Marketing students participate in 2009 Pacific Rugby Cup Event

The Marketing students from the Faculty of Business & Entrepreneurship participated in the 2009 Pacific Rugby Cup tournament by assisting one of the event’s major sponsors Digicel. The students were involved from Round 1 game on Friday 24th April up to Round 5 held on Friday 23rd May.

This group project was a continuation of support from Digicel towards the development of Marketing Day held last year in October at NUS which was sponsored by Digicel.

This project was a combination of three class projects: HMK101 Principles of Marketing (entry level marketing course), HMK301 Direct Marketing and HMK302 Market Research (final year marketing courses). The course lecturers are Sasae Walter, Assistant Dean of FOBE and Jackie Curry-Malolo.

The main purpose of these practical projects is for students to be able to apply marketing principles from lectures to a “real life” marketing event & participate in the implementation phase of a marketing plan.

The first year Marketing students (HMK101) were given the tasks of analyzing different aspects of the event each week from a marketing perspective such as branding, sponsor presence, spectators, teams & players, promotions and of course the main game of the evening. The students’ feedback and recommendations were given to Digicel’s Sponsorship & Events Manager, Tui Hicks, to assist with planning marketing strategies for the following week’s game.

Ms Hicks expressed her enthusiasm toward involving the Marketing students in activating Digicel’s PRC sponsorship.

“Digicel always welcomes the opportunity to support education through any means. By utilizing the students, we not only had the advantage of more assistance for our sponsorship planning and activation, but it was especially rewarding knowing that it was also in aid of their course project” said Hicks.

The senior marketing students (HMK301 & HMK302) were responsible for coordinating the promotional activities and carrying out marketing research survey of the spectators. The first year marketing students assisted by handing out & collecting surveys as well as interviewing spectators.

The promotions consisted of the SRU rugby obstacle course which was the curtain raiser to the main game each week, as well as the half time Top Up & Kick for Cash promotion. The Direct Marketing students assisted by setting up the obstacle course, finding participants in the crowd for both promotions and assisting Digicel to carry out each promotion.

The Market Research class carried out surveys each week of the spectators and the students were able to collect over 150 completed questionnaires per game.

Students from all three courses also assisted both SRU and Digicel by setting up branding banners and other marketing materials each morning before the games commenced.

Ms Hicks expressed Digicel’s gratitude towards NUS and the Marketing students for being a part of their PRC experience.

“The enthusiasm in the students during the games made it pleasant to work with them during what can be an intense time. Digicel hopes to continue on this positive relation and utilize students for future events, adding a practical side to the theory studied,” she concludes.

The students thoroughly enjoyed their experience throughout the PRC tournament. They learnt about how to carry our promotional activities during an event, the importance and impact of branding and how to carry out a market research project. They were also able to participate in a fun event as part of their course assessments.

Overall the lecturers were impressed with the students’ level of commitment and teamwork during this event which contributed to a successful Pacific Rugby Cup Tournament for 2009.