Former GE chief marketing officer and NBC executive Beth Comstock once said “Whether B2B or B2C, I believe passionately that good marketing essentials are the same. We are all emotional beings looking for relevance, context and connection.”

This was the underlying theme a packed Keller Room in Ifshin Hall heard from our Careers in Marketing panelists; the latest in our popular career panels series.

Our panel comprised of Mark DeMichaelis ’87 who owns State Garden Inc. a company who supplies many of the lettuce products we eat including Olivia’s Organics, Dan Whitebook ’86 who owns Atlantic Hosier, and Dana Biddiscombe '09 CFO and Patrick Biddiscombe '08 CEO, both of Winooski-based New Breed Marketing.

The panelists were welcomed by Grossman dean Sanjay Sharma and introduced by senior lecturer Amy Tomas, who explained the format; that each panelist would highlight their own career paths and talk to some of their specific organizations’ branding and marketing challenges and approach.

As a family business, Mark identified the imperative to instill the culture of his company into the next generation and gave the inspiring example of his daughters’ impactful involvement in the Greater Boston Food Bank. Dan stressed the need for integrity in business and that “reputation is everything.”

Patrick talked about “the flywheel effect,” which can be the most effective form of marketing by turning customers into evangelists. He also spoke about New Breed’s efforts to “humanize their brand”: especially needed in the B2B space. Dana reinforced this idea using the notion of a “culture code” and how in essence it is the “handbook of what you represent.”

When hiring our panelists identified some key traits necessary to succeed in todays workforce: effort, reliability, authenticity, be a person others want to help succeed, do your homework and research where you want to work, understand your personal elevator pitch and be honest with yourself.

After the conclusion of the panel, panelists met with students allowing for more in-depth conversations and networking.

Thank you to our panelists for your valuable time and sharing your expertise and experiences.