Consumer Marketing Academy

Academy Weeks

What a difference a week can make. Academy Intensive Weeks occur at the critical points in your internship and job-search journey, ensuring you'll be prepared to maximize your internship experience and long-term career success. 

Academy Intensive Week 1

Fall of Your First Year: Prepare for Your Internship Interviews

During Academy Intensive Week 1, and other special sessions, you'll be immersed in fundamentals that include segmentation, positioning, brand strategies, and the daily activities of brand management. A panel of recent Kelley MBA graduates employed in brand and retail management positions will work with you in small groups to give you a feel for the challenges and rewards you'll face in your early years. You'll also visit leading consumer marketing and retailing firms to get a first-hand look at the industry. You'll enhance the professional development basics—resumes, networking, and interviewing—tailored for brand management and retail management.

View Mike Hardman's blog about this year's Academy Intensive Week 1. 

Academy Intensive Week 2

Spring of Your First Year: Prepare for Your Internship

During Academy Intensive Week 2, and throughout much of the spring semester, you'll work with your CMA team on a consulting project for a leading consumer products firm. This project gives you practical exposure to consumer marketing. You'll build your analytical, creative, and professional presentation skills and boost your confidence in how to approach and excel in your summer internship projects. Past projects have been with brand managers, marketing directors, and vice presidents at companies that have included General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Whirlpool, and Toyota.

During Week 2, you'll also enhance your knowledge of the tools and disciplines of marketing—advertising, sales promotion, event marketing, direct marketing, category management, and market research. 

View Mike Hardman's blog about this year's Academy Intensive Week 2. 

Academy Intensive Week 3

Fall of Your Second Year: Prepare for Your Career

Academy Intensive Week 3 builds on the knowledge gleaned from your internship and prepares you for long-term career success. We’ll cover advanced topics such as how to create marketing plans that will be accepted by top management and how to handle difficult issues in marketing, including legal and ethical problems. Your skills will be put to the test with a case competition that requires you to solve a current marketing problem and for a leading consumer products company. A panel discussion with highly successful senior managers will give you insight on how to manage your career beyond the first few years.