After spending thousands of dollars on gear to better promote the group on campus, the Associated Student Union (ASU) now seeks legal action against a local branding and marketing group due to failure of shipment to the student club.

In 2018, the ASU negotiated a deal with local marketing and branding group Marketing Kings to strengthen the ASU services for Contra Costa College students.

Marketing Kings is an Oakland-based company that provides corporate branding, logo design, graphic design, company identities, and marketing strategies.

According to President of Club Affairs Charles Ramirez, the ASU ordered merchandise from the company and did not receive all the items ordered.

Marketing Kings was unavailable for comment.
According to ASU Vice President Alfredo Angulo, the ASU invested approximately $16,000 in merchandise for the club from the marketing group.

“We invested in the ASU to market the organization better to the student body,” Angulo said. “We did it so we can continue to work in the best interests of the students and the school.”

The board was introduced to Marketing King by Rebecca Hernandez, the previous president of the ASU.

“While we had never worked with Marketing Kings, at the time, Rebecca (Hernandez) had a close relationship with the company, so the board had no issue trusting Marketing Kings’ services,” Angulo said.

The ASU paid for the following products: clothes, a tent, two standing banners, a website, business cards and a new logo.

The group was initially slated to receive full shipment of purchased merchandise by early December 2018.

According to Ramirez and Angulo, the ASU did receive the following items — a tent, two banners and some clothing.

They did not receive a partial amount of clothing, business cards and the website.

Marketing Kings failed to ship the remainder of the merchandise to the club.

ASU’s leadership has made numerous attempts to contact the company and Hernandez, but have been unable to reach them.

“Since that day, we have tried many attempts to reach out to them and they have not responded to any of our calls,” Angulo said. “Hernandez is not willing to help at all.”

Ramirez has contacted the owner of the company to resolve the issue, but has not received a response from the company.

“I have contacted the owner personally but only received one response that the owner was out of the office and would return my email the following week,” Ramirez said. “They have not responded to subsequent emails or calls.”

As a result, the ASU is looking into legal action.

“We’re starting to reach out to the college’s lawyers to see what can be done,” Angulo said.