University of Chicago Booth School of Business students who attended Kilts Marketing Week absorbed eight days of presentations by industry leaders and faculty members, including Brian Niccol ’03, president of Taco Bell, and Mark Hoplamazian ’89, president and CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corp. These industry bigwigs commented on how marketing is more than a path to the top marketing position at a company; increasingly, it’s a path to becoming a CEO.
Marketing Week aimed to tackle these kind of misconceptions. Kilts hopes the event influences incoming students “before they lock in on a career,” according to Art Middlebrooks, executive director of the Kilts Center for Marketing.
“A lot of students don’t realize that if you want to run a company or start a company, marketing is crucial because you need customers,” Middlebrooks said.
Niccol and Hoplamazian’s presentations started and ended the week’s festivities respectively. Both speakers emphasized the importance of focusing not on the company and its capabilities, but on the customer.
According to Niccol, the key to Taco bell’s growth has been developing genuine and mutual affinity between the brand and its customers.
“The reason that people champion brands and care about brands is that they believe the brand loves them back,” Niccol said.
Authenticity is the secret– when a promotion doesn’t ring true with a customer, it undermines the brand, even if it drives short-term sales.
Similarly, Hoplamazian explained how Hyatt has shifted its marketing focus from broadcasting to listening and from the product to the customer.
“Lack of resonance and alignment and authenticity is basically a death knell. It’s like sticking your finger into an outlet if you’re a brand manager. The key ingredient for marketers going forward isn’t domain expertise in a certain area,” Hoplamazian said. “The key ingredient is being a great designer, which means being able to understand what’s going on with the people for whom you’re designing, and being flexible and agile to respond to those needs. That puts the person running the marketing function at the center of everything we do.”