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AMA CASE REPORT

As the VP of Projects of the UC Santa Barbara chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA), I am in charge of organizing and leading large team-based projects for club members to develop and gain valuable marketing experience. During the current 2020-2021 school year, the projects I'm leading thus far include the AMA National Case Competition (Fall), Google Ads Online Marketing Challenge (Winter), and Duet Marketing Ambassadorship Program (year-long project).

This year's AMA National Case Competition was sponsored by PODS, a moving & storage company with the goals of increasing brand awareness among Gen Z and Millennials, establishing stronger brand positioning, and further supporting the Gen Z and Millennial movement to increase PODS Gen Z & Millennial retention.

 

Keeping in mind changing needs due to the current marketplace disruptions as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, this year's National Case Competition involved creating a one-year integrated marketing communications plan in the form of a comprehensive report that outlined strategies for PODS to implement starting from January 2021 with a strict budget of US $1 million. 

To efficiently facilitate the completion of the project, I divided the work into 4 teams: Market Research, Market Strategy, Media Planning, and Creative Branding, with each team focusing on one aspect of the case to work on. The project timeline was sequential, meaning that conducting primary and secondary market research was our first step, followed by creating market strategies based on our prior research, then media planning, and creative planning at the end. 

A brief overview of how I structured each team: 

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1.  Market Research​

  • The Market Research team brainstormed information for the case report, conducted both primary and secondary research to gain more information about PODS, their primary and secondary target consumers, and their industry competitors. Market research included conducting content, situational, SWOT, and PESTLE analysis, as well as primary and secondary research of PODS' target audience: 1. Gen Z & Millenials + 2. HR professionals & Job relocation experts

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2.  Market Strategy

  • The Market Strategy team utilized research conducted by the Market Research team to gain a deeper understanding of PODS' target audience and created digital and content marketing strategies to raise awareness of PODS among Gen Z & Millennials and educate Human resource professionals on the benefits of PODS to get them engaged about their brand as they relocate employees due to COVID-19, all while figuring out how to effectively communicate to both audiences in a persuasive manner. 

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3.  Media Planning

  • The Media Planning team built upon findings from both the research & strategy teams to create a media recommendation plan that includes which channels to use in order to reach consumers, which content formats to use, social media and creative marketing strategies, and all the tactical details around implementation of these strategies.

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4.  Creative Branding

  • The Creative Branding team was responsible for designing the report using the information completed by the other teams, strategically branding the report, and overall ensuring that the copywriting and graphics (including logos, charts, and graphs) are relevant, creative, and aesthetically pleasing, all while accurately representing PODS' brand voice. 

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During the competition, I, along with the rest of the market research team, conducted extensive primary & secondary research in market trends, industry competitors, and PODS’ target audience of Gen Z & Millennials through online research and customer surveys to gain insights into market segmentation, SWOT & PESTLE analysis, and a Unique Value Proposition. Using this research, I developed several comprehensive digital, social media, creative, and content marketing strategies to raise awareness of PODS’ brand and services among Gen Z & Millennial consumers. I also designed & strategically branded the final case report using Canva Pro and Adobe Photoshop. 

 

The final marketing case report addressed all of PODS' concerns through comprehensive strategies that outlined ways of growing PODS' Gen Z and Millennial customer base, improving awareness and perceptions of the PODS brand, specifically their residential moving and storage services, as well as ways of helping to engage and educate Human Resources professionals and other job relocation experts following marketplace disruptions caused by COVID-19. The final case report was awarded a National Commendable Ranking.

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