WHEN Iffath Sultana started teaching a marketing management course at Jeddah’s Dar Al-Hekma college, she wanted to give her students a real, practical, hands-on experience in marketing. Sultana did not just employ the normal black board method of teaching; instead she organized a fair where students could design and market their own unique products. Sultana divided her class into 10 different teams and asked them to think of an idea that would sell. Marketing Mania @ DAH, which runs until Jan. 14, was the venue where students would get to develop their marketing skills.
Essentially a project for the community (the general public is free to attend), it gives the students invaluable experience while also teaching them a bit about social responsibility.
“The purpose of the event is to reinforce the theoretical knowledge of the marketing process and marketing strategies given in class by an experiential learning process. The other important objective is to enable students to appreciate the importance of social responsibility, and they experience this by donating the profits to the scholarship students’ fund and Gaza,” said Sultana.
Each group presented its own innovative products, complete with details on prices, packaging and advertising. For the promotional strategy, the groups chose a name for their product, created logos, slogans and banners. Some groups took on an existing product and marketed it with their own twist while other groups availed themselves of more creative ideas. The students are applying various marketing strategies they have learned throughout the semester, such as brand building, pricing and promotions.
While some stalls had the usual food and clothing for sale, the students did make an effort to add some creativity. One such attempt was a giant towering chocolate fountain where buyers could dip strawberries, marshmallows and other edibles.
“The students are selling their products directly and they are showing us the skills of marketing and selling. This also allows them to use knowledge gained in the class and apply it to the industry. The students have been in touch with many companies in order to get sponsors and in the process have made a lot of contacts,” she said.
Shaima’a Shihab, a Management Information System student in her junior year, is one of the students participating in the event. Her group offers T-shirt printing. Playing on a relatively common idea, the girls think they have a market and are even considering starting their own business.
“The main idea of the project is that the client chooses the color of the T-shirt and the logo and we do the printing,” said Shihab.
“We are taking orders and delivering the T-shirts the second day at a cost of SR25 per T-shirt,” she added.
Another group project involved selling fresh smoothies made by the students themselves. “Smoothielicious is the name of our company. We have six kinds of smoothies and we are selling the smoothie for SR10. So far we have profited and 50 percent of the profits are going to Gaza,” said Nadine Al-Girim, one of the students working on the project. Arabian Gulf Manufacturing LTD. and SADAFCO are sponsoring the project.
Kholoud Madhar, a sophomore participating in the event explained her “wacky pictures” project. The students brought in huge cardboard cutouts of famous cartoon characters with their faces cut out. The idea was to allow people to pose as their favorite cartoons characters.
“We also have an area where we can take photos with funky hats and accessories,” she said. “One of the student’s father helped us with the large cartoon banners,” Madhar added.
Marketing Mania @ DAH runs until Jan. 14 everyday from 9 am to 3 pm.
