The impact of an integrated marketing communication service learning project on participating client organisations

Abstract

South Africa has long recognised the critical importance of a vibrant small business community for economic growth, job creation, poverty reduction and equality. Unfortunately, however, more than 70 per cent of new businesses in South Africa fail within their first two years of existence. Research conducted in order to curb this trend has discovered that small businesses are able to survive much longer if they adopt certain business management techniques, such as marketing. In order to support the transformation of South Africa through serving the marketing needs of small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs), the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in association with Brand Shepherd established a service learning (SL) programme called the Brand Shepherd Advertising Challenge (BSAC). Since its inception in 2010, BSAC has served the marketing needs of more than 700 SMMEs. The aim of the programme is to offer local SMMEs quality marketing services at little-to-no financial cost by employing the services of undergraduate marketing students, who need to obtain practical marketing communication experience in fulfilment of their qualification. As part of the programme, student teams (agencies) conduct market research, develop marketing materials, engage in marketing planning and design, implement integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaigns, and facilitate informal on-the-job training and mentorship for their partner SMMEs (clients). The ultimate goal of the programme is for the student agencies to facilitate marketing for their client-SMMEs so as to generate improved performance and increased sales. Since the inception of the White Paper on the Transformation of Higher Education (1997), many service-learning (SL) programmes have been developed and implemented by South African universities. For the most part these programmes have engaged students in experiential learning while simultaneously serving the local community. Although extensive research has been conducted to determine the value of such programmes for the participating students, not much formal research has been conducted to determine the value of the programmes for the participating organisations. This is concerning, as a key principle of SL is mutuality and reciprocity. By using a quantitative research design and employing an empirical survey method, the researcher conducted a client-side programme evaluation to describe the value which the BSAC-SL programme had for participating SMMEs in relation to three sets of criteria, namely, student-SMME outputs; student and SMME inputs; and programme outcomes. In order to gain a short-term, medium-term, and long-term perspective the researcher collected data from SMMEs that had participated in the programme between one and five years before the study (2010-2014). The ultimate goal of the study was to simplify the complex nature of the phenomenon under inquiry by describing the perceptions of participating organisations regarding the value of the programme, and identify areas for programme improvement. Trained fieldworkers gathered data from 107 organisations by means of a structured questionnaire in an interviewer-administered empirical survey. SPSS (version 23) assisted in the coding and analysis of the data. Interpretation of the data revealed that the BSAC-SL programme had significant value for participating SMMEs for every area of student-SMME output, including customer research conducted, marketing communication tools and resources developed or acquired, IMC campaign plans developed and implemented, business-related training and knowledge transferred to SMMEs, client-agency relationships formed, and the programme as a whole. Recommendations for programme improvement cover such aspects as programme design, programme coordination, and the nature and quality of student service. Considering the numerous marketing-related performance benefits that the BSAC-SL programme has had for participating SMMEs, it is clear that it is a valuable programme that should not only continue, but extend its impact through other South African universities as well. The insights gained in this study should be valuable for programme coordinators, university stakeholders, and SL service agencies involved in the BSAC-SL programme. In addition, the findings, conclusions, and recommendations should assist other SL and SMME researchers, higher education and SMME policy advisors, SL practitioners and academic staff in higher education, private sector SL service agencies, small businesses participating in SL, students participating in SMME-oriented SL, and SMME development practitioners in South Africa and other developing countries.