Consider it mission accomplished.
Most of the marketing concentration MBA students are part of a major transformation in UT’s College of Business Administration in which the focus of the marketing education and research is turning toward shopper marketing, a discipline nothing short of the tip of the spear in consumer goods marketing, sales, and retailing.
Shopper marketing is about influencing consumers when they are on the path to purchase. It’s a collaborative blending of retailing, branding, and sales efforts, with a heavy emphasis on analysis and shopper insights. Along with social media, shopper marketing is one of the fastest growing segments of consumer goods marketing today.
While visiting Frito-Lay, a strategic partner of the college’s, the students spent time with business leaders discussing the advanced cross-disciplinary research being conducted at the SMART facility and how those insights related to Frito-Lay strategies. They also spent time with the president of CROSSMARK and other CROSSMARK leaders discussing the critical role of agencies and brokers and the role that CROSSMARK plays in collecting Nielsen consumer purchasing data. The students also visited at least six different retailers to examine merchandising and back-room operations.
Although the long days spanned into the weekend, the students unanimously found that the experience significantly enhanced their in-class learning.
The Dallas visit occurred two weeks after the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Business Administration hosted its second annual Shopper Marketing Executive Summit. Planned by the college’s Shopper Marketing Forum, the executive summit brought in 45 senior managers nationwide from retailers, manufacturers, research companies, and marketing agencies, many of whom were C-level executives, to engage in two days of discussion with faculty, students, and each other about shopper marketing challenges.
“The Dallas visit was a first, but it will become an extended-campus annual trip in which students and faculty will reach out and connect to partner organizations nationwide,” says Dan Flint, full-time MBA marketing faculty member and director of the Shopper Marketing Forum.
Alumni of the full-time MBA program are extremely impressed with the MBA program’s new shopper marketing initiative: “What UT is doing is amazing. It’s so cool. I wish we had this when I was there!”
And current MBA students also are reacting very positively: “This is great, but I can only imagine what the shopper marketing program will look like a few years from now! It’s going to be awesome. There’s nothing else like it in the country.”
