Marketing team takes second in international competition

The Liberty University American Marketing Association (AMA) Collegiate Case Competition Team placed second at the Annual International Collegiate Conference April 8-10 in New Orleans.

The team competed against students from top schools such as Texas State University, Kent State University and Harding University, losing only to the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. The AMA awarded the team $2,500 to go toward Liberty’s AMA chapter.

The competition marked the second year in a row that Liberty has placed in the finals at the competition.

Marketing professor Dr. Ken Brunson led the team of eight students: Matthew Smith, Storm Blizzard, Jesse Perry, Kelly Donnelly, Mike Godsoe, Kelly Detweiler, Peter Hoppe and Wesley Cole. Brunson and the team began preparing for the competition in early August.

Godsoe, a senior marketing and finance major, was proud of the accomplishment.

“Dr. Brunson just poured everything that he knew into us while reminding us of what we’ve been taught in our classes,” he said. “It was great to have a leader that has actually given this type of presentation there guiding us along.”

This year’s challenge was to create a marketing strategy plan for UNICEF, an organization that works with more than 150 countries to provide children with health care, clean water, nutrition, education and emergency relief through fundraising, advocacy and education in the United States. Students presented their plan to help raise $2 million in 2010 and ultimately eliminate deaths from unsanitary water conditions around the world.

“This is real life; it’s about as close as it gets,” Godsoe said. “ … It requires everything that you know about marketing, and once you reach that point where you are using everything you know, it requires a little bit more.”

Liberty’s Marketing Department, under the School of Business, chooses eight deserving students to serve on the team every spring. During the fall semester the team submits a written marketing plan for the Business 497 three-credit hour course. In the spring, four of the team members prepare for the actual oral presentation.

Godsoe recalls the great amount of work put forth: “The week the plan was due I slept nine hours over the course of three days.”

In addition to the cash prize, the team was honored with the unique U.S. Fund for UNICEF Achieving Zero Award for what the judges called “the best presentation that captured the ultimate goal of the UNICEF Tap Project to reach zero deaths from lack of sanitary water conditions around the world.”

• The AMA team was started to give students a chance to experience a real-world simulation with the supervision of professionals. All graduating seniors are eligible to apply for the AMA team.
• Marketing is just one of the specializations offered at Liberty’s School of Business. Other areas of study include accounting, management, finance and economics.