ASAP Students Develop Marketing Plan for Oneida Non-Profit
By Brie Deacon
The former Oneida Area Arts Council (OAAC) recently adopted a marketing plan developed by Keuka College’s Utica-area graduate students that included, among other things, a name change to Oneida Performing Arts (OPA).
The students spent the six-week course researching, developing, and strategizing a new look for OPA. They worked in teams and used local resources, historical documents, and current market trends to devise a new logo, ideas for performance offerings, and different forms of communication—all geared toward expanding its patron base. Throughout the process, the class urged OPA board members to get out of their comfort zone and look for new venues and ideas that would bring the organization into the future.
The non-profit organization was contacted last year by Kim Deruby, adjunct instructor of marketing, who hoped it would serve as a live case study for her class.
Brian M. Carroll, president of OPA, said the organization had been struggling over the years to transition its brand to a more relevant, sustainable market.
“We decided that we could use some help from young professionals who could look at our 50-year history and make suggestions on how to keep the base we have but attract younger people as well. The suggestions we’ve gotten [correspond to] what other bigger organizations who have full-time marketing employees [receive],” he said.
Students who developed the marketing plan and members of the OPA Board.
Deruby said the course curriculum calls for students “to understand a current marketing issue or deficiency, to create a marketing strategy, produce tangible results, and provide insight, guidance, and expertise to the organization,” so the OPA project was an excellent fit and provided students with invaluable real-world experience.
As part of this in-depth, hands-on assignment, the class came up with rebranding ideas that included a new logo, a hand-rendered design by local advertising consultant and Keuka adjunct instructor Cookie Caloia, who conceptualized the students’ rebranding vision.
Other initiatives introduced by the students were performances that would appeal to a younger crowd, electronic press releases, new flyers and print materials, and a summer dinner theater experience at a local restaurant, scheduled Aug. 8. The class also recommended OPA offer a Mother’s Day matinee, which debuted May 12, and no longer offer shows during the winter months when many of their patrons are away.
In terms of the name change, Carroll said Oneida Performing Arts “is much easier for the consumer to understand.”
“We truly hope these ideas will not only help to get their name out there in the community, but also help to create a general interest from a wider range of age groups,” said student Ryan Blehar, who resides in Verona.
“I am very impressed with all of our accomplishments within our cohort and I have no doubt that everyone is more effective professionally and personally as a result of this project,” said John Prendergast, cohort representative and resident of Utica.
Keuka’s 18-month Master of Science in management degree program is part of the Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP). Classes meet weekly at Mohawk Valley Community College.
ASAP Trio Receive Adult Student Award
Randy Kuhn Jr., Kellie Gatson, and Edie Smith
Life can be particularly challenging for adult students.
Successfully juggling college studies with family and job responsibilities is a remarkable accomplishment.
Maintaining a lofty grade point average and serving your community while doing so is worthy of special recognition, which three students who earned, or are earning degrees through the College’s Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP), received last night (April 24).
Randy Kuhn Jr., Edith (Edie) Smith, and Kellie Gatson were among some 30 adults who received the Rochester Area Colleges Continuing Education’s (RACCE) Outstanding Adult Student Award at the organization’s 30th Annual Awards Ceremony and Banquet at the Woodcliff Hotel and Spa in Victor. (more…)
Learning Internet Marketing from a Pro
Director of Instructional Design John Locke doesn’t teach Internet Marketing, he preaches it.
Former co-owner of an internet marketing company, Locke leveraged new media to help many businesses and not-for-profits raise awareness, increase brand recognition, and convert prospects into loyal customers.
“However, Keuka students are taught to be critical thinkers and the first question they should ask is whether the results I delivered were typical or an exception? Can those results be duplicated, and if so, how? After all, I have been out of ‘the game’ for over five years— that’s a lifetime on the Web.”
Enter actor, producer, and marketing consultant Jodie Bentley by way of Keuka’s Information Technology Services (ITS) and the video conferencing application Adobe Connect. A project to wire Jephson 104 for video was completed just in time to transport Bentley from her Manhattan office to Locke’s 8 a.m. class.
“Jodie has a connection to our area,” said Locke. “She appeared on stage at Bristol Valley Theater in Naples when she was starting out some years back.”
Since then, Bentley has appeared in nationally televised commercials for Eggland’s Best, HBO, Carmax, and Ritz Crackers, to name a few. She also had a role in the daytime drama As the World Turns and the popular Web series Happy Cancer Chick.
As an actor, she cultivated years of experience in targeted branding, successful sales tactics, and outside-the-box marketing strategies in order to compete with the saturated film and theatrical market in Manhattan. As a result, Bentley branched out to build her own highly successful sales and marketing company, The Savvy Actor, from the ground up.
“Through her company, she leverages success in the business of acting, and her keen eye and savvy gift for helping other actors achieve their own goals,” said Locke. “In just five years, The Savvy Actor has worked with more than 1,000 clients across the country and internationally who have booked Broadway shows, national commercials and print campaigns, signed with agents and gotten through otherwise shut doors over and over again.”
Bentley’s company regularly leads seminars and workshops for universities and professional acting schools including New York University, Baldwin Wallace, University of California— Irvine, The York Theatre, Pace University, The Network, and Weist Barron, as well as the Actor’s Equity Association and Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG).
“Her latest venture,” said Locke, “provides another excellent example of the power of internet marketing. The Program is a science fiction script that Bentley and writer Nathan Reid are producing as a short film. They have already signed on some big names, including stunt coordinator Matthew Lorenceau, who won a SAG award for his work on Spiderman 4; David Holden, the music composer from Transformers; and Jason Montgomery, associate casting director on X-Men, First Class, and 127 Hours.”
Their primary goal, according to their Kickstarter.com fundraising page, “is for [this film] to be used as a marketing tool to get the filmmakers access and recognition at all the top movie studios and production companies.”
“Judging by Jodie’s marketing track record and the quality of Nathan’s work to date,” said Locke, “there is little doubt they will succeed, and my students will someday be able to say, ‘I remember when she talked to our class.’”
Bentley took it a step further, commenting after a Q&A session with the students: “With the intelligent questions this Keuka College class asked, I expect some great marketers to emerge.”
Perhaps one of them will market one of Bentley’s future Hollywood projects.
104th Commencement Resumes in Tianjin, China
Keuka College’s 104th commencement did not conclude with the awarding of degrees Sunday, May 27, in Keuka Park.
It continued yesterday (Wednesday, May 30) morning when 85 students from Tianjin University of Science and Technology (TUST) in China received Bachelor of Science degrees in management.
Keuka President Dr. Jorge L. Díaz-Herrera, Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Anne Weed, and Administrative Chancellor for China Campuses Dr. Michael Hwang were on hand to congratulate the newest additions to the College’s alumni ranks.
In his commencement address, Díaz-Herrera said there are “very few students anywhere in the world today who will earn separate undergraduate degrees from two great academic institutions, from two different nations, two far apart continents, and in two very different languages.” (more…)
Carolina on His Mind
By Amanda Harrison ’12
This time, Neil Siebenhar means it.
After taking an early retirement package from The Timken Company some 10 years ago, Siebenhar joined the Keuka College faculty.
Now the associate professor of management and chair of the Division of Business and Management is retiring again, and this time he won’t return to the corporate world or academia.
“It’s one thing when you take early retirement and work some more,” said Siebenhar, “but it’s another when you say ‘I’m done.’”
Siebenhar and his wife will head south to be closer to their children and grandchildren.
“We have three children—all in North Carolina—and eight grandchildren,” said Siebenhar, adding that No. 8 arrived less than a week ago. “We just don’t see enough of them. We agreed that I’d work 5 to 10 years and I will have worked nine.” (more…)
Developing Students of Color as Global Business Leaders
Keuka College has established a scholarship with an eye toward developing students of color as global business leaders.
Chevy DeVaney
The College will award up to five, $25,000 scholarships annually to U.S. students pursuing a Master of Science degree in management with a concentration in international business.
“This new scholarship fits well with the College’s commitment to diversity,” said Dr. Jorge L. Díaz-Herrera, president of the College.
Dr. Gary Smith, vice president for the Center for Professional Studies and International Programs, views the scholarship as “an excellent opportunity for Black/African American, Native American, Alaskan Native, Hispanic, Asian American, and Pacific Islander students to develop the skills necessary to become leaders, from both a community and global perspective.” (more…)
The Real ‘Diehl’
For Ngoc (Ruby) Nguyen, fashion is everywhere.
Ngoc (Ruby) Nguyen models a dress during the Multicultural Student Association's fashion show last month. (Photo by Hung Do Le '12)
In fact, the native of Vietnam wants to pursue a career as a fashion buyer or trend analyst. And, she will get a taste of that life during her internship at the House of Diehl (HoD) in New York City this summer.
HoD is a fashion partnership of MJ Diehl and Roman Milišić, whose clothes have been on the red carpet and in music videos with such artists as Naomi Watts, Gwen Stefani, and Eve. Their work has also been exhibited in art environments, including the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Deitch Projects gallery, the Priska C. Juschka gallery, and GAle GAtes et al, a Brooklyn-based avant-garde troupe. HoD has earned two Triumph International Fashion Awards.
A Less Taxing Experience
Associate Professor of Accounting Rita Gow helps Yang Liu, a resident of Bengbu, China, prepare and file his income tax.
April 17 was a day many Americans circled on their calendars.
And not because they were looking forward to it.
April 17 was tax day.
“Imagine how most people feel about doing their own tax returns,” said Rita Gow, associate professor of accounting. “Now, imagine if you are a student from China, Vietnam, or South Africa and totally unfamiliar with the American tax structure or not familiar with the concept of taxing your income.”
A daunting task to be sure—unless you were one of the nine international students attending Keuka College who, thanks to a collaboration between Gow, the Center for Global Education, and AARP Foundation Tax-Aide, didn’t have to sweat April 17. (more…)
Keuka College, Rochester Folk Art Guild Team Up
Two Chinese students pursuing master’s degrees in management, with a concentration in international business, at Keuka College have embraced the College’s model of experiential, hands-on learning.
Yang An works at the Rochester Folk Art Guild.
For their final project, Yinqi Lu, from Guangdong Province in southern China, and Yang An, from Anhui Province in central China, are creating a business strategy and marketing plan for the Rochester Folk Art Guild’s woodshop in Middlesex.
“Simply asking the Guild questions would not be enough,” said Yang. “We started the consulting project by visiting the Guild, working together with the woodworkers, and observing their behavior. By doing so, we could obtain a direct awareness of their working procedure, define problems, and offer some potential solutions.” (more…)
Finger Lakes Field Period
For junior Devin Filipiak, spending his January Field Period at the Finger Lakes Museum was a chance to build on past Field Period experiences, classroom work, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team participation, and his work-study position to expand his marketing portfolio.
It was also an opportunity for the marketing and management major to continue his volunteer work with the museum.
“SIFE’s focus this year is to be more hands-on in the community, and since the museum is so close to the College, this was a good place to volunteer,” said Filipiak, a resident of Orchard Park. “Last summer, I helped with the museum’s signature series, Back from the Brink: The Story of Hemlock and Canadice Lakes, that took place around the Finger Lakes, including at Keuka College. This year’s signature series event is called Dreams into Nectar.” (more…)
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