Gianna Mariani
student | leader | creative marketer
la tortuga
task
This project spanned the Fall 2020 semester in which I was assigned 5 other teammates to complete the assignment with. The objective was to create a retail concept for within College Park, MD, conduct primary and secondary research, develop a brand identity, create marketing materials, present our financial projections, and finally pitch our concept to a panel of professionals at the end of the semester.
process
We began by having several brainstorming sessions to decide what direction we wanted to take this project. Ultimately, the gap we wanted to fill within the College Park retail market was a sit-down restaurant centered on it's lively atmosphere and authentic Mexican cuisine.
We then moved into conducting research to see if there would be demand for this type of restaurant, get a sense of consumers' willingness to pay, and also identify competition in the area. We utilized a Google Forms survey for our primary research and conducted secondary research on the competition aspect. Once we analyzed our data, we realized this was a gap others wanted filled as well.
We took this as a green light to continue developing our concept through a unique brand, fun interior, exciting menu, stylish merchandise and accurate financial projections. Finally, we decided the ways in which we would market to the community and developed our materials.
challenges
With a project of this scope as well as being completed entirely remote, it is natural for challenges to arise. However, being able to adapt to challenges was one of my team's strongest suits. We ran into speed bumps when projecting our financials, deciding upon merchandise and agreeing upon the marketing materials we wanted to create. There were times when members of the group would feel less creative than others when a morale boost was necessary. However, we overcame these challenges by leaning on one another, compromising, helping out and keeping one another on track and motivated. I was extremely lucky to get as amazing of a team as I did that tackled challenges efficiently and together
my role
I was responsible for...
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Formulating the questions and Google Form for primary research
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Building the brand ambassador program
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Creating mock ups of our business cards, t-shirts, stickers and phone wallets
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Proofread our slide deck and business plan as well as formatted them utilizing best practices as learned within our class
outcomes
My team was absolutely elated when we finished presenting our semester's work to the panel of judges. We received positive feedback from each judge regarding how thorough our project was and how we identified a true gap in the market. All of my teammates are hoping to work together again in the future. In the end, we ended up being awarded 1st place in "best concept" and 2nd place in "most convincing" by the judges panel
takeaways
I have walked away from this project with heightened confidence in myself and a new skillset in creating mockups and conducting research. I discovered how to work with a team effectively and create a beautiful slide deck. I am readily equipped for my next pitch thanks to the experience I had working on this project.