American Marketing Association soars to even higher heights

March 31, 2015

On a recent Saturday in New Orleans, the news was almost too amazing to be true: the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's American Marketing Association nearly swept the competition at the international collegiate conference, held March 19-21.

For the 12th time in 37 years, UW-Whitewater AMA earned International Chapter of the Year honors, scoring 99.5 out of a possible 100 points and outdistancing its nearest competitor by 5.5 points.

The Case Competition team, which included Katelyn Herlache, Daniel Becker, Cody Dorn, Ginette Soper and Nathan Hayworth, landed a performance that was "near perfect and totally professional," according to Jimmy Peltier, AMA adviser and professor of marketing. The team scored second in the nation, coming in just behind the team from Wharton.

And of the case team members, only Herlache had experience at the national competition.

Herlache, who will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing, was also selected as the 2015 AMA Student Marketer of the Year, out of a field of 10,500 students nationwide.

AMA teammate Blair Briesemeister was the unanimous selection for AMA Sales Student of the Year. Matt Schuh and Kiersten Boos tied for first place in the DHL Sales Competition.

The stellar showing is the product of months of diligent work.

About 200 students join the campus organization each year, many of them marketing majors, but some, like Boos, with majors in journalism and other nonbusiness fields. One focus of the organization is the AMA Collegiate Case Competition, a yearlong event involving a marketing challenge submitted by a sponsoring organization.

This year's case challenge was a campaign for Coca-Cola's glacéau vitaminwater. Starting in the fall and guided by adviser Pavan Chennamaneni, assistant professor of marketing, team members crafted the plan, conducted quantitative and qualitative research, identified target audiences and developed a timeline and budget for the campaign it submitted in early December. In the days leading up to submission, Chennamaneni admits they all spend late nights in Hyland Hall scrambling to meet the deadline.

The campaign advanced to the finals, itself an impressive achievement.

"There are 350 AMA chapters in the country," explained Peltier. "Only eight schools make the case team finals."

DeForest native Herlache said the second-place finish in the case competition and her selection by her peers as student marketer of the year was "a great way to go out."

She already has a job lined up at Aerotek, a recruiting firm, in its Milwaukee office. She will start as a recruiter in its technical division in June, with the goal of being promoted to sales manager as soon as possible.

She credits her time with AMA for helping her to find the right career fit.

"Our AMA is like a mini corporation," said Herlache. "You learn to lead in multiple ways, with different management styles. You have board members who are also your best friends, and regular members who need to be encouraged and nourished."