Fuqua Interview Update 2 – The Marketing Club event

This is a follow-up to my earlier post about my Fuqua interview experience. Since I had scheduled my interview on a Saturday, a class visit was not possible. I was hoping that there would be other activities that will help me connect with Fuquans, but other than a campus tour nothing else was on the calendar.

Two days before my interview, the Marketing Club came to my rescue and I was so glad when I saw that email from the co-chair (of the club) talking about the event that they had organized for prospective students. This was a wonderful opportunity for me.

After my interview, I had a good lunch and headed for the event. There were about 20 prospective students, we were divided into five groups and were assigned a task – come up with a marketing plan for a distinct case that was assigned to each team. A couple of second year students were to judge our presentation. We picked our case – “Trident has come up with a new non-stick chewing gum targeting senior citizens. You have to come up with a marketing campaign for this product”. We got our quota of stationary and browsed through a few copes of New Yorker to pick up some images to go with our plan.

Our group comprised of two consultants, one analyst and one person with non-profit background. We worked as a group, came up with a punch line and a theme, and one of us was innovative to come up with a background theme too. Here is what we finally came up with.

Each group presented their campaign and I was really amazed by what two teams had done. They were way ahead of the game - they had come up with a punch line, identified market area, identified potential sponsors and a lot more - all within 30 minutes. Deservedly, both of them shared the honors and won the prizes that were up for grabs. We were not disappointed, and were content with the complimentary duffel bags that we got and more importantly glad that we got an opportunity to be a part of this event!