Built Strong to Last Long, or at Least that is what we told Creative

Day 2 of Academy Week was a presentation on working with agencies and creative. It was a really helpful session to help understand the relationship between BMs and creative and how to get the best work out of them. We learned about what makes up a creative brief, and then were put into groups to analyze a print ad and reverse engineer the creative brief. Each team then presented to the academy so we could dissect the brief and see which ad best fit. And as our presenter, Eric Bauchet, was from Whirlpool the day would not have been complete without some Maytag ads and comparison to LG, GE and Electrolux in the space.

After a quick lunch break, we got a preview of Jonlee's M537 Channels class with a discussion of the retail and manufacturer relationship. Going into retail myself this was an incredibly valuable presentation and I learned a lot of things I can apply this summer (GMROI, etc) I am really excited for the full length class in the fall.

After we wrapped up for the day, my team met for 3 hours or so to go over where we stood on our project. We assigned tasks and banged out a lot in the time we allotted then headed home to do the last of our "WHO" research. I grabbed a quick dinner of a salad and a Lean Cuisine (no I am not being healthy, I am stressed and have snacked all night!) and got to work. I read over 20 articles on Japanese consumer behavior before coming up with a one pager for my team tomorrow. Not looking forward to everything we still have to do! Tomorrow will be a busy day!

Innovation and Ideation

Today was the kickoff of our second Academy Week. Our speaker was Ralph Blessing, Managing Director of Chicago Office and Senior Partner at GfK Strategic Innovation. He talked about his career and some of the amazing products he had a chance to work on: Coppertone Sport Continuous Spray, Degree Antiperspirant, and Axe to just name a few. He explained the needs approach that GfK uses to help develop products to fill in shelf "white space." It was a really great presentation and it got even more interesting when we went through the process to create a new product. We picked Quick Service Restaurants as our category and then just brainstormed ideas, concepts and positioning. Look for our Mediterranean/Tapas QSR soon with our own branded olive oil and hummus (which we will expand into grocery) soon!

After we finished our scheduled activities we were able to work on our team projects...my team split up and worked on our own, we should come back together tomorrow ready to knock this out of the park.

Holding on for Dear Life

The last two weeks have been intense. I don't even know where to start, last week seems like a year ago and the week before (gala, etc. even longer!) Finals have been killer with the wrap up of my Tiffany & Co. brand valuation and recommendation, my market research analysis report, KIP presentation, Diesel brand valuation, CMA project work and an accounting final. Phew! Makes me tired to even write it out!

And it hasn't just been schoolwork tying me up; there has been volunteering, Kelley Women Speaker Series, Pilates, Yoga, Dinner with Friends, researching Japanese cooking at the Asian Cultural Center, Carnival, Kelley Women farewell dinner, blogging for school, and trying to have some semblance of a life (watching the Olympics with Charlton and the pets)

Both of us are really burnt out, was it possible to be more exhausted than when we were in Core?! Any 2nd year that said this would be easier was definitely lying.

So to try to make up for the torture of the last few weeks...I slept in (after having fallen asleep on the couch until 6 am), then I did a little research for CMA, made lunch, gave Addie a bath, did a little laundry, took Addie to the dog park and watched Public Enemies after picking up some Mexican food from La Torre.

I wish I could sit around all day tomorrow, but still have some laundry left to do and some reading for Academy Week 2 (ugh!) Can't wait for spring break in Israel.

Give it a whirl!

Weds was a great visit to Whirlpool. However, I had started to get sick so it was hard to be on my A game. However, I did get some great questions in and we got to learn some great stuff about the company and have lunch with some recent full time MBA hires.

At around 2 we headed back to Bloomington, where we didn’t get home until 8. I was starting to feel really sick at that point but really couldn’t get ready for the bus ride today. Just went straight to bed. Thank god for Nyquil!

Off to Michigan

Today was another packed day! We were abroad the bus by 7:45 and headed toward Miller Coors. They took us straight to the in-house pub on the 16th floor. We got to meet with brand managers, media, sports marketing and on premise marketing. We got some great exposure to the brands, how they interact with retailers and distributors and try to postion their product. Then we grabbed a box lunch and headed to Itasca to meet with Jewel-Osco. It was good to get a sense of another aspect of marketing and how they work with various BMs.

Now we are we headed toward Michigan to meet with Whirlpool tomorrow for an all day visit. Should be exciting to peek inside a durable goods company. Now if I could fight off this impeding cold, I would be all good.

Bye bye Chi-Town!

It’s time to head to Miller & Jewel-Osco

We’re here! Chicago watch out, Kelley CMA is coming!

Oh I wish...

Woohoo Weinermobile! Gotta love the Consumer Marketing Academy!

All packed up and ready to go for CMA week, Addie seems less than thrilled.

All packed up and ready to go for CMA week, Addie seems less than thrilled.

Today, we were in desperate need of some retail therapy! We got up and headed to the outlets in Edinburgh and got our shop on at Gap and Banana. Ended up with some cute things but it is such a bummer they are so far away.

When we got home I caught up on my readings for Academy Week and then headed out for an informational dinner with Kraft at Brother’s. Was really nice, and I am definitely looking forward to riding around in the Weinermobile tomorrow!