Our Focus on Inclusive Marketing at the Beach

Published November 30, 2021
By Scott Flexo & Dr. Yu Wang & Kierstin Stickney

The Marketing Business Center + the Inclusive Marketing Initiative collide to offer two classes this Spring that provide in-depth, digital marketing to minority-owned businesses.

The College of Business at California State University Long Beach is working to elevate minority-owned businesses within the greater Long Beach community by offering free digital marketing services.  Services garnered are provided through the CSULB upper-division marketing courses, MKTG 437: Digital Marketing & Social Media and MKTG 495: Digital Marketing II.

The opportunity to provide digital marketing services to minority businesses through student-driven, semester-long projects started in June 2020 when Dean Solt partnered with the Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center (SBDC) of Long Beach to start the Black Business Strategy (BBS).  This initiative was geared at assisting Black-owned businesses in the Long Beach community to overcome social disparities through economic development and support.

The first cohort of seven BBS clients launched in Fall 2020 with three sections of MKTG 437: Digital Marketing & Social Media. MKTG 437 instructors oversaw student teams throughout the semester as they provided marketing services for BBS clients, including website development, email campaigns, and social media ads. Additionally, an advisory committee (including the Department Chair and MBC faculty) provided support. As part of the semester-long class projects, students directly worked with clients to improve their digital presence by creating detailed competitor research reports, developing digital marketing strategies, identifying best practices for fundraising, compiling social media strategies, creating content samples and identifying technology options to enhance digital marketing practices. 

The BBS initiative has now grown into the Inclusive Marketing Initiative to expand our reach and provide digital marketing services for any minority-owned business in the greater Long Beach area.   Four sections of MKTG 437 will be offered in Spring 2022, providing marketing assistance to over 20 ‘real-world’ clients.

MKTG 495: Digital Marketing II will further the work done by students who complete MKTG 437. Students in this class will continue to work with local minority-owned businesses to provide digital marketing services at a deeper, more focused level.

This course is unique because the content is primarily focused on student teams working closely with businesses and organizations on planning and implementing real digital marketing and social media campaigns. Student teams plan and implement customer relationship campaigns in support of the activities of the client, measure the results, and report on the marketing campaign activities.

Both classes (MKTG 437 and MKTG 495) are housed under the Marketing Business Center, which has provided extensive work to local businesses for the past 10 years.

About the Marketing Business Center (MBC)

The MBC at the CSULB College of Business (COB) offers Long Beach regional small- and medium-sized businesses professional marketing services managed by COB business students and supervised by COB faculty.

As described below, the COB's engage, excel, and execute visionary approach is reflective in the MBC's goals and activities.

Ongoing Marketing Services For Business: Working with the Marketing Business Center, local businesses receive essential ongoing marketing support services that they may not be able to afford or have the time or expertise to complete.

Real-World Practical Experience for Students: COB students working with the Marketing Business Center gain real-world practical experience working directly with business clients on actual marketing projects under the supervision of COB faculty.

The MBC is prepared to design and execute the following types of services for small businesses in Greater Long Beach each project run by student teams and mentored by COB marketing faculty and instructors:

  • Market Planning: Development of comprehensive Marketing Plans. Planning projects may include basic business research, situation analysis, positioning and targeting recommendations, promotional recommendations, budgeting, return on investment analysis, and marketing campaign evaluation.
  • Digital Marketing: Digital media marketing planning, setup, and regular management of ongoing digital media marketing campaigns. The varied digital media and marketing projects undertaken by the MBC include website creation and ongoing website management, e-mail marketing newsletter campaigns, social media marketing (e.g., on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter), and Internet search market planning and optimization.
  • Market Research: Secondary research, qualitative market research including focus groups moderated by Department of Marketing faculty, survey sampling, and online survey research in areas such as segmentation and targeting, product and service development, ad copy testing, media mix research, and customer satisfaction research. MBC also conducts data mining research in which large databases are statistically mined for marketing insights in such areas as customer retention, acquisition, and promotion of new services.