Marketing Connect Vol. 2

We are thrilled to share with everyone more information about the exciting program events that are almost upon us, as well as an in-depth look into the journey post-graduation of two marketing alumni, all in the second volume of Marketing Connect!  WWU Marketing Connect is a student-run newsletter dedicated to serving marketing alumni, through alumni stories, up-to-date information on events going on, and a portal to all the other awesome content being created by the department. Stay tuned for more updates! 

We would like to introduce you to the second newsletter, WWU Marketing Connect Newsletter Vol. 2! If you did not get a chance to read Vol. 1 this newsletter will display an Alumni Spotlight is a series which is conducted by the Western Marketing Newsletter creators. We will examine marketing alumni's career paths, successes and challenges, and lessons learned along the way post-graduation. We'll explore the ways in which they've leveraged their education and training to make a difference in their industries and communities. We believe that by highlighting the achievements of our alumni, we can demonstrate the value of our marketing program and the impact it has on the professional development of our students. In this newsletter, we are thrilled to share stories from two of our marketing alumni: Kent Lewis and Joel Solomon. 

Kent Lewis Graduated from Western Washington University in 1994. Kent is the Chief Marketing Officer at Deskia, a renowned marketing agency in Portland. In 2001 Kent founded PDXMindShare, an online career community focused in the Portland area. Kent is also a public speaker, author, and consultant. We are going to ask Kent about his time at Western, the impacts the Marketing program had on his career, and his journey in the marketing world.

One of my greatest marketing lessons learned during school was the power of relevance in advertising messaging. I recall one day senior year walking into Parks Hall and the sign on the sandwich board read “Free Beer!” Which immediately got my full attention. In the fine print, the rest of the message started with “Now that I have your attention…” and talked about an upcoming SMA event and clarified it was a ruse. I laughed, but it stuck with me. Free stuff is great, and free alcohol (for college students) is even better. It was just a joke, but it was effective in grabbing attention and I still remember it to this day. 

I love to educate and entertain others. Fortunately, Deksia allows me to speak and write for a living, so I’m fortunate. In fact, I’m on an SEMpdx panel tonight talking about ChatGPT and generative AI, which is my happy place. 

I’ve had some success and a good deal of struggles throughout Anvil’s 22 year history. I learned far more from my failures than my successes. I’ve written about my lessons and insights extensively, which are linked to in this Compilation.

The greatest lesson I learned hit me in 2013 when I felt like quitting my own business. I called it my Jerry Maguire moment (named after the movie) and it took me 5+ years to rebuild the business, but it was worthwhile. To read more, check out this article! 
 

As CMO, I’m responsible for setting the overall direction of marketing, including messaging, channels and measurement. For the first 6 months of my time at Deksia, I focused on integrating Anvil Media with Deksia and sunsetting my brand last December. With my team, clients and brand integrated into Deksia, I focused on building out and implementing the marketing plan I developed last Fall. Now I focus most of my time on thought leadership: securing speaking opportunities, writing articles and pitching the media as a marketing expert and entrepreneur. It is so enjoyable it does not feel like work, although it’s always nice to get a paycheck for doing what you love.

The greatest challenge of my college career was getting into the College of Business. Freshman year, I took Calculus and my C- grade, along with lackluster performance in other classes meant I had to retake Calculus, and get at least an A- to qualify for the CBE. I had to study like I’ve never studied before, because I’m not a fan of math (and dropped out of calculus in high school for that reason). I was able to earn an A grade, and the rest is history. The experience taught me that I had the potential to do just about anything, if I put in the time and made the effort, even if I didn’t think I could do it. Its as definitely my greatest academic accomplishment to this day. 

There are three stages in a professional career: learn, earn and return. I highly recommend doing all three throughout your career. Never stop learning, never stop earning and never stop giving back. Send the elevator back down to the ground floor so others can rise up behind you. 

WWU Marketing Graduate '07

Joel Solomon is a marketing alumni from WWU's Marketing Program who completed his undergrad in 2007, made his way back to campus to complete his MBA in 2011. Currently, he is a content design manager and lives with his dog in the Greater Seattle area. We asked Joel some questions about his experience in the Marketing program and learned about his professional career. We have included the full interview along with some outtakes below. 

...To share another favorite memory and it's not class related at all but Dr. Love took us out to the big field in front of the [CBE] building by the kind of by the gym area there's this big open field and Dr. Love is this boomerang aficionado. Somehow it got out that he's super into boomerangs … so he took us out there and he was showing us how these things went around. It was really cool. Growing up you would have a toy boomerang and it was made out of plastic… we got like 10 feet but he was like whipping this thing! It was just super awesome. You know it's just little things like that where you really build connections with your friends that are in the classes with you, with the professors that you have that I don't think you really get that same experience so much elsewhere.”

What was your experience like with the Marketing Program?

"I remember taking Dr Wilhelm’s class where we were developing marketing plans for some fictitious company. Our idea was [to] create a product around tailor-made women's athletic clothing for when they're expecting a baby [for] different needs and [such] it was really cool putting that product plan together. It was a lot of fun thinking about all the different needs and the different ways that we have positioned the product and advertised it. But after my undergraduate experience I had struggled getting out there in the workforce, I didn't take the time during my undergraduate program to really build connections or to do internships and projects, so a big reason why I went back for my MBA was to get those experiences and make those connections to then have a more likely chance to get out there and do what I wanted to do but it was also a really good opportunity to take classes that were more advanced and more in depth which is really great."

What impact did the Marketing Department at Western make on your career journey?

Very directly, if it wasn’t for Dan Purdy taking a chance on me by helping me get into the accelerated MBA program and lining me up with my first role after grad school, I’d have a very different career path. Also, Dr Love was a fantastic professor and mentor and invited me to take part in a research project with a friend of his at Microsoft. In that project, we poured through user anecdotes to learn more about what “delights” people who use Microsoft’s hardware products. I often think about that threshold of “delight” when thinking about the products I support today to ensure my product teams are creating experiences that drive loyalty and enthusiasm. That experience was the seed that was planted within me to think about user experience at a time when I was convinced I was going to work in advertising (which I did for a time). 

What does a day in your life look like as a Sr. Content Design Manager at Meta?

My day is typically pretty full of meetings, which is totally fine and part of the job. Much of my time is spent meeting 1:1 with the people I support directly as well as others who aren’t on my team. I often have calls to mentor new managers or others. Also, I spend a good amount of time reviewing work and providing feedback to ensure the experiences we provide meet our expectations and address user unmet needs. Lastly, I also often have meetings with other cross-functional leads, such as product management, engineering, marketing, etc. to help shape our product strategies and ensure we’re on track for our goals.

What do you enjoy most about your job, why?

As a manager, I get a great deal of happiness helping the people on my team be successful and grow.

Ultimately though, seeing how the products my teams support are used by people around the world has been amazing. For example, hearing from a small telescope shop in Paris that was able to build an international community of telescope enthusiasts with the products we provide was incredible.

Do you have networking advice for fellow marketing alumni?

I suggest always trying to be kind, helpful, and interested. I’ve tried to take that approach to help those around me, even if I don’t know them well, and be supportive. I’ve been able to see others succeed and grow, but also create deep relationships with others who have been there to pull me up when needed.

Joel would be more than happy to connect with colleagues and fellow alumni, find him on LinkedIn! Get a closer look into Joel’s experience with the WWU Marketing Program!

In a few sentences or a short paragraph, let us know how the Marketing program helped you in your career, and the journey you have had since graduation. Please include your name, current job or profession, and year of graduation in your email to kubickb@wwu.edu. If you add a photo, we can post it too! We'd love to hear from you!

On May 20th, the Marketing Program invites you to join us for our Back 2 Parks Hall marketing alumni reunion! This will be the perfect time to reconnect, reminisce and reignite our ever-evolving community! Our Back 2 Parks Hall reunion will be held during the week of Back 2 Bellingham, so there will also be many other campus activities, tours, and food trucks on campus! We can't wait to welcome our amazing alums back to campus! 

Place: Western Washington University Parks Hall 411

Time: May 20th, 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Registration Link: Back 2 Parks Hall Marketing Reunion 

If you’re interested in meeting many business professionals in the marketing field and other alumni from WWU, come join us at the “Meet the Professionals” event! It’s a great way to network and gain valuable insights from fellow alumni and professionals. Cost of admission is free for students and professionals/alums. Additionally, attending “Meet the Professionals” event will give you free admission to the Back 2 Bellingham events that same weekend! (May 19-21). Brought to you by the WWU Alumni Association!   

Place: Western Washington University Parks Hall 441

Time:  May 20th, 2:00-4:00 pm 

WWU’s 8th Annual Give Day is the biggest day of philanthropy for Western every year. Give Day is what we call “giving back to the community” that helps fund the growth and innovation of Western. By donating directly to the marketing program, you are making a huge impact on students, half of the donations raised will go towards student scholarships, which will help support student's education, and provide financial support. The remaining donations will fund networking events like the Holiday Social, where students engage and build valuable connections that will nurture their careers and beyond.

As part of our ongoing efforts to raise funding for the growth and innovation of the Marketing Program, we are excited to announce that we will be sending out a special Give Day newsletter on May, 22nd 2023. This newsletter will include:

• Interviews with scholarship recipients and the impact it had
• Details about past events that were held because of the donations
• Plans for the upcoming year
• Important information about how you can contribute

We encourage you to take part in this exciting opportunity and make a difference in our student's lives. 

#WWUGiveDay

Place: Western Washington University

Time: May 25th

We are excited to announce through this newsletter that there will be another series presented by the Integrated Marketing Communications teams in the marketing program here at Western. 6 different teams made up of marketing students are actively building amazing content across a variety of platforms for the department. Similar to the newsletter, they release weekly series across different media. Check out their newest content of the week!

"Marketing by the Minute" Podcast

"Marketing Meal" TikTok series

"Explore the Electives" Webpage

"Linked Up" LinkedIn Blog Posts

"Marketing Connect" Newsletter

These resources provide an excellent opportunity for alumni to not only hear about but also share their stories with fellow alumni in the community, as well as hear from current students. By getting involved, alumni are able to showcase their amazing career journey and receive recognition for all the work they have accomplished, and help out current marketing students.

Recently, the Integrated Marketing Communication teams have been working with Calypso Kitchen to create a Spotify advertising project. Calypso Kitchen is a female owned Caribbean restaurant that cater events such as weddings, corporate events, production crews, etc. This project focuses on promoting Caribbean food through a series of audio ads and playlists. The ads may feature local chefs and food bloggers sharing their favorite Caribbean recipes and cooking tips. The playlists will be curated to showcase authentic Caribbean music, creating a fun and immersive experience for listeners. The goal of the project is to increase awareness and interest in Calypso Kitchen, and to encourage more people to try cooking and eating Caribbean food. Check out Calypso Kitchen to see what they are all about!

Matt Edwards, a marketing student here at Western Washington University, just recently received an internship from Furhaven, a pet product company in Bellingham. Matt Edwards is a close to graduating marketing student who has been actively looking for internship opportunities. He received this opportunity to do an internship for Furhaven after working with them in the courses of Marketing Research and Consumer Behavior, another couple of courses taught by Dan Purdy that are incredibly applicable towards future jobs in marketing. We are excited to congratulate Matt Edwards on this incredible opportunity!

The Student Marketing Association Club makes a huge difference for marketing students here at Western. They give students the ability to listen to guest speakers, be involved in networking events, community events, fundraising events, and educational experiences. SMA loves interacting with alumni, and students always appreciate the opportunity to speak with marketers out in the world! SMA is always looking for guest speakers and graduate involvement, so if you are interested, please reach out. 

• SMA meets Wednesdays @ 6:30 follow them on Instagram
• Alumni that want to get involved feel free to reach out to SMA and send them an email at sma.wwu@gmail.com