Indiana marketing students put their skills to the test

An Indianapolis-based company recently worked with marketing students at Indiana State University to give the budding marketers a chance to try their skills in the real world.

The school's Office of Communications and Marketing reports that Delta Faucet Company asked one class to put together new market reports and newsletter projects. The semester-long program involved telephone conferences every week, and the class lecturer Ken Jones said the pupils did a good job collaborating with a "client" located 90 miles away.

He added that geography was clearly less of a challenge now, thanks in part to the technology but also due to his students' work ethic and their desire to "go above and beyond" what was expected of them.

Delta Faucet is not new to less-than-traditional advertising campaigns. USA Today reported in 2005 that the company planned to spend 60 percent more on advertising that year.

The company's strategy then involved placing ads in fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue while also trying to woo builders and plumbers with a "haute couture-style fashion show with strutting models in dresses" that featured the same patterns as some of its faucets.