The BCom Honours (Marketing Management) class of 2021 at the University of Pretoria explored healthy living by partnering with consumer health and wellness company Nativa on two of its brands – Stress-Away and RadiCal. These two brands are very relevant during the stressful times that people are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This collaboration provided the Marketing Management honours students with an opportunity to work on a relevant and real-life challenge with an industry partner for their Strategic Marketing module.
The students completed this project as their final exam challenge, which aimed to drive brand equity and awareness of Stress-Away and Radical to ultimately increase sales of the two brands through the development of a digital marketing campaign. As part of the project, students also had to conduct a competitor analysis, SWOT analysis and profile the target market. The class was split into two groups at random, with one group working on RadiCal and the other on Stress-Away.
The project kicked off with a virtual session that took place on Zoom during which the Marketing Management students received an introduction to the challenge and background information on the brands from Nativa. They also met the Nativa team, consisting of Ronel Vorster (Head of the Nutrition Division), Ridwaan Kalla (Head of Division), and Lindie Pretorius (Senior Brand Manager of the Pharma Division) to discuss Stress-Away. Guy Rogers (Head of Division), Carla Yssel (Senior Brand Manager) and Rashmita Davechand (Brand Manager of the TIBB Division) joined to discuss RadiCal.
Before the final exam presentations on 27 October 2021, the students had an opportunity to run their ideas by the Nativa team in virtual soundboard sessions. The Nativa team provided the students with extremely helpful feedback and suggestions to improve on their final exam presentations. Hereafter students were sent off to complete their projects.
Students presented their final projects on 10 and 11 November to a panel consisting of the Nativa team and the Strategic Marketing lecturer, Dr Danita van Heerden. Once again, the students received insightful feedback from Nativa and a unique learning opportunity was created. Nativa praised the students for their creativity and strategic thinking.
Nativa awarded the top and runners-up teams for both brands with cash prizes. The student’s hard work did not go unnoticed.
Winning team Stress-Away: The Symptom Solvers
Anke Frenzel, Cameron Sathiah, Henru van der Merwe and Jason Engelbrecht
Below is a screengrab from the Symptom Solvers’ presentation on Zoom.
Runners-up Stress-Away: Tranquillity Trainers
Jani Nel, Nicole Joubert, Amy Njoroge and Chandi van Rooyen
Below is a screengrab from the Tranquillity Trainers’ presentation with Amy Njoroge
Winning team Radical: CENT Pharma Co
Chantelle Grobler, Emma-Leigh Torry, Nicholas Veale and Tialeigh Greyling
Below is a screengrab whilst team CENT Pharma Co is receiving feedback from Ronel Vorster (HOD from Nativa) and Dr Danita van Heerden
Runners-up RadiCal: Bones
Daniel Skirrow, Kristen Oldfield, Michke Terblanche and Sonja Adelaar
Below, a screengrab taken during team Bones’ exam presentation to Nativa
It was indeed an honour for the Department of Marketing Management at UP to work on the Nativa brands. We know that our students will benefit for many years to come with from the experienced gained during this project.
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