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November 2013: Vol. 8, Issue 6

MKTG@Mays

Shankar Receives IIMC Distinguished Alumnus Award

Venky Shankar (Professor of Marketing

and holder of the Coleman Chair in Marketing) received the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) Distinguished Alumnus Award on Nov. 15, 2013. IIMC is a Top 20 Global Business School according to the Financial Times 2013 ranking, and was established in 1961 in collaboration with the Sloan School of Management, MIT.

The IIMC Distinguished Alumnus Award recognizes significant contributions of its alumni in different walks of life. An award committee led by the Chairman, Board of Governors of IIMC, and members from both inside and outside the Institute selects the awardees.

Along with the award, Shankar received

Venky Shankar with his IIMS Distinguished Alumnus Award

a scroll which details many of his accomplishments including hisRetailing Lifetime Achievement Award, his AMA Strategy Special Interest Group Mahajan Award, and his ten best paper awards (which, it is noted, is the highest number among PhD cohorts worldwide). The scroll’s last paragraph reads:

We acknowledge Venkatesh Shankar’s significant achievements as a scholar with enormous pride and bestow upon him the Institute’s highest honour for its alumni, “The Distinguished Alumnus Award.”

If you’re viewing a pdf, you can zoom in on the scroll to read it!

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MKTG@Mays AAF-Houston 2013 Regional Conference

Conference attendees (left to right, bottom to top: Margaret Curtis, Jordan Hudnall, Cara McCloud, April Elkins, Cristal Long, Kelly Richard, Greg Cater, Shannon Manley, Macie Morris, Jessica Reints, Kyndal Teich, Lindsay Larosa, Eric Hyde, Daniel Unrue, Daniel Feller, Jordan Smith. Not pictured: Brittany Watson

American Advertising Federation—Houston 2013 Student Conference Lisa Troy accompanied 17 students to Houston on Nov. 1-2 to participate in the AAF—Houston’s annual regional student conference. During this two-day event, students from a four state area met to compete in a day-long advertising campaign competition for a real-life client. Rather than competing against other schools, students were assigned to teams with members from the other schools based on their backgrounds (e.g., marketing, design, copywriting, media planning). They were then charged with developing and executing an integrated, multi-media advertising campaign for MJWJ Global Radio Network.

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Left to right, Aggie Advertising Club students Greg Cater (1st place team), Jordan Hudnall (2nd place team), and Jordan Smith (3rd place team) display their trophies trophies at the 2013 AAF-Houston Student Conference and Advertising Competition.

Out of over 20 total teams, Aggie Advertising Club members Greg Cater, Jordan Hudnall, and Jordan Smith led their teams to first, second, and third place wins. This is the second year in a row Greg Cater placed in the top three as he brought home a third place win in the 2012 competition. The following day students participated in resuméreviews and panel discussions from local advertising agency executives.

AAF-Houston (cont.)

Congratulations to MS-Marketing

Students McGuinn Egan, HajarKsikes,Taylor Lottmann, and Rene Rodriguez for their 3rd Place Award in the Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting Case Competition.

The case study involved evaluating a construction company’s operations and the sustainability of its ready-mix concrete business unit. The student team’s job was to deliver a recommendation on the construction company's course of action to either revive or dissolve the business unit.

“I appreciate the extra time they spent on this and the excellent work they did. This is a big honor.” said MS-MKTG Director Steve McDaniel, regarding their win.

Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting Case Competition

Left to right: Taylor Lottmann, McGuinn Egan, Hajar Ksikes, and Rene Rodriguez

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Brandon Rochon. SVP, Global Creative Director for Leo Burnett in Chicago helps Marketing majors Daniel Feller and Katie Hime (left) and Lindsay Larosa (far right) work on perfecting their “networking” skills at the national student advertising conference in Washington, D.C.

Students Travel to the AAF National Student Conference

Marketing majors Daniel Feller‘14, Katie

Hime’14, and Lindsay La Rosa’14 attended the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Conference on Advertising on October 24-25 in Washington D.C. This event serves as the kick-off meeting for the National Student Advertising Competition in which Texas A&M marketing students in Lisa Troy’s MKTG 447 class will compete in April. In addition to representing

the advertising team at the conference, the students learned from industry panels and keynote speakers on topics such as interview tips, how to cultivate an interesting portfolio, and the top ten things that new hires will learn in the advertising industry. Their favorite insight from the conference was that advertisements need to replicate a profound human truth that transcends languages and cultures.

Daniel, Katie, and Lindsay look forward to using their new knowledge to help the 2014 advertising competition team win at nationals this year.

MKTG@Mays

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“Telling the Texas A&M Story via Digital Media”--that’s the challenge that Diane

McDonald, TAMU’s Executive Director of Marketing & Social Media faces every . It was also the subject of her lecture to Paul Busch’s Advertising and Creative Marketing Communications classes. As a pioneer in the field of digital media in higher education, McDonald confessed relief that her choice of Facebook (FB) over Myspace five years ago turned out to be the right one!

A key topic addressed was the return on investment (ROI) that results from TAMU’s digital media efforts. Examples of ROI are reaching new audiences through the voices of current students, harnessing the power of students as our brand ambassadors, providing a source of information for traditional media, extending conversations started by press releases, quickly disseminating important information, creating more impressions than paid advertising and reaching more people than traditional media.

Guest Speaker

Paul Busch and Diane McDonald, Executive Director of Marketing & Social Media at TAMU

One of the questions asked of McDonald was, “Do you have to delete many posts on FB?” Interestingly, the answer was no. Anytime someone posts “bad bull” Aggies are quick to hop all over it and clarify the misunderstanding. She generally only deletes posts which violate FB rules..

Some of McDonald’s achievements leading TAMU’s digital media effort are: • First university to reach 100,000 fans on FB• Most followers on Twitter in the Big 12 and the

SEC• Most engaging university FB page - 2011 & 2012• Named No. 2 behind Harvard in Social Media

Today’s “Top Universities in Social Media”• Only higher-ed institution recognized as one of

the Top 10 Facebook pages in the U.S.

Dr. Busch received great student feedback about McDonald’s talk. Comments such as, “Mrs. McDonald should definitely come back every semester!” and “Great content” and “I really learned a lot.” Dr. Busch says, “I, too, learned a lot and really enjoyed her insights.”

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The following paper was based on Zixia Cao’s dissertation.Title: Wedded Bliss or Tainted Love? Stock Market Reactions to the Introduction of Cobranded Products. Published in Marketing Science. Authors: Zixia Cao and Alina SorescuAbstract: We examine whether cobranding—the practice of using two established brand names on the same product—increases the market value of parent firms. Using data from the consumer packaged goods industry, we document that the average stock market reaction to the announcement of cobranded new products is approximately +1.0%. We hypothesize that this reaction is significantly higher than it would have been if these same products were single branded, and we find evidence consistent with this hypothesis. We also examine the determinants of this stock market reaction. We find that the consistency between the two brand images, the innovativeness of the product, and the exclusivity of the cobranding relationship significantly increase the market reaction to cobranding announcements. Our findings provide important managerial guidelines for enhancing firm value through cobranding partnerships.

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Harvard Business Review and the New England Journal of Medicine are collaborating to host a series of online articles on healthcare innovation. An article by Len Berry and Jamie Dunham of ThedaCare (Appleton, Wisconsin), "Redefine Patient Experience with Collaborative Care,“ was recently posted in the series.

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Len Berry’s article, “The Promise of Lean in Health Care,” co-authored with John S. Toussaint, MD of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value in Wisconsin, is one of the Top 5 most downloaded articles for 2013 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

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Steve McDaniel has been selected by Texas A&M to be the University’s sole nominee for the SEC Faculty Achievement Award for this year.

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Congratulations to Lisa Troy (Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing) on being selected for the honor of Namesake for Howdy Camp 2014. The honor is in recognition of Lisa’s enduring contributions to positively impacting the Texas A&M University student community through her hard work. As many of you may be aware, since joining the Mays Business School, Lisa has played a leadership role in creating and promoting the Certificate in Advertising Program. Her students have won a number of awards in national advertising competitions. Troy spends long hours coaching the students to prepare for the competition. Lisa has also been a great mentor to students as Faculty Advisor for student organizations including the Aggie Advertising Club.

Awards and PublicationsMKTG@Mays

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MS MKTG Field Trip to AustinOn October 25, the student group of the MS-Marketing program organized a field trip to visit two Austin companies – GSD&M and WCG. The MS-Marketing students were treated to a full-day of learning at the two companies. They had eight speakers at GSD&M, including Bo Bradbury ’89, Senior VP and Account Director and four speakers at WCG, including the president, Bob Pearson, who gave each student an autographed copy of his book, Pre-Commerce: How Companies and Customers Are Transforming Business Together.

WCG is an analytically-oriented marketing communications agency in Austin. The two people pictured on the far left and the one on the far right were the hosts for our visit.

GSD&M is an Austin-based advertising agency best known for its Southwest Airlines ads. The six people pictured on the far left of the photo were our hosts - all are Aggies who now work with GSD&M, including Rafik Massoud (far left) who graduated from our department last year.

“The Best Advice I Ever Got”

As I begin to transition into a more mature role as a graduate student, the unknown future is constantly on my mind. Where will I intern? What will I learn? How should I act? How many mistakes will I make? All these questions and more constantly sit at the forefront of my thoughts. For this reason, I was excited to see the topic of our Marketing Leadership session: “The Best Advice I Ever Got.” Because the future is full of uncertainty, I looked forward to hearing advice and insight from those who have already experienced and overcome many of the obstacles that plague my anxiety: Charlie Adams, Justin Cade, and Sterling Hayman. Each of these esteemed professionals began by describing the single best piece of advice they had ever received. Mr. Adams started by encouraging the class to “be loyal.” He elaborated by saying that we should be proud of the positions we hold and stay true to our companies. In the end, we will reap their favor in return. Mr. Cade suggested that you should always “be yourself.” Further, putting your personality out there is the truest form of personal connection. He told us this meant stretching yourself beyond networking; this sort of behavior will bring out authenticity in others, as well. Finally,

Mr. Hayman told us to “be hungry.” I really resonated with this idea because Mr. Hayman said this was especially crucial for students hoping to make an impression at a new job or internship.

Even though each of these pieces of advice was simple, the ideas behind them were complex and revealing. As soon as I left the room that day, my mind was already churning about how to make the most of this advice and apply it in my studies and future career. I am grateful for those who have come before me for their perspective and experiences.

I can only hope that one day I will inspire someone with the advice that Dr. McDaniel once gave me, “Sometimes you need to go to bat for people at difficult times. That’s what matters.”

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Panelists (left to right) Justin Cade, Natural Gas Liquids Distribution Mgr. at BP; Charlie Adams, Sr. Mgr. in Assurance & Business Advisory Services at PwC; and Sterling Hayman, Client Services Director at TracyLocke Advertising

MKTG@Mays MKTG 670 Panel Discussions

Becca Alderman graduated summa cum laude from TAMU in December 2012. She received a degree in Communication and also earned the Professional Event Management Certificate. Upon completing her MS in MKTG, Becca hopes to pursue a career in digital marketing or public relations.

The Marketing Leadership course (MKTG 670) incorporates panels of marketing executives who come to discuss various themes. Reports on four of these panels are by first year MS-MKTG student, Becca Alderman.

“Establishing Your Personal Brand”

“Personal branding” is a term I’ve heard used

quite frequently since entering the MS-Marketing Program. Though I had a vague idea of what it might entail, I had little knowledge on how this practice was actually put to use in real-world scenarios. Fortunately, several of our esteemed advisory board members came to speak about the importance of establishing a personal brand in today’s business landscape.

Mrs. Yvonne Bourquin, of Waste Management Inc., admitted that it is not always easy to stay cognizant of your personal brand or how those around you perceive your brand, but enforced the idea that it is important to be mindful of each experience you share with someone. She said a personal brand goes far beyond a simple reputation. It is formed through each engagement you make, each characteristic you exude, and each action you take in different situations.

Mr. Chris Miller, of Golfsmith International, holds similar beliefs about what a personal brand means. He reiterated the importance of being conscious of your brand during each unique experience, but also emphasized the idea of consistency. He suggested we each “find core

elements to consistently deliver in each experience.”

Mrs. Kathy Leonard, of Freeman+Leonard, helped the class think about personal brand development. She told us that once we have a clear picture of how others perceive us, take that as a guide of where to move next in your career and your personal life. As you move forward, she shared it is important for each of us to understand that we are not “for” everyone. Our brand won’t fit in with every company or personality. One of her pieces of advice truly resonated with me: “Find out who you are. Then find out who you can be for.”

After this leadership session, I now realize how crucial it is to present your personal brand as if it were a packaged good.

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Steve McDaniel hosts the “Establishing Your Personal Brand” panel discussion with panelists Kathy Leonard, President of Freeman+Leonard , Chris Miller, Senior Director of Media, Promotions & Planning at Golfsmith

International, and Yvonne Bourquin, Business Solutions Manager at Waste Management Inc.

Panelists Leonard, Miller, and Bourquin.

MKTG 670 Panel Discussions (cont.)

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Panelists Tami Cannizzaro, Account Director at SPM Communications; Missy Douthit, Founder-Principal at DouthitConsulting; Lauren Lamb, Director of Product Mgmt at Floor 22 Consulting; and David Paradis, Global VP of Sales &

Marketing at Weir SPM

“The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made”

Recently, four members of the MS Marketing Advisory Board came to speak about their biggest career mistake and I was grateful they were each willing to share their vulnerabilities so that we might learn from them.

Mr. David Paradis of Weir SPM (an oil and gas company) told our class that he wished he had managed the early development of his career more effectively. He informed us that getting too wrapped up in achievement and ego may result in unintentionally bypassing a special opportunity. To overcome this, Mr. Paradis advised us to identify where we want to be later in our career. By setting an end goal, we will not be so easily distracted by the wrong opportunity.

Ms. Lauren Lamb of Floor 22 Consulting shared an experience where she wished she had followed her instincts. She knew her product wasn’t ready to launch, but agreed with her

supervisors (against her better judgment) to roll it out anyway. Through this experience, she learned to be more confident and willing to make the tough calls, regardless of the situation.

Ms. Missy Douthit of Douthit Consulting shared her belief that managing people is one of the hardest lessons to learn in a career. From personal experience, she spoke about the importance of making “people decisions” so each one of us could make “that call” if necessary.

Finally, Ms. Tami Camizzaro of SPM Communications shared a story about missing an opportunity because she didn’t think it was in line with her career path at the time. With this in mind, she told us: “The path to success isn’t a straight line. Unexpected elements can put you on the right track.”

I truly appreciate these pieces of advice. Though it was difficult for them to share their mistakes, their openness provided me with unique insights as I face future challenges.

MKTG@Mays MKTG 670 Panel Discussions (cont.)

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Jerr Borgan, VP at Curtiss Wright Flow Control, Laren Engebretson, Product Mktg. Mgr ISS Modular Systems at HP, and Steve Moore, Vice Chancellor-Mktg. Comm. For the TAMU System

Mona Sinha

“What I Know Now That I Wish I Knew Then”

Considering the entire the leadership program

offerings, I have found the panel members’ advice to be the most helpful takeaway. With this in mind, I was really looking forward to hearing Mr. Jeff Borgan, Mrs. Lauren Engebretson, and Mr. Steve Moore share the insights they have discovered and learned since graduate school.

Mr. Jeff Borgan, of Curtiss Wright Flow Control, gave three very important pieces of advice. First, understand who you are and what you’re good at, then focus on these traits. Second, students should understand there is risk and reward in the world--failure is not a bad thing!Third, relationships are the key to success in anything you do.

Mrs. Lauren Engebretson, of HP, offered two similar ideas. She first told us “this is not the time

to make hard and fast decisions.” It is okay if you don’t know what you want to do right at this moment. Similar to Mr Borgan’s suggestion, Mrs. Engebretson told us that networking is the key to success in career building. She encouraged us to expand our network as much as possible by seizing every opportunity available.

Mr. Steve Moore, the Vice Chancellor of Marketing and Communications for the TAMU System, supported his peers’ networking advice. Additionally, he gave two more valuable suggestions. First, he told us not to sacrifice our personal lives for our professional lives. You can still be successful in your career while focusing on your life at home. Second, “just because you don’t know it, doesn’t mean you can’t learn it.”

I took away a very important lesson. That is, the size of a mistake is influenced by how you handle it. And the people who aren’t making mistakes are the ones who aren’t trying.

MKTG 670 Panel Discussions (cont.)

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Joe Stallard ‘91, Chief Human Resources

Officer for Sewell Automotives, is a

frequent visitor to Mays and a terrific partner for our department. While on campus for the BSC

Career Fair, Stallardspoke in Services

Marketing and Honors Marketing. In both

classes, he discussed the importance of understanding

customers exceptionally well in order to give

them exceptional service.

Guest SpeakerMKTG@Mays

October 31, 2013: Just another scary day in Venky Shankar’s MS-Marketing Research class.

Halloween

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CRS News & UpdatesGuest Speakers

Walmart’sSeth Cordry,

Senior Buyer; Martina Biddulph’10,

Sr. Merchandise Planner; and

Jason Hudson, Walmart Recruiting

Evonne Brazell, Macy’s University Relations Mgr.

Macy’s in 2012 launched a new

strategic approach to customers in the Millennial generation, which includes current college students. University Relations Manager Evonne Brazellexplained to Mary Zimmer’s retailing class how this generation represents a major opportunity for the company today and down the road.

To gain Millennials as customers, Macy’s launched new merchandise lines, Impulse and Mstylelab. Over a dozen new apparel brands for this generation will hit stores by the end of 2013. Reorganized store layouts will also create “destination zones” for Millennial customers to improve their shopping ease.

Macy’s will heavily use social media to connect with these younger customers. MBlog, Macy’s internal blogging site, is also positioned to communicate to the 13- to 30-year-old users.

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Buyers at the world’s largest retailer

often deal in volumes unheard of in other companies. Think about $1 Billion in milk sales or a million units of Mr. Potato Head. Former student and Mays graduate Martina Biddulph discussed her role as a merchandise planner of toys to a class eager to follow her career steps. Each day she tracks how existing product lines are selling and then recommends next steps, such as reducing inventory or expanding it. This involves creating detailed analysis of sales records and customer service reports to consider if there are internal factors that could be causing poor sales performance, such as lack of employee knowledge or too high price points.

Texas A&M is a Tier 1 recruiting school for Walmart. This means the company is heavily committed to recruiting Aggies. This semester, Walmart has visited the Department of Marketing twice, and welcomed marketing majors for tours of its Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas.

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We want to include your news items in the next issue. Please submit to Laurie Marshall at lmarshall@mays.tamu.edu,

Thanksgiving PotluckMKTG@Mays

The Department of Marketing’s Annual Thanksgiving Potluck was held November 25, with all the traditional dishes plus Indian lemon rice (thanks Mrs. Varadarajan!), Persian chicken stew, Chinese dumplings and more--all served with the fellowship of good friends.

John Busch was in town visiting his father Paul for Thanksgiving and joined us at the potluck.