Rutgers students gain experience, companies get help at no cost

"I knew, from the first meeting we had, that these people had lots of experience that would be useful to us."
 
– Christian Tomsich, head of business development, Voices Inc.

Most startup businesses fail, often because they have misread the market. Clearly, startups need marketing plans. But marketing plans cost money, a commodity in short supply among startups.

Matthew Weber, an assistant professor of communication in the School of Communication and Information offers a solution: 25 marketing specialists who work for free. Who could say no to that?

Weber and doctoral student Allie Kosterich teach a media, marketing and communications class that takes on real clients and provides them with comprehensive marketing plans.

“My approach is pragmatic,” Weber says. “The class is aimed at communication majors, mostly seniors. We give them a crash course in marketing and then they work with a real client. It’s true to life. You never know what kind of client you’ll get.”

This semester, Weber’s group worked with Voices, an audience response company whose service permits real-time polling of audiences through their cell phones; Kosterich’s students worked with Thuzio, a startup that provides companies with access to celebrity “market influencers.” The class' work concentrated on Thuzio's flagship product, Thuzio 360. Thuzio is based in New York City; Voices, in Hoboken, New Jersey.

The classes brought theory together with real-world experience – and that experience didn’t always come from the clients. Most of the students had worked in business, either as interns or employees, and they brought that experience to bear on their clients’ businesses.

“I knew, from the first meeting we had, that these people had lots of experience that would be useful to us,” said Christian Tomsich, head of new business development at Voices.

Weber
Matthew Weber, assistant professor of communication, School of Communication and Informatin

The students divided themselves into task groups, focusing on such topics as market analysis, competitive analysis and customer acquisition. In Kosterich’s class, the leaders of each group coalesced into a sort of ad hoc leadership team; in Weber’s class, two students, Alexis Tosti and Kristen Paulsen, took charge by common consent, led discussions, enforced deadlines and ultimately presented the plan to the client.

Weber and Kosterich offered guidance, on everything from strategy to the color of the PowerPoint slides in the presentations and how to dress when presenting the plans to the clients. They also did their best to empower their students throughout the semester.

"Remember, it’s your prerogative to tell them (the client) that they’re barking up the wrong tree,” Weber told his class when several members thought Voices might be doing just that.

kosterich
Allie Kosterich, doctoral student in the School of Communication and Information.
Photo: Nat Clymer

The marketing plans were comprehensive, identifying customers and competitors, potential allies, tactics for finding new customers and for keeping present ones. The students conducted online surveys of potential customers – in Thuzio’s case, advertising and public relations agencies, corporate marketers and event planners. The survey showed there were many companies that need a quick, easy way to find exactly the right celebrity to speak, post or tweet on their behalf. Thuzio, whose platform makes it easy to sort, identify and contact influencers, is cheaper and more efficient than traditional booking agencies, the students found. The students urged Thuzio to make itself known by establishing personal, continuing relationships with potential customers: attend conferences and conventions, improve search engine optimization, offer discounted initial subscriptions and above all, stay in touch.. Each customer should have an account manager, and that manager should be calling, emailing, posting and tweeting Thuzio’s continuing care. “No news is not good news,” the students’ report said.

For Voices, Weber’s students cited as an advantage the  simplicity of its audience response system  that allows everyone at, say, a sales conference to use a cell phone to dial in to a survey. No special equipment, no hand-clickers. The students’  research showed that this capability was unique to Voices and should be exploited by making everything about the company as simple as possible. They also found that one of Voices’ favorite target markets, higher education, was the wrong one. Colleges that use such systems already have them embedded, the students found, and the idea of instant polling in class is not always popular with professors. Better to aim at event planners, who reach across industries, and whose need for an efficient, simple and flexible system is clear.

The plan calls for Voices to promote itself more with social media, particularly with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and less with paid advertising and news stories, which require money and expertise the company doesn’t have and would have to hire.

“LinkedIn, we hadn’t even considered that,” Voices’ Tomsich said. “This is going to be very useful.”  


Media contact: Ken Branson, 848-932-0580; cell 908-797-2590; kbranson@ucm.rutgers.edu