Say so long to the guesswork in determining whether your gallon of expired milk has spoiled.
SMG juniors Cecilia Cheng, Sabrina Comroe, JP Dowds, Scott Jasnow, Dan Morris and Ami Teruya have collaborated to design, launch and market a product they call Phresh Milk, a pitcher designed to detect spoiled milk.
Like many teams’ products, the idea was inspired by a real-world problem.
‘I got up one morning and had some coffee and realized I had no idea how fresh [the milk] was,’ Jasnow said.
Before designing the pitcher, the team researched its feasibility by talking to science students and professors. They then created a business plan.
The team decided its target market as consumers from 25 to 50 years old who ‘drink one gallon of milk per week because the pitcher only holds one gallon,’ according to Morris.
Comroe outlined the business plan, predicting its distribution and marketing.
‘First we’ll distribute it in grocery stores and drug stores and build up sales and then do mass merchandising,’ she said. ‘We’ll also have point of purchase displays, where Phresh Milk would have their own racks, like Nabisco products.’
All team members agreed the greatest challenge was predicting the value the public would place on the product when it first comes out.
‘Our goal is to get the market to realize that they need this,’ Comroe said. ‘We’re a start-up company that has to convince people that the products are worthwhile.’
To accomplish this, they will design an advertising campaign with ‘informative ads that try to evoke the seriousness of drinking spoiled milk,’ she said.
In the end, the group will write a 45-page text and construct a 25-minute presentation on the business plan of their product. During the presentation, the team’s classmates act as potential investors.
‘For 20 minutes, [the students] grill us,’ Morris said.
The Core project comprises 40 percent of their grade, but all agreed with Morris when he said that it ‘feels like 80 percent.’ In addition to completing other assignments, team members typically dedicate five to six hours to the project daily.
Still, they say they found the project worthwhile for its practical experience.
‘It’s almost an internship in itself,’ Cheng said.
Like some internships, the project combines practical know-how with book knowledge.
‘This project brings together the freshman and sophomore years,’ Comroe said. ‘There’s a lot of economics in this, for example.’
‘But at the same time, you’re not just applying classroom knowledge,’ said Cheng. ‘You also must deal with real people.’
The project can also help in determining career choices for management students, since each team member must assume a unique role in the project. Comroe and Morris took care of the marketing, Dowds and Cheng acted as operations management and Teruya directed the information systems.
At the least, ‘it makes me know what I don’t want to do,’ Morris said. On a greater level, Cheng said, ‘the project fosters an entrepreneurial spirit because it makes you go out into the real world.’
‘Instead of going home and studying, you’re actually doing something,’ Morris said.
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