An ag club received national recognition for its work marketing a brat-like product.

The ISU Agri-Marketing Association made it into the semi-finals for the second year in a row at the National Agri-Marketing Association Conference from April 9 through April 13.

NAMA has met since the beginning of the school year with nearly 35 members, but continued working with a solid 20 people to generate ideas for its marketing plan for Brados during spring semester.

Corrina Schafbuch, marketing team coordinator, said their product, Brados, is a mixture of tofu and pork that looks similar to a brat and is made by Midwest Harvest in Grinnell.

“[Midwest Harvest is] selling them in the store right now, but they are looking to introduce their product into residence halls,” said Schafbuch, senior in agronomy. “We needed a product, and they needed some ideas.”

Five presenters were chosen at the beginning of the semester by auditions.

“Anyone who wanted to present had to come in and sell your shoes. Whoever did the best job was selected to be on the presentation team,” said Jayma Appleby, presentation team member.

Appleby, junior in agricultural education, enjoyed learning more about the product and marketing in general.

“We visited the actual company three or four times. We also talked to several different food service individuals at the universities in Iowa. Through all of this, I’ve learned a lot more about the food service industry,” she said.

Putting together months of research was not an easy task for the NAMA team.

“The team has an opportunity to put together a very intense presentation,” Schafbuch said. “They have to take all that information and condense it into 20 minutes. You have a planned presentation rehearsed but [have to] be able to speak it extemporaneously. You have to be controlled but be able to sound like you’re making it up as you go.”

The group was the only one of the 35 competing that didn’t use a PowerPoint presentation, Schafbuch said. Instead, it used video clips, foam core boards, taste tests for the judges and trade-show displays.

“We tried to incorporate lots of different kinds of media to try and keep things personal,” she said.

Schafbuch, member of the semi-finalist team last year, was hoping for a trip to the finals this year.

“Last year we were just excited to be in the semi-finals,” she said. “This year we were a little disappointed we couldn’t make it to the finals. Three-fourths of the team was new, so it was hard to try and have them understand what needed to be done to get the whole project done. In the end, they did an excellent job, and I’m really proud of all of them.”

Brett Kramer, NAMA adviser, said the marketing team was fairly focused throughout the year, especially during the second semester.

“We had quite a few seniors that really stepped up at nationals,” said Kramer, temporary instructor of agricultural education and studies. “But maybe more importantly, one of the reasons we did well was the freshness of the group. They brought a spark of enthusiasm and different take on creativity.”

Besides placing the top in the semi-finals bracket, the team can possibly see its product in the lines of college food systems.

“The plan that we implemented, the company is actually going to take,” Appleby said.

Clint Veren, junior in agricultural business and one of the five presenters, said the club is open to all majors and the competition was a great learning experience.

“It’s a club that I’ve really gotten a lot out of,” he said. “The whole thing was a great learning experience. I can really take away from that, and I have real world experience that will be used someday.”