Today's guest post comes from Craig Rosenkranz, First Year Director of Admissions for the Marketing Association (MA). The MA, with over 150 members, provides networking and professional development opportunities for students interested in marketing careers. Read on for highlights from one of these recent events with General Mills!
Aside from all of my classmates and me studying like crazy for our first 2 midterms, last week was a pretty eventful and exciting week here for members of the Marketing Association (MA) at UCLA Anderson.
To start things off, representatives from General Mills came to campus and held informal “coffee chats” with small groups of first year students. We had the chance to sit down with two UCLA Anderson alums and talk candidly about their career experiences and what life is really like working as a Brand Manager at General Mills.
That afternoon, the MA kicked-off a series of lunch time marketing workshops led by General Mills reps Doug and Brad. The first one entitled “Putting Marketing into Real-World Practice” was led by marketing guru and UCLA Anderson alum, Doug Martin. We took a look at some current marketing campaigns and broke down what we think they’re doing well and what we think they could be doing better. This Smart ad really stood out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dkjtQdJzI) and was a crowd favorite.
Brad led the next workshop, entitled “Marketing in a Connected World” which focused on how brands can connect and provide value to their consumers beyond simple needs like good taste. Brad ran through a real life General Mills example of the rebranding of the classic kids cereal, Kix. It was great to get an insight into how Brand Managers approached a problem and turned around a brand.
Both workshops were super engaging and highly interactive. I can’t wait to see what the rest of first quarter brings!
To learn more about the MA, visit their website.
