Generation Y consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":58826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[37],"class_list":["post-58859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 06:21:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58859"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58872,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58859\/revisions\/58872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/58826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58859"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=58859"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=58859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}