Marketing Texas Fever: Sales Management Class Invigorates Jeweler's Campus Campaign
By Sandie Taylor

After a victorious football game, a sea of burnt orange shirts floods across Guadalupe Street as students, faculty and staff pass from the West Mall to the University Co-op, looking to add another T-shirt or key chain to their collection of Longhorn accessories. In a market that’s already so saturated with orange objects of all kinds—from burnt orange sheets to cattle-covered flip-flops—how does a company figure out how to market yet another piece of Longhorn memorabilia to the fan that has everything?

Russell Korman Fine Jewelry and Watches, the 32-year-old local jewelry store, faced this question last year when it made plans to sell its new product, the Swiss Army Longhorn watch, at its Lamar Ave. store. To find out how to tap into the Longhorn mindset, Russell Korman partnered with a McCombs School of Business sales management class last spring and asked the students to deliver a marketing plan that would ignite Texas pride.

“Before talking with the students, we didn’t know that The University of Texas was like its own city with its own culture,” says Monica Korman, project liaison for Russell Korman. “I realized we wanted to infiltrate that.”

The class, taught by Herb Miller, a senior lecturer in the Marketing Department, broke into three teams of students and turned their final class project into an “Apprentice”-style competition, complete with detailed assignments, weekly rewards, deadlines and a corporate presentation. As an extra incentive to make the grade, Russell Korman offered a watch to each member of the team with the best overall marketing plan—and one outstanding student even landed a job.

As the project began, the company had already started working with a local agency, Marketing Matters, on a complete plan for the Russell Korman store. But the Kormans were hoping that students would provide more creative ideas on how to market to the university community without breaking the bank.

“Once you’ve come up with $15,000 worth of obvious ideas, it’s important to start talking about guerilla marketing,” says Hank Korman, vice president of Russell Korman. In addition, the Kormans wanted to make a concentrated effort to find out how to market to students.

Each team of five or six members received a copy of the company’s financial data, including the watch’s profit margins divulged to the penny. Monica Korman visited the class four times during a six-week period, taking questions from students and updating them on the status of the manufacturing process.

“Sometimes students were afraid to ask questions around the other teams, but they would always stop me after class and talk privately,” she says. Students also frequented the Russell Korman store and set up individual meetings with her outside of school. “I wanted to keep them excited about the project so I would bring them food and presents like Swiss Army knives each week,” she says. “It was great to see them get as excited as I was.”

Thoughts about the price of the watch were part of the first batch of feedback the students delivered. Market research told them the original cost of the watch was too high to pique students’ interest. “The teams agreed that students would not spend more than $99 on a watch,” Miller says.

While Russell Korman took this information into account, they decided to stick with the set price—which would be more feasible for alumni, faculty and staff—rather than lower the quality of the watch. “We wanted to design a watch that would last,” Monica says. The watch is the only university-branded Swiss Army watch, and the first set displays a limited edition number on the back.

With the price unchanged —$195 for a watch with an orange rubber strap or $295 for a bracelet-style band—the teams continued to brainstorm ways Russell Korman could saturate the campus culture. During the final week of class last spring, the teams pulled together their marketing plans, donned suits and presented their recommendations to Miller, Monica Korman and Russell Korman, the company president. While some ideas—such as advertising on the sides of Capital Metro busses or flying a blimp over Royal Memorial Stadium on game day—were out of reach, other suggestions were implemented right away.

The students recommended that Russell Korman create a Web site specifically for the watch (www.longhornwatch.com), which is now linked to the company’s main site (www.russellkormanjewelry.com). To target folks with serious Texas pride, the teams devised marketing techniques for use on football game days, including hosting a tailgate party and handing out Russell Korman fans on hot days.

The students also suggested ways Russell Korman could penetrate student life through contact with Greek organizations, advertising at student-only apartments complexes and online student communities such as www.facebook.com, and getting flyers included in freshman orientation bags and mailings.

“All of the ideas were fascinating,” says Monica Korman. “The students have insight into so many marketing avenues that we would never have thought of on our own.”

Marketing senior Evelyn Meisell says the real-world case made the class project more important. “It’s completely different when you have the owners speaking to you and giving you direction. It makes a difference knowing that what we’re doing really matters.”

After the project ended, Meisell became Russell Korman’s campus representative—a role the students conceived. (Other companies, including Southwest Airlines, have also hired students to spread the word about their products across campus.) Because of her experience working for the UT Athletics Marketing Department, Meisell understood most of the rules and regulations about marketing to the university community.

As part of her job, she meets with various student and Greek organizations to show off the watch and give out her card with a coupon for a 15 percent discount. Meisell also hosts the game-day tailgate parties, handing out food and other goodies to any fan who tries on a watch.

Miller, a longtime friend of Russell Korman, was glad to give his students a real-world perspective on how to market a product from inception to launch announcement.

“The project tied into Russell Korman’s theme, which is service to the community,” Miller adds. The jewelry store contributes to 50 to 75 charities each year. So far, they’ve given about 50 watches to organizations including Mack Brown’s Rise School of Austin, the Settlement Home, Children’s Medical Center Foundation of Central Texas and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

“We’re honored to be part of ‘University of Texas fever,’” Monica says. To date, watch sales peaked after the Longhorns beat Ohio State University. Hank Korman is convinced that if the football team continues its success on the field, sales of the spirited watch will soar. “If UT goes undefeated this year, we’re going to look like geniuses.”
 

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