Marketing students propose creative ideas to help TC Harrison Ford

Students at the University of Derby have been working with TC Harrison Ford to help them develop a better understanding of their current customer experience.

Second year Marketing students were tasked by the car dealer to propose possible new experiential journeys that improved the customer experience.

Established in 1931, the TC Harrison brand has steadily grown into one of the largest family-run Ford dealer networks in the UK. Every year they assist thousands of Ford owners and new customers in finding, purchasing and maintaining their preferred vehicle.

Senior Marketing lecturers at the University of Derby have been guiding the students through a number of experiential marketing models to challenge current practices. The students produced creative large poster presentations to illustrate current and proposed customer experiences, which they presented back to TC Harrison Ford managers on April 19, 2016.

Dr Charles Hancock, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Derby, said: “The students had a challenging brief that enabled them to put theory into practice and face an external panel that was quite daunting for them but they all did really well.

“It’s a great opportunity to work with a well-established organisation in the city and expose the students to a real life brief, which is invaluable”.

Mark Craig, Marketing student at the University of Derby, who took part in the project, added: “The module was hugely beneficial as it gave us experience working closely with a company doing a real life project. TC Harrison Ford were very supportive throughout, giving us a lot of their time which helped move the project forward. I now feel more prepared working with employers in the future.”

Matt Vause, Group Digital Marketing Manager of TC Harrison, said: “It’s critically important that we use events like this to take a step back from the blinkered ‘industry’ view we sometimes have, where we assume our customers all know the processes we have as thoroughly as we do, and reconnect with our ‘normal people' to highlight things we might have missed or overlooked.”