IMC vs. MBA

When we started the program, many of our classmates were discussing what led them to the Northwestern IMC program, although there were some differing rationales, there was one similarity...the MBA just "wasn't for them."

With all due respect to the MBA programs, we felt that the traditional business administration courses which are accounting- and finance-heavy, would fill our schedules with course material we didn't want to focus on. For us, marcom (or marketing communications) is our thing.

We wanted the much needed framework of statistics and finance, which is necessary to truly understand our field, but we wanted more of a marketing-based graduate education. With IMC, we gain such an in-depth understanding of marketing, that we truly can dive into any career whether it be the agency side or client side. IMC grads are true pioneers in this field...as many of our Professors and Alumni have proven!

Look for more information in the coming days....

What a Diverse Group!

The IMC full-time program is composed of 80 students from different locales, fields of studies, and age groups.

These graduate students hail from states such as: Washington, California, Texas, North Dakota, Kansas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Illinois (of course), among others. Additionally, there are many international students as well who come to Northwestern, like all of us, for this amazing program! Countries represented in the IMC program are: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, India, Thailand, Pakistan, Turkey, Russia, Germany, Morocco, Brazil, Venezuela, and Canada.

Almost all of the students have some kind of work experience and that varies from fields such as Advertising, Broadcast Journalism, Economics, Entertainment, Marketing, Publishing, Non-Profit Organizations, Engineering, and Public Relations...and the list goes on. What are we saying here? The IMC program, with all of its diversity, only enhances our learning, both inside and outside of the classroom. It is great to hear about classmates' experiences when they apply in-class learnings to their previous work situations, or go so far as comparing U.S. business strategies to that of their native country. At the end of the day, we all become a little more informed and those who may not have had work experience prior to starting the program, can learn more about different fields and companies.

Top 10 Things I've Learned in IMC

1o. The correct spelling of the word Web site

9. Sentences should contain a max of 17 words

8. AP Style Rules!

7. The 3 C's of Marketing: Customer, Competitor, Company

6. Style Points Matter!

5. How to create a Positioning Statement

4. How to create a Communications Brief

3. Calculating price elasticity

2. Strategies for segmenting markets

1. And... the number 1 thing I learned in IMC: According to Dr. Rapaille, The cheese is dead, inside a body bag, in the refrigerator :-)

"The Residency" a.k.a. Our 4th Quarter

During the 4th quarter of the IMC program, most students participate in what it called a residency, an 11-week period when students are able to apply what they learned inside the classroom to the workforce, by becoming a contributing member of a company. The IMC program stresses the importance of the residency experience; it allows the student to not only gain in-depth marketing experience but it also gives student the opportunity to work on real company projects!

Each year, there is a great variety of companies that offer a residencies to Northwestern IMC students...some of those companies are:
Google
The Coca-Cola Company
OgilvyOne, Ogilvy & Mather
Edelman
Hearst-Argyle Television
EuroRSCG
Discover Financial Services
Draftfcb
FedEx Services Solutions and Technology
T-Mobile USA
U.S.Cellular
Dow Chemical
Yum! Brands
Nimblefish Technologies
Y.S Interative
Western Union
Facebook

Students receive academic credit for their residencies and will have a faculty member assigned, to best monitor the student's success over the summer. The residency program definitely provides a win-win situation for both the company and the student.

***If your company is interested in becoming a residency sponsor, please contact Tom Collinger, IMC Department Chair at t-collinger@northwestern.edu ***

In the summer, students will also have the opportunity to participate in an international group residency in Asia.

MTC Building, We Study Hard Here!

IMC students attend classes in the McCormick Tribune Center. Actually, it's the building for all Medill School of Journalism classes. It is the home of classrooms, offices for professors, MTC Forum, computer labs, and a student lounge (place with coffee, snacks, fridge, and microwave!)

There are always something going on inside the MTC Forum, either classes or presentations, or performances and corporate receptions.

The best thing about the building is

IT IS VERY CLOSE TO THE LAKE!

Students can see the lake from the classroom window!

But hey, remember, we should focus on our studies!!

What is IMC?

Hello Everyone!

IMC is an acronym for Integrated Marketing Communications, which is a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time. Integrated marketing communication can be defined as a holistic approach to promote buying and selling in the digital economy. This concept includes many online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from search optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relations, industry analyst relations, billboard, radio, and television.1

The IMC program at Northwestern is a 15-month, five-quarter graduate degree program in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. The program teaches us how to become the best marketing professionals around by understanding how to engage, persuade and activate consumers from the consumers point-of-view.

New for Fall 2007, there are two concentrations in the IMC program : Analysis and Insight and Brand, Ideas and Communications. We spend the first two quarters in core IMC courses, in the 3rd quarter we take electives in our concentration. During the 4th quarter, we work with an employer in the Professional Residency program (similar to a summer internship, but the employer pays our tuition for the quarter and we receive credit for our residency project). Past residency sponsors include: 3M, Draft FCB, and T-Mobile. In our last quarter, we take our remaining electives and work on several real-world corporate projects.

Graduates of the IMC program are employed in such positions as: Brand Managers, Account Planners, PR Professionals, Internal Communications Specialists, Database Marketing Managers and Strategic Marketing Consultants.

We are currently learning how to:

• Effectively conduct market research and analyze statistical data
• Understand the nuances of consumer behavior
• Develop clear-and-concise brand communications that resonate with internal and external stakeholders

For more information, please visit the Medill link on our blog.

1- Source: The American Marketing Association