This week on the Be Epic podcast Matt sits down with Craig Geiger, full time instructor and Director of the newly launched Master's of Science in Marketing degree at the Walton College. To begin the episode, Craig and Matt discuss Craig's rich history in the consumer packaged goods industry, working across customer insights, sales, marketing and category management for Walmart, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup Company and more. Craig's background has positioned him perfectly to lead the new master's degree program with a curriculum designed specifically for students who are interested in a career in brand management, retail marketing and marketing services. As they continue through the episode they discuss the types of courses that students in this program will be able to take to prepare them to enter the fast paced and rapidly changing industry. They finish the discussion with a focus on how leaders in the industry will be able to participate in this master's program through partnerships and projects promoting experiential learning and networking. They then end the discussion with Craig sharing advice for prospective students on how to get into this program and how they can prepare for success. Learn more about the Master's of Science in Marketing here: https://walton.uark.edu/graduate-programs/
Episode Transcript
Craig Geiger 0:00
We will be working with a number of different industries including retail and medical
healthcare as well as consumer packaged goods, so that students have all these different
types of exposures to enable them frankly, to follow their passion.
Matt Waller 0:13
Excellence, professionalism, innovation and collegiality. These are the values the
Sam M. Walton College of Business explores an education business and the lives of
people we meet every day, I'm Matt Waller, Dean of the Walton College and welcome
to the Be Epic podcast. I have with me today, Craig Geiger, who has an incredible
background and category leadership, sales, category management, shopper insights,
and many other types of roles. He's worked with companies like Kraft Foods, Borden
Foods, Barilla, Campbell's Soup, Walmart, Kellogg, and we're fortunate to have him
here in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. Professor Geiger, thank you so much
for joining me today. I really appreciate it.
Craig Geiger 1:05
Thanks for having me, Matt, I'm thrilled to be here.
Matt Waller 1:08
Craig, you have a really rich background in consumer products and retail in the area
of sales, marketing, category management. And we are so fortunate to have you teaching
our students here in the Walton College. But in addition to that, you are also heading
up our Masters of Science in Marketing program. So I really appreciate your effort
to do that.
Craig Geiger 1:35
Well, thank you, Matt. And it's been a real pleasure being here as a as a full time
instructor, and now leading this program.
Matt Waller 1:43
Well I know you get amazing student evaluations, all of your students feel like they
come away from your class having learned a great deal. And I know just as a side note,
for the listeners this past Summer, we had a couple of members of the Board of Trustees
of the University of Arkansas System, want to visit a class in business. And so we
went to Craig's class. And I went as well. And of course, I've been in this business
a long time so I've sat in a lot of classes, and I was absolutely amazed at what he
did in teaching.
Craig Geiger 2:20
Oh, well, thank you. That's a very gracious comment. And it was really fun to have
the board sit in. The students certainly enjoyed it and I certainly did as well. So
thank you.
Matt Waller 2:31
So can you provide an overview of the Master's of Science in marketing program here
at the Walton College, and also what sets it apart from other similar programs?
Craig Geiger 2:41
I'll tell you, Matt and I we're really excited. The Master of Science in Marketing
program is a rigorous, marketing focused curriculum, designed specifically for students
who are interested and frankly, passionate about a career in brand management, retail
marketing and marketing services. Understanding and really and addressing consumer
needs in this dynamic world is exciting and challenging. Our program will help really
help enable students to meet these challenges.
Matt Waller 3:10
That is wonderful. What kind of focus might you have in the program?
Craig Geiger 3:16
Well, right off the bat, it's interesting. We we specifically designed this full time
one year program to foster consumer focused innovation, and decision making skills
that are essential for success in brand management, retail marketing, you know, and
this extraordinary area of Northwest Arkansas with the global headquarters, obviously
of the world's largest retailer, Walmart. Tyson is here. And the incredible consumer
packaged goods suppliers and marketing agencies located right here. They provide the
perfect foundation for exposure to to just outstanding marketing opportunities.
Matt Waller 3:52
You know, it's interesting when I first moved here in 1994, Walmart had just passed
Kmart in size the year before that, I can't remember exactly, but they netted about
28 billion. And they both started in 1962. Walmart had a really different kind of
a strategy in terms of developing economies of scale and economies of scope and their
growth. And I won't go into that right now.
Craig Geiger 4:20
Well, it is interesting, too. I was working in Dallas in a regional position with
Kraft and there was this retailer that I kept hearing about in a planning position
in a Regional Planning position, a retail that we kept hearing about, Walmart. And
so in those days, you would fly in to Tulsa, and then make the drive over. And we
saw the the potential opportunity for sure. And we saw that crossroads with Kmart
up in Troy, Michigan versus Walmart here in Northwest Arkansas.
Matt Waller 4:49
Well you know it is interesting because when I moved here in 94 there were maybe 20
I don't remember the exact number, 20 cross functional teams here from suppliers and
the biggest one at that time was Procter and Gamble. And they had like 30 people on
the team. Right now it's over 200. Exactly, it's, and then that we've got over 1000
teams here. So it's quite needed, this kind of skill set is needed. But what are the
skills and competencies that students will develop through this Master of Science
in Marketing?
Craig Geiger 5:25
Well, specifically, our program, our Master of Science in Marketing students will
get a comprehensive understanding of brand management, you know, we looked at at the
marketing analytics side, and we also looked at brand management and because of this
unique area that we've discussed, you know, we felt that a real grounding and foundational
education in brand management especially, would be something that would be in resonate
and be really relevant for students. So that's the first part, but but they're gonna
gain skills that organizations are specifically seeking in competitive analysis, brand
positioning, brand strategy, market trends, analysis, and then you have business and
project management. And then there's the softer skills of leadership, presentation
and communication skills that are so essential for marketers today, they'll get all
of that in our program.
Matt Waller 6:15
That's so valuable. And I see your point of a brand with the long tail of products
that are available. And so many times we buy brands online, that we've not heard of,
and sometimes we're quite disappointed. And so the value of having a recognized brand
where you know, you can count on it, it's going to deliver the value you're looking
for, is it's probably more important now than it's ever been, I would think.
Craig Geiger 6:47
Not only more important and exactly right, but more challenging. If you think about
and you said it's so well, the long tail, you think about the virtual shelf, if you
will, well, at a time, you know, when I grew up in the industry, as a brand manager,
it was pretty simple to to develop your brand, understand your consumer needs with
traditional market research, and meet consumers where they were at watching television.
And and mostly that was it. And your your long tail really was in the store, when
it come when it came to many brands. Now it's the virtual tail. And it's really long.
And you have all these different areas in which we can reach consumers 24/7. And that's
a real exciting challenge today for for marketers, brand managers today. And that's
why we're so excited about the program, because we will absolutely be providing those
kinds of opportunities for our students.
Matt Waller 7:42
Well you know one thing I've always been amazed with with Walmart is their ability
to change. I remember so clearly when they were rolling out the Super Centers and
even Sam's Club. You know they started with the Super Centers and they built them
too big. They call them hypermarts. There was one in Denver and one in Kansas City,
may may be some other places, but they're like 300,000 square feet, and Walmart pivoted.
They've made lots of pivots. And now we're seeing that with omni channel in a way
that no one would have expected, it's hard to take the largest company on Earth and
change, you know, speaking of change, how will the curriculum and this program stay
up to date? It seems like things are changing at a breakneck pace.
Craig Geiger 8:31
Well, I will say, first of all, I was so fortunate in my career to work in global
customer insights and analytics at Walmart. I had been a consumer packaged goods person
on a career track for many years, and I had the opportunity to go into Walmart. And
I will tell you, when you talk about leading edge exposure, that that's taking place
at Walmart today. I'm, I'm frankly, a little bit jealous of students coming out of
the Walton College today and the opportunities they have, because of all of these
changes that we're seeing. So how we're keeping them up to date, we're working really
closely Matt with industry leaders from our retail advisory board. There's over 20
companies represented there, our corporate sponsors, and also our connections to ensure
that our course materials, topics, and projects are absolutely leading edge. We also
conduct regular faculty meetings with our team to specifically review the latest trends
in marketing, and ensure that you know, the coverage is there at our course curriculum.
For example, we have a specific course in social media marketing that covers this
growing trend. I mean, there was a time when social media marketing was really kind
of an afterthought. And now it's it's a primary focus for many marketing organizations.
With the Internet of Things, marketers today have even more information about consumers
and their habits than ever before, and that data is growing exponentially. But you
know, what I find really interesting, you know, how do marketers how do they balance
that information flow, where we know an awful lot about our consumers today, so that
we can meet their needs even more personally. And yet, at what point are you invading
privacy issues? You know, and those are the kinds of challenges that marketers have
to deal with on a regular basis. Well, we'll, we'll address those and help our students
to be ready for those as as marketing leaders.
Matt Waller 10:29
Well, you know, there's so many challenges in industry right now, to your point. And
what we're talking about the rate of change is high. But and getting back to the Walmart,
pivoting idea, Walmart combined their dot com and physical store merchants into one
person.
Craig Geiger 10:52
Exactly right.
Matt Waller 10:53
And that sounds easy to say. But to create the organizational structure, and to get
the right people in those places, is not easy. And then the other thing Walmart did
was combined their store app, and their dot com app again, sounds easy,
Craig Geiger 11:13
but challenging
Matt Waller 11:14
very, very challenging. They did both of those things. And what's interesting to me,
Craig is, a lot of these suppliers to Walmart have not caught up, you know, they have
they have salespeople that are focused on the physical store. And then same with category
management and the others focused on the
Craig Geiger 11:33
E commerce,
Matt Waller 11:34
e commerce. And so you know, and then the other thing is, I've noticed a lot of the
merchants at Walmart that are doing the combined merchandising of E commerce omni
channel, really, they're digital natives. You know, and you look at a lot of the suppliers,
especially at the top ranks. They're, they're not aware of a lot of what's going on.
Craig Geiger 11:59
You know, it's so interesting, you said that we had these discussions many times at
Kellogg's, and you could look at what Walmart is doing. It's a great example. What
are they doing today, but what's the real behind the scenes efforts that are going
on? As an example, you know, there was a time when the back rooms may have been full
of inventory. And so Greg, Foran back in those days, came back and said, you know,
we need to clean up the back rooms, you know, we have trailers ready to be unloaded,
and so on. But the real story was, they were getting ready for three years down the
road to enable the Supercenters to serve as better locations for pickup. Well, in
the supplier community, all you maybe thought of or saw was, we need to have some
supply chain effort against inventory control. But there was a deeper meaning there,
there was a deeper activity, there was a much further out perspective that we have
to be ready for. And in that case, it was we're getting ready to do this order online
pick up in store. And we have to enable that through this effort. So you always have
to be looking at what is the today, but also what is the what's the real trend that's
going on, and marketers are absolutely at the center of all that, to understand how
that's going to create opportunities and challenges for their brands.
Matt Waller 13:18
It makes me think that, you know, when I was first reading about the master's of science
of marketing that you've been leading, and when I was looking at some of the curriculum
and everything I thought, you know, who really needs to take this are fairly senior
marketing salespeople at CPG companies.
Craig Geiger 13:36
Interesting.
Matt Waller 13:37
I think they would benefit a lot. And it would be neat to have cohorts where you had
students just out of undergrad, along with some real senior people. You know I think
the learning could go be bi directional, and that kind of cohort.
Craig Geiger 13:55
Do you know, it's interesting, you said that I teach a class right now in our MBA
program. And it's I'm really fortunate because it is a combined Executive MBA, MBA
cohort for that class in retail strategy. And, you know, we find exactly what you're
saying that when you have this just out of undergraduate and a group of students,
along with students, or I'm sorry, students, yes, that have been in the industry for
a number of years. That combination of learning and sharing is really, really helpful
to both sides.
Matt Waller 14:29
It may be more helpful today than it was even 10 years ago.
Craig Geiger 14:32
I would say there's absolutely no doubt that that's what I found teaching that course,
and I love it. And I think we would I would love to see that happen in the Master
of Science and marketing. In the meantime, what we're hoping is to get as many industry
leaders as possible as guests in a couple of different areas, not only lecturing,
but also serving as case development, group project leaders and that, that will create
that opportunity that you're talking about as well for that exchange of ideas that
will probably help some of those senior people at some of our suppliers.
Matt Waller 15:09
You know, the other aspect, we've been talking about pivoting and making sure things
stay up to date, and so forth. But one thing that has really changed, I remember back
in 2012, I don't remember which issue it was, of the Harvard Business Review it was
in the fall, but the focus of the issue was on big data, data science, business analytics,
these kinds of things. There were a series of articles in there. And you know, we're
talking now, you know, this was over 10 years ago. But I remember reading it and thinking,
I've always been kind of more on the data driven side. And I was really thrilled to
hear this was happening. I didn't know if it will really happen. But it did. And it's
more important than ever, for people to be able to use data driven decision making
and analytics. How is our curriculum going to address that?
Craig Geiger 16:13
Well, you know, while our curriculum is brand management, and retail focused, our
program courses in marketing, analytics, consumer and market research, digital marketing,
and retailing strategy, all are all going to require Matt the students to utilize
their analytical tools and skills to understand trends, develop insights, but more
importantly, develop deliver fact based recommendations, through the simulations and
business cases that we'll bring to the classroom. Today, as you know, data is everywhere.
And the ability to mine it, analyze it, gain insight, tell a story that has meaning
that's activated, at at whatever whatever part of the business you're in. That's what
marketers do today. And and that's what we'll bring to the classroom. So through some
of those through some of those courses,
Matt Waller 17:05
We've talked about pivoting, the rate of change of knowledge in marketing, the importance
of data being data driven. But the other thing that's important, in learning today,
is really experiential learning what kind of projects and, you know, partnerships
will you have to help students in that regard?
Craig Geiger 17:27
Well, that's, that's, that's also something we're pretty excited about, you know,
as we do in many of our undergraduate classes, as you know, we're working closely
with organizations on live marketing challenges in the areas of marketing strategy.
So helping organizations locally as well as much on a much broader scale, to develop
their strategy, develop their brand awareness, develop their social media and digital
marketing campaigns, deliver eventually delivering marketing plan recommendations.
These are going to be hands on real world projects that project teams will work on
through the program. And we're pretty excited about that. But this is really going
to enable the students to build their business analysis, creative problem solving,
project management presentation skills. Additionally, the students are going to engage
with organizational leadership that we feel strongly will lead to internships and
career opportunities. So we're pretty excited about that element of the program.
Matt Waller 18:25
Students in the program may have a wide variety of career goals and interests within
marketing. How does this program accommodate them?
Craig Geiger 18:38
It's actually one of the things we've sought, as we've gone through the admissions
committee. And we talked to each and every student, obviously, through interviews
and so on to understand what elements of marketing are they truly interested in, at
least at this stage of their life. And it's pretty interesting, we've got a real diverse
group of students coming from a number of different areas of interest. But our program,
our courses have been carefully selected through a rigorous review of marketing curricula
nationally. And, and we're looking at the latest trends that are evolving in the world
of marketing. So if somebody's interested in digital marketing or social media, or
marketing research, to understand consumer insights, we're focused and committed to
providing those kinds of course opportunities. And we're working with a number of
different industries, not just consumer packaged goods, but we will be working with
a number of different industries including retail, and medical, healthcare, as well
as consumer packaged goods so that students have all these different types of exposures
to be able to do enable them frankly, to follow their passion.
Matt Waller 19:52
Can you talk a little bit about the faculty in the program?
Craig Geiger 19:56
We are so excited about our faculty, our professors bring. Frankly, it's a it's a
balance between deep research and academic experience and decades of industry marketing
experience with major consumer packaged goods companies. So we have a real balance
of professors of practice, and professors of academia that bring not only the latest
learning, but also the experiential piece. And so we're pretty excited about our faculty.
Matt Waller 20:25
You know, one thing that one real strength of the Walton College that some students
take advantage of, and some don't, is the ability to network, you know, we're right
here in the middle of retail, consumer products and supply chain heaven. I mean, right,
it's everyone's here, the leaders in the world are here. And they're in our buildings
all the time being guest lecturers or being executive in residence or even teaching.
And I have a lot of pride in that in our college. It's a difference maker from and
how will students in the master's program have an opportunity to network?
Craig Geiger 21:14
Well, I'll tell you even before that you made such a good point about the opportunities
every day. And it's kind of funny, I, when I go into my classrooms, I'll say, hey,
have you noticed Company X, that set up their booth here in the Walton College? Did
you walk up, introduce yourself? Did you did you give them you know a little bit about
you? Hi, I'm so and so. I'm a junior here. I'm majoring in supply chain management,
I have real, a real interest in your organization. And I would just like to make a
connection today, May I drop my resume with you? Because I'm looking for could be
an internship, or maybe some information about potential career paths. And, and I
find it's so often that I don't think our students take enough advantage of it.
Matt Waller 21:57
I agree.
Craig Geiger 21:58
Because it's here, just as you said. So that's the first part. But specifically for
our program, the Master of Science in Marketing, students are going to have multiple
networking opportunities and resources. Let me just kind of give you a few ideas here.
The the networking events that you have networking events that you talked about in
the Walton College, the graduate school. Secondly, career fairs, the Walton College
Career Fairs are outstanding. Third, our guest lecturers in the Master of Science
in Marketing classes, will create networking opportunities for sure. As I mentioned
earlier, the group projects and working with our client partners. And finally, we
have, we will be scheduling special networking events, specifically for the Master
of Science in Marketing students. So there's a number of different elements for the
students take advantage of, and I'm certainly going to be encouraging them to do so.
Matt Waller 22:47
You know, Craig, one of the roles I've played over the past eight years, as Dean is
working with our accrediting body, the gold standard for accreditation,
Craig Geiger 22:59
the AACSB,
Matt Waller 23:00
Exactly AACSB. And I do about two business schools a year, pure and aspirant business
schools, have for eight years. And you can imagine I learn a lot. When I do that you
spent days studying their curriculum, their faculty, their programs, et cetera, et
cetera. And then you go, you spend three days with them. And I've seen lots of master's
programs in marketing. And I've also been on benchmarking efforts up until I became
department chair of supply chain management in 2011. So starting in 1994, I've been
on every MBA redesign committee up until that point, and I always lead the benchmarking
efforts. So now, after being here for 29 years, and being in academics, over 30 years,
I have seen lots of programs. I believe you and the team have created the best Master
of Science in Marketing program that I have witnessed. So first of all, I want to
say congratulations, and thank you.
Craig Geiger 24:18
Thank you, Dean Waller.
Matt Waller 24:19
So having said that, what advice would you give to prospective students, you know,
wanting to get into this program, and how they, how can they prepare for success in
the program?
Craig Geiger 24:31
Well, very simply, there is not a better time, a better place, or better program than
the University of Arkansas Master of Science in Marketing program. If you're a student
with a passion for a career in marketing, the world of marketing is moving so fast.
It has so many exciting opportunities for creative problem solving leaders who love
to understand and meet the needs of consumers. This is the place to be and you know
and prepare for success in our program, students should demonstrate intellectual curiosity,
a sincere desire to serve consumers. They should have a strong interest in brand management
and working effectively in teams. And one more important thing, you know, they want
to have a lot of fun working in this dynamic, challenging world of marketing, because
this will be fun.
Matt Waller 25:21
Well, Craig, first of all, thank you for teaching for us, you do a over the top fantastic
job. Thank you for leading this master program. I am so excited about this, what a
huge value add to our community and to and to the state and to to the students. Most
of all, so I appreciate your work.
Craig Geiger 25:45
Thank you, Dean Waller and thank you for having me today.
Matt Waller 25:49
On behalf of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, I want to thank everyone for spending
time with us for another engaging conversation. You can subscribe by going to your
favorite podcast service and searching. Be Epic. B E E P I C
