UWA Academic Project · Intro to Marketing · 2020 · First year
Rocket Fuel Café
Real recommendations to a real business, delivered in first year of university. One of them is now running. High Distinction, top 3 of 10 groups.
HDHigh Distinction
Top 3Of 10 groups
2Key recommendations
AdoptedLoyalty program running
Case study — UWA Academic Project
Rocket Fuel Café — marketing consulting project
UWA Campus · Introduction to Marketing · Group of 4
⭐ High Distinction — top 3 of 10 groups
Services delivered
Market researchCompetitor analysisMarketing strategyLoyalty program designWebsite recommendationsClient presentation
The brief
As part of UWA's Introduction to Marketing unit in first year, our group of four had to select a real local business, consult directly with the owner, and deliver actionable marketing recommendations based on actual research. Not just a classroom exercise.
We chose Rocket Fuel Café, operating on the UWA campus. When no one in the group stepped up to lead, I took that role: delegating responsibilities, keeping the project moving, and making sure we delivered something the owner could actually use.
What the owner wanted
After meeting with the owner, two clear needs emerged: more sales and a better website. One focused on driving repeat customer behaviour, the other on improving the digital experience for a predominantly young, university audience.
The approach
1
Market research & competitor analysis
I led the research phase: mapping the competitive landscape around the UWA campus, identifying what other cafés were doing to retain customers, and understanding the specific behaviours and preferences of a university student audience. This research formed the foundation of both recommendations we made to the owner.
2
Loyalty stamp card program
To drive repeat purchases and increase sales, I developed a loyalty stamp card system: customers earn one stamp per coffee purchased, and on their tenth purchase receive a kilogram of coffee beans. The mechanic was deliberately simple: easy to understand, low friction to participate in, and meaningful enough as a reward to create genuine behavioural change. For a café with a captive university audience, loyalty was the most sustainable path to increasing revenue.
3
Gamified website concept
The group recommended transforming the café's website into a gamified experience: interactive elements, rewards for engagement, and a design language that resonated with a younger university audience rather than a generic café template. The insight was straightforward: the audience was students who responded to game mechanics. The website should reflect that context rather than ignore it.
4
Three-stage delivery to a real client
We delivered in three stages: a written report, a live presentation to the full tutorial group, and a direct presentation to the business owner. Presenting to a real business owner is a different exercise from presenting to a tutor. The owner had to actually fund and implement whatever we recommended, which meant our proposals had to be practical, cost-effective, and honest about trade-offs. The gamified website idea was strong conceptually but expensive to build. Learning to make that call in front of a client, rather than just recommending it because it was interesting, was one of the more useful things this project taught me.
Recommendations & outcomes
☕ Loyalty stamp card
Buy 9 coffees, get a kilo of beans on the 10th. Simple, low-cost, high-retention mechanic designed for a repeat-visit university audience.
✓ Implemented by the café
🎮 Gamified website
Interactive, game-mechanic driven web experience tailored to the UWA student demographic. Recommended as a long-term brand differentiator.
Not yet implemented (cost barriers)
Rocket Fuel Café now runs a loyalty program. We like to think our recommendation played a part in that. Good consulting work can have a life beyond the project brief.
The gamified website wasn't implemented, not because the idea was wrong, but because the technical cost wasn't viable at that time. Understanding why good recommendations don't always get actioned is part of consulting. The idea was sound; the timing wasn't right.
Results
HD
High Distinction — highest possible grade
Top 3
of 10 groups received HD
Real
recommendations delivered to actual business owner
Adopted
loyalty program now running at the café
Why this matters
This project sits at the start of the timeline deliberately. First year of university, before Cirkall had any real scale, before JY Australia, before any of the other work here. It is included because it shows that the instinct to take ownership, lead a group, and think about real-world outcomes rather than academic ones has been there from the beginning. That consistency across six years is the thread the whole portfolio is built on.
The owner's pushback on the gamified website wasn't a failure of the idea. It was a fair call on cost and timing. Understanding why good recommendations don't always get actioned is part of consulting. Knowing how to make that distinction in front of a real client is a skill this project sharpened early.
Skills demonstrated
Market researchCompetitor analysisStrategic marketingClient consultingGroup leadershipWritten reportLive presentationLoyalty program design
Case study published
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