Classroom to Community

Students Make Research Fun

Lewis Bear Jr. College of Business students took on a real-world marketing challenge, developing brand positioning strategies for both the College and Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida. Over the course of the semester, four student teams conducted research and presented their final projects to college leadership and community stakeholders. 

Students developed their projects in Richard Czerniawski’s competitive brand positioning course. They used the Brand Diamond framework, a tool that marketing professionals rely on to build brand positioning strategies from the ground up. Each team was responsible for developing all five components of the framework: a central brand idea, a target customer profile, a competitive framework, a benefit ladder, and supporting rationale. Working through each component required students to leverage their skills across marketing research, strategic analysis, consumer psychology, and persuasive communication.

The process was deliberately iterative and collaborative. Teams gathered primary data through surveys, evaluated multiple competing concepts, and refined their positioning through successive rounds of feedback before determining their final recommendations. Recommendations were delivered through professional presentations to college leadership and to Matt Knee, CEO of Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida. The experience mirrors the kind of client-facing work students will encounter throughout their careers in brand management, marketing strategy, consulting, and business development. 

“Catholic Charities enjoyed gaining insights from an outside perspective, and the students really solidified items our internal team felt were excelling, and those we felt could be improved,” Mr. Knee said. “They noted that we use a lot of stock photos for our outreach, fundraising, and marketing materials. Though it is challenging for us to get clients to agree to take a picture, the stock photos have always bothered me. Their finding really motivated us to use more real photos.” 

Projects of this nature exemplify the high-impact student learning experiences that define the Lewis Bear Jr. College of Business. 

Azia Arosemena

“We worked diligently to create a brand idea that would help resolve Catholic Charities’ issue of being perceived as only serving Catholics, but instead as a charity that serves all those in need—no matter a person’s religion. Together, we curated an idea that resolved this issue by representing Catholic Charities as a charity that serves all those open to receiving help, as well as a charity that provides long-term stability for its clients. We found that our brand idea enhanced potential clients’ perceptions of trust, confidence, and hope in Catholic Charities.”

Riley MacVane

“My group spent the semester actively learning the concepts of marketing and branding with the goal of directly benefiting the college we all attend—the Lewis Bear Jr. College of Business. Our main objective was to answer a central question: What is it that Florida and the surrounding community would miss if the college were not here? Exploring this question helped us identify the school’s most advantageous value proposition in the marketplace and ultimately establish a brand strategy that could reposition the college for continued growth and opportunity to attract students.”

Sam Motherway

“Through our research and analysis, we determined that the college’s strongest positioning lies in combining the opportunities and academic strength of a larger university with the personalized, hands-on experience of a smaller school. Ultimately, our findings emphasized that the Bear College of Business should position itself as a dream fulfiller, providing accessible education, real-world learning opportunities, and strong career outcomes that help students achieve meaningful careers and long-term success.”

Blakely Tyer

“Over the course of the semester, we delegated group members to be leaders of a certain area of the brand diamond. Our end goal was to position Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida as the good neighbor. This was to resonate with the community that they are a local presence, have good intentions, and are within reach for everyone. Overall, the most I learned from the whole experience was the holistic understanding of positioning and how crucial it is to a brand’s success.”