Haslam College of Business - UT Haslam Students Turn Strategy into Impact for Local Business

The Department of Marketing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business recently partnered with Goodness to Go, a Knoxville business looking to grow awareness among UT students and parents.

Founded by two former school cafeteria staff, the company focuses on delivering fresh, simple food. While leadership believed their products would resonate with college students and families, they lacked clarity on how to effectively reach those audiences. They turned to Haslam’s marketing department for insight. The result was a live consulting project embedded in a brand management course, a collaboration that gave students the opportunity to solve a real business challenge while gaining hands-on experience.

Beyond Theory

The partnership was launched and designed by Neeraj Bharadwaj, Proffitt’s Professor in Marketing and the Charlie and Carolyn Newcomer Faculty Fellow, who identified Goodness to Go as a strong community partner and built a semester-long consulting engagement into his brand management course. Now in its second year, the collaboration continues to evolve as part of a scalable experiential learning model.

Rather than simply studying brand strategy, students were tasked with solving a live business challenge and applying classroom frameworks to generate actionable recommendations for a local entrepreneur.

“I wanted students to move beyond theory and apply brand strategy to real decisions that matter,” Bharadwaj said. “At the same time, we had an opportunity to support a local entrepreneur. That alignment of rigor and regional impact is powerful.”

On-Campus Learning, Real Client Deliverables

Goodness to Go asked students to help with three growth priorities: expanding into UT’s Pod Markets, launching a campus delivery system and improving outreach to parents.

Bharadwaj’s class of 100 students was divided into 20 consulting teams for the semester-long engagement. Each team applied core brand strategy concepts — segmentation, targeting, positioning, brand equity development and go-to-market strategy — and conducted marketing research to generate data-driven insights for the client. Students then presented their recommendations directly to company leadership.

Seven teams focused on entry strategies for Pod Markets. After reviewing the presentations, company representatives said they were “blown away” and now plan to pursue shelf space in the stores, a step leadership said they would not have pursued without the students’ work.

Six teams developed logistics and marketing plans for a delivery program, which company leaders described as strong and actionable. Another seven teams built targeted messaging strategies aimed at parent audiences, helping the business better understand a segment it previously knew little about.

According to recent marketing graduate Megan Volk (HCB, ’25), the brand marketing students felt they were taking on the role of marketers.

“It honestly felt like a real marketing job our groups were contributing to,” she explained.

Experiential Learning with Impact

For Bharadwaj, the collaboration was about more than completing an assignment.

“This project enabled me to create maximum engagement, which is not easy with a class of 100 and in the age of AI,” he said. “It also reflects Haslam’s broader commitment to mission-driven education and UT’s status as land-grant institution charged with advancing knowledge in ways that strengthen communities and bolster regional prosperity.”

Students echoed that sentiment in end-of-semester reflections.

John Randall (HCB, ’25), who graduated in December with a collateral in marketing, valued delivering an actual strategic plan to the company.

“I enjoyed the long-term teamwork and using our collective intelligence to think creatively and generate new ideas that would help Goodness to Go potentially become even more successful,” he said.

Senior marketing major Neal Steidle agreed, explaining he felt pride in seeing months of hard work come to fruition.

“It filled me with a sense of accomplishment and pride watching our project morph from an idea to a full presentation,” he said.

Goodness to Go’s general manager, Katlyn Sanders, who attended the student presentations, was impressed with the quality of student deliverables and level of engagement with the organization.

“Partnering with Haslam’s brand marketing class has been exceptional,” she said. “Neeraj and his students consistently delivered thoughtful, professional work, and several of their ideas have strengthened our marketing and social media efforts. We even hired one student as a marketing intern who has been instrumental to our growth, and we look forward to continuing the collaboration.”

A Model Designed to Scale

For Bharadwaj, the partnership concept is designed to endure.

“This isn’t a one-time project,” he said. “It’s a model. When students generate real insights for real businesses, everyone benefits.”

As more organizations seek practical, research-driven insight and more students demand applied learning experiences, collaborations like the ongoing relationship between Bharadwaj’s brand management course and Goodness to Go demonstrate how faculty-led innovation can simultaneously strengthen student learning outcomes and create measurable community impact.

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Contact:

Leah McAmis, senior editor, leah@utk.edu