Brand, New Trophy

July 1, 2015

Members of DePauw’s Management Fellows Program left Procter & Gamble’s headquarters with invaluable experience.

And a big shiny trophy.

Kevin Coquillette ‘15, Jack Forde ‘16, Brooke Hasler ’16 and Hope Jordan ’15 were one of six student teams invited to Cincinnati in early May to share marketing insights with some of P&G’s top brand managers. Their presentation on digital strategies for the Pampers brand earned top honors from P&G for containing the best market-ready recommendations – and influenced a new Pampers campaign, #BetterForBaby, launched the following month.

“P&G has a business need, a challenge: our brands aren't connecting with Millennials,” Vice President of Global eBusiness F.D. Wilder says. “So, this competition has a return for P&G and for the students. It's a win for both groups.”

The P&G-DePauw partnership began in 2013 as the core of the Management Fellows’ senior seminar. Facilitated by Wilder, a member of the Class of 1982, the seminar connects small groups of Management Fellows with DePauw alumni at P&G to develop brand recommendations. Throughout spring semester 2015, Ryan Dullea ’99, Elizabeth Kinney ’11, Dave Warner ’00 and Sara Weis ‘06 mentored teams assessing the Gillette, Olay, Pepto Bismol and Pampers brands.

“This day and the work and collaboration leading up to it represented fantastic learning opportunities for our students and superb alumni-student interaction,” says Michele T. Villinski, professor of economics and management and director of the Management Fellows program.

Management Fellows together with P&G executives

This year, two teams from Indiana University also participated in the program, expanding it into a full-fledged interscholastic competition. Of the three prizes P&G awarded for innovation, DePauw teams walked away with two.

For Morgan Shaner ’16, a member of the Pepto Bismol team that received P&G’s award for “Best Insights,” the most memorable part of the experience was what followed each presentation.

“The P&G executives asked us tough questions about our thought process and really pushed us to dig deeper,” Shaner says. “We had to consider factors such as reach, costs and turnaround time. I thought this was great because we had to think on our feet.”

“Presenting at P&G's global headquarters taught me a lot about the value of a liberal arts education,” Shaner adds.“We needed to have knowledge of the subject, as well as the skills necessary to communicate it.”

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