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Direct Marketing Center Sizzles Among High-Stakes Competition
The Zicklin School of Business Direct Marketing Resource Center opened in early December as a classroom facility and direct marketing laboratory for students studying interactive approaches to promoting products and companies. The investment in this particular area is well deserved. With an extraordinary record in the Direct Marketing Association’s national Collegiate Echo competition over the last five years (no school has more awards in that time), Baruch has strong national standing as a center for direct and interactive marketing studies.
According
to Marketing Adjunct Associate Professor Harvey Markovitz, “Since the
2000–2001 academic year, 38 of our graduate students, 14 this year
alone, have been acknowledged by the Echo competition with honorable
mention, semifinalist, bronze, silver, or gold trophy awards for their
excellence in creating integrated direct marketing strategic planning
and tactical message delivery campaigns. These aren’t casebook studies,
either. These are real-time clients like Hallmark Cards, Mazda, and
Advanta. This year, marketing students are working on an ING Direct
multifaceted challenge. Baruch students have won the most awards of any
school in New York and the United States.”
This year’s winners
were honored by the Direct Marketing Club of New York at a special
ceremony held at the Yale Club last September. The students received
silver and bronze Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Echo trophies and
honorable mentions in the nationwide Collegiate Echo Competition, held
annually by the DMA’s Education Foundation. The 2003–2004 competition
was built around the challenge of marketing the Advanta credit card to
female small-business owners. Silver winners were Hye-Youn Kim, Jorge
Miranda, Sachin Panjwani, and Lara Solomon. Bronze winners were
Jonathan Futter, Divanna Gilleaudeau, and Michael Stromer.
Semifinalists were Prianka Advani, Debbie Avery, Asaph Elan, Lijo
Joseph, Chaim Langer, Anita Raghavan, and Marcela Solano.
When
direct marketing students are not competing for national prizes, they
are working on projects that benefit the College. Direct marketing
students are currently working for Baruch’s Committee on Academic
Integrity to create a marketing message to raise awareness about
integrity. Last summer graduate students in the program created eight
campaigns for The Baruch College Fund for its fundraising and other
support efforts. The students have also worked on marketing projects
for the Newman Library and other units at the College.
“Their
marketing projects around the campus, their involvement in national
competitions, and their access to the new Direct Marketing Resource
Center will better position our direct marketing graduates as highly
trained professionals in an industry that enjoys the highest growth
rate of all advertising media,” says Zicklin Associate Dean and
Marketing Professor Rob Ducoffe.
—Vince Passaro