Marketing makes the world go round—well, at least the business world. And marketing just so happened to be the focus for December’s Young Executives of Color program. As one of my focuses at the Foster School, I was especially excited to lead this month’s session. Marketing is an incredibly dynamic subject, encompassing nearly all of a company’s strategic decisions making it incredibly difficult to decide what to include in an hour long introduction to the topic. The final product touched upon the basics—4P’s, target markets, mission statements—then moved on to the more specific areas of brand management and advertising. Students were also able to take a peek into the research of Brian Wansink and Robert Cialdini, prominent academics in the marketing world.

Peter Doubleday, a partner at Ernst & Young, as well as his colleague Bob Hilton, graciously made a visit to the YEOC group again leading an analysis on the visual identity of their company. With them were fellow Ernst & Young’ers Debbie Shih, Valerie Burris, and Kiyosha Baird who spoke about the importance of personal branding and networking. Although students should always be true to their personalities, they learned that certain elements could be emphasized depending on the situation—professional, social, academic. You wouldn’t joke around the same way with your boss as you do with your friends, would you?

Building on the earlier marketing lecture, students were able to employ what they learned about advertising in order to construct a commercial for future YEOC recruiting efforts. In true competitive spirit, teams had only 20 minutes to design a one minute video that would be used to attract new YEOC applicants. Musical numbers, classroom reproductions, and program value-adds all made appearances.

The college admission process again took the lead as our college prep topic. Seniors completed a workshop on writing personal statements with Jennifer Shoen. While Pamela Lacson and Jessica Rush led sophomores and juniors on the elements of analyzing and admitting college applicants – the roles were reversed and students decided who got admitted or denied into a mock university through an admissions case study.

Until January, wishing everyone a wonderful and restful holiday from the YEOC group!
-Elizabeth Comley, YEOC December Session Leader (Senior, Marketing & International Business)