August 2011: Vol. 6, Issue 7
Marketing Monthly JAMS Best Paper Award at AMS Conference
Photo credit: Theresa Flaherty, AMSQ
Each year, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science presents its annual best paper award, sponsored by the Sheth Foundation, at the AMS Conference. The winning paper is selected out of all papers published in the previous year’s volume by votes from the journal’s Editorial Review Board. This year’s winner, for volume 38, is TAMU Marketing Department Head Rajan Varadarajan’s paper “Strategic marketing and marketing strategy: Domain, definition, fundamental issues and foundational premises.” A conceptual/theoretical piece, the article defines “strategic marketing” as a field and discusses issues fundamental to it. Rajan describes strategic marketing’s domain as the study of phenomena regarding how organizations behave and interact with groups like Rajan Varadarajan receives the JAMS Best Paper Award from Editor, customers and competitors, as well as Tomas Hult the management responsibilities of the marketing function in terms of its boundarymarkets, marketing activities and marketing spanning role in organizations. resources in the creation, communication and/or In the paper he also suggests a definition for delivery of products that offer value to customers “marketing strategy,” described in the abstract as in exchanges with the organization and thereby “an organization’s integrated pattern of decisions enables the organization to achieve specific that specify its crucial choices concerning products, objectives.” --AMS Quarterly
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More from the AMS Conference (cont.)
“Marketing Gurus” panel included Rajan Varadarajan, Jagdish Sheth, Parsu Parasuraman, V. Kumar and Rohit Deshpande
Julie Guidry chats with Manjit Yadav during a break at AMS.
Panelists in a special session on Learning from JAMS Editors: Robert Peterson (1991-1994), A.“Parsu” Parasuraman (1997-2000), Rajan Varadarajan (1993-1996), and Tomas Hult (2009-2015).
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Aggie Bags Debut at H-E-B Stores By Kelli Levey Mays Business Online August 2011 The first student-designed collegiate bag is debuting at H-E-B stores around the state. The reusable shopping bags reflects the themes and values of Aggies, as well as H-E-B’s sponsorship of Texas A&M University’s athletic program. The design was created by a group of Mays Business School students as part of a competition. The Century Oak and a big “gig ‘em” sign are centerpieces of the white design on maroon bags. Designed by Mays students, H-E-B’s new reusable shopping bags reflect the themes and values of Texas A&M, as well as the company’s sponsorship of the university’s athletic program. Lisa C. Troy, a clinical associate professor at Mays Business School, says the advertising classes in the Department of Marketing provide students with first-hand experience working on real-world projects. Past partner organizations have included Loupot’s bookstores, the City of College Station, Texas A&M’s Drug and Alcohol Education Programs and Wired Ranch Advertising. “Working with a client forges relationships between the students and future employers, allows students to glimpse the decision making processes that occur in the firms, and motivates the students to do their best,” she says. “Plus, it is exciting for the students to see the results of their work actually implemented by the client firm.” About 80,000 of the bags were printed, and they are being sold in more than half the stores, concentrated mostly around Central Texas in stores where Texas A&M items have been big sellers in the past. H-E-B began more than 100 years ago and currently has more than 329 stores and 76,000 employees in Texas and Mexico. Julie Lenox, an advertising account manager for H-E-B, says the design was a clear winner to represent the Texasbased company. “We thought it had all the key elements we were looking for – it was identifiable with the university, it used the colors and it talked
up the athletic sponsorship,” she says. “I think the bags are a great way for customers to show what they believe in and support, while helping out the Earth at the same time.” A team of five surpassed nine other teams in the competition. The project helped one student parlay his passion into a career. The main designer of the bag, Clay Coleman ‘09, went on to an advertising design school – Chicago Portfolio School – and is now an art director at a Dallas-based ad agency called Slingshot, where he works on concepting and designing everything from print ads to billboards, web sites and Facebook pages to TV spots and movie trailers, and product packaging. The team of five beat nine other teams with their design, which Coleman describes as simple, with a solid message. “That’s the secret formula in advertising and design,” he says. “From what I recall, our team was actually meeting to work on a different project when we had this idea. The idea just came and it was so clear that this was the right direction. With eight words and an image we made an instant connection between the Aggie Spirit and caring for the environment. Boom – mission accomplished.” Now Coleman says it is an honor to see the student project produced and in stores. “The most exciting thing about being a designer is to be able to point at something and say, ‘I did that,’” he explains. “The H-E-B bag was my first opportunity to feel that way, and I was hooked.” Now he gets to work on projects like the H-E-B bag every day, and adds. “It’s a blast.”
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Marketing Study Abroad ~ Summer 2011 This summer 80 students experienced new cultures—both business and social--in the month-long Marketing Study Abroad Program led by Steve McDaniel and Chuck Tomkovick (former PhD graduate and now Professor at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire). Steve and Chuck led the students through eight Western European countries, with 17 professional visits along the way. This is the 31st consecutive year our department has sponsored this program, making it the longest, as well as the largest, continuously running study abroad program at Texas A&M. To get an idea of the work the students put into the program, stop by Steve’s office sometime and look at the final reports and photo books required of all the students. Their work is impressive.
Eager to start their three-hour visit to Bloomberg in London are: (Back row) Rafik Massoud, Rocky LaRoche, Victoria Acuff (Front row) Laura Kiker, Kathleen Wilson, Morgan McCormack, Elizabeth Sekaly.
Students at the Bloomberg orientation session.
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Marketing Study Abroad ~ Summer 2011
Aggies at the Serego Alighieri Winery in Verona, Italy. This historic vineyard/winery was founded in 1350 by the son of the writer Dante (Durante degli Alighieri (c.1265 –1321))– and has been in the family ever since.
Students received gift bags at Harrod’s in London which included Harrod’s signature teddy bears!
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Marketing Study Abroad ~ Summer 2011
Olivia Wethington, Amanda Luke, Morgan Silva, Laura Kiker, Courtney Chang, and Kristen Chamberlain at the headquarters of L’Occitane en Provence, a beauty products company located in southern France.
Lucerne, Switzerland: Kirsten Wulf, Copy Clearance Manager for LifeScan (a Johnson & Johnson company with offices around the world) talked to the students about her job. Kirsten is a 2004 graduate of our MSMarketing program and is now in charge of approving all LifeScan advertising/promotion copy for all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Courtney Chang, MS-MKTG alum Kirsten Wulf, Laura Kiker, Ashley Aaronson
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New Faculty Member ~ Suresh Ramanathan
Dr. Suresh Ramanathan
Dr. Suresh Ramanathan joined our faculty effective July 1, 2011. Suresh grew up in the big cities of India. His father’s job kept the family moving every few years. Each city had a new language—language learning became a way of life which has served him well. Suresh graduated from a top engineering college, but somewhere along the way discovered he was more interested in the management side of business. So he enrolled in
an MBA program at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. There, he met Venky Shankar who lived in the same dorm and was in the same MBA cohort. Following graduation he worked for Lipton Tea as a sales manager. In this role, he was introduced to rural India, where it was necessary to learn a new language in order to sell his products! For a city boy, this rural experience was a real eye-opener and an experience he cherishes to this day. He married during the latter part of his tenure with Lipton, but after a few months, his constant on the road travel precipitated his career change to advertising. He worked for about seven years in some of the top global advertising firms, as well as a stint marketing MTV during its introduction to India. His final advertising job was as a Research Director. Here he was bitten by the research bug while reading research journals for his work. Thus inspired, he quickly found himself at NYU, commuting to the city from New Jersey, where he and his wife and their two children resided. From New York, the new Dr. Ramanathan took a position with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He stayed there for nine years, until he got a call from Rajan and Venky suggesting he might be happier in Texas… His wife works as a medical researcher and they wanted their son to attend school in Houston, so that’s where he’s living at the moment. Suresh is a Consumer Behaviorist and his areas of research are self-control and impulsive behavior and the effect of the social influence of other people on the enjoyment of an experience.
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Congratulations! Our distinguished colleague Alina Sorescu has been selected for the honor of Journal of Marketing Outstanding Reviewer award for 20102011. Each year, the Journal of Marketing selects five individuals from its editorial review board of over 100 scholars from universities worldwide for the honor of Outstanding Reviewer. Congratulations to Alina for being selected for this important honor and recognition. Congratulations to Lisa Troy, Allan Chen, Janet Parish, and Ying Zhu for receiving Student Recognition Awards for Teaching Excellence (SRATE) awards for the spring 2011semester. The Texas A&M University System's voluntary, student-selected Teaching Excellence Award Program was created to recognize excellence in classroom teaching. Individuals of all teaching levels are eligible for awards based on students' responses from the uniform faculty evaluation form in eligible courses. The form consists of a total of sixteen questions with input from the
Congratulations to Venky Shankar on the recent publication of his new book Shopper Marketing, by the Marketing Science Institute (MSI). This is the first book by an academic on this hot emerging topic. The tenth book in MSI’s Relevant Knowledge Series, Shopper Marketing, by Venkatesh Shankar, will help managers think systematically about shopper marketing challenges and opportunities. By defining shopper marketing to encompass all marketing activities that influence a shopper along, and beyond, the path-topurchase, Shankar provides a unified framework for manufacturer and retailer collaboration. He encourages a “win-win” perspective in which manufacturers and retailers align their
Presidents and Provosts of system institutions, faculty senates of system institutions, the Chancellor's Student Advisory Board, and the Chancellor's office. Award amounts based on courses range from $5,000-$10,000 for the top 5% of faculty and $2,500-$5,000 for the next 15% of faculty. The program was piloted at Texas A&M University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University-Kingsville campuses in Fall 2008. The program has expanded to include all 11 campuses within the A&M System. Venky Shankar has been appointed to the Business to Business (B2B) Advisory Board of the Institute of Study of Business Markets (ISBM). The ISBM is a center of excellence in the Smeal College of Business Administration at Penn State that connects researchers, educators and practitioners in business-to-business marketing from companies and universities throughout the world.
marketing activities to meet shopper needs and build better relationships with customers. Contents 1. What Is Shopper Marketing? 2. Research Insights about Shopper Behavior 3. Industry Practices 4. Implications of Shopper Marketing Insights for Manufacturers and Retailers 5. Emerging Trends and Underexplored Issues and Questions For more info on Shopper Marketing go to: http://www.msi.org/publications/publication.cf m?pub=1854
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Welcome New MKTG Ph.D. Students Joon Ho Lim has a BA in Business Administration from University of Seoul and an MS in Statistics from Ohio State. Joon Ho has already had many interesting experiences, from volunteering in an orphanage, to being a Sergeant in the Korean Army, to being a research assistant at OSU. He grew up in Seoul and his parents, grandparents, and sister (a doctor who attended med school in the U.S.) still live there. Joon Ho is currently looking for an affordable car to buy. If anyone knows of a good one, please let him know.
Joon Ho Lim
Nooshin Lotfi has a BS in Industrial Engineering and an MBA from Sharif University of Technology, one of the most prestigious universities in the country (considered Iran's MIT). In addition to excelling in academic studies, Nooshin also played basketball (for her university and professionally) and placed 3rd in Women’s Basketball Competition in the Tehran province. This is Nooshin’s first time in the United States and she is favorably impressed by the friendliness and helpfulness of the people living here. Nooshin Lotfi
Many of you have already had a chance to meet Krista Li, who has been around and participating in departmental seminars for about a year. Krista was lucky to be one of the first students from Mainland China to be able to study at Lingnan University in Hong Kong when it became part of The People’s Republic of China. She earned a full scholarship from the Hong Kong Jockey Club to attend Lingnan and holds a BBA in MKTG from there. She also holds a Master in International Relations from Yale University. Krista worked as a manager of analytics for Symphony Marketing Solutions for three years prior to starting her doctoral studies. Krista and her husband Keli (who also loves to play basketball) have a young daughter. Krista Li
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Center for Retailing Studies Welcome Regina Gomez
New CRS Program Coordinator The CRS welcomes Regina Gomez as the new CRS Program Coordinator. Born in Colombia, the bilingual Ms. Gomez immigrated to the United States in 2000. She earned a bachelor’s degree in General Management from Western Kentucky University, and began her career with the Human Resources Office for the City of Bowling Green, KY. Regina joined Texas A&M University’s Office of International Outreach in 2009. As administrative assistant, she managed all budget preparation and bill reconciliation. She was responsible for program logistics, and successfully planned many seminars and conferences. Regina has a passion for cultural awareness. She is a regular volunteer with the Brazos Valley Worldfest and she also has worked with the Texas A&M’s European Union Center organizing events, such as the Energy Symposium. At the Center for Retailing Studies, Regina will coordinate the Retailing Career Fairs, Executive Professor teaching program, student travel, and Retailing Summit event logistics. She also will serve as the CRS office manager and advisor to the 100-member Student Retailing Association.
News & Updates The Center for Retailing Studies requests that all Marketing Faculty list the Retailing Career Fair, September 14, on their syllabi.
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Dream Machine at Mays
Texas A&M University just announced the placement of a PepsiCo Dream Machine recycling kiosk at Mays Business School, providing students and faculty with a convenient and rewarding way to recycle their bottles and cans while on-the-go. The unveiling coincided with Mays’annual Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) program, August 6 – 13, 2011. The Dream Machine recycling initiative, created by PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) in partnership with Waste Management (NYSE: WM), is introducing thousands of recycling bins and kiosks at popular public locations across North America. The kiosk is a computerized receptacle that includes a personal reward system, powered by Greenopolis, which allows users to earn points for every bottle or can they recycle in the kiosk and redeem those points for local discounts on entertainment, dining and travel at www.greenopolis.com. Additionally, the more bottles and cans people
recycle in Dream Machine bins and kiosks across the nation, the more support PepsiCo will provide to the EBV, a national program offering free experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 U.S. veterans with disabilities. “We are so pleased that the Mays Business School is expanding the Dream Machine program at Texas A&M University,” said Jeremy Cage, Senior Vice President of Innovation and Insights at PepsiCo and head of the Dream Machine recycling initiative. “By recycling in a Dream Machine, students and faculty can earn rewards and help make a real difference for our planet and in the lives of disabled U.S. veterans.” At Texas A&M University sustainability is more than a buzz word –campus recycling, and waste management are just the beginning. For example, University Dining is using an award-winning process developed by Texas A&M’s Department of Chemical Engineering and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station for turning food scraps into biofuel. With nearly 2,600 Dream Machines located in 30 states to-date, the program aims to create strategic partnerships to help increase the U.S. beverage container recycling rate to 50 percent by 2018. “Experience tells us that people are much more likely to recycle if it’s convenient, and they are rewarded for doing so,” said Paul Ligon, managing director for Greenopolis, a Waste Management subsidiary. “We look forward to working with Texas A&M to enable a recycling experience that is fun and rewarding on many levels.” To learn more about the Dream Machine, please visit www.facebook.com/DreamMachine.
Advisors’ Corner Leslie cleared the graduating MKTG students for the August ceremony and saw them become Former Students at the ceremony on August 12th.
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On a Personal Note… Once again, it’s time to… Stuff the Bus! Crayons -- 4 for $1.00 Glue -- 4 for $1.00 Glue Sticks (double pack) -- 4 for $1.00 Notebooks -- 4 for $1.00 Pencils -- $.50 Markers -- $1.00 Color Pencils -- $1.00 Tissues & Hand Sanitizers Starting School Prepared — Priceless Please help local school children by donating school supplies by Friday, August 26. Contact Spring Robinson at 845.7305 with any questions. Monetary donations are accepted.
Laurie Marshall had an excellent Chinese adventure this summer. She spent three and a half weeks at Tsinghua University in Beijing, teaching at their Summer English Immersion Camp for ingoing sophomores. Following her teaching experience, Laurie took off for a week in the Yunnan Province in the south of China where she hiked, pony trekked, and biked on an eco-tour to see the native Naxi villages, meet the Naxi people, and eat the Naxi food—delicious! Like any trip to a faraway land and culture, it was a mind-bending experience. Laurie is sorting through the approximately 1000 photos she took in China to create a PowerPoint presentation about her trip in an attempt to share and make sense of it.
We want to include your news items in the next issue. Please submit them to Laurie Marshall at lmarshall@mays.tamu.edu,
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