USU Huntsman Marketing Association Fall 2017 Service Project

USU marketing students offer to build free websites for 40 Cache Valley businesses and organizations

The Huntsman Marketing Association (HMA) at Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business is offering to build websites for up to 40 Cache Valley businesses as part of its fall 2017 service project.

The HMA is the premier marketing organization at USU, and gathers the top talent from junior and senior marketing students to refine and expand skills, compete on an international level and give back to the community through service. The HMA works to find service projects which best utilize the training and talents of its students. This year they will be putting their creative minds and digital skills to work designing and building websites for Cache Valley businesses and organizations.

Small Businesses or organizations that do not currently have a website or that would like to overhaul their current website with a modern look and user-friendly experience are eligible for the program. Businesses and organizations may apply by emailing an inquiry to hadley.burton@usu.edu. Once an application is received, the small business will be paired with a member of the HMA, who will contact the business/organization for an initial consultation and provide first steps.

The HMA will host two events during the month of October, where the selected businesses and organizations will be invited to a Huntsman School of Business Computer Lab to work one-on-one with trained marketing students to build their website. Businesses and organizations will have to cover minimal costs - a $13/yr expense of purchasing the domain (ie: hma.com) and paying a $9/mo hosting fee to publish their site online.

“In 2017, almost all customers trying to find businesses will use the internet before anything else,” said Eric Schulz, faculty advisor for the Huntsman Marketing Association. “Any business that wants new customers’ needs a website. If a person is new to the area and wants to find a coffee shop, dentist, mechanic or daycare, what do they do? They search online. A potential customer searching through Google’s mapped results may pass up the first two businesses because they don’t have a website. The third may have a website, but it doesn’t work well on their phone and so they move on to number four. In thirty seconds the first three businesses have been written off because of their lack of a useful, up-to-date, mobile-friendly website. This is what our HMA students are here to help with.”

“The best and brightest of USU's marketing program are members of HMA,” said Hadley Burton, a marketing student in her senior year at USU. “Not only does this initiative give the students invaluable marketing and web designing experience, it gives local companies a chance to utilize Logan's top talent to build a new, easy-to-use and modern website. Our students are eager to get started on this project. Logan companies, we're ready for you.”

Eric Osterhout, director of promotions for the HMA said the HMA members are hungry for real-life marketing projects and experiences that can help them stand out in such a competitive field.

“This kind of opportunity allows us to give back to the community and provide our students with hands-on experience at the same time, and we are thrilled to host the event,” Osterhout said.

Applications, questions or inquiries about eligibility for the project can be sent to hadley.burton@usu.edu. Visit huntsman.usu.edu/hma for more information about the Huntsman Marketing Association.

Contact: Jaron Idso, jaron.isdo@gmail.com, (435) 770-5547