A recent article on the Loyola University Chicago website discussed how an entrepreneurial marketing class at the Quinlan School of Business partnered with BBox, a new “restaurant” seeking to break into the Chicago dining scene, to help push the startup’s brand.
BBox isn’t your average restaurant, in fact, it’s not really a restaurant at all. Instead, a machine prepares and sells breakfast sandwiches that are ordered through a smartphone app. Each machine will track a customer’s location and prioritize orders according to how close they are, ensuring maximum freshness and ease of delivery.
Students in Assistant Professor Uygur’s entrepreneurial marketing class were divided into two groups, each tasked with identifying who the customer is, how to communicate with them and determining the brand’s message.
“There were a couple of objectives that we had,” Lavina Phulwani, an MBA student participating in the class, said. “One was erasing the negative stigma of vending machines. The other was how to engage customers around a vending machine, because it’s not like a restaurant where you can have a conversation with them.”
Overall, Greg Becker, founder of BBox, said the experience was “very enjoyable.” Thanks to these students, his company walked away from the experience with two different 20-page marketing plans.
“One of the teams identified two customer personas — Techie Tracey and Healthy Harry,” Becker said. “Healthy Harry is very into fitness and gyms. So based on the marketing plan’s suggestion, we’re looking into partnerships with gyms to promote a healthy lifestyle. Getting free coffee for completing a certain number of pushups, and other similar incentives.”
He added: “I just think these types of collaborations are awesome. The students get real-world business exposure, and we’re provided with marketing ideas. It’s a win-win situation. This is an awesome program that Dr. Uygur has created — one that I would recommend to other startups.”