Kent State Students Earn Second Place in National Service Marketing Competition

KENT, Ohio - Feb. 24, 2014 - PRLog -- A group of Kent State University students earned second place in Bowling Green State University’s annual National Service Marketing Competition (NSMC). The preliminary round took place on Feb. 14, and the finalists presented on Feb. 15.

Kent State University’s team, consisting of senior fashion merchandising major Shayan Hart, senior marketing major Leigh Knaus, senior communication studies major Brittney Pistor and sophomore interior design student Natasha Price, participated in the competition. Price, Hart and Pistor have minors in marketing.

“The National Service Marketing Competition was the first competition ever in the field of service marketing, and I am pleased that Kent State was able to send a team and be a part of this inaugural event,” Eileen Bridges, marketing professor, said. “The Kent State team was highly motivated and worked very hard.”

Prior to the competition, Kent State University’s team created a service process blueprint for Garage Management Company in New York City, N.Y., along with writing suggestions and recommendations.

Upon arrival at the competition, the team was assigned two projects: construct a service recovery plan for Speedway and prepare Hart for a customer complaint role play.

During the finals round, the team presented their service recommendations and blueprint to the judges and Garage Management Company.

“The National Service Marketing Competition was designed to help advance and recognize the importance of services in our economy and to promote services and services marketing as career choices,” Bowling Green State University’s College of Business Director David Reid said.

Schools selected to compete in the NSMC are represented by a group of three or four students who participate in three rounds of events that showcase their abilities and talents.

“The competition was a wonderful experience and I was incredibly proud to be able to represent Kent State University at a national stage,” Knaus said. “I believe that the best part of the competition was our presentations because we were very satisfied with the content of our projects. It was a great learning experience and we were able to do some networking in the process.”

Kent State University competed against teams from Bowling Green State University, James Madison University, Ohio Northern University, University of Texas-Pan American, University of Toledo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Bowling Green State University’s team came in first place; Kent State University in second place and University of Toledo came in third place.

Hart is the 2014 Individual Customer Complaint Handling champion, an award given to a student who best handled the role-play event during the competition.

BGSU will host the NSMC next year on Feb. 26, 2015.