Hormel taps DePaul students for feasibility study

Pork Magazine ... yes, there is such a thing ... I don't want to ever hear that I don't find you the best sources :-) ... is reporting that Hormel Foods is seeking the help of students at DePaul University to, "find answers in how to market to Hispanic consumers and the untapped opportunities." Among the work, according to the article, is 12 DePaul students will analyze 12 Hormel brands that are not currently in the Hispanic market, identify growth opportunities, and then present findings to Hormel and account people from its Hispanic marketing agency, the San Jose Group.

A spokesman for the company is quoted in the article as saying, "We easily could have assigned this project to an established research company, but we wanted to see what these promising students could discover."

Saying that hiring an established research company is the "easy" way to do this is curious in that hiring a firm that specializes in this is probably the most "effective" way. But, it is very interesting that they are giving promising students at a university with a program in Hispanic marketing an opportunity.

What would have been more interesting is if they had asked their agency to also do the study and asked a research company to do the study as well. Then, they could compare all 3 to see who had the best information. But, that would be too and they certainly had to cut the pork! (sorry, just couldn't resist the corny joke)