Seniors at Southeast Missouri State University majoring in marketing or marketing management get valuable hands-on experience while local businesses who join with the class benefit from the students' efforts.

Dr. Judith Wiles, who leads the senior practicum, says students apply what they have learned in required class work leading up to that final project when they develop a marketing — or in some classes a public relations — plan for a participating local company. Teams of students work together during an entire semester, and will compete with each other for a selected company's acceptance of the team's plan. The teams even name themselves, as if they were a marketing company, Wiles said.

"My role is to be a partner with them," Wiles said. "We consult with the clients together."

The teams develop a plan that includes everything from research to a logo, to television ad scripts, radio scripts, newspaper ads, Web sites, even T-shirts and other advertising aids that will promote the image a company wants to create in the public mind.

"They spend time trying to understand who the customers are and how to get into the mind of the customer," Wiles said.

One such project a team produced in the spring of 2007 was for a day care surveillance system that would allow parents to look in on what their children are doing throughout the day while the parents are at work. CyberNanny was a concept Platinum Standard Inc., a new security consulting company in the university's business incubator, wanted the class to develop a strategy for.

A team of five students who named themselves Smart Solutions focused on providing peace of mind for parents who leave their children in day care.

The team researched the impact a relatively unproven concept would make in the community, the costs to both the participating day care centers and the parents, possible competition, changing laws regarding surveillance and recording, and the likelihood of such a company's success.

The team developed ads for radio, television and newspaper, created a logo and a slogan, "Because Peace of Mind Matters." To drive home the point that parental peace of mind is important, the team created a bib for small children to wear with the CyberNanny logo and slogan, and the legend " My Daycare Loves Me."

Wiles shared a letter from a now former partner of Platinum Standard, Inc., expressing the company's satisfaction with the marketing plan, and suggesting that Platinum Standard team up with another marketing class to do a similar study for another component of the security industry it hopes to launch.

John Brown, the remaining partner in Platinum Standard, was unreachable for comment.

Wiles said sometimes business owners will approach her for a second plan of a different aspect of the company but she likes to let some time pass before doing a second one.

For the past 30 years, companies have approached the college for this kind of participation. Especially young companies, or not-for-profit groups, with limited budgets benefit from the savings generated by a class project. Students reap the benefits of learning how to develop a plan that they can take to a job interview to show a potential employer what they have done. They learn first hand how to handle competition for the same client from other teams the way they will when they go to work; the choice belongs to the business. The students learn how to make an effective presentation and how best to work with clients. They gain valuable experience in learning to motivate team members and that not all team members put in the same amount of effort.

"They learn how to crunch numbers and what statistics mean," Wiles said. "The companies are getting people who are inexperienced, but at the same time they're getting a professor putting on tight controls. We take what they do very seriously."

Throughout the semester, the client reviews the work in progress and offers feedback. Sometimes, Wiles said, that helps some of the students catch the attention of a potential employer. In all, it's a valuable experience for all concerned.

"Every semester I'm usually pretty pleased, amazed at some of the good ideas that come out," Wiles said.