MIRI: Three teams of first-year students from the Faculty of Business at Curtin University, Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) received commendations from Chapter One Café, Miri’s first and only library-themed café and leading premium coffee establishment, for their creative marketing strategies in the final round of Curtin University’s Discovering Marketing Idol Competition 2019.
A total of 18 teams, under the supervision of Dr Shamsul Kamariah Abdullah, Associate Professor Goi Chai Lee and Dr Fayrene Chieng of the Faculty’s Marketing Department, made it to the finals of the competition.
The first prize was awarded to Mathunila Chalvantharan, Yong Shu Chi, Suguna Veerapandia, Ho Jia Wen and Tharrshini Arasi Thennarasu, who proposed the idea of recycling used coffee grounds into scrubs and soaps.
The second prize winners, Chia Jin Wei, Kelly Tie, Sabreena Syaharudin, Lim Khai Ching and Geena Roslyna, presented a “Coffee Crepe with Quote of the Day” marketing strategy.
The third-placed team comprising Clement Lee, Edwin Foo, Wei Liang Wei, Thian Yee Ko and Lai Wei Jie won for their “Storey Pudding” concept.
This semester, the teams here were given the opportunity to collaborate with a local client by Unit Coordinator Siobhan Hatton-Jones at Curtin Perth to “encourage student interaction and engagement with their local organisations, and the potential to drive change closer to home”.
Participation in the competition was part of the students’ group assignment for their “Discovering Marketing” first-year core unit.
The concept of Work Integrated Learning (WiL) is incorporated in the unit to expose them to real industry experience and help develop their critical thinking skills in analysing local and global marketing issues.
The competition required participating students to devise new products and marketing strategies for selected companies.
Before commencing their projects, they researched the backgrounds and operations of their assigned “clients”, then perform SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses and design marketing strategies based on the 4Ps (product, price, place and promotion) concept.
The company then selects the best posters and new product concepts from among the submissions.
On hand to present the prizes was Acting Dean of the Faculty of Business, Associate Professor Pauline Ho. Also present were the three supervisors and representatives of Chapter One Café.
Chapter One Café is centrally located in the popular commercial area of Marina ParkCity, serving rich brews, homemade sweet treats and snacks to a wide variety of clientele. It is a member of the Specialty Coffee Association 2017 (SCA) and Cafe Owners’ Alliance (Malaysia).
