A pitch competition with a Charlotte-based fast food chain was held at a local Black university on Wednesday.
Students in the marketing program at Johnson C. Smith University (JSCU) worked alongside other media professionals from Luquire Marketing, a public relations agency, to develop advertising plans for the launch of two new Bojangles menu items– the Sausage Bo-Berry Biscuits and wings.
Tom Boland, the chief marketing officer of Bojangles, told QCity Metro the event was to find ways to better connect with the Gen-Z market.
“It was a great connection to hear directly from the students about what’s important to them,” Boland said.
Fortune Taylor, an adjunct professor who teaches the class at JCSU, said the experience allowed her students to learn real-life marketing skills and form relationships with their peers.
“It’s no longer [about] the textbook,” Taylor told QCity Metro. “It’s now let’s take this idea, let’s apply it to the principles that we already mastered and see what we can do with it,”
On Wednesday, April 24, the four student teams presented their ideas to Bojangles marketing executives.
Some student’s ideas included using social media influencers, like YouTube comedian Druski, or hosting a basketball game featuring the Curry family.
Bojangles plans to explore the winning group’s idea – a scalable promotion that focuses on the promotion of Bogjangles’ new wings across college campuses – further with the student team and internally, Bojangles said.
The winning group also won tickets to the Lovin Life Music Festival, an upcoming event in Uptown Charlotte.
