A team of Tulane MBA’s have landed as finalists in Barnes & Noble’s marketing contest for Nook Study, its new digital textbook reading software. The team traveled to New York to present the recommendations at Barnes & Noble headquarters.
The marketing plan developed by the team was one of several projects to come out of adjunct professor of marketing Kim Davis’ Marketing Planning and Implementation class, in which MBA students act as consultants and develop and implement targeted marketing plans for clients.
The class helps students combine market research and field research to come up with innovative and customized plans to help actual businesses.
“We started by interviewing professors and students to understand the existing perceptions, needs and wants in the academic community for this software,” says Tom Connor, a member of the Nook Study team. Others on the student team that traveled to New York to make the presentation in late April included John Padavan, Will Marshall, Bill Laird and Dare Mangus-Lawson.
“The big idea was to change B&N’s marketing from a rational base to an emotional one … using scholarships and giveaways, cause marketing, on-campus events and even the creation of useful mobile apps.”
Good luck to the team! You can learn more about the competition here.