BEPP Skills to Work in a Real Setting (by Alejandro Arguello)

Not too often have I gotten the chance to take a class that allows me to apply the skills I have learned as a BEPP major in a real setting with real money and a real client. This semester I was fortunate to take my Capstone in Economic Consulting class with Professor Robert Ridlon and work with a local business in enhancing their online presence. Very much in like a consulting setting, I was able to apply some of the hard skills BEPP provides and better prepare for my future career.

Jarrod Cook, John Newman, and John Curia present on Sahara Mart

It all started at the beginning of the semester when the class was first introduced to the Google Online Marketing Challenge. The GOMC is an opportunity for students to develop and run an online advertising campaign with a $250 budget using Google AdWords, the sponsored links you see when using the search engine.

As we were introduced to the opportunity, we were given the task to work in teams and find a client interested in taking part in the challenge. The Uptown Café, a locally owned restaurant/bar on Kirkwood Ave. would become our partner.

The project started with a meeting with Michael Cassady, Uptown’s owner, who tasked us with using AdWords to raise customer awareness of the restaurant and its newly added bar. As we ventured in the task, we faced different challenges and opportunities that would draw upon the hard skills BEPP demands.

Among those challenges were creating a bar section under Uptown’s website for Google searchers to direct to and analyzing the banks of data gathered from the website’s traffic. Luckily, we were comfortable working in a team to not only coordinate with professionals in other fields like Uptown’s web-designer but also in using econometric tools to better understand Uptown’s online presence and its business environment.

And so we managed to cope with difficulties and take our project beyond Michael’s initial task. Through an analysis of Uptown’s competitive environment and the gathered data from its website, we found opportunities for growth within an online reservation system and the creation of a mobile friendly webpage.

While preparing for the final presentation to Michael and the class, we started seeing the parts of the project coming together to deliver an integrated experience that allowed us to put the skills we have learned as BEPP majors to work.

At the end Michael was satisfied with our final recommendations and is now considering implementing them as Uptown Café moves forward. We were also satisfied to have gotten the opportunity to apply ourselves in a real setting like the one of Capstone in Economic Consulting and feel confident will be able to deliver value in the real world.