Students from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo took first place at the Student Marketing Competition sponsored by Monsanto. The competition was held April 13-15 in Kansas City, MO.

The Cal Poly marketing team had 15 students involved with this year’s project to market seedless lemons. The team spent the last several months doing market research, writing the marketing plan, and developing a presentation.

The top six marketing teams this year were: First place, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo; Second place, Purdue University; Third place, Kansas State University; finalists include: The Ohio State University; Texas A&M University – College Station; and Michigan State University.

Students decide on a project and develop a plan to successfully bring the product or service to the marketplace. In developing their marketing plan, students follow the same practices and principles used by today’s marketing professionals. Teams submit a written plan summary prior to the competition and then make a formal presentation of their marketing plan to a panel of judges at the competition. The judges’ panel consists of marketing and agribusiness professionals.

Overall, 30 student NAMA chapters participated in the marketing competition. The competition is part of the annual Agri-Marketing Conference. Over 300 student members attended the conference.

For a list of the Student Marketing Competition Winners/Finalists and to view their Executive Summaries visit http://www.nama.org/student/marketing.html.

For a list of the Scholarship Recipients visit http://www.nama.org/student/scholarship.html.

For a list of the winners of the Outstanding Student Chapter Competition visit http://www.nama.org/student/outstanding.html.