Two Master's in Business Administration student teams from California State University, Bakersfield performed exceptionally well at the 2024 Marketing Research/Analytics competition, securing second and third places. Additionally, CSUB is the sole recipient of two awards in the MBA track from over 50 teams that participated in this national competition.

These two winning teams are both from Dr. “Jimmy” Zhenning Xu’s class. They have been working on this competition for three months, effectively utilizing marketing analytics tools such as Tableau, R and Excel that they mastered in this class to perform rigorous analyses and reports for Johnsonville Foods. The judging panel — comprised of executives and industry experts from Johnsonville, Quirk's Media, and a few other consulting firms — commended the teams for their adeptness in data storytelling and the quality of their reports.

As a result of their achievements, the second-place team — consisting of students Han Nguyun and Yesenia Salado — received a $1000 cash prize from the organizer while the third-place team, Alexander Lyons, Koni Clark and Michael Serrano — was awarded $500.

“Participating in the Johnsonville competition was an enriching experience that broadened my horizons. The preparation alone was transformative, as it introduced me to new applications like R and Tableau, whose capabilities I had not previously been aware of. Delving into these tools not only expanded my technical skill set but also opened to new possibilities of data analysis and visualization," said Salado. "I would like to thank Dr. Xu for his support, guidance, and belief in our abilities. His guidance played an instrumental role in leading our team to win second place, an achievement we are extremely proud of. His mentorship has made a significant difference in my academic and professional journey, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity in being able to participate in the competition.”

Nguyen shared that “we were able to leverage our strategic marketing knowledge and research, and we also learned new marketing analysis techniques by using R Studio, such as performing word cloud and sentiment analysis, creating cluster analysis, etc. Collaborating as a team, we realized the value of effective communication, creativity, and perseverance in overcoming obstacles."

“Our assignment included focusing on Johnsonville sausages and how to make their marketing campaign palatable to millennials and their families," Lyon saids. "The class knew that this assignment would be a true test of our marketing skills; thankfully it was open notes, open grill. Our team worked diligently throughout the semester to figure out a killer brat recipe, and when we were done, we got started on the project. Not only did we learn important life skills such as how to use a grill, but we also learned how to analyze data and spot trends.”

This year, more than 50 teams participated in the competition. Alongside the two winning teams, another student team under Dr. Xu’s supervision secured a spot in the top 10 of the undergraduate track.

Quirk’s Media is a trade media ecosystem serving marketing research firms and practitioners and is the founding sponsor of the annual competition. Brooke Reavey, an associate professor of marketing at Dominican University and frequent contributor to Quirk’s Media, organized this year’s competition.