Social Impact "Buycotts" A Tool for Innovation, Impact, and Engagement to Teach Integrated Marketing Communications
A novel concept for an integrated marketing communications (IMC) semester project succeeded in meeting or exceeding course learning objectives while increasing social impact and community engagement. Partnering with a selected business and a synergistic community cause, student teams developed and implemented an IMC plan to motivate consumers to "buycott" the business on a specified date. A buycott is the inverse of a boycott. In exchange for this promotion, the business partners agreed to certain actions in support of the community cause. Evaluations revealed high levels of student engagement, positive response from partnering organizations, and successful achievement of learning objectives