In this issue:
- Welcome
- Executive in Residence
- Event Offered Timely Self-Marketing Tips from Northwestern Mutual
- Alumni Spotlights
- Marketing is Storytelling: Spending Time with Jeff Blackman
- New Marketing Courses
- A Student’s View of Marketing Research (MKTG 342)
- Welcoming Tammy Philabaum to the Marketing Team
- Getting Involved in Transformative Consumer Research
- Marketing Club Update
- Contributors Summary
Welcome
The Marketing major is flourishing. The “new” major has been very well received among prospective students. In fact, our enrollment numbers are very healthy with over seventy-two majors.
So much is happening in the major this spring. We have welcomed the presence of our two Executives in Residence: Mark Nachman, regional president for Sprint Corp. and Justin Bloyd, president of RB Sigma. They have been a value-added component not only of our major but also the whole Black School of Business. For example, on March 21 they will be hosting a Meet and Mingle for business students to practice and develop networking skills.
Graduation will soon be upon us. We will celebrate the seniors as they move on to begin their careers. As always, we continue to judge our success by the success of our graduates. Our graduates are working all over the world in a variety of marketing positions, such as marketing research analyst, social media manager, distribution specialist, corporate retail merchandising manager, pharmaceutical sales representative, district manager, and the list goes on.
In closing, we are grateful for the faculty and students in the Marketing major. Be assured that GREAT things are happening!
“Learn to be thankful for what we already have, while we pursue all that we want.” —Jim Ron
Dr. Mary Beth Pinto
Discipline lead, Marketing major
Dr. Ray Venkataraman
Department chair, Marketing major
Executive in Residence
Kicking off the Executive in Residence program with Justin Bloyd
The Black School of Business launched a new opportunity for student-professional collaboration called the Executive in Residence program. Started by Dr. Mary Beth Pinto, professor of marketing, in fall 2017, this program connects Black School of Business students with business leaders who share their insights about business success, what it takes to be a desirable employee, and how secure a foothold in the professional world.
Justin Bloyd ’05, a Penn State Behrend alumnus, kicked off the program in November 2017 with a presentation on his professional experiences leading up to his current position as president of RB Sigma, a project management and process improvement consulting firm based out of the Cleveland metro area. Nearly 120 students attended his talk where he shared about his unorthodox journey to becoming a business owner.
Following up on this event, Bloyd met with six students at the Erie Brewing Company later in the semester. At dinner, students were able to discuss the new curriculum, existing opportunities for Behrend marketing students, and how Executives in Residence could help support students as they transition into their professional lives. The Executive in Residence program started on a strong note, and Justin Bloyd is a huge reason for its early success.
Justin Bloyd, center, enjoys dinner with, from left to right, Katharina Becker, Nicole Kuhn, Ben Lowery, William Roundtree, Kyle McCracken, and Nathan Steis, at the Erie Brewing Company in November 2017.
Sprinting Ahead with Mark Nachman in the Executive in Residence Program
Mark Nachman is the president of the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia region for Sprint. As a member of the Executive in Residence program, Nachman is working closely with Dr. Mary Beth Pinto’s MKTG 344 Buyer Behavior class this semester. In an early semester presentation to Black School of Business students, he talked about his experience as an executive and some unorthodox tactics that he had found to be successful throughout his career. He discussed a range of timely topics including mentorship, internships, professional expectations, and the importance of standing apart by writing handwritten thank you notes to interviewers. Over the spring semester, students studying buyer behavior will have the opportunity to work closely with Nachman and his team at Sprint to connect classroom learning to real-world marketing challenges.
Event Offered Timely Self-Marketing Tips from Northwestern Mutual
Prior to the start of the career fair, the Penn State Behrend Marketing Club sponsored a guest speaker event on self-marketing. Employees form Northwestern Mutual in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, made a trip to speak to Behrend students. Director of Recruiting, Maggie Steighner, and Director of Recruitment and Selection, Bethany Laslavic, delivered a presentation about professional development and career fair preparation.
Over sixty students were in attendance to learn helpful tips on resumes, elevator speeches, professional attire, and questions to ask prospective employers. Students were also informed of Northwestern Mutual’s internship and job opportunities. It was a fantastic way for Behrend students to learn how prospective employers expect candidates to prepare for the interview process. The Penn State Behrend Marketing Club is grateful for Northwestern Mutual’s participation, and hopes to schedule similar career-focused events in the future.
Alumni Spotlights
Joe Paterniti ’12
Joe Paterniti is a Penn State Behrend alumnus who spoke to Dr. Richard Vann’s Personal Selling class about his experiences in sales after graduation. He graduated in 2012 with a degree in Marketing. Although he did not get sales experience in school, he started working in sales at Oracle ten days after he graduated. Paterniti explained that his sales role at Oracle involved a lot of over-the-phone business and organizing face-to-face meetings. He traveled on nearly 100 flights in six months during his time at Oracle.
Today, Paterniti works at Paycom, a payroll and human resources software service, in a B2B sales role. He described some of the elements of his sales approach. Paterniti told the class that it is important to have a positive mindset and believe in yourself as well as in the product or service you are offering. He stated that it is also crucial to identify the client’s problem and offer them the best solution according to their needs. He made it clear to students that you will face a lot of rejection in sales, but failure is a great teacher if you learn from it. Additionally, he suggested that experience helps build your confidence as well as enable you to tell stories about success with previous clients.
Jessica Golombek ’14
Jessica Golombek graduated from Behrend in 2014 with a degree in Marketing and a minor in Supply Chain Management. She is now the director of marketing at Prime Time Marketing in Phoenix, Arizona. Prime Time Marketing focuses on developing marketing plans for small to medium-sized businesses. She spoke to Behrend students in one of the newest marketing classes at Behrend, MKTG 480 Social Media Marketing.
Golombek discussed her career path, tips for advertising on social media, and advice for students interested in social media-related careers. Her typical day involves meeting with clients, discussing their goals, reviewing their budgets, and narrowing down their target customers. While she is part of a team of three, she expressed that everyone contributes a significant amount to the plan. Prime Time Marketing also has connections with big name brands such as Pandora and iHeart Radio, coming up with plans that fit the client’s budget and meets their goals.
Golombek also covered a few skills that recruiters may look for in candidates pursuing this career path. She explained that a few key competencies include being a great communicator, having a willingness to learn, and staying up to date on current trends and events. The ability to communicate with clients is crucial to succeeding in her industry and the willingness to learn is vital because technology is continuously changing.
Marketing is Storytelling: Spending Time with Jeff Blackman
This February, the Black School of Business welcomed Erie native Jeff Blackman, senior vice president for creative at Syfy and Chiller networks, to share his experiences at NBC Universal. His current role focuses on producing best-in-class campaigns and developing brand strategy to support high-level company initiatives. In his previous roles at Viacom brands Nickelodeon and Comedy Central he led multi-platform creative and design teams.
Marketing students were energized by the presentation and the success story he shared. His talk emphasized the importance of different viewer groups, and a tailored marketing approach to each. For example, Syfy targets hardcore fans, moderate fans, and casual fans. He explained how Syfy is releasing a new show about Superman, and how they created different trailers to meet the expectations of each specific target. Blackman also shared some interesting insights on his time at Nickelodeon, and their efforts to rebrand its image to keep up with the competition and focus on “play.” The talk helped current marketing students increase their appreciation for branding strategy and underscored the importance of getting even the little details right for effective branding.
New Marketing Courses
Social Media Marketing
Kristen McAuley, lecturer in marketing, launched a new course, MKTG 480 Social Media Marketing, in fall 2017. Students had the opportunity to learn about trending topics in digital marketing, create a social media plan, and use Adobe software to enhance online advertising. McAuley also engaged students by integrating Dramashop, a small contemporary theatre company in Erie, into the class. Students focused on developing a marketing plan to empower Dramashop’s online presence through social media marketing.
Zack Flock is Dramashop’s creative director and worked with McAuley when she worked at Gannon University. They were both excited to allow students a chance to work on a real-world social media marketing plan. The learning objectives for this course centered around familiarizing students with the online tools necessary to develop a successful social media plan and practicing the job duties that would be performed as a social media marketer.
McAuley showcased a variety of online resources and tools that students could use to enhance their social media plan. She covered Adobe software, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as blogging, SEO, and inbound marketing. This allowed students substantial creative freedom throughout the learning experience.
Adobe Skills Lab
Starting in Spring 2018, Kristen McAuley, lecturer in marketing, is offering a 1-credit Adobe Skills Lab for students. She envisions that this will help students stand out to employers by showcasing their content-creation skills. Student will be working through projects using Adobe tools from Photoshop to InDesign. Penn State Behrend has teamed up with Adobe in allowing students to have access to more than twenty Adobe programs for free, offering a great resource for current and future marketing students.
A Student’s View of Marketing Research (MKTG 342)
MKTG 342 Marketing Research is a course offered at Behrend that helps students learn the quantitative side of the marketing profession in a real-world setting. Dr. Hyunwoo Lim, assistant professor of marketing, guides students through best practices for gathering and analyzing market-relevant data. Throughout the course, Lim provides a fun and exciting learning experience that encourages all students to dive deeper into the analytics involved in successful marketing. In a semester-long research project, students learned how to create surveys, collect data, and use computer programs such as SPSS to create models and draw conclusions from the market data. Students also had the chance to present several times during the semester to explain their data-collection approaches. These activities built on the open atmosphere of the learning experience, which encouraged students to participate often.
Welcoming Tammy Philabaum to the Marketing Team
The Black School of Business welcomes Tammy Philabaum, lecturer in marketing. Philabaum currently teaches MKTG 485 Business-to-Business Marketing. She earned a B.S. from West Virginia University and an M.B.A. from Gannon University. With over twenty-five years management experience in health, legal, and entrepreneurial ventures, she now owns and operates her own management-consulting firm, T2 Management Solutions LLC. With her real-world experience and mentorship skills, Philabaum plans to provide a reality-based learning experience for students that will build skills they will use throughout their careers.
Getting Involved in Transformative Consumer Research
Dr. Richard Vann, assistant professor of marketing, co-chaired a track titled “Staying on the Virtuous Path: Helping Consumers Do What They Should” at the Transformative Consumer Research Conference hosted by Cornell University this past summer. His collaborators included faculty members from Iowa State University, Oregon State University, Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, and the University of Virginia. This research team is currently investigating the effectiveness of different interventions for encouraging consumers to keep working on important life goals (e.g. losing weight, saving money, reducing their ecological footprint) when they face challenges. The research team hopes that their efforts will identify practical insights that can be applied by organizations and policy makers.
Marketing Club Update
The Marketing Club is encountering a strong period of membership growth and organizational progress. For events, we are focusing on a mix of real-world experiences (consulting with community business and organizations) and self-marketing focused professional development activities. Our members are getting a chance to start networking, gain real-life experience, and set their career searches on the fast track. From an organizational perspective, we are beginning the process of founding an American Marketing Association (AMA) student chapter at Penn State Behrend. This transition, coming in fall 2018, will provide new opportunities to members (AMA events, competitions, conferences) and raise the profile of the Marketing program at Penn State Behrend. If you are interested in learning more about Marketing Club or opportunities for partnership with our organization, please contact Nate Steis, the club’s president, at [email protected] to learn more.
Contributors Summary
Marketing faculty and students would like to thank the following for their newsletter contributions: Nathan Steis, Marketing Club president; William Roundtree, Marketing Club vice president; Christopher Rosella, Marketing Club treasurer; Kalynne Ziacik, Marketing Club secretary; Kyle McCracken, Marketing Club AMA coordinator; Lindsey Bresee, student contributor; Trevor Dinsmore, Marketing major newsletter editor; Dr. Mary Beth Pinto, Marketing discipline lead; and Dr. Richard Vann, Marketing Club faculty adviser.