By: Jennifer Sami, Staff Writer

Cousins Properties, Inc. was looking for a young, fresh approach to marketing its outdoor retail center, The Avenue Forsyth.

The company had found the professional help it needed in a group of advanced marketing students at South Forsyth High School.

“It feels like such an honor to be part of this huge, huge project going in right across from our school,” said advanced marketing student Alex Hensley. “I feel like I’m getting firsthand experience on what’s going on there.”

Scheduled to open in April, the $130 million first phase of The Avenue Forsyth will occupy 550,000 square feet along highway 141.

Debra Moore, advanced marketing teacher at South Forsyth, has worked with local businesses every year to teach her students real-life marketing.

About 26 companies have worked in partnership with the school, but her students have never worked on a project of this magnitude.

“They have a waiting list of businesses wanting to work with them, “ said Angie Leccese, Vice President of Brand Management for Cousins Retail Division. “It has been an honor to work with them. They’re a very self-confident and competent group of kids.”

After meeting with Leccese to learn about the company and the project, the students took two field trips to Cousins’ Properties advertising agency and its marketing company. “They showed us promotions they’ve done in the past,” Moore said.

“And last week, Cousins’ marketing research company, August Partners, came in and trained the students on how to conduct research for The Avenue and actually brought with them handheld marketing research devices. It’s the first time we’ve gotten to use those.”

The 42 advanced marketing students participating in the project are using handheld devices to conduct random surveys for the shopping center.

Survey results will determine shopper preferences, from drive-time tolerance and environmental friendliness to children’s play areas and store selection.

“We have to go out and get 150 people of different age levels and survey them in the next two weeks,” Hensley said. “There’s a competition to see who gets the most.”

“Since we have to have a variety of different people, we are going to affluent areas like St. Marlo (subdivision) and (less wealthy) neighborhood. We’re also going to Target and Starbucks.

The students are conducting the surveys in groups of three. The three groups to conduct the most interviews will receive gift cards for their favorite Avenue retailer.

In previous projects, students had to record and tabulate the information manually.

The $1,500 handheld devices have not only expedited the process, but have established trust between the partners.

“We’re just high school students and they’re putting a lot of faith in us,” said student Meg Tereniak. “It’s really nice to see adults in the business community are looking to us for help in their pursuits.”

After two weeks of generating research, students will create an advertising campaign based on their results.

If students learn the majority of respondents would frequent a business more often if it sponsors a local charity, the advertising campaign might included marketing one day every month were all Avenue businesses donate 5 percent of proceeds to a local charity.

The team with the best advertising campaign will be given scholarship money, but even teams that don’t earn the scholarship are winners.

“You really never know what can come out of these opportunities, like an internship or job opportunity,” Tereniak said. “But I’m not in it for that right now. I’m in it because I like doing the whole process of marketing research and developing ad campaigns.”

Hensley said she has known for a while that she wanted to major in marketing, but the experience has given her a head start.

“This gets me out networking,” she said. “I feel like I’m a step up from most kids, because I know most other kids don’t have this opportunity.”

Like Tereniak and Hensley, about 85 to 90 percent of the advanced marketing students plan to pursue a career in the field, Moore said.

“Once they learn the skill in a textbook and are tested in a traditional way, this actually lets them experience what they’ve learned about,” she said. “There’s no experience in a textbook that’s the same as actually being out there doing something.”