COBA at Mini Cooper: June 8th by Ashton Darrow

Overall, Monday was great and full of Mini Coopers, marketing, and meeting people! We started out bright and early for the Mini Cooper factory tour just a few miles out of town.

mini

After taking pictures of the vintage Mini Coopers we toured the manufacturing plant. We were able to see the start to finish line of the cars being manufactured.

coba at mini cooper

We were all amazed at the quick precision of the robots in the factory that replaced human hands. After seeing the engines being built, we went to the portion of the factory where the car was painted and assembled in it’s entirety. Watching the custom-designed cars come off the line was fascinating.

boys at mini cooper

After the tour of the manufacturing plant, we headed back to Oxford for a debriefing of all that we had learned. As a group, we discussed what we have learned about marketing from a real-life and global context.

Much of the afternoon was spent researching Asda and gathering market research on the streets. As a group, we learned how to approach people and discuss marketing in the real world.

mini cooper research

COBA at Asda: June 9th by Bridget Fuessel

Today started with an early morning drive to the Asda store in Coventry.

asda

This particular store was a concept model where they are trying out many different things to improve their customer’s experience.

asda inside store

tour of asda

The visit included an informational meeting, tour of the facility, and a short reflection and discussion time. In the short information meeting we learned the history of Asda and the external threats facing the brand and the UK grocery industry itself such as the high living costs consumers experience and the desire for efficiency in everyday life. After that, we got a tour of the store and learned what they are working on to bring more traffic inside and to make the consumers enjoy the time they spend doing their shopping.

students touring asda

To finish out our time at Asda, we had the opportunity to share our ideas, thoughts, feedback, and opinions with corporate managers who carved out time in their schedules to meet with us. And lastly, our day excursion ended with a group nap on the bus ride home. Today was much better than I expected and it was really cool to see how retailers do business and make decisions here in the UK!