“Marketing is the Lifeblood of Business!”

Assistant Professor Robert Watson shares his marketing expertise with students in the Marketing Communications class. Marketing is selling, the old adage goes. But this is too narrow a view. Marketing undergraduates soon learn the many ways products are sold and how goods are transferred from producer to consumer. Since marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to people, professionals in the field get the attention of target audiences by using slogans, packaging design, celebrity endorsements, and general exposure in the media. Market research, product development, and pricing are part of the process. Graduates in this multifaceted field can look forward to a wide array of interesting and rewarding careers.

“Marketing is the lifeblood of business,” declares Dwight Scherban, chair of the department. “Marketing is to business what an engine is to a car. A brand new Ferrari without good marketing is going nowhere.” A fundamental principle students grasp from the start is that organizations exist because they have customers. Regardless of their missions, commercial or non-commercial, an organization’s continued existence is contingent on its ability to attract and retain customers effectively, efficiently, and ethically. Thus, Scherban observes, “Our graduates with innovative outlooks will always be in demand because every industry and organization needs marketers.” He points out that “one-third of employees work in marketing-related fields, ranging from marketing research to customer service.”

A Tailor-Made Curriculum

A key “selling” point of the Marketing Department’s curriculum is its Custom Tailored Marketing Program. While core courses cover the principles of marketing—since marketing professionals must learn about effects on business due to changing demographics, social evolution of markets, and dramatic advances in technology (as well as the threats and opportunities presented by the globalization of the world economy)—students are offered great flexibility with CTMP.

“This program is unique. I haven’t seen one as such in area colleges,” says Scherban. “This approach allows students the opportunity to focus their education by selecting courses that best fit their interests and needs,” he explains. “CTMP, beginning in the junior year, can be tailored for such areas as advertising, tourism-hospitality, business-to-business, advanced retailing, sports marketing, health care marketing, international business, and a host of other marketing fields.” The program “goes well beyond a specialization” because it allows students to draw courses from other disciplines for a well-rounded approach.

Tom Kowalski ’02, felt CTMP permitted him to “broaden his horizons.” His career prospects also expanded when he completed an internship at the public relations firm of A. Lavin Communications in Brooklyn, NY. “I wasn’t running coffee,” he remembered. “I was writing press releases, pitching the phone to contact media, and securing story placements in top newspapers and magazines.” The experience was invaluable, and today he works at the firm as a junior account executive. “In my current job everyday I use many skills gained from my major—communication, writing, computer know-how, MIS. My education was great!”

Faculty Strive to Help Students Excel

The “pledge” of the marketing department faculty reads: “We unanimously believe that teaching and developing our students into informed, innovative, and ethical marketing professionals is our first and only priority.” All holding advanced degrees and experienced with first-hand knowledge from working in a wide range of organizations outside of academe, they ground students in both theory and practice.

One of the department’s chief strengths is the core of great professors,” exclaimed senior John Gilmore. “They are not just out of college, but are seasoned in business and can give you real-world scenarios.” Specializations and backgrounds of the full-time faculty span the broad spectrum of the discipline: Joseph Bonnici has over 45 published papers in professionals journals; Sandy Chen, formerly in marketing at Walt Disney World in Orlando, researches consumer behavior; Ray DeCormier, an entrepreneur, consultant, accountant, and professional salesperson, researches personal selling; Anita Jackson, formerly with the General Accounting Office, IRS, and the Department of Energy, researches e-commerce and is an expert in market research; Khoon Koh, is a specialist in entrepreneurship, tourism marketing, educational issues; Jean Lefebvre, who held high-level administrative posts in university business programs at home and abroad, researches new product development and action learning; Dwight Scherban, an active consultant to area businesses, researches health care and alternative medicine; and Robert Watson, serves as marketing consultant to such industry giants as Warner Lambert, Johnson and Johnson, and Bausch and Lomb.

Sven Ljungholm, a former CEO/general manager of FinAir, who joined the department two years ago, said, “Our marketing faculty hails from all corners of the world—Italy, China, Korea, France—and I was born in Sweden. We give students international insights about this increasingly shrinking global village.”

This winter senior Heather Stack will study abroad in Monte Carlo, Monaco, earning credit toward her International Marketing course. “I’m excited about looking at the cultural, historical, economic, and high finance background of Monaco and France in the context of the European Union,” she said. Preparing for her capstone class in Strategic Marketing, she said, “I’ll admit I am a bit anxious about making a 50-minute Power Point presentation. But I’m feeling more comfortable, because my classmates have given me feedback and I’m ready.” On “mini” field studies to a car dealership and a fitness gym, she observed sales practices and made marketing suggestions in preparation for a future career in sales.

Helping marketing majors to excel and to expand their experience, faculty collaborate with students through internships and independent studies. Based on his independent study, student Michael Quatro joined with Prof. DeCormier in writing a journal article on how high tech Dictaphone Corp. salespeople use computers. It was published in Industrial and Commercial Training, Nov. 2003 (Emerald Publishing, UK). Another independent study student, Michael Gill ’02, wrote a comparative analysis of sales techniques learned through training at Met-Life and the theories taught in DeCormier’s Sales Techniques course. Today Gill, an account manager at Travelers, said, “My marketing degree served as a good business foundation for my current position in finance.”

Curt Brey ’93, now vice president of marketing at Fletcher Terry Co., a Farmington cutting technologies company, where he had interned as a Central undergraduate, said, “I think this company recognized an entrepreneurial spirit in me and in Frank DeLuca (a CCSU intern also subsequently hired). And I attribute that to my marketing professors who gave me the confidence to go after the resources around me in any organization and not to be intimidated, but to be motivated to succeed. Central students who are eager and willing to grow will always find professors ready to cultivate their potential and give them opportunities to maximize that potential. That’s the magic happening at Central!”

— Geri Radacsi

Caption:
Assistant Professor Robert Watson shares his marketing expertise with students in the Marketing Communications class.

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