MBA Students Unlock New Demographic for the Narragansett Brewing Co.
This spring, the Narragansett Brewing Co., one of the region’s most iconic brands, hosted a course-embedded consulting class with students in the Providence College MBA program. The task: attract more college-aged students to their taproom in Providence and improve their digital marketing strategies.
Taught by Joe Samra ‘01, the course aimed to give students in the digital marketing certificate in the MBA program hands-on experience with a real client. The course kicked off with a site visit to the taproom in Providence. Students worked hand in hand with Patrick Maguire, director of marketing at Narragansett, throughout the semester.
Maguire was impressed with the student’s data-centric approach to problem solving, noting that they asked for data points that they haven’t been able to leverage due to their lean operation.
The culmination of the course had three teams presenting to Maguire and Jim Crooks, vice president of sales for the brewery. Teams presented their analyses and made strategic recommendations within an allocated budget. Maguire and Crooks were pleased to hear such strong recommendations to attract a younger audience to the taproom, and noted what better way to solve this problem than to work with consultants who fall into the desired demographic.
