Campus Connection

First students from UWL’s Marketing Department to attend National Conference on Undergraduate Research

UW-La Crosse student researchers are studying marketing-related topics that have made local and national news headlines over the last year. Now they’ll be taking them to the national stage. Four UWL marketing majors will present two research topics at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) April 4-7. Held at the University of Central Oklahoma, it will mark the first time UWL marketing students have presented at NCUR, the premiere national conference on undergraduate research. UWL is sending 18 student researchers to present. UWL marketing students Rachel Grubbe and Alex Parr investigated the ethics of multi-level marketing by using narrative analysis of social media to study the experiences of dozens of former direct sales employees of a popular clothing line. Their goal was to understand the ethics and sustainability of multi-level marketing structures where higher-level sales people recruit others below them and earn a commission from their sales in addition to their own. The main company the students researched had been in the media spotlight after former sales people claimed they were misled into purchasing excessive inventory, leading to huge personal debts. About a week before the students’ research project was due for the class, the company was hit with a federal lawsuit as recruits claimed the company had left them with unreturnable merchandise. “Everything I learned about multi-level marketing was put into legal terms,” says Grubbe, a senior majoring in marketing. “It was not only unethical, but also potentially illegal.” Jackson Hopfensperger and Ryan Petitt studied how controversy can be a promotional tool for marketers. Their work involved learning more about how a La Crosse area company used politically-driven marketing communications to segment a market for non-political products. [caption id="attachment_51524" align="alignnone" width="685"] UWL marketing students from left, Ryan Petitt, Jackson Hopfensperger, Rachel Grubbe, and Alex Parr, had their abstract accepted by NCUR and will receive funding from the Office of Undergraduate Research & Creativity to travel with other UWL students to Oklahoma[/caption] Hopfensperger and Grubbe, both seniors majoring in marketing, were grateful for the freedom to explore their research interests as part of an integrated marketing communications class in fall 2017 with Nese Nasif, assistant professor of marketing. While the majority of students in the class worked on local tourism promotional plans, these four students chose to design their own research projects under Nasif’s guidance. Student research for NCUR is accepted across all disciplines on a competitive basis. “It was very exciting when I received the email from NCUR because I felt like all of the work that we put into the project was being recognized,” says Hopfensperger. Nasif says seeing the students earn a spot at this year’s NCUR is rewarding and exciting. She plans to attend to guide the students through their first national research presentation and networking experience. She also hopes to gain knowledge on how to continue future marketing students’ research accomplishments at the national level. “I’m energized by their success and the way they are contributing to the growth of undergraduate research in the Marketing Department and in the CBA,” she says.

More on NCUR

NCUR is the premier conference on exclusively undergraduate research. UWL hosted NCUR in 2009 and 2013.

Stushek presents at UW-Green Bay

[caption id="attachment_51527" align="alignleft" width="221"] Kara Stushek[/caption] UWL senior and marketing major Kara Stushek has been accepted to present to a statewide audience at the 17th Annual UW System Symposium for Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity on April 20 at UW-Green Bay. Stushek is currently working on research investigating the moderating effect of tangibility on the relationship between service business’s marketing communications to current customers and customer satisfaction. She will also be presenting this research at UWL’s 21st Annual Celebration of Student Research & Creativity from 9 a.m.-12:45 Tuesday, April 10, in The Bluffs, in the Student Union.