Sunway University’s Marketing Society and its Business School recently organised a digital e-commerce and marketing execution marketplace exhibition that combined an entire semester’s assignment in e-commerce and marketing planning and execution subjects.
It was to enable students to synthesise the knowledge and skills learnt over the course of their studies and to prepare them for the real world.
The school’s senior marketing lecturer Dr Derek Ong Lai Teik said: “This is a stepping stone for students from the Business School to build confidence in the process of developing and presenting holistic, current and purposeful digital marketing plans.
“Despite having to juggle three other assignments on top of their final year thesis, I am impressed by the enthusiasm, effort and creativity that students have put into the exhibition,” he added.
Students worked in teams to sell their products online and engaged the e-commerce platform Shopee. The 25 teams that took part in the exhibition comprised of final year students from the Bachelor of Science (Hons) Business Management (BBM), Bachelor of Science (Hons)
Business Studies (BBS) and Bachelor of Science (Hons) Marketing (BMKT) programmes from the Sunway University Business School.
The BMKT students were required to develop an initial marketing plan at the start of semester while anticipating changes to the original marketing plan based on four different scenarios which included a social justice issue involving the Rohingya refugee crisis.
In order to gain superiority in market share and reputation through a new product, they had to come out with a reorganised plan to inject quick returns on their matured product while introducing a new product without damaging the brand perception and reputation. They were also required to include green initiatives associated with their brand.
BMKT programme student Tee Yung Aun said his group, Team Lannister was excited to turn abstract ideas into concrete actions. They chose to sell Barbie dolls on the Shopee platform.
“We wanted to try something new to excite the audience and take them by surprise. So we decided to associate the platform with campaigns created to resonate with our selected customers.”
Their biggest challenge according to Tee, was to relate a family-friendly product like Barbie dolls to a social issue which had political yet sensitive overtones without jeopardising the brand.
“Our team believed the online platform requires a form of differentiation. Learning to adapt and maintain creativity, whilst learning from our mistakes proved to be the key to a successful marketing plan,” Tee added.
Team Gryffindor member, Arthur Shivane Manuel from BBM programme said they chose family-friendly electronic home appliances as their product after looking at current demographics and citing a trend in health consciousness among young people in Malaysia.
“We wanted to provide something fast, healthy and affordable. As our product strategy for the online platform, we used performance marketing, consumer relationship management and data analytics to measure the effectiveness of our product in the market.”
A passionate Hot Wheels toy car collector, Goh Yih Yiing decided to feature his car collection for the project.
“I have collected over 3000 toy cars by Hot Wheels and other brands. They have been housed in my bedroom and store room at home for more than four years,” said Goh from team Viserion who is also from the BBS programme.
His teammates agreed to sell the items using the Shopee platform.
Besides academicians from the Business school, the students were judged by a panel of judges that included industry professionals.
They were Ace Pacific Group regional director May Yau, RHB Banking Group Digital Technology Operations recruitment specialist Norzarina Ahmad and Shopee events team lead Lee Hui Jing.
Yau said: “The exhibition provides the students with a solid foundation to adapt to the business world. I hope the students will continue to leverage on rapid changes in digital marketing to highlight social values that make a difference to the less fortunate.”
Norzarina was impressed with the creativity showcased and found the students to be well-equipped with communication skills which is vital in the business world.
As for Lee, he said that team Viserion’s selling strategy on Shopee was based on sound research and strategic marketing actions.