Text-Only Version
Announcer: The name of the class may sound fairly dry--Marketing Research and Analysis--but the students taking this class from Dr. Harold Daniel are getting a taste of what it's like to work as a marketer using a real company--Union Trust Bank based in Ellsworth--that has a real-world problem to solve.
Sarah Brown: "Union Trust was specifically interested in small business managers in Maine and how they chose banking institutions. We developed a questionnaire to collect the data that we needed. Through that, we were able to analyze small businesses and pick up on the most important aspects that they thought were important in choosing a banking institution."
Dr. Harold Daniel: "They're getting a chance to be involved in this business and the operation of this business in ways that they would only be able to do if they were actually out practicing marketing." After the surveys are done and the numbers are crunched, comes the hard part--coming up with solutions to the company’s problem and presenting those ideas in front of the companies and their classmates.
Sarah Brown: "We were able to present to the CEO. That was a very positive experience. It really gave us a good opportunity to work on presentation skills."
Peter Blyberg, Union Trust CEO: "The presentations that were made were very valuable. They highlighted the need to develop a better awareness in some of the newer markets that we're in and proposed some possible solutions to the issue of how to develop a better awareness in the marketplace. The level of thought that went into these was equivalent to what you would get from some of the companies that are already out there."
Announcer: Over the years, Dr. Daniel’s class has worked with many area businesses. Several of these companies have used the research to grow their companies and, in the process, these students are finding out they have the tools to succeed in the business world.
Sarah Brown: "It was definitely the hardest class that I've taken here so far, but it was also the most beneficial and positive experience that I've had."
Harold Daniel: "What employers are buying when they hire one of our students is a solution. So, having had these kinds of experiences, the student should be able to come into a business and begin to solve problems."
Peter Blyberg: "You could see the level of preparation, the level of thought that went into this. You picked it up very quickly listening to those presentations. Some of those kids, they're people that maybe somewhere down the road, you'd like to hire them."
