what do brand managers and marketers do? · marketing? in june 2012, jumpstart advisory group...

W hat do Diet Coke, Apple (iPod, iPhone, iPad), Gap Kids and Splenda Essentials have in common? They’re all examples of successful brand extensions, in which a well-

known brand leveraged its trusted reputation and consumer loyalty to create a new product that filled unmet needs in a different market category. When it comes to preparing highly qualified women and minority MBA candidates and undergraduate students to navigate the career search process, JumpStart is a brand that has earned the loyalty of students, academic institutions and industry-leading corporations alike. Since JumpStart’s inception in 2004, the annual MBA Financial Services and Consulting Diversity Forum and the UGrad Diversity Forum (added in 2010) have helped nearly 1,400 exceptional students and professionals launch careers in these two industries by connecting them with employers who are committed to hiring diverse talent. So what better way for the JumpStart brand to meet new diversity needs in a new career category than by extending into the world of brand management and marketing? In June 2012, Jumpstart Advisory Group launched the first JumpStart Brand Management and Marketing Diversity Forum, hosted by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. The two-day event was attended by a select and enthusiastic group of 75 incoming MBA students from 24 top-ranked business schools across the country (see “Making History” sidebar). The employer side of the equation was represented by an equally enthusiastic group of corporate partners, including such marketing giants as Johnson & Johnson, Target, ConAgra Foods, S.C. Johnson, Medtronic and Danaher (see “On Board at the Beginning” sidebar).

Already a leader in introducing underrepresented MBA talent to careers in financial services and consulting, JumpStart broadens focus to increase opportunities for diversity in Brand Management and Marketing by Pam Chwedyk

HANDS-ON LEARNING: Working in a team setting with guidance from Johnson & Johnson representatives, students were able to learn about Brand Management in large and small group environments.

What do Brand Managers and Marketers do?

CORPORATE PARTNERS

ON BOARD AT THE BEGINNINGINAUGURAL JUMPSTART BRAND MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING DIVERSITY FORUM STRATEGIC PARTNERS:

JOHN T. BURT, JR.JumpStart, Co-Founder• Current Exp: Diversity at BCG• Prior Exp: Consultant (Booz, Lilly),

Corporate Finance (Lilly)• MBA, Fuqua- Duke University• Bachelor’s degree, Finance, Indiana

University

ELTON NDOMA-OGARJumpStart, Co-Founder• Current Exp: Diversity at Raytheon• Prior Exp: Equity Sales Trader (Morgan

Stanley), Diversity (BP, Inc., Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch), Sales (J&J, Roche)

• MBA, Fuqua - Duke University• Bachelor’s degree, Health Sciences,

Wake Forest University

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Fo r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t J u m p S t a r t , v i s i t w w w. m b a j u m p s t a r t . o r g o r c o n t a c t u s a t i n f o @ m b a j u m p s t a r t . c o m .

ACADEMIC PARTNER

REPRESENTATIVES FROM OTHER FIRMS• Burberry• The Coca-Cola Company

• General Mills• Nestlé

X�SOUND BITE FROM J&J AS LEAD SPONSOR

“ This is the first time that JumpStart is focusing on the brand management function. Our company is very excited that we’re able to be a partner in the Brand Management and Marketing Diversity Forum at the very beginning and create content to share with the students.”

— Nancy Lee Associate Brand Manager, Johnson & Johnson

The new program was truly a team effort, according to JumpStart founders John Burt, Jr. (Director of Diversity at The Boston Consulting Group), and Elton Ndoma-Ogar, (Director of Diversity at Raytheon Company). “Over the years, many people have asked us to create a brand management forum,” says Burt. “With the assistance and expertise of our corporate partners, especially Johnson & Johnson and Target, as well as some of our JumpStart alumni, who have gone on to successful careers in marketing, we were able to adapt the financial services and consulting model to the branding and marketing context.” Much of the impetus came from Johnson & Johnson’s Megan Stricker (Brand Manager), Karima Holland (Associate Brand Manager) and Janelle Hailey (ABM) and Target’s Bryon Krause and Brynn Erickson, who worked tirelessly with JumpStart to develop the project from idea to reality.

“We thought it was such an interesting opportunity to educate MBA students before they start business school,” Holland explains. “Many of the questions we get from students during the campus recruiting process are based on their not having a full understanding of what brand management actually is. They think of it in limited terms of just marketing or just advertising, but they don’t understand the big picture. Johnson & Johnson felt that by becoming involved in this program we can help students become that much stronger by learning early on what a career in brand management entails.” For the forum’s academic partner, the Fuqua School, the event was brand new but also a homecoming of sorts. Both of JumpStart’s founders are Duke MBAs and Fuqua was the launch site for the first-ever JumpStart Financial Services and Consulting Diversity Forum back in 2004.

T H E A R T A N D S C I E N C E O F B R A N D I N GLike any hard-working brand, the JumpStart educational model has a unique brand personality: It’s intensive, hands-on and fortified with opportunities to explore a variety of career roles and job functions from a real-world, “this is what it’s really like” perspective. At the Inaugural Brand Management and Marketing Diversity Forum, the students were constantly immersed in the behind-the-scenes experience of what brand managers do, what makes them tick and

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M B A J U M P S T A R T • W H A T D O B R A N D M A N A G E R S A N D M A R K E T E R S D O ?


Facts and figures from the 2012 JumpStart Brand Management and Marketing Diversity Forum:

Number of Admitted Students: 75

Average Work Experience: 5 years

Gender: 64% female, 36% male

Race/Ethnicity: • 49% African-American, black or of African descent• 26% Hispanic, Latin American or of Latin descent• 12% Asian• 11% Caucasian• 2% Other

• Fuqua School of Business (Duke University), host • Anderson School of Management (UCLA)• Booth School of Business (University of Chicago)• Columbia University Business School• Darden School of Business (University of Virginia)• Goizueta Business School (Emory)• Haas School of Business (University of California-

Berkeley)• Harvard Business School• Johnson Graduate School of Management (Cornell)• Jones Graduate School of Business (Rice)• Kelley School of Business (University of Indiana

Bloomington)• Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern)

• Kenan-Flagler Business School (UNC)• Marshall School of Business (USC)• Mays Business School (Texas A&M)• McCombs School of Business (University of

Texas-Austin)• McDonough School of Business (Georgetown)• Owen Graduate School of Management (Vanderbilt)• Ross School of Business (University of Michigan)• Simon Graduate School of Business (University of

Rochester)• Smeal College of Business (Penn State)• Stern School of Business (NYU)• The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)• Yale School of Management

MAKING HISTORY: THE JUMPSTART BRAND MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING DIVERSITY FORUM INAUGURAL CLASS

Student Attendees Will Pursue MBAs at:

ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT: JumpStart Alumni at Burberry, Nestle, The Coca-Cola Company, and General Mills advise students on the day-to-day experiences in Brand Management.

what kinds of business decisions they make on a daily basis. By participating in the forum, 81% of students noted a better understanding of Brand Management and a better perception of Johnson & Johnson. In sessions such as “Brand Management 101” (hosted by Johnson & Johnson) and “Brand Experiences at ConAgra and S.C. Johnson,” attendees learned that the brand manager’s role is an ideal fit for MBAs because it is essentially that of a general manager, with considerable profit/loss accountability.

Brand managers are responsible for managing the brand’s equity (the sum of all the qualities and experiences consumers associate with buying the brand) and leading multiple cross-functional teams— creative media, market research, R&D, sales, operations, supply chain, finance and more—to grow their brand’s business over the short and long term. As one Johnson & Johnson panelist noted, “Brands don’t build themselves. There’s an art and a science to it.” In the forum’s opening session, a racially and gender-diverse team of J & J brand managers—wearing T-shirts that featured some of the firm’s best-known brands, including Listerine, Neutrogena and Zyrtec—took the students on an interactive, multimedia journey through the process of how to build an iconic brand. For many attendees, this was their first look at such key concepts as brand footprint (the brand’s distinctive identity), brand codes (elements that make the brand instantly recognizable) and brand vision (what the brand offers consumers beyond the immediate benefits). Other sessions gave students the chance to compare and contrast possible career paths by exposing them to a broad spectrum of industries and


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When Michael A. Conway, MBA, got his first job in brand management,

he was a rarity: one of very few African-American men in the business. But that challenge didn’t stop Conway from forging a distinguished career at the forefront of global consumer product marketing, including 10 years in leadership positions at Campbell Soup Company. He is now Worldwide President of McNeil Nutritionals, LLC, a member of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies, which markets such household-name brands as Splenda No Calorie Sweetener, Lactaid and Viactiv. In his keynote speech at the 2012 JumpStart Brand Management and Marketing Diversity Forum, Conway offered this advice to help a new generation of diverse MBA talent follow in his pioneering footsteps:

LEADERSHIP LESSONS: CAREER ADVICE FROM A BRAND MANAGEMENT TRAILBLAZER

• It’s not about the brand, it’s about the journey. Don’t worry if you have to start out with a small brand rather than a big, “sexy” one. Managing a small brand can be a great career-launching opportunity, because you have to do it all and you learn so much more.

• Leadership ability is crucial. When companies hire brand managers, they want natural leaders who can inspire everyone on the brand team to give 110%. As you prepare for interviews, think about examples of how you’ve demonstrated leadership and developed your leadership skills.

• Find mentors wherever you can. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t find role models and mentors who share your race, ethnicity or gender. Seek out mentorship wherever it comes from—and it can come from where you least expect it.

• If you want an international assignment, be persistent. Make it known that you have the desire and the skill set to work overseas. Understand that moving to another country requires pulling up stakes and that the assignment may not come at a convenient time. But if you’re willing to make that sacrifice, don’t let the opportunity pass you by.

PROBLEM SOLVING: Students get a real live experience to analyze data and present their thoughts. Led by Johnson & Johnson, students also worked in teams as Brand Managers of which a winner was announced at the end of the day.

LEARNING FROM LEADERS: Michael A. Conway, Worldwide President of McNeil Nutritionals, advises attendees on leadership and navigating career options during his keynote address over dinner.

market segments—e.g., consumer packaged goods (CPG) versus business-to-business (B-to-B), and luxury goods versus mass marketing. For instance, “Marketing Beyond CPG,” hosted by Medtronic and Danaher, two global leaders in the science and technology sector, delivered the message that marketing big-ticket products such as medical devices is a more complex, challenging process than consumer marketing, but it can be uniquely rewarding. In the words of Medtronic’s Kenneth Stanford (JumpStart alum), “It’s an opportunity to work with products that literally change people’s lives.” One of the most distinguishing features of the JumpStart brand is the “now it’s your turn to do it” case exercise, in which students actually experience what they’ve learned by tackling a sample business problem. In the Johnson & Johnson-hosted “Brand Manager for a Day” workshop, the Brand Management Forum Class of 2012 was divided into teams to try their hand at developing a brand extension. Each team’s mission was to choose a popular J & J skin care line, analyze consumer needs and market opportunities, and then come up with an idea for a new product that would expand the brand to reach a new group of consumers. Because influence, negotiation, and communication skills are a prerequisite for success in brand management, the teams’ next challenge was to try to sell their idea to the company board (role-

played by J & J brand managers). This, the students learned, means being able to answer some tough questions: Will the new product help grow the brand or will it cannibalize existing products in the line? Do the financials make sense? What’s “ownable” about this product—in other words, what can you say about it that your competitors can’t say?

R E TA I L E R S A N D R E L AT I O N S H I P SWhether the category is cars, foods or pharmaceuticals, top brands come in a variety of models and formulas—and so do MBA career options in the wide-ranging marketing arena. In addition to showcasing


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“Every MBA candidate has the opportunity to do well in the recruit-ment process, but what’s going to differentiate one person from the next is face time. Being able to be here at the JumpStart

forum and build early relationships with these companies is a huge advantage. I’ve already made many connections here that I’m definitely going to follow up on, so that when recruiters arrive on campus they’ll be more likely to reach out to me as opposed to my having to reach out to them.”

— James Souffrant Kellogg School of Management, Class of 2014

“As a career changer, I found the JumpStart forum to be incredibly insightful in going much deeper into what brand management and marketing really comes down to. Now I can start

making connections between my past experiences and my future role in marketing.”

— Pamela Burga Marshall School of Business, Class of 2014

“The whole experience of being here is invaluable. Because you’re considering so many options when you go to business school, you really need to be able to make sound decisions

based on good information. Getting a solid understanding of what brand managers do on a day-to-day basis, and gaining exposure to people in the business early on, is priceless.”

— Andrew Rios Haas School of Business, Class of 2014

TOP TAKEAWAYS: Feedback from the JumpStart Brand Management and Marketing Diversity Forum Class of 2012

HANDS-ON LEARNING: Following Brand Management and Merchandising sessions, Target representatives advise students outside the SuperTarget at the beginning of the store visit. The experience was a great example of Johnson & Johnson and Target representatives partnering to deliver “A Day in the Life” type experience.


what brand management careers can offer, the JumpStart forum also focused attendees’ attention on the field of retailing and merchandising, with an emphasis on the retail buyer function. This was a career path many of the students had not considered before, and they discovered that it’s a path well worth traveling. In fact, the buyer role is remarkably similar to that of a CEO, giving newly minted MBAs the opportunity to manage their own multimillion-dollar business right out of graduate school. That revelation was driven home by a team of buyers from Target, one of the largest mass retailers in the United States. The team members—whose diversity provided student participants with role models who looked like them—shared their firsthand insights into the leadership skills merchandisers must use to satisfy the needs of both shoppers and shareholders. To drive sales and profits in their category, the JumpStarters learned, buyers need to master “the four P’s”: product (managing national brands and private-label brands), price (developing the right pricing strategies), place (delivering a great shopping experience) and promotion (creating compelling in-store and online sales promotions, such as circulars, coupons and contests). By participating in the forum, 84% of students noted a better understanding of the Buyer role and 88% stated a better perception of Target. In another example of JumpStart’s experiential learning philosophy, the forum included a store visit to a nearby SuperTarget. With the buyers and store manager as guides, the students visited several departments to get a buyer’s-eye view of what the in-store space these professionals manage looks like, how it’s designed to help shoppers easily find what they want and how it’s divided into retail planograms (differentiated sections of space that each have to be organized and managed). It was clear that students will view a retail store visit differently after this experience. To help student participants see the all-important big picture, the Johnson & Johnson team was also on hand to demonstrate how brand managers and retailers interact and partner with each other. For example, one brand manager described how the two companies collaborated to develop a new product, Neosporin for Kids, which was rolled out as an exclusive at Target. For attendees like Monet Dumas, who will begin her MBA studies at Cornell University in the fall, it was eye-opening to learn that “in these roles, you’re not acting in isolation. It’s all about relationships and mutually beneficial opportunities.” Some members of the inaugural class already had work experience in marketing and branding; others were career changers for whom this was their first introduction to the industry. But regardless of their previous knowledge level, the vast majority of student participants indicated in their post-event evaluations that they had learned a tremendous amount. Students came away from the event with a heightened interest in the participating companies.

C U LT I VAT I N G CO N N E C T I O N SAs the 2012 Brand Management Forum drew to a close, a limited number of attendees participated in one-on-one informational interviews. But for every single student, the entire event was a nonstop series of opportunities to network with potential employers and begin to establish the early connections that will help them stand out from the competition when the MBA recruiting cycle is in full swing.

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1. Deliver business results—i.e., increase sales, market share, revenue and profits.

2. Lead cross-functional teams. 3. Make decisions with speed and impact.4. Exert influence to get things done.5. Analyze and synthesize data.6. Communicate effectively and make

powerful presentations.7. Coach and develop employees.8. Manage ambiguity.9. Monitor trends and identify new

opportunities.10. Assume “the buck stops here”

accountability.

WHAT RECRUITERS WANT: 10 KEY BRAND MANAGEMENT SKILLS TO EMPHASIZE IN INTERVIEWS

One of the most valuable insights for students at the Inaugural JumpStart

Brand Management and Marketing Diversity Forum was learning in advance what skill sets recruiters are looking for so that they can fully prepare themselves for the on-campus interviewing process. According to industry experts from Johnson & Johnson, Target, ConAgra Foods, S.C. Johnson, General Mills, Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé, Burberry and other top marketers, MBA candidates who are interviewing for brand management positions must demonstrate their ability to:

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING: Participants begin the networking and relationship building process with corporate representatives.

THE JUMPSTART NETWORK: The 75 incoming MBA students join the other 5,000 members of the JumpStart Network.


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“Once you’re on campus you have opportunities to develop relationships with these companies, but it’s on a much larger scale,” explained Andrew Rios, who is matriculating into the MBA program at the University of California-Berkeley. “The JumpStart forum is a way to get face time with recruiters, get information about their firms and build those relationships in a smaller, more informal setting.” The corporate partners who were there to meet outstanding diversity candidates who reflect the demographics of the multicultural customers they market to couldn’t agree more. “We don’t want to only have access to these candidates when they’re in year two of their

MBA program and looking for a job,” says Johnson & Johnson’s Nancy Lee. “It’s about building relationships with them, because we’re looking for leaders who can move upward in the organization over the long term. We want to identify the people who are working very hard and taking the opportunity out of their free time before they even start school to get a better understanding of what brand management is all about.”

Pam Chwedyk is a Chicago-based freelance writer specializing in diversity and healthcare topics.

what do brand managers and marketers do? · marketing? in june 2012, jumpstart advisory group...

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