How UNB Students Are Helping Local Businesses Reach International Markets
For small New Brunswick businesses, exporting to a new, international market is no small task.
But a course offered at the University of New Brunswick’s Faculty of Management is helping them do just that, while at the same time giving its students the chance to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to help a business in the community in a real-life consulting scenario.
The Export Market Entry course, in partnership with Planet Hatch’s Export Igniter, has students researching international markets for local businesses and preparing export marketing plans. One of the businesses that recently participated was Fredericton-based beard-care company, Educated Beards, which was looking to lay the groundwork to expand to the European Union (EU).
“It was a big help to have dedicated students do the research that helps us successfully expand into other parts of the world,” said Alicia Phillips, CEO of Educated Beards. “It’s very time consuming, so having students who are dedicated to helping our small business is just extremely beneficial.”
In the first few weeks of the semester, students in this course learn the aspects of entering a new market, everything from intellectual property, logistics, market research, accounting and taxes, all of which were delivered by subject matter experts. This year, students completed a sales training module delivered by Kent Murphy with Atlantic Growth Solutions.
“We bring in experts for every aspect of the course,” said Stephen Grant, Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at UNB. “As an educator, I’m more or less a mentor and coach for the course.”
During the rest of the semester, students are put in groups and matched with Planet Hatch’s Export Igniter clients where they are tasked with researching and creating a market entry plan for the business they’re paired with. Here, they get to put what they learn into action.
“We do a lot of experiential projects in universities these days, but this one has always been unique because they do work for the company,” said Grant.
The company is engaged in every aspect with them. It’s almost as if they’re not just a consultant, but rather an employee during the period of the course.”
Dustin Taylor, one of the students working with Educated Beards, says they had to consider shifting global economic conditions. Before Brexit, the United Kingdom would have been the natural point of entry for the company into the EU. But the group had to research the new best place post-Brexit because of the differences in rules and regulations.
“We had to figure out where the best point of entry would be for a company in this industry. They already figured out how to ship their product there and the financials,” said Taylor. “But they really wanted to know how they were going to enter the market. What are they going to do once they get product there? Who is going to sign for it? How is it going to be marketed and distributed?”
As it turns out, the best first point of entry into the EU market was the Netherlands,
“We did some research and looked into a handful of different countries and what’s the best way to enter the EU,” said Taylor. “In the end, we worked really hard to produce a plan for them that would be functional. There’s still probably a couple of things that need to be resolved, but I think they’re ready to expand internationally.”
Kevin Leboeuf, president of Educated Beards, said that without the students’ help, all the research would have been done by the company’s small team of seven. This would have made the process take longer and drawn their attention away from day-to-day operations.
“It would have taken at least another year or so to [get that research done],” said LeBoeuf.
For Taylor, who also owns and runs his own small business in the area, the course was a challenging but rewarding look at what it really takes for a company to expand into a new market.
“As we were doing the project, we were like, ‘wow, this isn’t just conceptual. This is actually something that’s going to affect a real-world business.’ It really hit home.”
Banner photo: front left to right: Kevin Leboeuf, Dr. Stephen Grant. Back left to right: Faraz Khan, Matt MacLong, Dustin Taylor. Image: Rob Blanchard/UNB.