Nissan conducts and oversees sales and marketing activities throughout the Americas. Its goals are to build awareness and positive opinion of the Nissan brand and brand loyalty by providing an industry-leading shopping and ownership experience.
Nissan is teaming up with college students and recent college graduates now in the Vanderbilt Accelerator Summer Business Institute. The students’ challenge is to help improve the online customer experience by creating innovative ways Nissan can optimize social media. Nissan has been recognized as a top performer for its social media activities by Mashable and other sources, and the company consistently ranks among the top auto manufacturers in terms of community engagement. The students’ goal will be to help Nissan build on those successes.
The Accelerator Summer Business Institute is an intense month-long business boot camp run by the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. In the program, college students and recent graduates from across the country are immersed in a competitive business environment, working to create the winning solution to real challenges from top local and national companies. The students hone essential skills in marketing, sales, finance, real estate, research and corporate strategy, while participating companies receive the brainpower, creativity and proposals from several teams of highly motivated millennials.
The program launches on Monday, June 17, at 11:30 a.m. at Nissan headquarters in Franklin. The Accelerator teams will give their final presentations on Tuesday, June 25 at 9 a.m. at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management’s Averbuch Auditorium. Please contact Amy Wolf if you’d like to attend.
Other Accelerator projects include:
- Nashville Schools/Valor Collegiate Academies— Nashville’s mayor wants to launch a number of visionary new charter schools over the next few years and charter management organization Valor Collegiate Academies is helping lead this education reform movement. Accelerator teams are tasked with offering creative ideas on how to innovate within these charter high schools to maximize preparation for college and the world beyond.
- Warner Music Nashville—For Warner Music Nashville, The Accelerator students are challenged with proposing innovative cross-branding opportunities between artists and products with the goal of driving positive impressions through partnerships with existing brands.
- Vanderbilt Football— Vanderbilt football is nationally ranked and on a highly successful streak. Vanderbilt athletics wants to broaden interest in ticket sales by targeting a more diverse fan base that will support the program for years to come. The Accelerator students are challenged with conceiving a creative array of plans to reach more diverse prospective ticket-buyers.
- Surgical Care Affiliates— SCA operates 150 surgical facilities in 32 states. They also create online tools to help surgery centers work more efficiently. The Accelerator teams are challenged with testing a new mobile app to help surgery centers track inventory and find ways to use this data to improve patient care.
More information about Accelerator is available online. To follow the progress of the Accelerator students and their projects, visit the Vanderbilt Accelerator Summer Business Institute page on Facebook.