Students get feet wet with Athena
Did you know drinking a certain type of water may help cure cancer?
Athena, a bottled water marketed by a small Seattle-based nonprofit company, donates 100 percent of its net profit to fund women’s cancer research.
Students in Washington State University’s marketing club were so impressed by that purpose, and by Athena founder and cancer survivor Trish May, that they’re helping the organization connect with Inland Northwest restaurants, bistros, casinos, resorts, theme parks and consumers.
The 60 students have teamed up with Sysco Spokane Inc., a regional food marketer and distributor, to pitch the benefits of Athena water.
May, who heads the nonprofit Athena Partners, first wowed the WSU marketing club last year at a campus lecture.
After that, the undergraduate marketing group landed a competitive American Marketing Association grant to help promote, sell and build up the Athena brand, said senior Katie Blanton, club president and co-author of the proposal.
Club members have been making joint sales calls with Sysco sales reps to explain Athena’s merits. They’ve stopped in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Lewiston and Pullman.
“In the last four or five weeks, they’ve helped us double our sales and I know we’ve got some other good, larger prospects who are also interested,” said Layton Rosencrance, president of Sysco Spokane.
Jason Maybay, a senior who’s heading up the club’s sales efforts, said the group has made about 50 sales calls so far. “A lot of the smaller cafes just say ‘Where do I sign?’ The bigger businesses have contracts with Coke or Pepsi and that’s a hurdle we’re trying to jump over right now,” he said.
Athena’s mission is one most folks empathize with, said Blanton.
“Almost everyone has been touched by cancer at one point,” she said.
Behind the scenes, the club’s communications team is raising awareness and doing public relations work on behalf of the brand; a community relations team is hunting for community service groups interested in partnering with Athena; and a separate team is handling all financial and reporting duties to administer the grant.
Athena’s founder said she is buoyed by the recent progress.
“I’m really impressed with the caliber of these students and their energy,” May said. “They took the initiative and decided they wanted to make a difference.”
Blanton believes the collaboration will have a lasting impact on club members.
“I can tell you this,” she said, “everyone involved in this is really developing a passion for cause marketing and it’s awesome.”
Sysco execs and their customers say they’re impressed by the students’ professionalism and devotion.
“They’ve been marvelous to work with,” said Rosencrance. “We’ve actually offered to take resumes from a couple of students for future possibilities after they graduate because they’ve done such a good job.”
Sales of more than 7 million bottles of Athena water generated more than $100,000 for cancer research so far, said May. The organization was founded two and a half years ago.