Students Kamerin Guerrero and Nathaniel Dela Cruz created the brand SpecialTEA.

Those who happened to be walking through the School of Business & Public Administration atrium on April 4 were lucky to stumble upon eye-catching displays and free samples of some of the latest sweets, treats, and products to be developed on island. Teams of students were conducting a soft launch of products they developed in Adjunct Instructor Anthony Quenga’s BA260 “Fundamentals of Marketing” class.

Ten teams of two were competing with each other to develop, market, produce, pitch, and display a product or food item with the added challenge of having a sustainability focus. Two teams each competed in the arenas of specialty cupcakes, cookies and bonbons, popcorn, tea and lemonade, and paper and bamboo straws.

“You should see their Instagrams,” Quenga said. “Their stories, their commercials are next level.”

The teams can be searched on Instagram by the following team names:

• D’s Desserts
• EcoEffect
• JJ Cookies
• Perfect Dough
• Popcorn Dealer
• Project Piao
• Rainbow Popcorn
• Sour Hour
• SpecialTEA
• Vegan Again

With feedback from the soft launch, the students tweaked their recipes, boosted their product displays, and refined their messages and brought their products to the public again at an official launch on April 18. All passers-by were welcome to try samples and engage with the students on their products. The students were also assessed by guest judges.

"I’ll be compiling the scores to identify winners who were 'Best in Show,'" Quenga said. "I’ll also be evaluating their marketing plans due in the coming weeks to identify who had the best marketing plan."

The assignment will be a major component of the students' overall grade in the course.

Students Danielle Robles and Jayme Ringor created a bamboo straw business, Project Piao.