Shaking up class

It's the end of spring semester, and Associate Professor Jenna Drenten's Marketing 373 students, dressed in professional clothing, are pitching marketing ideas for JoJo's ShakeBAR, a national restaurant group serving over-the-top milkshakes and elevated diner food.

The pitch session was a prime example of a Quinlan hallmark – experiential learning – which empowers students in the classroom through real-world experiences with real clients. The students spent the semester researching, brainstorming, and visiting a JoJo's ShakeBAR in Chicago. They also met with JoJo's ShakeBAR Founder and Owner Robbie Schloss and Marketing Director Mariana Alcalde (BBA ’19) to learn about the company, its brand identity, and marketing challenges.

Beyond textbooks

Experiential learning courses take students beyond learning based on lectures and into real-world scenarios within the safety net of a college classroom.

"That can look like doing a community service project, it could be working with a client, or it could be an applied research project," said Drenten, who has taught more than a dozen experiential courses at Quinlan.

Drenten says her students are excited by what they gain in an experiential learning course: "They start to see the dynamics of navigating a real project as opposed to a theoretical project."

In a theoretical course, students can be as creative as they want to solve a problem. In experiential courses, however, clients like JoJo's ShakeBAR have a specific business challenge with specific parameters that need to be considered, just like students will experience in their careers.

Expressing creativity

Students’ marketing pitches to JoJo's ShakeBAR executives were anchored to taglines including "Shake up the Windy City," "Create memories you want to relive," and "Sip, Share, Socialize." Their marketing campaigns also addressed key issues like customer retention, brand recognition and loyalty, and competition.

Pulling together the pitches was a challenge the students relished. During a visit to JoJo's ShakeBAR with his group, student Benjamin Hoffman reflected on the class while holding a notebook in one hand and shake in his other.

"This is real marketing and what I'm going to do one day in my career," said Hoffman.

Student Yasmeen AlResheq added, "I feel like they're putting trust in us to create a plan they could actually use."

Driving results

Working on actual client work encouraged students to put their best foot forward.

"I think it helps that nothing is sugar coated," said student Mary Dixon. "The client comes in and says this is what I’m looking for, and there are concrete results that need to happen."

One of her group's initial ideas was to create a discount campaign. However, after hearing the idea, company executives said that they did not want to engage in that strategy, which forced the students to rethink.

"We had to think harder about what we want to do and not contradict what the client says," said Hoffmann.

Thinking critically and re-working marketing plans until they're the best they can be are exactly the outcomes the course is designed to teach.

"Those student 'aha' moments are so valuable and meaningful to an educator because you know the students are going to be set up for success," Drenten said.

Learn more

• BBA in Marketing
• Jenna Drenten's faculty profile
• Skydiving to unique solutions