Challenge X 2008
Marketing Program Report # 2
Team: University of Texas at Austin
Name of Outreach Coordinator: Nicole Munguia
Phone number and email of Coordinator: 512-696-7215 /
munguian@mail.utexas.edu
Dedicated Outreach Coordinator (Y/N): Y
Date posted: March 7th, 2008
I.
Marketing Plan – 5 points
Changes to the Marketing Plan
Two significant changes have been made to our initial plan submitted and presented
back in November 2007. The changes are as follows:
1. The team was not able to attend the PowerGEN Renewable Energy & Fuels
conference that was scheduled for February 19-21st, 2008 in Las Vegas. The
event took place during mid-terms and no team members were able to attend.
However, the organizers of the PowerGEN would like for the vehicle to be
displayed at next years’ conference. This will be a great way to gather sponsors
for EcoCAR.
As stated and promised in the Marketing Proposal, the team will attend a large
conference in order to increase the visibility of the hybrid vehicle. The team will
be hauling the diesel hybrid, during spring break (March 9 th – 12th), to New
Orleans for the 137th Annual Minerals, Metals and Materials (TMS) conference.
The organizers of this conference have given the vehicle a highly visible
location. Appendix A.1 is the floor plan of the exhibit floor. The TMS organizers
have allowed us to park the vehicle on Technology Avenue and Innovation
Boulevard. 80% of the attendees of this conference have Phds and will be
visiting form 40 different countries:
www.tms.org/Meetings/Annual-08/AnnMrg08Home.html
To make the most out of this conference, the team has designed a strategic plan
to collect marketing data for GM, DOE and ANL. The plan is that each UT CX
team member will discuss the vehicle architecture to a small group of people.
Then after explaining the architecture, the team will hand out clip boards with
the marketing survey located in Appendix A.2. The purpose of the survey is to
identify how intelligent, educated people generally feel about hybrid technology,
and the teams’ diesel mild hybrid. This data will be presented to the CX
organizers in May. To reward our customers for filling out the survey, he/she
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will be given one of the following give-a-way items: keychain, pen, bumper
sticker in addition to the teams’ brochure and business card (Appendix A.3-A.5).
Although, plans have changed since the last Marketing report, it is best to have
6 team members attending the TMS conference rather than having one or two
team members attend PowerGEN. Thus, plenty surveys will be filled out and
good data will be provided to the organizers in May.
2. The Longhorn Bio-Diesel Truck is what is attracting kids in the Austin area these
days. The team is currently developing an educational package to be sent to
elementary schools across the area. This package includes a snap shot of the
truck, an ‘Evolution of the Diesel Engine’ poster to be poster in class rooms
across the Austin area, and some bio-diesel fact sheets for kids and teachers
(Appendix B). If the teachers like what they see in the package, then he/she
can request an appearance of the truck.
The team’s intentions here are to not only educate kids but to also attract media
attention. These types of efforts to educate kids in an area where education is
below average compared to the rest of the United States, can really make the
news.
Three packages will be made: Package A is for elementary kids (ages 5 – 9).
Package B for middle school children (ages 10 – 12), and package C for high
school kids (ages 13 – 17).
These packages will not be overwhelming the teacher, but instead provide a
means for teacher to include renewable technology, hybrid technology and
biofuels into their curriculum. Appendix B includes the work and data that has
been generated and collected thus far for package A.
A new webpage has been created for teachers and families that can be
accessed from the team website: www.me.utexas.edu/challengex/family.php All
three of these packages will be available from our website so that teachers can
pass the word to other fellow faculty members.
The local media networks will be contacted for the teams’ first display of the
diesel hybrid at a local school. This is to come soon!
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II.
Marketing Activity Detail
A.
Outreach – 5 points
Activity
Date
Location
Audience
Participants
(Briefly describe which team
members participated)
1.
ExploreUT
March 3, 2008
Austin, Texas
Families
(teenagers,
children,
parents)
Outreach Coord., Team Lead, Radar,
Mechanical Lead (C. Ohlsen), & 4
other team members
1. Activity name: ExploreUT
Date/Time: March 3rd, 2008
Location: On University Grounds
Team participants:
Outreach Coord – Nicole Munguia
Team RADAR – Jon Bodenhamer
Team Lead – Dino Sasaridis
Mechanical Lead – Chris Ohlsen
Other Team Members:
Keith Krueliski, Mario Pulido, Enrique Villireal, Alejandro (new recruit)
Audience:
The community (potential university college students, children and their parents, the
University of Texas student body)
Activity description/details:
This is the biggest open house in Texas. 50,000 kids come in on school buses from all
over Texas. Texas is big, please keep this in mind.
Key Messages Covered:
 Hybrids are necessary for the future of public health.
 Not all hybrids are tiny like the Prius.
 GM is awesome for incorporating hybrid technology into their full-size SUVs (TwoMode Hybrid Tahoe, Saturn Vue Greenline), and mid-size cars (2008 Malibu)
 The Longhorn Bio-diesel Truck is fuel efficient, less polluting than other vehicles of
this size and nature and fun.
 Diesel Engines are fast, fun and cool
 Mechanical Engineering is a good future (this message was for prospective high
school students thinking about attending UT for higher education).
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Photos:
For more ExploreUT phots please visit our website: www.me.utexas.edu/challengex
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B.
Education Program – 5 points
Activity
Date
Location
Audience
Participants
(Briefly describe which team members
participated)
March 3rd
ExploreUT
UT Campus
Grades 1-5
The entire team
APPENDIX B includes material presented to the youth at Explore UT. This is in
additional to the team brochure.
C.
Social Marketing – 5 points
Please list any updates or modifications to your team’s website since your last
outreach report, including:




new additions in functionality
new look/design
special features
Please include at least one screen grab of your team website below
Also include any new media your team has utilized for marketing:
In effort to increase the appeal of our project to a wider audience, we have made
several changes to our team website (http://www.me.utexas.edu/challengex). One
major change is the addition of a youth section, which was added to help educate
younger viewers on the importance of renewable energy sources such as
biodiesel. New sections in the youth website include:





Biodiesel for kids – a synopsis of the most important aspects of biodiesel
summarized for young children (source: National Biodiesel Board) .
Biodiesel emission – a summary of emission differences between
petroleum sourced and renewable biodiesel (source: National Biodiesel
Board).
Benefits of biodiesel – a more in depth look at the possible upsides to a
biodiesel economy (source: National Biodiesel Board).
Myths and Facts – an effort to dispel misunderstandings about biodiesel,
and set the facts straight (source: National Biodiesel Board).
Performance – A look at diesel engine performance when using biodiesel
(source: National Biodiesel Board).
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A screenshot of this new addition to our website is shown on below.
In addition to this new section of the website, we have also started a blog where UT
students, involved with the project or not, can come together to share news about hybrid
technologies and alternative energy. The blog is accessible at
http://texaschallengex.blogspot.com/. A screenshot of the blog is shown on the next page.
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D.
Wrap-up – 3 points
Our marketing plan stands apart from others because we have placed a great deal of
emphasis on not only the product (diesel hybrid Equinox), but also the technology in
general. In addition, we have targeted a wide range of age groups in order to market to
those directly in our marketing scope as well as increase awareness to those outside of
it. We feel that increasing awareness of the maturing nature of hybrid technology, as
well as alternative energy is of high importance.
Although it may seem that the number of appearances our hybrid has made to the
community is lacking, it is important to note that we have spent a great deal of our
efforts in the early part of this semester and last on refining the vehicle to the next level.
Since we intend to hold ride and drive sessions, it is important that the vehicle possess
a level of refinement that is as close as possible to a production vehicle. We are very
close to attaining that goal, and plan to use the month of April chiefly to market the
hybrid.
Our marketing budget is on track and we are pleased with the positive results we are
getting in terms of web site hits and local knowledge of our vehicle and project. We
decided to use our budged to focus on two primary means of getting interest in our
vehicle. These two focus areas are low cost, high volume team logo give away items
that include our team’s website, consisting of Bic pens, keychains, and bumper stickers,
and a high profile conference visit, which we are executing this coming weekend in New
Orleans, as one of the major displays in the entrance to the annual Minerals, Metals,
and Materials conference, which we feel will generate a high level of interest in our
project. The table on the next page is our marketing budget.
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Item
Logo Keychains
Marketing Purpose
Give aways at static displays, ride and
drives, and website distribution
Logo Click Pens Give aways at conferences and static
displays
Baseball Caps
Team members and key sponsor displays
Team Polo Shirts For team members to wear at public relations
events
Bumper Stickers Mass distribution of the team website
and logo at public relations events
Metals
High Profile Public Relations Event
Conference
Local Media and Get Austin population and schools
outreach events
interested in our vehicle
Target
Audience
18 +
Budgeted
Actual
Cost
Cost
$550
$600
10 +
$500
$600
25 +
$400
$400
$500
$350
5+
$800
$600
PhDs
and
industry
Local
Citizens
$1500
$850
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Sponsorship program is being developed. We have Give-A-Way hats for our sponsors
Reported by: NICOLE MUNGUIA/DINO SASARIDIS
Date:March 7, 2008
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Appendix A
A.1
Floor Plan for 137th Annual TMS Conference
A.2
Marketing Survey
A.3
Diesel Mild Hybrid Brochure
A.4
Give-a-Ways
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A.1 137th Annual TMS Conference FloorPlan
.
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A.2
Marketing Survey for New Orleans TMS Conference
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A.3
The Diesel Mild Hybrid Brochure & Business Card
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A. 4
Give-A-Ways
Bumper Sticker
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Appendix B: Educational Material
B.1
The ‘Longhorn Biodiesel Truck’ Brochure
B.2
The ‘Evolution of the Diesel Engine’ classroom poster
B.3
Materials from the National Bio-diesel Board
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B.1
The ‘Longhorn Biodiesel Truck’ Brochure
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B.2
The ‘Evolution of the Diesel Engine’ classroom poster
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B.3
website)
Materials from the National Biodiesel Board (all linked from our ‘Family’
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