The Hillsdale County Fair, “the most popular fair on earth,” may find a bit more popularity with the help of a student marketing team.
Every spring semester, students from the advanced computer graphics and advertising classes team up to help small businesses in downtown Hillsdale to create marketing and advertising plans.
Not only do the students spend nearly all semester working on the project, but they also provide quality advertising and design ideas for free.
The process starts with Associate Professor of Marketing Susan King, who goes into town to find businesses who are looking for a communication strategy. This year, four businesses are participating, a larger number than usual: the Hillsdale County Fair Grounds, the City of Hillsdale Recreation Department, Layman’s Service Center, and Maggie Anne’s.
Students from both classes team up and are matched to a business, with two to four students from the King’s advertising class and one student from Professor of Art Bryan Springer’s advanced graphic design class. The teams then meet with their business, ask them questions about budget, styles, pain points, and what kind of advertising they are looking for.
“There’s no cost to the client,” King said. “A lot of businesses uptown don’t have a logo, some of them don’t have websites. We’re just making suggestions on ways they can better their promotional efforts.”
“The advertising team comes up with what the methods of communication ought to be, including billboard ads, print ads,” Springer said. “The creative team will evaluate the identity materials as they relate to the public in a cohesive exciting visual manner, to create more striking visuals.”
The students are in charge of the whole process from there. They begin with research about the markets in Hillsdale, and demographic and psychographic statistics which help them know what kind of advertising and designs work and which don’t. Hillsdale relies heavily on billboards, brochures, print ads, and radio ads for communication. The students also work within a budget set by the business.
The businesses in Hillsdale often do not have logos, letterheads, or websites that are as effective as they could be. King said this is typical of small businesses.
“They’re looking for ways, even if they’re doing a good job, to potentially improve what they are doing,” she said. “Just being a small business person, you’re the janitor, the bookkeeper, the person who orders things, you stock shelves, you’re the salesman. Marketing is just another task that has to be accomplished with a plethora of other things.”
Katie Gordon ’14 took King’s advertising class last spring. She now works with Flight Path Creative, a full-service communications firm in Traverse City, Michigan. She worked with the Hillsdale County Chamber of Commerce and provided suggestions for redesigning their website, logo, and brochures.
“Basically an entire rebrand for their organization,” Gordon said. “I had a great experience learning about what their organization stands for, and really bringing their mission statement to life through their brand which is a lot of what marketing and advertising is about.”
Senior Rachel Fernelius is currently enrolled in the graphics class. She will work with the Hillsdale County Fair Grounds to revamp their website, social media, and possibly create a logo for the fair. Because the fair caters to many different audience, Fernelius hopes to discover what advertising works for which audiences, and how to utilize that information.
She hopes to take a nontraditional approach by focusing on the big entertainment that the fair brings in. King said the challenge is how to maximize results on a limited budget, especially because the fair is a nonprofit.
The students present their final projects at the end of the semester to the clients, who are always pleased. Though the businesses do not always directly or immediately use student suggestions, they may use it later on in different ways. It is costly to redesign and reproduce a logo after all. But the businesses win, because they walk away with a solid marketing strategy that they did not have before.
The real-world experience that the students gain is also invaluable, and they have work to contribute to their portfolios. Such professional experience with teams and businesses helps students to land jobs.
“It really is a benefit to the students,” King said. “Yes businesses get something out of it, but the students I almost think get something more.”