I was part of a group of 6 undergraduates to help Sandra Green at Co-wheels Birmingham with her
marketing strategy – to attract more customers to
join the car club. I opted to help this social enterprise because
of its environmental sustainability, which is a something I’m really passionate
about.
I had no previous marketing experience, but I was keen to learn. What I
didn’t realise was that the project would be completely run by us, in the
direction that we wanted. This was very daunting at first, but proved extremely
valuable and satisfying at the end, having put in lots of time and effort!
social media campaign for the Christmas period. Flyers were created which could be used
in the future for specific events or general marketing. We conducted both
primary and secondary research to provide recommendations in the form of
a report and presentation for how we thought Co-wheels could move forward. This
included producing a questionnaire and analysing the results in order to
suggest potential demographics of customers to target specifically.
part of the project was something that I was particularly interested and
involved in, and it was fantastic to be able to put my skills into practice
towards a very worthy cause! The hardest part was undoubtedly
dealing with the ambiguity of the needs of the company.
At the very start of
the project, it was made clear to us that the project was very much
what we wanted to make of it. As a result, my project management skills
definitely developed because we had to use our initiative when trying to
establish exactly what Co-wheels was looking for and create and see through an
original project independently as a group.
commercial awareness and how to influence customers which is something that I’d
not had much experience with previously. It has also made me think about my
career more seriously. I’m now taking into consideration working for or setting up
my own social enterprise, which was again something that I had not really
considered.
that the ‘Up Our Street’ programme provided me with, I will be much more prepared
for the uncertainty and sheer scale of the challenges that come with them. Efficient
organisation, commitment, enthusiasm, creativity and a clear plan are some of
the things which I will now be able to provide much more confidently.
potentially helped make a difference!
