KC students create campaign materials for Ben Gordon Center

Kishwaukee College students in Tammy Tiggelaar’s Introduction to Marketing class assisted Ben Gordon Center by creating marketing materials for a new communications campaign that addresses underage drinking and prescription drug abuse/misuse.

“It was a great opportunity for the students to work within the parameters set for the communication campaign and for the Ben Gordon Center to receive marketing concepts at no cost,” Tiggelaar said in a news release.

The Marketing 149, Introduction to Marketing, class is designed to provide students with working knowledge of the principles of marketing, including marketing concepts, market strategy, target marketing, measuring demand and interest, and developing a marketing concept based on consumer needs.

The Ben Gordon Center creates communication campaigns on a variety of topics with the goal of raising awareness, increasing knowledge, influencing attitudes and norms, and refuting myths and misconceptions while demonstrating and reinforcing positive, healthy skills and behaviors. 

For the current campaign on underage drinking and prescription abuse/misuse, Ben Gordon requested designs for posters and mock-ups of Stall Street Journal editions that provided a positive message, addressed the target audience of students in the DeKalb County schools, incorporated the Prevention and Education logo and the school logo in the design and included a funding disclaimer statement.

The students in Tiggelaar’s class were placed into four groups with each group creating the campaign materials for their assigned topic. Two of the groups addressed prescription drug abuse/misuse and two addressed underage drinking. The student teams presented their work to Michelle Christensen, prevention and education specialist at Ben Gordon Center, during class on March 27.

Tiggelaar was pleased with the students’ enthusiasm and the quality of the final projects.

“This is an excellent example of students having the opportunity to get a feel of a real world marketing project with all the guidelines and details that need to be considered,” she said in the release. “Presenting their projects to Michelle also gave them experience in working with a client and fulfilling their expectations while implementing good, solid marketing skills.”