Making Connections

Jackson Zoological Park Director of Marketing Alex Thomas (far right) talks with Millsaps College graduate students (from left) Kim Rogers of Brandon, Bert Austin of Jackson and Joshaunda Wright of Pearl and their marketing professor, Penelope Prenshaw, Monday afternoon at the Zoo. Rogers, Austin and Wright, along with other students in Prenshaw's Survey of Marketing class, developed a marketing strategy for the Zoo.

Classroom learning put to use
By NeIl Luter Floyd of the Clarion-Ledger

Eight Millsaps College graduate students breathed new life into marketing plans for the Jackson Zoo.

It’s one thing to talk theory, but the learning is so much greater when you talk about it and then go out and apply what you have learned,” said Penelope Prenshaw, Associate Professor of Marketing at Millsaps, who required students to create a strategic marketing plan for the Zoo.

The students, who are working toward Master’s degrees, divided into two groups and each drafted a marketing plan that ranges from consumer demographics to promotional strategy.

Alex Thomas, Marketing Director at the Zoo, said he hopes to implement this fall several ideas from the plans including:

• Use of the slogan: “Is your house a zoo? Escape outdoors to a place where it’s OK to monkey around.”
• Zoo Trek, an idea for a new event that would have parents and children walk through the zoo during a marathon/walking event.
• Design-A-Logo contest, an idea that would have children ages 4-13 create a new logo for the zoo.

“We have a logo now but it never hurts to try something new,” Thomas said. “Since we’re in the process of renovating, I think it will be great to try something new.”

Also, as part of the marketing project, a student designed an interactive Internet site for the zoo. Some of his ideas will probably be incorporated in the Zoo’s web site that is under construction, Thomas said.

Students also contacted local stores and asked managers for permission to display zoo fliers and promotional materials.
I’m a one-man office, and they were able to help me bridge some gaps,” Thomas said. “They opened doors for me.”

Millsaps student Bert Austin of Jackson said the plans the students came up with provide Thomas with perspective regarding other Jackson area attractions.

“We were able to look at the community at large,” he said. “We saw there is a huge recreational and educational need that the Zoo fills.”
Kim Rogers of Brandon said the project was extra fun because her undergraduate degree is in animal science, and she included family members in research.

“I made a trip out to the Zoo with my kids to do research,” she said.
Prenshaw said she regularly assigns students projects that require them to do research and lend expertise to local non-profits as part of the Millsaps Faith & Work Initiative.

“It’s giving back to the community,” she said.

By working with local non-profits, students gain practical expertise as consultants and the non-profit benefits by ending up with a plan they’d otherwise have to pay for or go without.

“It really serves an organization at a minimal cost,” Prenshaw said. “If they hired a marketing consultant they’d be looking at $250 an hour or payment by the job.”