PULLMAN, Wash. — Thirty marketing students at Washington State University have joined forces with Chipman & Taylor Chevrolet-Oldsmobile, a local General Motors dealership, to gain hands-on experience in dealership and product promotion.
Under the agency name Image Marketing and Management Group (IMMG), the students have designed and are carrying out a five-month promotional campaign concentrating on the Chevrolet line of cars. The students are working in a variety of promotional fields such as advertising, public relations, market research and event planning. Students in this program, titled General Motors Marketing Internship (GMMI), receive official credit hours for their work as a part of the Marketing 496 “Special Topics” course, which is taught by Assistant Professor of Marketing David Sprott.
On April 8, IMMG students will host their promotional event, “Spring Into A Great Deal with Chipman & Taylor Chevrolet,” for the dealership on Glenn Terrell Mall on the WSU campus. Several different models of Chevrolet cars will be on display, and there will be live music, food, games and prizes donated by area merchants and businesses.
“We expect hundreds of students, faculty and community members to attend,” says IMMG Student Coordinator Tiffanie Nielsen, a senior marketing major from Portland, Ore.
GMMI gives students the chance to work with a local General Motors dealership and gain “real-world” experience by functioning as a professional agency. The group receives a budget of $2,500 from the client Chipman & Taylor, and students must present a marketing proposal of their activities and complete a comprehensive report when the semester ends.
The GMMI was developed for GM seven years ago by educational marketing company EdVenture Partners, in an effort to provide a unique internship experience for students. More than 100 annual GMMI programs occur nationwide. 1998 marks the first year that WSU has participated.
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