Chicago Booth is an institution that encourages its students to empirically explore hypotheses by taking a data-driven and multidisciplinary approach to marketing. As a career switcher and a Kilts Marketing Fellow, I was able to apply this culture to my first experiential learning opportunity as part of the 2019 Kilts Center for Marketing Case Competition.
The competition was sponsored by Pernod Ricard andeight teams were tasked with proposing a current marketing solution for one of its major whiskey brands—The Glenlivet. With my team of five other smart and talented Boothies, we were instructed to find the best way to launch a product innovation to a new target segment of consumers, as well as evaluate the data to develop a long term strategy for keeping relevant with the new base. We only had a week to perform analysis and prepare a presentation for the Pernod Ricard team, so we immediately got to work after the kickoff event.
Throughout the week, I learned a ton about myself, teamwork, and marketing. We used marketing frameworks such as the 3Cs and 4Ps to unpack the case and develop recommendations, but we also used idea marketing such as figuring out the most effective way to present our information to the panel to get our points across.
Rather than answering the case prompt in isolation, we focused our efforts on emphasizing the beauty of the entire product line, going above and beyond to think about how we could come up with something outside the standard recommendation; understanding the context of a project like this was key in convincing the Pernod Ricard team our proposal was well thought out and encompassing. Creativity was just as essential as our data approach as we developed our campaign strategy for The Glenlivet.
The case competition provided an incredible opportunity to learn hands-on about how real brands face real marketing dilemmas. As someone looking to enter the marketing space from a transferrable, but certainly different professional background, the topics I had been learning about in classes and reading about in behavioral economics books suddenly came to life. Working in a team of individuals stemming from all different career paths allowed for constructive collaboration that led our group, ‘Not Your Grandfather’s Scotch’, to take home the first place award.
The resources and feedback provided by the Kilts Center and Pernod Ricard were indispensable in instilling us with the knowledge and practice to use both immediately in our course work, as well as long-term when we take on our first internship and career opportunity post-graduation.
To learn more about the Kilts Center for Marketing and to join the thriving marketing community at Chicago Booth, connect with the Kilts Center on LinkedIn.
