Students tailor campaign to reach women in winning entry
A team of MBA students from the Anderson School of Management at UNM has won the 2006 national Cadillac Case Study Competition, held each year in Detroit, MI. This is the second year in a row that a UNM team has won the competition, and the first time in the history of the contest that a school has won two years in a row. The competition finals were held on May 25 and were judged by a panel of Cadillac executives and members of Cadillac’s marketing firm, Leo Burnett.
The Anderson School MBA team includes students Pedro Bonano, Logan Hall, Denisse Olivas, Melissa Valles, Patricia Plichta, and Joseph Weiss, and is mentored by Anderson Lecturer John Benavidez and Assistant Professor Catherine Roster. The project was conducted as part of Benavidez’s Marketing Communications Management class.
In 2005, the Anderson School MBA team won the competition with their plan to market Cadillacs to two distinct segments of baby boomers, beating out teams from Cal State Los Angeles, UCLA, Loyola University, Tulane University, University of Mississippi, University of Iowa, Clemson University, and others.
This year, UNM’s task was to research women aged 35 and older to better understand their beliefs and attitudes about Cadillac and Escalade. The UNM team conducted a national online research study. Using this research, the students then developed a marketing communications plan to engage their target audience using communication tools above and beyond traditional advertising.
“Women make up the majority of car buyers, even though most car companies don’t seem to target the female market. Our secondary research told us that women research and buy automobiles despite the traditional marketing, not because of it,” says team member Logan Hall.
“The team’s survey work told them that women respond better to campaigns that help them to develop relationships with brands through personal experiences. Also, women prefer messages that are relevant to their own lives. The UNM campaign focused on three specific life cycle stages: the single professional woman, the married woman, and the empty nest woman,” says Benavidez.
Media Contacts: Sophie Martin, (505) 277-7117; e-mail: martin@mgt.unm.edu or Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at May 31, 2006 04:44 PM