The Department of Marketing Management at the University of Pretoria is partnering with the Heartfelt Arena, an event-hosting organisation based in Pretoria, as part of the students’ practical project at honours level. The partnership will see the Marketing Management honours students working with the Heartfelt Arena team on various projects over the course of the year, under the leadership of Mr Thinkwell Ndhlovu and Dr Gene van Heerden. The final outcome of this partnership is an event to be hosted at the Heartfelt Theatre in September 2019.

 

The initiative was developed into a student project following a meeting between Prof Yolanda Jordaan (Head of the Department of Marketing Management) and Mr Eugene Pienaar (Public Officer of Heartfelt Arena) and his team. Thereafter, the honours students were taken on a brief tour of the Arena and were briefed on the challenge for the project.

 

The main objective of the partnership is to combine the Heartfelt team’s event-planning knowledge and skills with the students’ ideas to develop and plan the newly renovated Heartfelt Arena’s launch. As part of the preparation for this event, student teams are required to critically review the brand and its position as currently presented to event organisers. This exercise will equip the students with necessary skills on rebranding, project management and event organising.

 

The students were excited when informed about the project during an introduction session by the Heartfelt Arena team (see picture below).

 

Heartfelt Arena team introducing the project to the Marketing Management students

(From left to right: Caitlin McLeroth, Marilie La Grange, Thebe Letshabo, Eugene Pienaar and Karabo Malatji)

 

This industry project requires the students to work on various marketing aspects, and challenges students to apply their marketing knowledge to concepts including situational analysis, target market, positioning, branding and rebranding. Various deliverables and presentations were planned for the student teams in preparation for the exam presentation, where the event idea and plan will be presented to an industry panel.

In preparing the students for the final deliverable of the project, the Heartfelt Arena team has provided feedback throughout the project. Below is a picture showcasing two of the Heartfelt Arena team members (Karabo Malatji and Marilie La Grange) during their guest lecture presentation on events planning to the students.

 

From left to right: Karabo Malatji and Marilie La Grange giving a guest lecture on event planning to Marketing Management honours students.

 

We look forward to an exciting event, which should do justice to the module “Marketing in practice”.