Classroom work for the real world

When the Seedling Group, founded by Penn graduates, needed help spreading its message, it naturally came back to its roots for aid. Students of Marketing 341, a capstone class for about 50 seniors with Marketing concentrations, are now helping the Boston-based start-up company reach its target audience -- college students. The Seedling Group networks business-minded students together to create a pool of young talent, which small companies can then tap into for a fee. Currently, Seedling is facing two challenges -- few students who attend its promotional events actually join the network, and other students simply are not aware of its existence or purpose. And now, over a year after starting up, Seedling is back in Philadelphia, getting a little help from the Wharton Marketing class to broaden their student base. "It was a no-brainer to come back to Penn," said Mindy Spire, a 2000 College grad, who directs college relations and marketing for Seedling. "Given our target audience, we felt the best way to reach students was by students," Spire added. Spire and Seedling are relying on Wharton's "Senior Conference," a project-based class which helps students use concepts learned in previous marketing classes to work for a specific client. The professor usually gathers a list of companies with real-world problems -- and it's up to the students to help formulate solutions. Projects focus either on executing plans or researching the marketing world. Current execution projects include the Seedling case, or working for Pontiac to put together a promotional event for the new Pontiac Aztek. For a research project, students are helping the University Museum of Archeology and Anthropology research how to develop a marketing campaign for Midas Touch, a beer drank at the funeral of King Midas in 700 B.C. and recreated by scientists. "Students will learn not only how to work on a live case, but also work for an outside client," said Marketing professor Christophe Van den Bulte, who teaches one of two sections of the class. Students in the class also appreciate the importance of working on a real case. "We have to answer to real people, rather than just apply theory," Wharton senior Erica Labovitz said. Indeed, their entire grade depends on their work on the project, which is not only graded by the professor, but also the company for which students help develop solutions. While other marketing classes are case-based, the cases in lower-level classes are more straightforward in comparison to the ones tackled by the senior groups. "It gives students the ability to solve unstructured problems," said Wharton Deputy Dean David Schmittlein, former chairman of the Marketing Department. Because the cases are less clear-cut, it requires a greater effort to solve each company's problem. "Some groups struggle with defining what exactly is the problem," Van den Bulte said. Students in the class also agreed that the first few weeks were tough. "We've learned so much in other classes, and we have to figure out which concepts apply best," Wharton senior Katie Strickland said. The process behind developing a solution lasts close to an entire semester, starting from the identification of the problem to proposed solutions. "It's really a synthesis of all concepts that we've learned such as consumer behavior and consumer research," said Wharton senior Steve Ludmer, who was among the founders of Seedling. To help create a proposal for Seedling, the Penn group has planned a series of promotional events with a variety of follow-ups to develop and gauge student interest. "We are looking for either those who have interest in launching their own businesses or those who are looking for careers other than traditional i-banking and consulting," Spire said.