Creative Marketing Students Learn Teamwork, Recycling Through Class Project

Dr. Marco Wolf's class learned more than creative marketing while working on a project for the Harrison County Beautification Commission. The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast students also learned important lessons about recycling and working together as a team.

Wolf, assistant professor of marketing at Southern Miss Gulf Coast, and his students met with Beautification Director Jenna Weatherford for a class project that would bring recycling awareness to Harrison County. The class worked together to develop a marketing plan that was presented to Weatherford at the end of the fall semester.

“I am beyond impressed,” said Weatherford. “The students did an amazing job and I have so many ideas now. They provided really great examples for designs and put a creative spin on a festival that the commission has been thinking about organizing.”

During the students' presentation, Weatherford was not only introduced to creative marketing ideas, she was presented with information about target audience, budget and public relations tactics researched by the students. Following the presentation, the students provided Weatherford with their marketing plan, featuring all of their ideas and research, organized in a binder.

Wolf felt there were three major lessons in creative marketing that his students learned during this project. The first lesson was feeling the pressure and understanding the needs of an actual client who depended on their work. Another lesson was that the students would have tolearn to trust their instincts and be confident in their suggestions. Lastly, Wolf believed his class learned an important lesson in teamwork. By coming together as a team, the students were able to develop many more creative solutions for their client's needs.

“After listening to our client when she first visited our class, she gave a presentation on what the commission was doing and the limited budget they had to work with,” said student Joe Dierking, a senior marketing major from Waveland. “We think that these ideas we put together, and keeping the limited budget in mind, could work for the commission.”

In addition to the lessons in creative marketing, the class also learned the importance of recycling – a message the Harrison County Beautification Commission strives to teach residents. Student Christina Carter, a senior business management major from Gulfport, said she feels recycling is important and not enough people are aware of this.

“Our focus for this project was to spread awareness to the public to better understand recycling and beautification. This is something that people should be aware of, especially living in a popular tourist destination.”

For more information about Dr. Marco Wolf's creative marketing class project, call 228.865.4573.