What is Marketing?

Seeing as how I've recently graduated and I'm getting tired of explaining what exactly it is I do, I figured I'd do it all at once (courtesy of Marcy)...

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, "I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, "He's fantastic in bed."
That's Advertising.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says, I hear you're fantastic in bed."
That's Brand Recognition.

Graduation

 

I don't feel like writing this right now b/c I wrote a really long post yesterday, but the damn thing deleted it. I'll write more later. 

Pub Crawl

For one of my last nights as a student, we decided to plan a pub crawl in Old Town and Downtown. Andrew and I chose a total of eight bars, ranging from pubs to lounges to clubs. Even though I was excited for this all week, by the time Thursday afternoon rolled around I really wasn't in the mood to party. It honestly had been quite a long week and I was just tired from everything. Plus, it was freezing out- as in 6 degrees or something. Nevertheless, we put our game faces on and headed out. However, we made a rather sad showing. Jen and I didn't make it out until the time for our second bar, but after 2 minutes inside it, we decided we would rather eat at the first bar where Caroline and Andrew were still at. So, we headed there and ended up skipping the next 2 bars because we were busy eating and not wanting to venture out. Around 9 I thought it was probably time for us to move onto the next, which happened to be Spoon. Of course we were about the only people here, so the bartenders decided to give all 25 of us free shots (someone pussed out on theirs though and I think Dahlberg volunteered to take the extras). Next we attempted to go to McFadden's to see Vanilla Ice, but the line was simply too long. My favorite quote of the night was by this black girl who pushed her way through the crowd saying "Daaamn girl, you'd think these people be waiting to see Justin Timberlake up in here." After that we headed to Elm Street liquors which was slightly ghetto but quite fun. Dancing and 40's were definitely involved. However, I don't think that everyone would agree with this statement because most of the Evanston kids bailed around 12 to go back to the Keg in Evanston, which is simply just lame, but whatever. I think I had more fun once the big group left anyways. We ended up dancing till the bar closed at 2.

2 Days Left

Well, I've officially finished school. I had my final presentation on Monday night, followed with drinks on my teacher. It's kind of weird to think about, but I don't really think it's sunk in yet. I've actually still been pretty busy this week due to interviews, the roast, and going out. In all honesty, this roast has become a huge pain in the ass and I'm almost regretting signing up for it. It's amazing to me that the overzealous people in school still remain crazy even when the project is supposed to be fun. This one chick is insisting on printing of programs even though this thing is a joke and is only going to be an hour or so. Perhaps it is for these reasons that I haven't yet gotten sentimental about graduating. Or, maybe it's because I imagine I will still see/talk to all of my close friends in the program after we graduate (aside from Sean of course since he disappeared immediately after returning from Asia).

Last night was kind of funny. Nikki and I went to Trisha's school to be the official judges for cheerleading tryouts. In retrospect, it's pretty funny that i was an official judge seeing as how I'm the least enthusiastic person, when it comes to that stuff, that I know. But, the whole thing was pretty funny and at times it was difficult not laugh out loud. Actually, Nikki did once-- but in her defense, the girl couldn't do a somersault (i can even do a somersault). What's even funnier about this whole thing is that right before I left, Kate called to see if I would go with her to watch a ballet recital. Look at all of the fun teacher things i have to keep me occupied. Eventually I think we're all going on a field trip with Trisha.

Side note: I'm watching Real World reruns right now for the first time in like 2 years and I forgot just how rediculsou this show is.

80's Prom

This weekend was a little different. Friday night Kate and I went to Hillary’s fundraising party for the AIDS marathon she’s running in Hawaii. Then I went to an 80’s party that Caroline and Kristin through for all of the November birthdays. The costumes for the night were fabulous, however I didn’t dress up. I think almost all of us met a guy that night, but I don’t think anyone went home with one, unless there is a good story I haven’t heard about yet. Saturday we went to an Ohio State tailgate which Sarah through- apparently her family has a long-standing tradition of attending the NU vs. OS game, no matter where it’s. Ohio fans are fanatic. Seriously. Jen and Charlie can’t stand the Cardinals and honestly get pissed when I mention them. The Bengals bar is just crazy. But the Buckeye fans take the cake. These people actually dress their kids up in Buckeye costumes. O well, the tailgate was fun all the same. The rest of the day was spent at the bar and it ended up getting a little crazy. But, all in all, the day was good.

NU Livin' Large- Vote now

Click on the Link above and vote for Northwestern's team. You have to validate your email, but it's not complicated. Or you can text "NWU" to 82590.

The "AVEO Livin’ Large Challenge" is a nationwide program in which two students on eight different campuses are living in the big and roomy interior of a Chevy AVEO from Oct. 30t- Nov. 3rd, competing to see who can "live the largest." I believe the winning team gets a car to keep.

In all honesty, this has no effect on me whatsoever and I could care less whether these kids get a car. However, my good friend Leticia is in charge of the PR, and I imagine it will look better for her the more people who vote. So, vote. And, feel free to use more than one email address. O, and be sure to do it all again on Friday.

IMC Communication at it's finest

For warning… this is all me bitching (even though I can’t figure out why any of this still surprises me). I guess I just don't understand why a school about communication is soo very poor at it.

Let me begin with the date. It is July 27, 2006. For over a month and a half, our school has supposedly been putting together some communication sheet with everyone's phone # and email. I hadn't received it yet, so I just assumed they were too incompitent to figure out how to copy and paste. However, several friends said they received theres over 2 weeks ago, so I sent our admin an email asking her for the list b/c I never received it. She responded that she thought she remembered sending it to me and did I still live on Barry. I found it odd that she would remember me specifically, but paid no attention seeing as who it was. When I arrived home tonight, I realized why she remembered me: my lovely Medill package was waiting for me in the mailbox. Why on earth did it take nearly a month to receive a letter that was dated June 30^th?

Next story: Midterm Reviews (I'm getting graded instead of being paid)

Let me begin with my final email out of several correspondences with John Greening, who is my faculty advisor.

John,

You are scheduled to meet Connie at 9am on Tuesday. I am assuming you will meet with me, 10 or 15 minutes prior. See you then.

Deb

I figure it’s necessary to say that John didn’t bother to reply to this, but I thought nothing of it since he never bothers to reply to any of my emails (even when I ask direct questions, but whatever). I also should mention at this point that my boss, Connie, and I were attending a focus group that started at 10 in another building.

Well, 8:50 came and went, so I assumed John had decided to skip me and was just meeting with my boss. Around 9:20 I could here his obnoxious voice clearly down the hall chatting it up, and became quite annoyed that he hadn’t even followed up with me after the meeting. Around 9:30 my boss and him nearly collide right in front of my open cubicle, both saying that they had come looking for the other. John then says, “Well, I assume we’re still on for 9:30.” At this point I definitely shook my head in disgust, I’m pretty sure my boss caught. Anyways, she responds that we have somewhere to be at 10 so it has to be quick.

Without further delay, John launches into a glowing report of his son Patrick (who also works for Element and has been standing patiently by daddy’s side the whole time) and how he pitched something for Gatorade, which is now going to be take to client. (Seriously, give me a break) At this point, Connie has to cut him off with “John, the meeting isn’t here.”

So, then John and I have our brief 3 min meeting where he cuts right to the chase: “How are things going here? Am I going to hear good things or bad things? You know, Connie didn’t want to take you and that I had to tell her that you would surprise her.” Yes John, I know that, you basically already told me not to screw up here. I met with my boss last Friday and she said that she was happy with all of my work, but that I am too quiet and she can’t tell if I like it here. Well, no shit I'm quiet; I don’t want to do anything to screw up. Thanks for all the support John, it means a lot. Not too mention, that you had to "sell me," a Northwestern grad student, to Element, but they were more than willing to take on your precious son who is still in undergrad and not even in a marketing program. I mean, seriously.

Anyways, the whole thing was over in 15 minutes tops and I got to go to VO5 focus groups that ended up being pretty entertaining. O, and later I told my boss that John screwed up the time not me, to which she shrugged her sholders and said, “Ehh… it’s John,” which made me smile.

Week 1

Well, the first week is over and I have to say it wasn’t too bad. I work Mon-Thur from 8:30-5:30 and Fridays I get off at noon, which works out perfectly for my beach plans (yes, I know you're jealous). Element 79 has 7 other interns; of which only one is a grad student and that would be Jessica who is a fellow Northwesterner (I'll let you guess from which school). As cool as she is, she is still not my favorite intern. My favorite would have to be Patrick Greening. Patrick Greening just happens to be the son of my favorite professor, (note for sarcasm) John Greening. We all went to lunch with the President on Monday and he asked what we were doing with our summers after the internship was over. When I responded with the Asia trip, little Patrick got a funny look on his face and said he thought his dad might be going on that trip as well. I told him that he was, and then silently had a good laugh to myself. Later that afternoon, I told this story to Alissa (an alumni from last year) and she also found it very amusing. Best part, I'm pretty sure he is still only in high school.Other than that, not too much to report. Everyone seems pretty cool and there are quite a few young people that seem to like to party. The only complaint: no cute boys as of yet. Hopefully, we can find those at happy hour, which Jen and I started last week at Rivers. (Side note: I think Thursdays are going to become standard and Doug you should join us this week and Elephant and Castle.)

My supervisor is the Senior Vice President for the company and I have already been in several small meetings that the CEO attended. I realize that this is a huge opportunity for me, but it is also a little scary. Sometimes I look at everything and I’m not quite sure how I got here. But, no matter the means, I’ll take it all the same. Since my residency is in new business, I have no real set project to work on. This week the company was surprisingly slow, so I spent the days following this girl around on meetings, researching potential clients, and reading. What reading you might ask? Well, I have been assigned four books for the summer, one of which I was supposed to have already read for John Greening (which of course I have not). I'll be surprised if I manage to finish 2 of the 4 and I'll post them in case anyone is bored. O, and the girl I’m following graduated from IU last year and she’s very nice.


And to Becca, I’ve recently realized how annoying it must be when I decide to lecture you and give you advice you didn’t ask for. So, my apologies and I’ll try to keep that to a minimum in the future.

Cinco de Mayo

This weekend was a ton of fun, and it of course involved parties. You know, I bitch about being busy all the time, but it’s honestly only b/c any free time I have I use to go out. So, I’m either studying or partying, but I guess at least I’m studying.

Anyways, I ended up staying in Evanston all day Friday to work on projects, so I decided to head to a friend’s Cinco de Mayo party around 5 since I was still in town. I really had no intentions of staying there long, but thanks to some mystery punch, I was there till 9. Everyone was so damn drunk; it was kind of crazy. I think everyone did at least 2 tequila shots and we broke 3 piñatas. They weren’t sure if we would be able to do the piñatas, but my experience from our Fiesta party in undergrad proved invaluable. The first pic is of Alex (the gracious host for the evening) being spun around and the 2nd is of him collapsing on the ground after hitting it (probly due to be spun drunk). By the time I left (which again was only at 9), everyone was club dancing in the living room, in an apartment not much bigger than mine. A group of us then headed downtown, and I made everyone stop by my apartment so I could change since I was wearing a t-shirt and ball cap (my Cardinals hat to be specific). My night ended around 2:30, which made Saturday morning in Evanston very painful. I had a damn group meeting at 10, and I was crabby for most of it since I was so tired.

bartending was intersting. i learned that i'm not very good at it. they gave us a shitty wine opener and nothing for the beer. but, by the end of the night, Jen and I had managed to learn how to open both quite well.

so, everyone was very grateful that the 2 of us were there. here's the best part. we all were given mentors from the graduating class. however, i really haven't spoken to mine at all since the first week, even though we see each other all the time. so, everyone kept asking how jen and I got roped into this thing, and she would respond w/ that her mentor asked her. and then everyone just assumed my mentor was also in charge, to which i responded no but that Jen talked me into it. turns out, my mentor was in charge of the whole thing. i think we spoke more tonight than we have the rest of the year.

also, at the end of the night one of our professors was heading upstairs to grade our finals and projects. so, we convinced her to take a bottle of wine up w/ her. we figured that might help our grades. we shall see.

to get to evanston, we rode the El & then flagged down the only cab around. to get home, we rode a small schoolbus w/ a bunch of drunk graduates. it was really odd. i think this whole situation was probably the bus driver's worst night mare. did i mention it's a blizzard outside, and my mentor had to wipe the window off twice for the driver just so he could see outside.

Funny how your life can completely change in a day

So I’m going to Grad school!!! Who would of thunk it? To everyone’s surprise, including my own, Northwestern has accepted me into their Integrated Marketing Communications program. September 20^th, I will officially become a Wildcat (which is much better than ISU’s weak Redbird).

Anyways, the admissions department called me yesterday morning to give me the news. Of course, I was ecstatic and began jumping around the parking lot at work, and then I began calling everyone I know. Last night we all went out to celebrate, which was pretty fun. Kinda odd, but still fun.

Even though I’m, delighted, I guess I’m a little nervous. I’ve never really went anywhere that I haven’t known anyone. I guess I will get to experience what Corey went through by going to ISU (actually she did know one person, but I don’t know that she really counts). It also sucks that I’m going to be so far away from everyone. Nikki’s pretty sad and I guess Corey must be somewhat too. Last night Nikki’s best friend Kate informed us that she is applying for UIC in Chicago and I honestly thought Nikki would fall out of her chair. At least Hillary and Cheryl are very excited, and I have to admit that the whole thing will be easier knowing that they aren’t very far away.

O, and I haven’t told my job yet. I am soooo glad that I don’t have to work in that hell whole anymore! I plan on telling Dave Monday, but I’m afraid he will make me quit then instead of in 2 weeks. I guess I could be the test to see how shitty the company really is. I’ll be sure to let everyone know how it goes. Hopefully I can milk another couple of paychecks out of them.

P.S. it's weird to think that i'm going to a school that i've never even visited.

So for those that don't know, I randomly decided last week that I want to go to grad school in the fall. Yes, I know this is nearly impossible. However, I hate my job and expect to be fired soon, so I have been working diligently towards this goal.

so far in the past couple of days I have managed to update my resume, fill out the application, write my personal essay, commit 2 people for my recommendations, schedule a phone interview (it's tomorrow and I'm kinda nervous), and talk to a lady in the admissions office twice. Now I just need to write this long marketing essay that I'm not sure I know the answer to (Dow I might have you look over it when I'm done to see what u think). O--- and I have to read another 50 pages of this book for work tomorrow afternoon so that I don't get fired right away. It's been a busy week.