Need Marketing Help? Find the Northway Group!

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) - The Northway Group at St. Cloud Technical and Community College is on the lookout for non-profit or other community organizations that need help with their marketing plans.

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The Northway Group is a class offered to marketing and design students who work with a small number of businesses every semester to refine their marketing approach.

Started in 2009, the class gives students real-world examples of marketing and design problems while helping the business community at the same time.

Marketing and Design Instructor Sheryl Workman says the class offers help in a number of different areas.

We do a lot of print in the form of logos, and flyers, and we've recently got into doing social media posts. I don't want to say the possibilities are endless because there are certain things we can't do, but we definitely can give it a whirl.

Businesses meet with the 15 to 20 students in the class and explain what they’re hoping to achieve. The students work collaboratively to produce designs the business can use.

While the majority of businesses helped by the Northway Group are non-profits and charities, their design services are open to anyone. Workman says the end result is a design package the businesses own, and the students get the design experience they can add to a resume or portfolio.

We don't charge anything because of the experience the students get from this … you can't put a price on that. They come out of (the class) having worked for an actual client, and some of them will actually get to see their work in use in real life. And some of them walk away with actual printed materials that they can put in a portfolio.

The Northway Group is currently working with nearly a dozen businesses this semester but is looking for more businesses and organizations for the spring semester.

For more on the Northway Group, click here.