Wanted: Six Companies That Need a Marketing Plan for 2027

I have 36 Tufts students ready to build it with you.

Every semester for more than 20 years, I've taught marketing at Tufts in a way that still surprises people when I describe it. I don't teach it from a textbook. I teach today's hands-on marketing tactics inside six real companies.

This week I'm opening the door for Spring 2027. I'm looking for 10 to 15 companies to talk with in November, and from that group I'll choose six. If your company needs a marketing plan for the year ahead, read on.

How the course works

Over 13 weeks, my lecturers and I deliver the core content of modern marketing: market research, primary surveys, persona development, value propositions, and the tactical execution of both inbound and outbound marketing. Most of my guest lecturers are alumni of this same course, now experts in ad buying, omnichannel decision making, pricing, SEO and AI integration. We also bring in leading-edge marketing experts such as David Meerman Scott.

The twist is that students never learn any of this in the abstract. Each week combines a three-hour class with check-in time with company management, so the content is applied immediately to the team's own company. The semester ends with a 90-minute to two-hour presentation of a complete marketing plan for the next twelve months. Each team's objectives are set by company management — typically the CEO and the head of marketing — and progress with management is reviewed weekly.   Management provides 40% of the team grade at the end of the semester.  

The class is divided into six teams of five to six students, mostly juniors and seniors with a few graduate students. I build each team deliberately, mixing students with heavy marketing or sales experience alongside those with none, so no team is over-or underweight. Every student must be HubSpot Inbound Marketing certified at the start of the semester to stay in the course. For years, the course has been fully enrolled with a waitlist, and it typically fills within the first two days of registration, which opens in early December.

Small companies, large companies, all real

The range of companies is part of what makes this work. This fall, our teams are working with:

• A mid-size specialty delivery company
• A deep-science animal husbandry business
• A well-known strategy consulting firm
• A fractional aviation company with an established market position
• A Tufts startup building a unique pet food business, founded by two veterinary post-docs who won our nationally ranked 2026 business plan contest.
• An established multi-market leader in the quality assurance business

Over more than 40 semesters and 240 companies, we've worked with startups, mid-sized operating companies, and not-for-profits. What they share are real marketing questions, specific objectives, and a leadership team willing to work weekly with their student team.

What your company gets

Think of this process exactly as if you were hiring a marketing agency. Your student team is that agency.

• A Discovery Meeting early in the semester, where you fine tune the objectives and deliverables.
• A standing weekly 30-minute call with your team.
• A midterm review where the team walks you through their progress and plans for the rest of the semester.  This becomes their mid-term exam.
• A final two-hour presentation plus a complete written marketing plan with research, analysis, and detailed recommendations based on the objectives that you have set.
  
  

If you are interested, What I Will Need: 

• A project outline: a paragraph or two about your company, plus the objectives and deliverables you want. Please write that outline keeping in perspective that the readers are very bright, hard-driving 20-to-25-year-olds who want to be excited and challenged.
• Background materials: once the six companies are selected in early December, I will ask you to send past marketing and sales materials, decks, business plans, anything that gets the team up to speed quickly. Everything is treated as highly confidential and students sign Tufts NDAs and your own.
• Your time: the Discovery Meeting, the weekly call, the midterm check-in, and the final presentation.
• Your evaluation: your assessment of the team counts for 40% of their grade.

Timeline:

• November 2026:  If you're interested, let me know, and I will send you the instructions and set up a short Zoom with you.
• Early December: I select the six companies.
• December: The Spring 2027 syllabus goes to students with the six project outlines, and students have five days to choose their projects.  You will be sent a copy.
• January 2027: The semester begins, followed quickly by the Discovery Meetings during the third week.
• Mid Semester:  An opportunity to review the details and materials from their mid-term presentations. 
• End of the semester: Final presentations and written plans delivered to your leadership team.

The results have been consistently strong. Past companies have used these plans to launch new products, reprice their offerings, and complete customer and prospect research they never had the bandwidth to do. Several companies have come back for a second project. Many have hired students from their team as interns or full-time employees.

What I ask of you if you're interested

This is a real commitment. Depending on the size of the company, the best results come when both the CEO and the VP of Marketing own it.

Why this is the Science of Sales, applied to marketing

Readers of this blog know I don't believe in "the art of marketing" or the tips-and-tricks school. This course is built the same way as everything else I teach in my mantra of "Process-Tools-Technology-Math & People".

There's a defined process with fixed milestones. There are real tools, starting with HubSpot. There's math, in the form of primary research and surveys rather than opinions. If you want, we can take you through detailed metrics building CAC and ROI models. And, most importantly- there are people: six carefully balanced teams who learn that a marketing plan is only as good as the discipline behind it.

Is this a fit for your company?

It probably is if you have real marketing questions you need answered in the next year, a leader who will show up every week, and a willingness to be challenged by people who will see your business with fresh eyes.

If that sounds like you, or a CEO you know, I'd love to hear from you. I'm screening companies through November. Message me, email jack@derbymanagement.com, or call 617-504-4222, and I'll send you the full instructions and set up a time to talk.

And if you're one of the 240 companies we've worked with over the years, please pass this along. Many of our best companies came to us exactly that way.

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Have an exciting Friday selling, and on this Halloween weekend, there's no reason to be spooked by your October sales results. If you have questions about your sales and marketing processes or your quarter-to-date numbers, connect with me anytime.

Jack is a Managing Partner of Derby Management, a strategy consulting firm, and the founder of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University, where he has taught for 20 years. Every semester in his marketing course, six teams of five to six students work directly with the senior managers of six companies over 13 weeks, building marketing plans customized to management's objectives. Management provides 40% of each team's grade.

At Derby Management, Jack and his team architect and build business strategies focused on sales and marketing processes, tools, and technology platforms.