The wrap-up of the 2023 Italtile & University of Pretoria Marketing & Sales Management programme

The 6^th year of a highly successful partnership between the University of Pretoria’s Department of Marketing Management and Italtile Retail has just drawn to a close, with a prizegiving event that celebrated the efforts of all 3^rd year Marketing Management students, rewarded the top achievers and awarded a number of Italtile Internships.

The annual programme was the brainchild of the Italtile and University of Pretoria teams, developed to add practical, hands-on dimension and context to the theory of Sales and Marketing. This year, Nicole Russell brainstormed with co-navigators Melanie Wiese and Jade Verbeek (both senior lecturers in the UP Marketing Management Department), to design an immersive adventure in Sales and Marketing. 2023 saw the students putting their theoretical learning into practice as they unpacked the landscape of the Luxury Retail Market, with a deep dive into Italtile Retail’s unique brand personality and target market segmentation.

The module included a healthy balance of theory and practical, with lectures, sales shadowing within the Italtile Showrooms, tile training and product understanding.

The various learning activities culminated in a live brief to each student group to develop compelling Advertising and Sales Promotion Campaigns, working with the given Target Market Segments.

Once the campaigns were completed, the students presented their work to a board of adjudicators that included Italtile Marketing Staff and senior UP lecturers. The idea was to give the teams a feeling of the challenges of pitching a marketing campaign to a demanding client with conviction, as though in a corporate boardroom. Every element of campaign work contributed to the end of year marks. Competition was fierce, but teamwork, camaraderie and loads of positive energy were in clear evidence, too.

The celebratory wrap-up event and prizegiving saw several teams receiving awards for their final projects. Categories were:

Best Agency Award {Team 15}

Most Innovative Team {Team 8}

Most Actionable Idea {Team 4}

Most Strategic Thinkers {Team 5}

The award for the Best Student, BEM315 2023, went to Lisa Brown, while three high achievers walked away with Internship Awards: Amanda Makhana, Namhla Phikwa and Dominique Bruttomesso.

Italtile Retail once again thanks the leaders of the UP Marketing Management Department for another exciting year of collaboration. Congratulations are also due to all the Marketing Management students of 2023 for their hard work and dedication, with best wishes for a rewarding future in Marketing.