Howard W. Hewitt – The 11 Wabash students studying marketing during spring break week got a real contrast Wednesday and Thursday and a realistic look at opportunities and challenges businesses may face.
Thursday the group traveled to South Bend, In., and visited the College Football Hall of Fame. The Hall has been in South Bend for about five years after a long run at Kings Island, Cincinnati.
Read the students’ blog about the week long experience and see more photos here.
The students toured the beautiful facilities and met with its marketing manager to discuss the challenges. The Hall is drawing about 65,000 visitors a year with a large portion of those coming on Notre Dame home football game weekends. The challenge is to substantially grow the number of visitors on a very limited budget.
In contrast, the student’s visit to Scott Smalstig ’88 and Joseph David Advertising in Muncie was a high-energy hour and a half planning strategy for an elite island resort community. Smalstig led the students through an exercise looking at marketing strategies for the wealthy community.
The contrast and road trips added spice to a week of classroom learning. The students really got involved when taken on sight to look at challenges and opportunities within the field of marketing.
In each city, a few alums joined the students for dinner at nice restaurants to talk about their careers and days at Wabash.
It might not have been the beach, a European immersion experience, or even time at home, but clearly the 11 men had an enjoyable and educational break.
In photo: The Monon Bell rivalry is just one of several represented in the College Football Hall of Fame at South Bend.
