Community engagement project off to a flying start

The honours students in the Department of Marketing Management are involved in a community engagement project with the Phyllis Roberson Home as part of their formal degree programme.

The Phyllis Robertson Home is a non-profit organisation that care and provide accommodation for adult disabled persons. On 24 February, the Phyllis Robertson Home presented an information session to the students whereafter student groups had the opportunity to visit the home. Prof Wiese, lecturer, incorporated this practical experience into the curriculum to challenge the students to develop and execute a fundraising/sponsorship strategy for the home. Students took the challenge by storm when they shared their ideas in groups consisting of seven members. This offered them the opportunity to share their marketing knowledge with the goal of raising funds for and awareness of the home.

On 17 March the students were ready to present their creative ideas to the Phyllis Robertson Home. Group 1 set the tone for the evening with their creative “The Wall of Light” campaign.  Group 6 used some inspiration from the previous year’s honours group with their “Stick-it-to-fix-it” campaign, creating a fun and interactive way for the public to connect with the home by literally pasting their coin donations on the Phyllis Robertson Home’s disability logo. Group 2 came up with a fun and creative way to present their “54 Fun & Run” campaign by acting out what they will be doing for their fun day. Other groups decided to target schools to gather non-perishable food items with the campaign slogan “Many hands to gather cans”.

Group 2 proposed a dog-friendly fun run event to raise funds for the home. From left to right: C Kavanagh, M Mendes, K Thompson, P Sanne, T Bornman and M Strydom.

The Phyllis Robertson Home’s manager Mr Stephan Smalberger and his management team provided feedback to the student groups. “We are very excited to work with the honours group of 2015 and cannot wait to see the final outcome of all the groups’ creative ideas,” he said.

Student groups have until the end of May to execute their strategies and will use the Phyllis Robertson Homes’ website and Facebook page to advertise their events and progress. Visit their website www.phyllisrobertsonhome.co.za to see what the students are up to.