AIM Mail Centers Partners with California State University, Fullerton

for Social Media Marketing Strategy Development

IRVINE, Calif. (December 18, 2009) – AIM Mail Centers, a national chain of business solution centers headquartered in Irvine, Calif., has teamed up with California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) for a student-led project to assist the company in developing its social media marketing strategy. The project was completed with a formal presentation to AIM Mail Centers management on Wednesday, Dec. 16, as well as a comprehensive report.

“Working with the students and staff at the CSUF Center for Entrepreneurship has been a very positive and productive experience,” said Michael Sawitz, CEO of AIM Mail Centers. “I highly recommend the practice of engaging these bright, articulate minds as a way of gaining a new perspective.”

Participating in the project were students from the senior-level entrepreneurial marketing class at the Center for Entrepreneurship in the university’s Mihaylo College of Business and Economics. The class is taught by Professor John Bradley Jackson, director of the center, who teaches entrepreneurship and new venture development.  Professor Jackson is also author of the book “First, Best, or Different: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Niche Marketing.”

“Our goal is to give these students valuable real-world experience that complements their academic studies,” noted Professor Jackson, “They function much like a professional consultant in helping to determine an aspect of the client’s business to which they can make a positive contribution. In fact, many of the students remark that they learn more in one semester than they have in all their previous three years.”

Each semester, students in the course are divided into groups, with each group assigned to a company partnering with the class. The group then meets with the company, interviews them, identifies an aspect of the business to address and develops a scope of work for the semester-long project. For AIM Mail Centers, the social media strategy included retail customer relationship management and loyalty programs as well as new franchisee acquisition.

“Coming into this project, I was not aware of the role social media could play in marketing products and services,” observed Samer Baroudi, student team leader. “The work we have done for AIM Mail Centers has awakened me to vast possibilities.”