Marketing Students Create Sandwich for Capt'n Nemo's Menu

There's a new sandwich on the menu for the next few months, and surveys say it's going to be popular with New Trier High School students.

Pairs of students from Melissa Duffy's sports and entertainment marketing class designed a new sandwich for the sub shop as a class project. After surveys, taste tests and a focus group about the 11 entries, the "Turbo" is the chosen sub  -- turkey, bacon, ham, provolone, mayo, secret sauce, lettuce, tomato and onions on toasted bread.

Elena Mazzetta and Beth Chelmowski are the creators of the Turbo.

"I come here a lot," said Mazetta. "We did our favorite meats that we like here."

"It turned out better than I thought," said Chelmowski, after tasting a bite-size piece of the Turbo.

The project teaches the students about many aspects of marketing, Duffy said. Capt'n Nemo's owner Steve Ragusi visited the class to speak about running his business and learned from the students too.

"They give ideas that I could never think of," Ragusi said. "I go, 'you kids gotta help me with what you know best.'"

Another competing sandwich was the "Fuego" -- a wrap with turkey, spicy ranch sauce, Muenster cheese and lettuce. Creators Joe Harvey, Ryan Wettersten and Rafal Chowaniec said they looked at the menu, they wanted to do something different.

"Most are sandwiches so we wanted to target people who aren't trying to eat a lot of bread," Chowaniec said.

From coming up with ideas for the sandwiches to surveying potential customers about their preferences (in this case, 50 New Trier students), the students see how marketing strategies work in the real world, Duffy said.

"It's always nice when you get to do something with the community," Duffy said. The class has partnered with Capt'n Nemo's for three semesters.

"I think it makes the learning more memorable," Duffy said.