The recently founded DU Marketing Association (DUMA) held an event on April 26 at the Daniels College of Business, featuring two speakers who talked about product and brand management.
Jason Fryda, a product-line manager at Pearl Izumi, and Gerry O’Brion, a brand manager who has worked with P&G, Coors and Red Robin, spoke to a group of nearly 30 business students about how to launch products for both large and small companies, according to DUMA co-founder and president Xiaoyan Zhang.
Zhang is a DCB graduate student pursuing her MBA with a concentration in marketing.
Zhang co-founded the DUMA in March with Francis Donovan, who is also working toward an MBA in marketing.
“We were brainstorming at a Career Center advisory board meeting and we came up with the idea,” said Zhang.
“We both see the value in [the organization] and wanted something specific for marketing to help students in their careers.”
Currently, the group is only offered to DU students who are pursuing graduate degrees.
Zhang says they hope to open to undergraduates by winter quarter 2012.
“Our objective is to bring in speakers who put the DU name in current firms’ minds for job placement,” said Zhang.
Emalee Sugano, the marketing and public relations director of DUMA, said that DUMA is a great outlet for her to remain in a marketing community.
Sugano is pursuing a general MBA with a concentration in innovation and entrepreneurship.
“When I was an undergrad at DU, there wasn’t anything like this,” said Sugano.
The student-run organization held a launch event on March 29 in the Dean’s Dining Room at DCB.
Their keynote speaker was Ethan Decker, group director of insight and strategy at Integer Group.
“He is from one of the best agencies in Denver,” said Donovan. “He showed us branding in the real world.”
Zhang said their events present some networking opportunities for students. She said they helped get graduate student Jenny Hu an internship this summer with Integer Group.
Donovan said the DUMA’s goal is to expand and set up new events so they can provide opportunities for new students.
“There are 87 new students signed up for their MBA this spring quarter which provides us with great opportunities to market to them,” Donovan said.
“You go to business school to build a network and it’s hard to broaden your network because you see the same group of students in each of your classes. These events are good for that.”
DUMA has no events scheduled for the immediate future, but will post new events on their website at http://www.facebook.com/dumarketing.
