Group photo of team X-defier.
(From left): Assoc Prof Wong Hwa Kiong, Dean of the Faculty of Accountancy, Finance and Business (‘FAFB’), Ng Kok Heng, Cedric Ng, Prof Ir Dr Lee Sze Wei, President of TAR UC, Chen Zexin, Mr Tan Ping Foo, Associate Dean of FAFB’s Department of Marketing, Dr Phuah Kit Teng, Senior Lecturer from FAFB’s Department of Marketing, Tan Lee Yin, Chong Sheue Li and Foo Hui Fang.
Letting their creative juices flow, a group of six TAR UC students, called X-defier placed 4th in the Proton X70 Intelligence that Inspires Challenge – a marketing contest organised in partnership with the education ministry. The contest started in April 2019 and the finale was held on 23 July 2019 at the PROTON Centre of Excellence in Shah Alam.
Team X-defier consisted of Bachelor of Business (Hons) in Marketing students – Chen Zexin, Ng Kok Heng, Cedric Ng Zhi Hern, Tan Lee Yin, Chong Sheue Li and Foo Hui Fang.
Team leader Chen Zexin explained that the team based their marketing strategy on 3R’s– Recruit, Reward and Retain as they deployed their large-scale marketing campaign to promote and market Proton’s first SUV, the X70.
Apart from executing a successful marketing campaign, part of the contest also entailed participating teams to organise and execute a local community relations event. “For this aspect, our team conducted a charity event for IQ70 Plus which is a non-profit organisation,” explained Zexin. “We chose this organisation because there are only 10 helpers who take care of more than 100 children and adults with mental disabilities. We hope that through this campaign, we are able to create more public awareness towards their plight and more people will step up to help them.”
“Aside from donating daily necessities, we also conducted a one-day roadshow demo for the new Proton X70 to get cash donations. At the end of the CR event, we managed to make a cash donation of RM800 and daily necessities worth RM300 to IQ70 Plus.”
Citing that his participation in the abovementioned contest as a valuable experience, Cedric shared that he is grateful for the opportunity and hopes that the experience would add value to his résumé.
For team X-defier, time constraint was the biggest hurdle that they had to overcome. “It was everyone’s first time participating in a national-level competition so we lacked experience. Fortunately our mentor, Dr Phuah Kit Teng, provided us with plenty of guidance throughout the contest period,” shared Zexin.
“After participating in this contest, I learned how to adapt and be flexible to last minute changes,” commented Sheue Li. Agreeing with her teammate, Lee Yin added that teamwork was also a vital component throughout the contest. “Teamwork was important because each of the parts we were assigned are linked. If we didn’t communicate and work together, each of us would have been stuck and the entire campaign would have flopped.”
