Spectrum - Volume 17 Issue 17 January 26, 1995 - Tech MBA students win national marketing award

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Tech MBA students win national marketing award

Spectrum Volume 17 Issue 17 - January 26, 1995

A team of five MBA students at Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business received a second-place award in a nation-wide competition to develop a marketing plan for rehabilitation products.

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Rehabitation Research and Development Center in Palo Alto, Calif., sponsored the contest to attract potential manufacturers for three products the center had developed to help the elderly or disabled. Students could choose any one product for their marketing plan.

The Virginia Tech students, who were enrolled in Joe Sirgy's marketing policy and strategy class last spring, submitted a plan for an instrument that can be worn to record body motion during everyday activities. The instrument identifies patterns that accompany loss of balance and may also be used as a biofeedback device and a fall-prevention aid.

The students' report analyzed the situation and discussed objectives, strategy, and tactics, including a discussion of sales goals, target and alternative markets, price, promotion efforts, and distribution tactics. The winning entries were selected by a panel of marketing, product development, and rehabilitation professionals. The entries were evaluated on "quality of marketing thought," quality of market and industry research, originality, thoroughness, and clarity.

The students each received a $250 award and a certificate from the Palo Alto Institute for Research and Education, a California non-profit public-benefit corporation. The students were Cynthia Benjamin (team leader), Randall Elmore, Peng-Yu Huang, Shubhayu Mookerjee, and Shih-Fen Yao.