12:03 am, December 4th, 2013. After countless revisions and pots of coffee, our marketing campaign for Boloco was FINISHED! At times, we thought it might never be ready for the 2013 Spring Collegiate MAXI Competition. With four months of hard work invested in the campaign, we felt exhilaration and relief as we sent the completed product to Professor Morris. Although we ran into a quite a few obstacles along the course of the project, the experience was worth the work, lost sleep and coffee.
Phase 1: Light Roast
When we first heard about the competition, Natasha, Kiersten and I were all excited for the opportunity. Designing a marketing campaign was pretty new to us, so we knew that there would be a lot of learning along the way. We considered the beginning of the process to be the easiest and most interesting part. Our task was to design a campaign for Boloco, a restaurant with locations in Washington D.C. and Bethesda, which specializes in “globally inspired burritos.” The restaurant seemed hip and urban and we figured that we would relate to their target demographic fairly well. Then, our team delved into the research portion of the project. We dug into as much as we could find about the surrounding areas of the Boloco locations, including the different environments, demographics, and consumer personalities. Research on the restaurant itself was conducted by discovering information about the history, the company culture, the products, programs and promotions they have done in the past; even how the customer service was according to their customers. Luckily, we also got the chance to visit the Washington D.C. location before we attended one of the “Lunch and Learns” through the Direct Marketing Association of Washington. All of this research gave us a better idea of how to relate to their customers-which is essential in the direct marketing industry.
Phase 2: Kona Blend
Our next task was to figure out how to interact with both the current and the new customers in such a way that would increased their loyalty to the Boloco brand. One of the more difficult ideas to come up with was the possible theme for our campaign. We really wanted to stress the importance of Integrated Marketing Communications and to relate each piece directly to the others. We created personas and placed ourselves in the customers’ shoes. Late one night, a creative breakthrough came upon us. Why not play off of a theme that Boloco already had (“globally inspired burritos”) and make it all about the customer? Let THEM choose. Finally! The “Your World. Your Pick. Your Boloco.” consumer empowerment campaign was born.
Phase 3: Dark Roast
With every great idea though, come some obstacles. After we discovered our theme, we began to have trouble narrowing down all of our ideas. We came up with countless ways that Boloco could promote their restaurant, offer discounts, host events, and develop innovative programs. A good portion of our ideas were great, but we needed to narrow them down into a marketing campaign that could actually be implemented.
Figuring out the budget for the campaign also gave us some trouble. Our team did not have much experience in this area. We had never applied a marketing budget to a real world situation before, so we had to put a lot of effort into making sure that everything added up the way it should.
Phase 4: The Bottom of the Pot!
The most important thing the MAXI competition taught us was how to successfully work as a team. Sure, we had all worked on group projects for other classes before, but creating this campaign required a lot more work and cooperation than we were used to. This was a real life situation for a thriving business. This competition also influenced our creativity. We ended up discovering that we all possessed graphic design skills! Who would have thought? Lastly, we learned just how satisfying it is to have our hard work pay off.
After all of the late nights, the countless ideas, the hours revising and editing, the occasional argument, and an alarming amount of coffee… we finally had a completed product that we all could take pride in. We will always remember the experience that working on this project gave us, the lessons that we learned along the way, and just how many cups of coffee it took to keep us up at night.
Written by:
Courtney Mulcahy. Marketing and Management major, Psychology minor at Salisbury University. Graduating in December 2014.
Edited by:
Natasha Cole. Marketing and Management major at Salisbury University. Graduating in May 2014.
Kiersten Durst. Marketing Major with a Dance Minor at Salisbury University. Graduating May 2014
Paula Morris. Marketing professor at Salisbury University.