Adult / Independent Students

Katharina Bruel has been studying a wide variety of ice cream of late, lots and lots of ice cream. Kind of odd when you consider she’s taking a weight training class this semester.

Of course this ice cream fascination is all in the name of academics. For her Marketing Independent Study class she is developing a marketing strategy to test how Friendly’s Ice Cream would fare in her native Germany. The restaurant chain will get a hypothetical test run in Germany, not to mention a test run of the assorted flavors in supermarkets, before a second set of test runs has the tasty treat tickling taste buds in Italy and Spain.

“Now the numbers crunching and financial planning starts,” Kat said. “Initially I had thought about Hershey’s chocolate — they record only about five percent sales in Europe and there’s no market in Scandinavia. Then I thought ‘why not Hershey’s ice cream’ only to discover the creamery is not related to the Hershey company as a whole.”

Still even with the shift to ice cream and the Friendly’s chain, breaking into the European market isn’t going to be easy.

“In Europe, dieting is very popular these days. They are trying to watch what they eat — low carbs, low sugar,” she said. “First I’ll put together analysis, then a separate marketing plan, which, hopefully, I’ll be able to hand in to Friendly’s. Who knows where that could lead.”

One thing it does lead to is a good tie-in with her International Trade class.

“It is interesting for me to see how American students learn about trade at a school based in the U.S.,” she said. “You essentially learn about trade in U.S. and the rest of the world is sort of lumped together.”

Speaking of the rest of the world, Kat made an eye blink visit to her family in Germany in January to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of her grandparents.

“It was the first time I had been home since last August. I was there for five days; almost all of it I spent with my family — I went to a concert with my dad,” she said. “It was like a flash and then I had to come back. I’m beginning to wonder was I really there?”

Back at Ambler, Kat has a number of other projects in the works, including a group project in her Marketing Research class that could greatly help a local borough gain new life.

“It’s a group of 10 students and I’ve been named the team leader,” she said. “We’re going to be doing a survey in the Borough of Jenkintown to determine how the borough could go about attracting more people to the area.”

Then there’s the intricacies of negotiation, something Kat has down to a science.

“In my Power of Negotiation class, I’ve become aware of just how much power, individually, you do have in negotiations. Charisma, humor, experience; there are a lot of aspects that you might not traditionally think about that factor into negotiation,” she said. “A lot of people think they have no negotiating power, particularly when dealing with their boss. If you are a skilled employee, you come to realize the boss depends on you. This class will be invaluable for my career.”

By the end of the semester, Kat will have participated in negotiations with an actual area company, Italian Delight, in Allentown.

“They have negotiations coming up with their distributors over pricing,” she said. “We’ll be negotiating an action plan.”

Kat even put her negotiation skills to work to help herself and her fellow international students on campus.

“After the student government meeting last semester with President Adamany, I met with Mark Miller in the University’s International Students office,” she said. “We pushed through a plan to have a representative from the office here on campus at least once a month. I’ve received a few ‘thank you’s’ from the other international students on campus, which is nice. I think it shows that if you open your mouth, something will happen.”

When it comes to extracurricular activities, Kat still keeps her future plans in the back of her mind to a certain degree. As president of the Ambler chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and appointed head of the Student Government Association’s committee on public relations, Kat is cultivating academic experience even when she’s not cracking the books. Of course there is a lot of fun and games mixed into those facts and figures.

“The AMA decided to hold a ‘Bachelor Auction’ to raise money for the March of Dimes. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people decided to get involved,” she said. “Right now my primary focus is on survival; I want to maintain my academic status and I’m doing well so far. Basically right now is a combination of academics, extracurricular, and finding a good job. Maybe I’ll take one or two classes in the summer but I usually like to keep the summer for time with friends, then there’s just one more semester to go!”

Of course, if all else fails, Kat can always strap on a guitar or saxophone and sing her way to fame and fortune, which is exactly what she did during a Notes at Noon performance in Bright Hall in February — well, the fortune might still be a little ways off.

“It was a performance with my friend Jeff Kessler, who I play with in our band the Saxy Pancakes — definitely a rock-and-roll performance,” she said with a smile. “I haven’t done that many performances where my friends were in the audience, but once we were up there I knew it’d go fine. Basically I try to go with the flow; get an idea of what the audience wants to hear. We usually start with an acapella version of Amazing Grace and then move over into a little funk. That usually gets some attention.”

It wasn’t the easiest performance in Kat’s burgeoning music career, however.

“Jeff had a string break and my (saxophone) reed broke, but it was a still a good performance,” she said. “There were a lot of staff there from West Hall in the audience and even Miss Wanda (Lewis-Campbell, Assistant Dean for Student Life) got up and started playing the tambourine. When something like that happens, how can it not be a good performance?”

This is the third part of an “A Year in the Life” feature on Katharina Bruehl. Kat, originally from Leina, Germany, entered her senior year studying International Business Administration at Temple University Ambler at the time of the series.