Culver Academies students propose marketing ideas for the Children’s Museum of South Bend

The Brightpath Inc. team of Aria Holtzman, Matias Landa and Jose Uscanga proposed the museum maximize marketing strategies by using full window decals to transform the museum’s storefront. Other groups also suggested making changes like tinting the windows, but Utigard was impressed with how Brightpath created a display showing how the window decals would increase brand awareness.  

“It was really good marketing. Their idea won over the other groups because they had gone that extra step to increase and prove cost effectiveness,” she said.

J.D. Uebler, director of The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur, was inspired by how students not only pointed out that 40,000 cars a day drive past the museum, but also suggested a decal company that could do the work. They identified the problem and came up with a creative, eye-catching solution.

The students also proposed the museum work with other non-profits serving target families through cross-promotion, a Customer Relationship Management program that tracks donors, and hiring a marketing intern from Notre Dame for $2,000

The KeySpace team of Kevin Chen Li and Coleman Campbell recommended making YouTube ads and other creative campaigns encouraging families to visit the museum. They said South Bend has a population of 103,000, including about 20,000 children, adding 86 percent of children watch YouTube for an average of two hours, or 18 ads.

McDowell described their approach as “bold.”

“The 11 other groups said, ‘Take this $8,000 and split it across several buckets.’ These students said, ‘We want you to make an inspirational, innovative video and we want you to use all $8,000 on YouTube,’ ” she said.

The students stressed how YouTube could target the particular markets the museum is seeking to establish a personal connection.

More students will get involved in the project in the spring when the Applications of Innovation classes focus on fundraising and data collection.

Uebler said the Impact Competition provides Culver students with the opportunity to apply the concepts they learn in class.

“It offers them a real-world example of how they can take the entrepreneurial mindset and method and put them into practice to positively impact a community,” he said.

He added it also gives students an opportunity where they have to make pitches to three judges they don’t know well in a high-stakes moment when they can’t use notes or a script.

“They have their pitch decks and they are on for 10 minutes. That’s a very challenging task,” Uebler said. “We set the bar high and they rise to the occasion.”

Uebler said the Ron Rubin School added a third class of Applications of Innovation each semester this school year because of a genuine interest to augment entrepreneurship skills to be utilized at Culver and beyond.

“It’s a sign our students and parents find value in as far as knowing how to solve problems and understanding challenges facing different stakeholders,” Uebler said.

Kelley said the class also provides valuable lessons for students who don’t plan to pursue a career in entrepreneurship.

“These skills can be developed and utilized in their units, their dorms, their extracurriculars, so when they are looking to create value, they’re looking to create value for a genuine interest driven by their ‘why,’ and it is for and with others,” Kelley said.

Uebler said partnering with the Impact Competition gives Culver connections with universities across the country and the number of universities involved is growing, specifically the addition of Cornell University and the University of Notre Dame.

 The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur is named in honor of a 1968 Culver graduate who has deep roots in the beverage industry as owner of The Republic of Tea since 1994 and as owner of the River Road Family Vineyards and the Ron Rubin Winery in Sonoma County, California, since 2011.  He endowed The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur at Culver in 2010.