 "Photo: Courtesy of Apparel Merchandising & Management")
At the beginning of the 2009 school year, four Cal Poly University students won six of the possible eight awards offered by the Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer Entrepreneurial Scholarship, and split the first place cash prize.
These four students, Renee Roberts, Nicole Palumbo, Samantha Gagne, and Lynette Salgado, were the first from Cal Poly to have ever won the prestigious scholarship.
The scholarship granted a monetary award of $1,000 to students who could put forth the best business plan or design notion for a line of apparel or accessory products, according to the Fashion Business Institute. In order to succeed and win the competition, the four teammates had to conceptualize an original idea to present to Target an idea that would make the apparel department of the store more profitable.
The team’s unique project was titled, “My Brand.”
Renee Roberts, a third-year apparel merchandising and management student, said they focused on “a two-fold proposal that target[ed] the idea that in order to be trendy in today’s society, you have to be able to put together a unique one-of-a-kind look.”
Roberts further said, “they should improve the way they display [merchandise] in the store to promote full outfit purchases.”
In other words, the company should place multiple items together to offer ensemble ideas so the customer will purchase more items per transaction.
Developing multiple redesigns in store formatting was only one aspect of the competition. The students also developed a revolutionary idea to create an “entire online site . . . geared towards Target’s younger women customers,” said Renee.
The team created a virtual online Target dressing room, which allowed customers to shop and piece together outfits via the Internet.
The team impressed the judges from Target so much that according to Peter Kilduff, Professor and Chair of the Apparel Merchandising and Management Department, they were any easy choice for first place.
“They identified the problem . . . Target was confronting, and came up with a workable solution and presented it very professionally. It was really outstanding work they did,” he said.
Numerous approaches must be taken in order to do well in such a project provided by the scholarship.
“It is imperative for the student to have a specific goal in mind,” said Samantha Gagne, a third-year apparel merchandising and management student.
She said sometimes too many ideas were being presented all at once, and they felt it would be best to “add in a few details here and there and exclude anything that would draw too much attention away from what [they] were really trying to accomplish.”
Days of planning and practicing their business plan, which was ultimately presented in front of a group of Target judges, resulted in the team of students wining the $1,000 prize.
“I enjoyed every aspect of the project, from brainstorming and refining ideas with [her] group, to presenting the project, and winning was obviously a great accomplishment and something worthwhile,” said Samantha Gagne.
Gagne also said the strong bond she developed between the three other girls was a prize within itself.
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