The Humans of BYU Marketing Lab

We talk a lot about what Marketing Lab does for the clients, and for the students who get the opportunity to work with clients, but what I wish to emphasize is another one of the gifts I’ve received from BYU Marketing Lab: the people I get to work with on a daily basis. 

Disclaimer: this may be a little sentimental, but is worth your time if you like to understand the character behind our students, because character is largely what gets you the best work. 

Marketing Lab plays a unique role in part of the BYU Marriott School mission to, “Attract, develop, place, and continue to engage men and women of faith, character, and professional ability who will become outstanding leaders and positively influence a world we wish to improve.”

One way the lab builds up our students is by putting undergraduate marketing and MBA students together – a combination of tactical and strategic skills – where one can learn from the other. Projects are better because of this combination and the people, including myself, are better for it too.

While Marketing Lab recruits top marketing students, we look hard for students who are supportive of each other, who value learning, who don’t have big egos, who get the job done with quality, and who do it with uncompromising integrity and delivery. People and the culture matter as much as talent.

I came into Marketing Lab last winter as a first-year MBA student with a design and anthropology background. They entrusted me to lead a team with three MBAs and two undergraduates to find insights for an international chocolate company entering the US market. I felt inexperienced at the research and the management that needed to be done.

Through the process, we ate a lot of amazing chocolate! But the biggest and maybe most unexpected takeaway for me was how valuable my team members and mentors were. I learned from them how to implement some advanced research methods, run quality focus groups, understand retailer data, create a sales deck, and more. As a combined group, we delivered great insights to this company, and there is no way we would have succeeded if we weren’t united.

On that project team, I learned so much from each person. Their strengths mitigated my weaknesses, and my weaknesses were strengthened from their knowledge. It might sound brutally sentimental, but it’s true. It’s part of the reason why I wanted to be Marketing Lab president – to see things from each part of the lab, to work with others on areas of improvement, and to (a little selfishly) interact and learn from each person. It’s truly thrilling to watch as projects begin and see the change and learning in each person along the way, until the project ends. 

In the lab, we come from different backgrounds, with different interests in marketing, and have so many different experiences to learn from each other and to provide value to projects. We put together a map of where our employees were over the summer and what brands they worked at. The breadth and diversity of experience is astounding –

I would not have the experience I’ve gained in the MBA program if it wasn’t for this unique experience in the Marketing Lab. I’ve seen things differently, gained my own insights for being a better leader and manager, and have developed friendships I could not imagine myself without. Our leadership team and our faculty director are very intentional in creating a supportive experiential learning environment where each individual can contribute in impressive ways. I am excited that at the end of our journey in Marketing Lab in a few months, all of us will be able to go out into the world and be a positive influence to those around us, wherever we may be.