Andrea Watros '91 needed some help. The CEO of Spectrum of Sweets, an online bakery that hires and supports autistic individuals, also has a full-time consulting job that takes much of her time and effort.

“I came to the realization that I am one person, and I really want to make a difference in this world, and there's only so much one person can do,” she said. “I wanted to do it all, and so I realized that I needed help. I thought, ‘Who's a good business school?’ As a Miami alum, I know firsthand how well Miami prepares its students for business, and naturally it was the first place that came to mind.  So, I reached out, I sent some emails, and it just landed on the right person’s desk.”

That person was Gillian Oakenfull, a Farmer School Marketing professor who teaches a capstone consulting class. Usually, her real-world clients have been long-established companies like Unilever and Procter & Gamble, but Oakenfull said she sensed a unique opportunity in working with a purpose-driven startup like Spectrum of Sweets.

“I could have the students think big picture, but still have some things they could get their heads around from the startup perspective,” she said. “I really liked the idea of the students thinking about difference. I loved the idea of them learning about autism, learning about neurodiversity, and then thinking about what we can do as marketers to serve those individuals while meeting a need in the marketplace.”

“I have a process that I want to teach them, so I only take on projects that I can do that within. As I worked with Andrea, we got it to a place where I knew we could still do that. I call it the KickGlass marketing process,” Oakenfull said. “Ultimately the goal of the class is for students to go out into the world having that framework and can take it into their jobs and careers.”

The students were tasked with analyzing the cause marketing landscape, differentiating the brand, and developing business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing campaigns to scale quickly, all within a $10,000 budget.

“I'm not a marketing person by trade, so if there's a way to present this better to the public and to the consumer, then by all means, I'm completely for that,” Watros told the students during the project kickoff meeting. “We need a roadmap for how we move forward from here. What kind of measurable results can we have? What kind of KPIs can we use to determine if are we successful? Because growth is great, but it's got to be intentional and managed growth so that we’re strategically figuring out the best way to expand.”

Watros, center, gives students samples of Spectrum of Sweets cookies after her presentation to the class in September.

The students worked in teams from late September until early December on the project, doing research and creating a marketing plan.

“The journey to get to the end result was kind of a roller coaster, with some days feeling like our group had a clear direction and other days not so much. However, having Andrea and her Spectrum of Sweets company as our client was a motivator due to the mission behind everything,” senior Kelsey McClurg said. “We consistently strived to improve upon our work all the way until the final presentation.”

“Our team focused on understanding how consumers want their purchases to feel meaningful, not just enjoyable, which led us to position Spectrum of Sweets as a purpose-driven, giftable brand rather than just a cookie company,” senior Jack Metzger said. “My role involved developing consumer insights, validating ideas through quick research, and helping shape a campaign that balanced creativity with realistic execution.”

“It was such a great experience. Being able to work collaboratively towards a solution that would have an impact on so many individuals’ lives was so rewarding. Working with my team to continually ideate until we landed on a solution we were proud of was a great learning process,” senior Libby O’Toole said.

As they worked, the students reached out to Watros for information and clarification. “It was really interesting to see the different teams’ questions. You could see what avenues they were going along, and it kind of made me think, ‘I wonder what direction they're going to go with this,’” she said. “It piqued my curiosity for sure. Their questions were really good, they were really solid.”

“There was the idea of learning, ‘How do you build something that scales?’ That is a different challenge than what previous classes have had before,” Oakenfull said. “It was about building something that you can do over and over again in different places. So that was an interesting, creative, and pragmatic challenge for them.”

In December, Watros returned to the Farmer School of Business to see what the student groups had created for her.

One of the student groups make their final presentation to Watros.

“I was challenged in a way I didn't anticipate being challenged. They challenged some of the ways that I was presenting the company, perception-wise and image-wise,” she said. “Many of the bits and pieces from every single presentation are going to make it into our marketing strategy. I’ve already changed a few things with our product line and with our packaging and presentation online based on student research and recommendations.”

“The client project for Spectrum of Sweets was one of the most impactful learning experiences I’ve had — both in skill-building and in building confidence that I’m ready to enter this field,” senior Caroline Sidoti said.  “Knowing that the brand we were helping is doing tangible good in the world — giving opportunities to people often overlooked — made the work feel much deeper and more purposeful.”

“This was a very unique experience that many other students my age do not get. Working behind a complete marketing and strategy plan at just 21 years old was such a wonderful experience for my peers and I and have learned so much over these last four months,” Metzger said. “Overall, the project reinforced my interest in brand strategy and gave me practical experience thinking and working like a consultant.”

“I have many takeaways from this project experience. First, my growth in knowledge about the marketing process and feeling even more confident in my skills as I begin my professional career soon. Second, the great ideas that come from collaborative work. Being able to work with my team, hear everyone's ideas, and then see how all our ideas came together to generate our overall solution,” O’Toole said. “All in all, this project was a very positive experience, and I really enjoyed it.”

Oakenfull noted that the changes in the students from the beginning of the project to the end were visible. “I just showed them two group pictures at the beginning of the semester, the other one at the end,” she said. “I had them look at their body language in the two pictures, and the distinctive differences in terms of their confidence level. You could just see in the beginning, they're a little crumpled up, making themselves small. Then in the last one, they have their shoulders back and they're feeling good about themselves.”

“My goal is that they now feel like they can be a marketer, not just learn about marketing. And I think they all see that they can,” Oakenfull said.

“I would love to work with students again. Their energy is contagious,” Watros said. “They kept thanking me for the opportunity to work with them, and yet I was the one who felt grateful. I'm just blown away by just how kind, generous, and excited they were to work with our company."