Businesses are continually looking at ways to better use the Internet for marketing their products or services. For some companies, students from NDSU’s Marketing Strategy classes are there to help.
This spring, the students in the classes taught by Mike Krush, assistant professor of marketing, are assisting 11 area businesses as part of the Google Online Marketing Challenge, an international marketing competition that uses Google AdWords. In the competition, Google supplies the students a $250 budget to develop and run an advertising campaign for a business for a three-week period.
According to Krush, the students worked with the local members of the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce to learn about their clients’ businesses, develop marketing plans and implement them.
“Our students are applying their skills to help Chamber clients learn about their target markets and drive more business to their websites,” said Krush. “NDSU students are also competing internationally and testing their marketing skills. It’s a great opportunity to demonstrate their learning.”
The students tracked their success, and will report their results during the classes on Monday, April 29, at 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m., both in Barry Hall 126.
Krush said the project reflects NDSU’s land-grant mission, as the students reach out to help and work with the community. “We have students driving customers and potential revenue to clients throughout the Red River Valley. It’s a way for students to demonstrate their skills and area businesses to dip their toe into a widely accepted marketing technology,” he said.
More than 50,000 students and faculty members from almost 100 countries have participated the Google Online Marketing Challenge during the past five years.
More information on the challenge can be found at www.google.com/onlinechallenge.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.