2002 Mizzou Marketing Newsletter

Greetings From the Chair . . .

Lisa Scheer, Department Chair

Mizzou Marketing on the Move

Hello! Many exciting things have been happening for the MU Marketing Department. We’re very pleased with our progress and anticipate that our upward trajectory in national reputation will continue. In this newsletter, we discuss some of the changes, activities, and accomplishments that have occurred within the past couple years. A number of significant changes have occurred in the marketing department faculty, so we want to bring you up to date about that situation. We have been making progress on a number of fronts and will share with you news about these initiatives. This newsletter cannot recount all activities and accomplishments of our students and faculty, but we want you to learn about some of what’s been going on at Mizzou Marketing.

Bye-bye, Middlebush! Hello, Cornell!

Undoubtedly the most exciting news is our recent relocation to the wonderful new home of the College of Business, stately and soaring Cornell Hall! The new building, which is next to the Reynolds Alumni Center on the South Quadrangle of the MU campus, is named for Harry Cornell, a College of Business graduate, and his wife Ann. Mr. Cornell is chairman of the board of Leggett and Platt, Inc., a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Carthage, MO. The Cornells in conjunction with Leggett & Platt donated $3.5 million for the new building and an endowed professorship in information systems. This state-of-the-art facility offers tremendous advantages over dear old Middlebush, which served us well (and sometimes not so well) for many years.

Harry and Ann Cornell Hall, new home of the MU College of Business

Witnessing the development of Cornell Hall and many of our other recent accomplishments makes me particularly proud, given my personal multi-faceted relationship with this college and department. I am a faculty member, having joined the Marketing Department in 1989 after earning my doctorate at Northwestern University. I am an MU alum (BSBA ’81 logistics & marketing; MBA ’82 marketing) and lifetime Alumni Association member. I am also a member of the Jefferson Club and the Herbert J. Davenport Society, an organization founded in 1989 to encourage private participation in the development of the college. The Davenport Society is named for the first dean of the College of Business and strives to continue the tradition of academic excellence that he created.

I was honored to represent the faculty at the ceremonial groundbreaking for Cornell Hall on September 18, 1999, where a standing-room-only crowd of over 600 people helped mark this milestone in the history of our college. The dedication of Cornell Hall will be held on September 7, 2002. We are trying to locate marketing and business logistics graduates to share the good news! Will you help us achieve that goal?

We Need Your Help!

This newsletter is being sent to every marketing department alum for whom we have contact information, but we know that there are many (many!) additional alumni that we have not been able to reach. Not only do we not have current addresses for many of our graduates, we do not have a complete list of the names of all marketing and business logistics majors

Also, please help us compile a full list of department alumni by sending us the names of other marketing and logistics graduates you know or knew when you were on campus. It appears that we are missing many of our older alumni and those who double-majored in marketing and another area. By sending us the names of people you believe majored in marketing or logistics, you make it possible for us to try to locate these alums. Of course, if you have current address information on your fellow alums, we’d appreciate that as well!

Please Get In Touch and Stay Connected

We hope you enjoy reading about some of what’s been happening at the College of Business and Mizzou Marketing. We intend to include expanded news about our alumni in our next newsletter, so please let us hear from you!

On a personal note, as an MU Alumni Association member, I urge you to consider joining the MU Alumni Association if you have not already done so. I particularly want to encourage you to get involved with the Department of Marketing and the College of Business. Collaboration is one of the hallmarks of our college. There are many ways you can get involved—sharing your experiences as a guest speaker for a class or student group, providing a venue for a class project, permitting data collection within your firm or encouraging your customers or business partners to permit data collection, offering a summer internship for a marketing student, or participating in our career counseling event “Making Me Marketable” on September 27, 2002. If you’re willing to explore the possibilities, please don’t hesitate to raise your hand and volunteer by contacting me via phone, fax, mail, or e-mail.

Of course, financial support is always welcome and is becoming ever more critical for our continued success. Contributions from alumni, businesses, and friends of the department enable us to offer special, enriched classes for our marketing majors that otherwise would not be offered, help fund student and faculty participation in national conferences, allow us to host special career counseling workshops for our students, upgrade department equipment, partially defray data collection and research expenses for faculty and Ph.D. student research projects, and help fund many other essential activities. Financial support is absolutely critical to our ability to provide quality instruction to our students and to allow us to retain and recruit nationally renowned faculty members. If you are contemplating or planning a monetary gift, please consider designating it for the Department of Marketing. No gift is too small and every gift is greatly appreciated.

As an alumna and Davenport Society member, I can attest that getting involved more deeply with your alma mater can be rewarding on many levels. It’s a true win-win situation; the college, department, and students benefit directly from your involvement and you will experience the satisfaction that comes from “giving back” and making a difference. If you’d like to discuss potential avenues for involvement, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Enjoying my new office (and view!) in Cornell Hall,

Lisa Scheer
Marketing Department Chairperson & Associate Professor of Marketing

Focus on Alumni

This edition of Mizzou Marketing profiles two very different alumni of our department. Jack Bush, a Missouri native, graduated in 1958 and proceeded to establish an impressive career in retailing. Ralf Humbert, a native of Saarbruecken, Germany, graduated in 1991 and is in a much earlier stage of his career.

Jack Bush – Marketing 1958
Jack Bush is definitely a man you should meet. Jack and his wife Mary both graduated from MU, a significant accomplishment for a young married couple from King City, MO. Powered only by their dreams, Jack and Mary loaded all of their possessions in a livestock truck and headed for Mizzou with a new baby, little money, no place to stay, and no job in sight. It was unusual for young parents to attend college at that time, but Jack and Mary managed by trading baby sitting duties with another couple attempting the same feat. They somehow worked their way through school, funding 100% of their education while also participating in campus activities. Jack was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, treasurer of Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity, and president of the College’s Student Council. When Jack and Mary left Columbia, they had two children, two degrees, and the drive to take on the world and make their dreams come true.

Mary & Jack in Cornell Hall’s Jack and Mary Bush Auditorium.
Mr. Bush began his career with J.C. Penney Company, where he served in various management and executive positions for 22 years. He subsequently was president and director of Roses Stores, a discount chain, and executive vice-president and director of operations and stores for Ames Department Stores.

From 1991 to August 1995, Jack Bush was president and director of Michaels Stores, Inc. Under his leadership, Michaels grew from 136 to 530 stores and became the largest arts and crafts retailer in the world with revenues of over $1.4 billion. Discount Store News named Mr. Bush Specialty Retailer of the Year in 1995.

Since retiring from Michaels, Mr. Bush has served as the president of Raintree Partners, Inc., a management consulting firm. He has been involved both in launching successful start-up companies as well as reorganizing troubled companies such as Bradlees, Jumbo Sports, and Stage Stores. He is currently director of Joann.com (IdeaForest.com), Corners Framing Co. and Granite National Bank.

Mr. Bush returned to the College of Business in 1993, serving as an executive-in-residence. He is a member of the Herbert J. Davenport Society and Jefferson Club since 1993 and received a University of Missouri Citation of Merit in 1995 and a Faculty-Alumni Award in 1996. Mr. Bush was honored by the College of Business Student Council as Alumnus of the Year in 1997.

Mr. Bush serves on the College’s Strategic Development Board and is a past president of that board. Jack has been instrumental in bringing Cornell Hall from an idea to a reality, both through his tireless efforts and through the monetary leadership gifts he and Mary have made. When you get a chance to visit Cornell Hall, be sure to check out the Jack and Mary Bush Auditorium.

Ralf Humbert – Marketing 1991
When Ralf Humbert graduated from MU in 1991, he didn’t think his path would lead him so quickly back to the Midwest. A native of Saarbruecken, Germany, Ralf studied as an International Exchange student at the University of Missouri in 1990 and 1991. After earning his B.S.B.A. from Mizzou, he completed his MBA from the University of Saarland in Germany.

After working three years in Germany, Ralf married Missouri native and fellow Mizzou College of Business graduate Tiffiny Trump in 1994. They lived and worked in Germany for several years, where Tiffiny worked for Merrill Lynch on the conversion to the euro. Ralf enjoyed his position as Sales Promotion Manager for the French liquor company, Remy Cointreau, where he learned a lot about the international trade markets.

Ralf and Tiffiny moved to the United States in 1999 and Ralf accepted a sales position in Oklahoma with E & J Gallo wineries. After one year in sales, Gallo transferred Ralf to the headquarters in Modesto, California, where he was a sales and marketing analyst. Still employed with Gallo, Ralf is now working in trade development as an international project analyst on the Wal-Mart account and is based in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Ralf enjoys tennis and downhill skiing. Tiffiny owns a tour company specializing in group travel to Europe. Ralf and Tiffiny share a passion for travel and have visited 37 countries.

Ralf Humbert and Tiffiny Trump Humbert, MU College of Business alumni.

Marketing Faculty’s Impact

At a university like MU, faculty members are expected not only to teach undergrads and MBAs, but also to teach and mentor doctoral students, to conduct original research, and to engage in service that contributes to the university and to the academic profession in general. Despite having a small faculty, MU’s Marketing Department and its professors have been making an impact in a number of ways. Examples include:

• Our most recent doctoral program graduates accepted assistant professor positions at Florida State University, University of New Mexico, University of Oregon, and Washington State University.
• Marsha Richins served as president of the Association for Consumer Research, the premier international association for academic consumer researchers.
• Joel Poor was recognized as a Faculty Superior in the Savitar yearbook.
• Ken Evans received an MU Golden Chalk Award for excellence in graduate education and the College of Business O’Brien Excellence in Teaching Award.
• Evans and Lisa Scheer chaired the most recent Marketing Educators’ Conference of the American Marketing Association.
• Six faculty members (Evans, Srinath Gopalakrishna, Mark Houston, Richins, Scheer, and Shaoming Zou) serve on the editorial boards of academic journals, including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and Journal of Retailing, among others.
• A recent analysis of academic research ranked our faculty as one of the Top 20 most productive small marketing departments in the nation.
• A recent study of articles published from 1991-1995 in the top three academic marketing journals also indicates our faculty’s impact. Of the 750 individuals who authored or co-authored those articles, our faculty members Richins & Scheer rank among the Top 40 in terms of the frequency that their articles have been cited by others. Even more impressive, of the 201 universities represented in that set of articles, the Mizzou Marketing faculty collectively ranks 5th worldwide in citations and 4th in citations per capita.

The Mizzou Marketing faculty makes a real impact – both in the classroom and beyond!

Marketing Student Review

Interesting tidbits about a few of our students’ activities and accomplishments.

Lundeen Named PRWeek Student of the Year
Elizabeth Lundeen, a recent MU Marketing graduate, was named the 2001 Public Relations Student of the Year by PRWeek magazine. Elizabeth’s PR strategy for Freeplay, a producer of wind-up torchlights and radios, won her a spot as one of five students who reached the finals in New York City. There, Elizabeth was given a new PR challenge, including presenting her PR plan to a tough "client team" composed of four judges, pitching a related story to a journalist, and finally presenting a crisis communications strategy. As noted on PRWeek’s website, “Lundeen presented her campaign to the client judges with extreme poise, maturity and even humor” and showed “remarkable poise and intelligence.” Elizabeth received a $5,000 prize and a three-month internship at BSMG Worldwide.

Marketing Department Awards
Each year, the Marketing Department names its Top Ten in Marketing. These students represent approximately the top 6% of all marketing graduates. Recent honorees include:

• 2002 Top Ten: Sean Courtney, Alison Hagan, Lori Kemna, Sarah Lang, Sean Murphy, Stacy Neier, John Neill, Auburn Payne, Daniel Reiter & Christin Stephens.
• 2001 Top Ten: Maria Campbell, Kristen Franz, Rebecca Herling, Jamie Hunt, Sara Johansen, Siri Knudtson, Cortney Lang, Kari Propst, Misty Sadler & Julie Whitehead.
• 2000 Top Ten: Kristin Barklage, Joshua Combs, Nicole Gorla, Melissa Haupt, Jill Jenkins, Lisa Jones, Emily Morris, Sarah Royalty, & James Rumbley, Jr.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, the Marketing Department is annually able to offer a number of deserving students scholarship awards. Some awards are designated for juniors, while others are awarded to seniors. Award recipients for the past three years include:

• William and Jacqueline Bollinger Scholarship Award: 2002 – Malia Bishoff & Daniel Reiter; 2001 – Justin Barrett & Elizabeth Lundeen; 2000 – Sarah Royalty
• Arthur F. Holtman, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Award: 2002 – Kristin Estes, Erin Morris, Stacy Neier & Jennifer Walker; 2001 – Kristen Franz, Jamie Hunt, Cortney Lang, & Misty Sadler; 2000 – David White & Richard Svejkosky
• Carol and Martin Horn Lambert Scholarship Award: 2002 – Scott Bruce & Kyle Lundeen; 2001 – Siri Knudtson & Reanna Mitchell; 2000 – Lisa Jones & Mindy Lenox
• PMI/Eisenhart Scholarship: 2000 – Misty Sadler
• Raymond F. O’Brien/Consolidated Freightways Scholarship Award: 2002 – Cassie Hartle; 2001 – Sara Johansen; 2000 – Maria Campbell & Jennifer Simmons
• Robert D. and Frances S. Schooler Scholastic Scholarship: 2002 – Alisha Harrison; 2001 – Kari Propst; 2000 – Sonny Catlett, II
• St. Louis Delta Nu Alpha Scholarship Award: 2002 – Michelle Overberg; 2001 – Julie McAdamis & Richard Svejkosky; 2000 – Emily Morris & Sean Murphy
• W. C. Tingle Marketing Scholarship: 2002 – Theresa Burton; 2001 – Lori Kemna & Christin Stephens; 2000 – Siri Knudtson
• Samuel G. and Frances D. Wennberg Scholarship Award: 2002 – Christin Stephens; 2001 – Maria Campbell; 2000 – Jill Jenkins

Marketing Forum Update
Marketing Forum is the MU student chapter of the American Marketing Association. Each year, Marketing Forum sponsors a series of meetings in which industry speakers offer insights regarding marketing practice and their respective companies. Among other activities, Marketing Forum helped sponsor the department’s Making Me Marketable career counseling event last September. Last year’s officers included president Brent Carpenter, VP of programming Dan Dieso, VP of promotions Laurin Kupchick, VP of membership Jeff Orf, VP of communications Joel Crampton, treasurer Josh Blacksher, and secretary Lindsey Paalher. Michael Benack is the incoming president and Dr. Joel Poor is the faculty advisor of Marketing Forum.

Forum members recently traveled to St. Louis for the 41st Annual Marketing Conference, Soaring to New Heights, presented by the American Marketing Association’s St. Louis chapter. Nearly 350 marketing professionals and students and faculty from 25 colleges and universities traveled as far as Indiana, Nebraska, and Texas to participate in the conference whose theme was Without Marketing, Nothing Happens. Students were treated to speeches by executives from Rawlings, Hardee’s, Ford, Emerson, and Kinko’s, and were given the opportunity to speak to executives one-on-one. Tours of the corporate offices of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Aurora Foods, or Zipatoni completed the experience. Marketing Forum member Jeff Orf received the Outstanding Marketing Student Award for our collegiate chapter.

The members of Marketing Forum who attended the conference benefited in many ways. The speeches from company executives offered a glimpse into the varied career paths taken and the conference was an excellent way to network with top marketing professionals in the St. Louis area. Some students secured internships and other career opportunities through the companies who sponsored and were involved with the conference.

Award-Winning Doctoral Students
Omar Shehryar won first prize in a doctoral dissertation proposal competition sponsored by Fordham University. Shehryar and fellow doctoral student co-author David Hunt also won first prize in the behavioral sciences division of the MU-wide Research and Creative Activities Forum competition.

Marketing Practicum = Internship + College Credit

The Marketing Department has a long term goal of helping every interested and qualified marketing student find a summer internship. Internships are a great way for the student to explore a specific company and career path. They also offer the employer a great opportunity to “test drive” a potential employee. We are happy to forward all potential internship positions to our students via the Business Career Services Office.

Many marketing students seek, secure, and complete summer internships, but a few students each year are able to arrange an internship and enroll in a special marketing course, the Marketing Practicum. Practicum students are required to complete specific assignments related to their work experience. Adjunct assistant professor John Kuehn, the coordinator of our Marketing Practicum Program for the past several years, has been working with approximately 20 students per summer. This summer, the following students are enrolled in the practicum:

• Brian Budzinski, University Publications
• Heather Dubbert, Commerce Bank
• Casey Gill, The Gill Companies
• Becky Godsey, KC Wizards
• Shelby Grantges, Kohl's Department Stores
• Alisha Harrison, Mosby Publishing
• Anita Harrison, Enterprise
• Kathryn Heizer, Philip Morris
• Maiko Hoshino, FairCom Corporation
• Ryan Jost, Famous-Barr
• Jennifer Kintz, Washington University
• Damien Loden, Columbia Country Club
• Olga Luchanskaya, Missouri Department of Economic Development
• Desiree Mitchell, Sara Lee
• James Samorian, American Junior Golf Association
• Amanda Smith, Dillard's
• Lauren Strauser, Reliable Marketing
• Mark Thomsen, Walgreens
• Jennifer Walker, Country Club Bank

Students in previous semesters have interned with a wide variety of additional firms, including among others Anheuser-Busch, Beenders Marketing Group, GE Capital, Hallmark Cards, JC Penney, Marathon Office Interiors, Maritz, Missouri Lottery, NKH&W advertising agency, State Farm, and Wal-Mart.

Practicum internships must consist of at least 8 weeks at 30 hours per week. Students must be paid a base salary or hourly wage, but exceptions may be made at the coordinator’s discretion if the internship is with a not-for-profit organization.

Is your company or organization interested in offering summer internships? If so, please contact Business Career Services at 573-882-6898, fax 573-884-1198, recruiting@missouri.edu. If you would like more information about offering an internship related to our Marketing Practicum, please contact the department practicum coordinator at 573-882-3282, marketing@missouri.edu.

Making Me Marketable

The Marketing Advisory Board, the Marketing Department, Marketing Forum, and Business Career Services sponsored Making Me Marketable, a new career counseling event, on September 28, 2001. Over forty students participated in this activity. Industry participants sharing their experiences and recommendations with the students included:

• Brian Duffy, Famous-Barr
• Cathleen FitzGibbon, Merck
• Tiffany Flackes, Helzberg Diamonds
• Mark Gibbs, MG Properties
• Mike Gray, E & J Gallo Winery
• Kate Gruninger-Johnson, Procter & Gamble
• Darlene Linscott, Key Industries
• Jim McCarthy and Steve Vasquez, Philip Morris USA
• Roger Morse, Schramm, Inc.
• Randall Nevils, Norman-Robert Communications
• Kemp Strickler, Hallmark
• Natalie Wolfe, CB Commercial Real Estate Group

The day began with a one-hour session featuring three presentations—Roger Morse discussed career possibilities, Kemp Strickler summarized the essential elements of career preparation, and Cathleen FitzGibbon shared insights regarding presentation of one’s self during the career placement process.

Following this kick-off session, concurrent panel sessions were conducted. Half of our industry participants focused on presentation topics and the other half focused on preparation topics. Students divided into two groups—seniors in one, juniors and sophomores in the other. Each group spent the first half of the session with one of the panels and then spent the second half of the session with the other panel; this gave each student the opportunity to interact with both panels of industry participants.

Making Me Marketable concluded with students joining the Marketing Advisory Board, industry participants, marketing faculty, and doctoral students for lunch, where discussions continued.

Plans are underway for the second annual Making Me Marketable event this September 27, 2002. We invite and welcome professionals of all ages and job descriptions to participate in this career counseling event. For more information or if you would like to participate, please contact department chair Lisa Scheer or the Marketing Department (573-882-3282; marketing@missouri.edu).

Professors Wagner & Wildt Retire

Dr. William Wagner and Dr. Albert Wildt retired after serving MU, the college, the department, and our students for many years.

Bill Wagner served as a professor of marketing and logistics. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in business administration at Ohio State University, Professor Wagner came to MU, where for many years he was the foundation of our business logistics program (along with Professor Nylen “Eddie” Edwards) and a valued advisor to many logistics graduates. Dr. Wagner’s research is in industrial marketing and distribution, customer service, and logistics system design. Throughout his tenure at the college, Dr. Wagner earned numerous awards for outstanding teaching.

Al Wildt, the Bailey K. Howard World Book Professor of Marketing, received his doctorate in industrial administration from Purdue University. Before joining the University of Missouri, Professor Wildt taught at the University of Georgia and University of Florida. His research interests are marketing research/science applications and methods, assessing the impact of decision variables on organization performance, and corporate social policy and its role in marketing strategy. Dr. Wildt, an alumnus of MU’s MBA program, has played a major role in recent years in the renaissance of our MBA program as its director.

Through their research, teaching, and personal interaction with colleagues, Dr. Wagner and Dr. Wildt have left their mark on the college, Mizzou, the field of marketing, and their many appreciative students.

Meet the New Faculty

The Department of Marketing is thrilled to welcome three great new faculty members! We’d like to help you get acquainted with them.

Mark Houston
Mark Houston joined us in Fall 2001 as an assistant professor. Dr. Houston is an alumnus of MU’s MBA program (1990) and received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 1995. Previously, he was a faculty member at Bowling Green University and at Saint Louis University’s School of Business and Administration, where he received the 2000 Beta Gamma Sigma Outstanding Teacher Award. Professor Houston has been teaching retailing and MBA marketing strategy and working actively with our doctoral students. Dr. Houston’s research, which focuses on marketing strategy processes and channel partnership governance, has been published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Consumer Research, among others. He also serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Marketing Education. Mark and his wife Nancy have three children—Jon, Elise, and Wil.

Mark Houston

Suraj Commuri
Suraj Commuri also joined the Mizzou faculty in Fall 2001 as an assistant professor, having just completed his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska. While at Nebraska, he was the recipient of a prestigious university-wide fellowship. Dr. Commuri has been teaching our undergraduate e-marketing course and next year will teach a course on marketing in the electronic age in our MBA program. Professor Commuri’s interesting research on decision-making behavior and gender roles in homes where the wife earns more than the husband (about 30% of U.S. households) has been cited in numerous newspapers across the country. He is also researching consumers’ online shopping behavior and the competitive strategies of firms that are adding online channels. Suraj is married to Sneha Giri, a software consultant.

Suraj Commuri

Joel Poor
Joel Poor, who has been with us as a visiting assistant professor since Fall 2000, is now an adjunct assistant professor of marketing. Dr. Poor earned his Ph.D. from the University of California—Irvine in 1999 and is an alumnus of MU’s School of Journalism. Professor Poor has been effectively teaching our mass lecture Principles of Marketing course as well as teaching other courses in both our undergraduate and MBA programs. Last year, he was selected through a campus-wide student process to be featured in the Savitar as a Faculty Superior. Dr. Poor has also been playing a valuable role as the faculty advisor for the Marketing Forum, our AMA student chapter. Joel and his wife Kelly have two children—Kendall and Sarah.

Joel Poor

Alumni News

1980s
81 – Gabriela S. Ramirez-Darris, proud parent of Adriana (3/17/93) and Marcela (4/6/95), recently completed an MBA at Lindenwood University. She is presently NSUD for the Girl Scout Organization in Michigan and Brownie Troop Leader.

83 – Brian I. Pultman has been approved by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards as a certified financial planner (CFP).

83 – Jennie Rodrigo joined Southern Power and Controls, one of the bay area’s fastest growing companies, with responsibility to generate new business and manage major accounts for the leading electrical contractor.

1990s
94 – Erin Lee Althage has served several years as an executive leasing specialist providing national sales services for real estate management companies.

97 – Rebecca Lynn White is district manager for Maytag in Boston, Massachusetts.

2000s
01 – Todd Arnold is assistant professor of marketing at Washington State University.

01 – Timothy Landry is assistant professor of marketing at the University of Oklahoma.

01 – Catherine Roster is assistant professor of marketing at the University of New Mexico.

01 – Simona Stan is assistant professor of marketing at the University of Oregon.