Strategic communication students create campaign for JCPenney
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Fort Worth, TX
3/29/2011
By Heather Noel, TCU Daily Skiff
TCU students in the strategic communication ad competition course have worked throughout the fall and spring semesters researching and constructing a marketing campaign for JCPenney, the sponsor of the 2011 National Student Advertising Competition.
The course is team-taught by Stacy Landreth Grau, an associate professor of professional practice in the Neeley School of Business, and Bill Johnson, an instructor in the Schieffer School of Journalism. Students from both the Neeley and Schieffer schools participated in the class, Grau said.
As part of the marketing competition, JCPenney presented a case study to the students, who then divided up into teams to cover various aspects of the campaign like media planning, account planning, creative aspects, digital aspects and strategy and promotion, Grau said.
Dessa Lambert, a senior advertising and public relations major, said the class worked to create a marketing campaign including advertisements for television, print and digital platforms. The students then designed the entire marketing campaign, from research to decisions on how and where advertisements would appear, she said.
The students will send a 32-page written version of the proposed campaign to judges in early April and will give a 20-minute presentation at the district competition April 13-15 in Oklahoma City, Okla., she said. The top two finishers out of the 19 schools competing in the district competition will move on to the national competition in June, she said.
The course was designed to resemble a marketing or advertising agency, she said. Lambert served as the account manager of the new business team, she said, which managed all the teams and ensured the long-term goals of the campaign remained clear.
Lambert said students on the class's digital team monitored the company's Twitter and Facebook accounts every couple of days. She said it was exciting to work with a client that already engaged in social media.
Grau said social media has resulted in companies interacting with consumers on a more personal level.
Kate Coultas, corporate communications manager for JCPenney, wrote in an email that from posts and polling to contests and promotion, Facebook has provided a variety of ways for corporations like JCPenney to communicate with customers.
“Social media is a great way to engage with our customers and invite new customers to discover JCPenney,” Coultas wrote.
Jacqueline Lambiase, associate professor of strategic communication, said she believed this interaction with customers requires time and resources from any company who uses social media.
Lambiase is not involved with the ad competition class, she said, but teaches her students about social media's use in the business world. She said she believed as more companies turned to social media, they would demand more employees with social media knowledge.
“It's a great opportunity I think for students at TCU who are in strategic communications or in marketing to try to get some great experience while they're here,” Lambiase said. “Then I think they can easily find a job because companies and organizations are turning to [social media] more and more.”
Although social media would remain an important part in engaging customers, Coultas wrote JCPenney would continue its television and print marketing initiatives.
“Our social marketing initiatives are part of an overall integrated marketing approach,” she wrote in the email.
Lambert said students also looked at other digital platforms like JCPenney's iPhone application which launched in 2009. The applications included alerts on sales, events and other promotional messages, according to the JCPenney website.
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