Commerce Professor Trey Maxham’s Customer Analytics & Brand Strategy (COMM 4350) course has been immersing students in the practice of transforming customer data into strategic brand plans with real-world applications for 16 years. Maxham has elevated that practice by facilitating a collaboration with hot sauce brand Tabasco, offering Commerce majors a unique opportunity to apply their learning while suggesting growth initiatives and innovations in the competitive hot sauce industry.
With the Tabasco Brand Strategy project, students explore consumer trends and competitive landscapes to drive the company’s strategic brand growth. During the spring semester, Class of ’25 students Shelby Brachmann, Lindsay Togher, Avery Tyrrell, and Emma Zegarski formed a dedicated team that brought the skills they developed from across their concentrations in Marketing, Information Technology, and Management to create something impactful for the globally successful company.
Cooking Up Strategy
Emma Zegarski
“We were addressing multiple channels in the plan for our go-to-market strategy,” Zegarski explains. “We’re going to be selling in retail, like your classic grocery stores like Walmart, but we’re also trying to do a collaboration in food service simultaneously.” By choosing to take on a multi-pronged approach, the students aimed to purposefully capture different market segments and increase the product’s exposure to the public while demonstrating the sauce’s adaptability.
Lindsay Togher
Togher elaborates on their central concept: “For our project, we chose product innovation for Tabasco. What we were trying to do is own the host food—what you put the hot sauce on. In a lot of our research, we found that competing brands own other host foods. We wanted Tabasco to have ownership over a key host food, so that was the overarching goal for our project.”
Avery Tyrrell
Tyrrell describes the major challenge they encountered: “We had to prove why Tabasco should launch this innovation and why they would be better at it versus another hot sauce. And we’ve come to learn through communicating with Tabasco leads we’ve been connecting with, that the way Tabasco is aged and the acidity of the sauce actually pair really well with key host foods. They go hand in hand together in a way that other hot sauce brands wouldn’t be able to do.”
A Deep Dive into Real-World Engagement
Going above and beyond what is usually expected in a course project, Brachmann, Tyrrell, and Zegarski took the initiative and visited Tabasco’s headquarters in Louisiana, a trip that provided direct insight into the hot sauce giant’s operations.
Shelby Brachmann
Tyrrell recounts, “About a week before spring break, we were able to go to Avery Island, where we got to meet with Lee Susen and some other Tabasco executives. We asked more questions there and learned firsthand how the production process works, which actually became a key part of our idea.” Brachmann adds, “It was really insightful, just talking to them, seeing the factory, and learning how the hot sauce is made.”
Understanding the production nuances and engaging with Tabasco’s leadership further informed their strategy. The tangible connections established helped in aligning their innovative ideas with the company’s branding. Building on their own findings, Zegarski says the company representatives they interacted with were regularly involved in giving feedback throughout the semester. Brachmann describes the essential support they received: “We also were connected to our team captains who are both in the marketing department at Tabasco. They sent us data files and pulled specific data spreadsheets that applied directly to our pitch for Tabasco.”
Zegarski reflects on the project’s alignment with Tabasco’s narrative: “Why can Tabasco do this? Why does it make sense that they would? Because they are a brand that’s rooted in tradition. We did a lot of studies. We did ZMET analysis to see what people thought of different sauces and foods. We saw that tradition and family were something that tied it all together.”
Supportive Guidance from Professor Maxham
Maxham plays a pivotal role in shaping the students’ journey, bringing both experience and a personal touch to his instruction. His guidance helps students navigate the complexities of analytics and strategy while encouraging creative freedom. “He structures the class giving students a lot of autonomy but provides constant feedback. He’s also personable and builds a great class community,” says Brachmann. “It makes work feel not much like work—it’s actually fun to do, but we’re actually making a difference for a real company that’s taking our feedback into account.”
Tyrrell appreciates Maxham’s inclusive style: “I think how approachable Professor Maxham is has really set the class apart. In the beginning of the semester, he offered to all of the groups to go on a dinner with him. He just really takes the time to get to know his students outside of the classroom. Because of all this time that we’ve had with him, I’ve been more eager to go to office hours and to connect with him and to get more feedback on our project too.”
Togher is appreciative of the welcoming academic environment Maxham fosters. “What I really love about this class is that he really wants us to choose our own creative route. He takes the time to make sure that we get the most out of this class and this experience, and he gives us tools to have the freedom to work and make our pitch for Tabasco. He wants us to learn, be creative, and succeed.”
Concluding an Exciting Experience
The students’ final presentation to Tabasco’s leadership was met with enthusiasm. In late April, the executives watched group presentations from Maxham’s class in UVA’s Rotunda.
“It was such an exciting experience, especially with both the acting President and the former CEO of Tabasco in attendance,” says Togher. “It was a privilege to present in front of them, and they were genuinely enthusiastic about our idea. They asked thoughtful questions that pushed our thinking further and inspired additional research. From their feedback and engagement, it seems likely that they’ll move forward with the concept, which is incredibly rewarding for our team.”
The potential for the innovation to evolve into a full-fledged product launch in the next year or two is actively being considered by Tabasco as they conduct additional internal research. It’s a testament to the students’ innovative contributions, as noted by Tyrrell: “Lee Susen and Professor Maxham gave us very positive feedback throughout the semester, pushing the idea of why Tabasco had not launched this concept sooner.”
