Marketing honours students – work and PLAY during lockdown

Posted on September 14, 2020

The Department of Marketing Management partnered with Amka Products (Pty) Ltd in a project where the BCom (Hons) Marketing Management students worked on the deodorant brands of Playboy and Playgirl. This collaboration provided the honours students with an opportunity to work on a real life challenge with an industry partner for their Strategic Marketing module.
 
Due to the nationwide lockdown, the project as initially envisioned had to take a different format. Amka Products jumped on board and together with the Department of Marketing Management, decided on a way forward that would result in a valuable learning opportunity for the students.
 
The Marketing Management students were introduced to Amka Products in a virtual session hosted on Zoom on 13 May 2020. Jack Kruger (Marketing Manager of Fragrances), Mbali Sithole (Senior Brand Manager of Playboy/Playgirl) and Zaweer Ebrahim (Assistant Brand Manager) joined in the session. The Amka team provided the students with background information on the company, as well as brand-specific statistics on Playboy and Playgirl deodorants. This provided the students with enough information to enable them to start with the project.
 
The main objectives of the project were to develop an experiential in-store campaign with the goal of increasing sales, and to develop a digital marketing campaign with the goal of increasing brand awareness for Playboy and Playgirl. As part of the project, students also had to conduct a competitor analysis, SWOT analysis and profile the target market.
 
Leading up to the exam, the students had an opportunity to run their ideas by the Amka team in a virtual soundboard session, also hosted on Zoom. During the online session, the Amka team provided students with feedback on whether they were on the right track with their projects.
 
Students presented their final projects to a panel from Amka, advertising, promotions and design agency Limelight SA, and the University of Pretoria. The panel members were Mr Mohamed Kalla (General Manager of Fragrance), Mr Jack Kruger and Mr Zaweer Ebrahim from Amka,  two representatives from Limelight SA, Mr Bruno Quebra (Managing Director) and Ms Mignon Fine (Account Director), and the Strategic Marketing  lecturer Dr Danita van Heerden. The presentations took place on 24 June 2020 and the panel was quite impressed by the students’ hard work and creativity.
 
Amka Products recognised the efforts of the students and awarded the top three teams with prizes:
 
Winning team: The Future of Fragrance: Courtney Locke, Mahle Sijovu and Kyle Williamson. Below is a picture taken during the winning team’s presentation on Zoom.
 
Runners up: OutPlay: Keabetswe Kgwele, Daniela Schutte and Carla Vos. Below a screengrab of the presentation by team OutPlay
 
Third prize: The Paly-Team: Nadine de Bruyn, Francois Engelbrecht and Elria Kruger. Below a screengrab during the presentation by The Play-Team with Mr Jack Kruger from Amka in the top right-hand corner.
 
- Author Department of Maketing Management

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