This post is a part of the Student Blogger series - each post is written by a current UCLA Anderson student, and provides first-hand perspectives and experiences about being an MBA student at UCLA Anderson.
Marketing Professor Hershfield with guest lecturer, the former President of Lawry's
During my first year at Anderson thus far, I have thus far taken eight classes, our core courses: Organizational Behavior, Data & Decisions (Statistics), Financial Accounting, Managerial Economics, Marketing Management, Operations Technology Management, Foundations of Finance, and Business Strategy. I have enjoyed my classes (for the most part -- sometimes it's hard to get into the “groove” of financial statements bright and early at 8AM!) and I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to learn from so many amazing professors and take an array of fascinating classes.
However, if I had to pick just one as my favorite so far of the three quarters I’ve experienced, I would choose Marketing Management. Our Marketing class was amazing for two main reasons: (1) Marketing is so much more complex than what most people understand it to be and this makes the course so interesting, and (2) my professor was an amazing lecturer who kept the class engaged with hands-on lectures, guest speakers, and really relevant cases.
Professor Hal Hershfield was my Marketing professor and I highly recommend his class. The cases that he included in our course were all so compelling — well, almost all; we did have to read a very long case about cushion pads for a curled metal company, the least popular case of the quarter! Though, to be fair, I did still learn a lot of useful pricing strategies from that case.
I also learned a lot from the case write-ups we had to do. We would read a case about a company and would have to recommend a solution to a challenge they were facing. Professor Hershfield taught us how to focus on the “3 Cs”: Company, Customer, and Competition. We also had to make sure to come up with a positioning statement for the company, which helped us analyze the company’s strategies on targeting and segmenting their market. Lastly, we learned about the “4 Ps”: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place.
An added benefit of my marketing class was that it actually functioned as early interview prep training. I am recruiting in the tech industry and many of my interviews involved cases. I was able to take the structure I learned from my marketing course and apply it to my interviews. I’m so grateful to Professor Hershfield for such a wonderful class. From watching and analyzing various TV commercials to pricing new brands of yogurt, I learned so much while always staying engaged and intrigued. I look forward to taking more marketing classes and honing my understanding of the subject!
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Student Blogger: Melody Akbari '18
Undergrad: UC Berkeley
Pre-MBA: Marketing Manager
Leadership@Anderson: Director of Recruiter Relations - Anderson Technology Business Association, Director of Marketing - Women's Business Connection, Marketing Rep - Admissions Ambassador Corps
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