Students

Agribusiness students market Arizona-grown product

Students from the Morrison School of Agribusiness at ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Businessparticipated in the National Agri-Marketing Association’s (NAMA) national marketing competition held April 15 – 16 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Renee Hughner

2015-05-26

Reprinted from the Arizona Food Industry Journal, a publication of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance. Dr. Renee Hughner is an associate professor in the Morrison School of Agribusiness at ASU's W. P. Carey School of Business.

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Students from Arizona State University’s Morrison School of Agribusiness participated in the National Agri-Marketing Association’s (NAMA) national marketing competition held April 15 – 16 in Kansas City, Missouri.  The competition involves developing a marketing plan for an agricultural product or service. Students spent the spring semester conducting market research, writing the marketing plan and developing a presentation.

Students decide on a project and develop a plan to successfully bring the product or service to the marketplace.  In developing their marketing plan, students follow the same practices and principles used by today’s marketing professionals.  Teams submit a written plan summary prior to the competition and then make a formal presentation of their marketing plan to a panel of judges at the competition.  The judges’ panel consists of marketing and agribusiness professionals.

“Every team participating in the marketing competition does an excellent job of developing a thorough marketing plan,” said Randy Happel, NAMA Careers Committee Chair.  “This competition is a great opportunity for marketing students to put their education into practice.  Each year I am amazed by the talent of these teams.  They’re truly an awesome group that we hope will continue in Ag marketing as they begin their professional careers.”

Overall, 28 student NAMA teams/universities participated in the marketing competition.  The competition is part of the National Agri-Marketing Association’s annual conference and trade show.  Nearly 400 students attended the conference.

“The marketing competition is a great learning experience for students and provides them with some really good practical experience,” said Renée Hughner, the ASU team’s advisor and professor in ASU's Morrison School of Agribusiness.

The Arizona State University NAMA team had five students, comprised of Agribusiness and Food Industry Management majors, who worked on this year’s project, which entailed developing a marketing plan for a packaged, heat-graded, fresh jalapeño pepper.  Knorr Farms, a local chili pepper grower based in Maricopa, Arizona, provided this year’s new product idea. Knorr Farms, already a large supplier of jalapeño peppers to the food manufacturing industry, is seeking to expand into the retail channel.  They shared their plans with the students and charged them with the task of developing a marketing plan.

The students, excited about the product’s potential and believing strongly in their plan, worked with AFMA to set up an actual sales call to Bashas’.  “This is an incredible experience. I love the idea of being able to help a local grower and have the opportunity to present what we’ve worked on all semester.” stated Colton Hernandez, a senior Agribusiness major and member of the ASU NAMA team.

Director of Produce Operations for Bashas’, Scott Schuette, was duly impressed. Arizona consumers may just be seeing a new product in the produce section. The tagline the ASU students developed for the jalapeños, “How hot? You decide.” represents the product’s value proposition — and soon Arizona consumers may get the opportunity to decide just how hot they want their jalapeños!

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