STUDENTS at Ulster Business School are getting hands on experience in marketing products for the UK’s £1.4bn infant wear industry.
With the country experiencing its biggest baby boom in over 40 years, the University of Ulster’s Business School is giving its 25 marketing management students the opportunity to feed into the marketing strategy of a company which makes specialist baby clothes.
Award-winning business MOR-RCK manufactures a unique design of baby travel hoodie in the UK and is hoping the students can help it further exploit the growing infant wear market.
Mark Durkin, Ulster Business School’s professor of marketing, explained: “This sort of ‘live’ exercise, enabled through our block delivery model, allows us to deeply test marketing theory in a practical way in a fast growing industry.
“It’s also a fantastic opportunity to link students, practitioners and academics to great effect in the classroom.
“The fact that the outcomes will have commercial impact takes the learning experience to a new level of relevance and importance.”
Isobel Thompson, who owns MORRCK, travelled from Milton Keynes to meet and brief the students.
She said: “It’s so exciting to be exploring opportunities for my business through the Ulster Busi-ness School’s prestigious post-graduate marketing programme.
“Having the students research and identify the most viable of these opportunities will be invaluable for taking my business to the next level.”
One of the students on the programme, Roisin Fee, who works for Allen and Overy, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for us as marketing students to comment on and influence the decisions of a real company.
“A live case study with a topical speaker in what is clearly a growth industry makes the assignment very interesting and we will look forward to seeing which ideas MORRCK decides to implement.
“This type of engagement with relevant practitioners is exactly why this course is considered to be industry-leading, and it is very exciting to be part of that.”