Office of Communications
470C Wohlers Hall
College of Business
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NEWS
ARCHIVE Office of Communications 470C Wohlers Hall College of Business |
April 29, 2002 -- News Brief
The Food & Brand Lab held a Branding Commodities Symposium in Chicago at the Illini Center in Chicago on April 19th. Enrollment was limited to directors, vice-presidents, and presidents of agribusiness firms. Attendees included presidents from ADM, Barclay Bank, and Miller Grain along with 24 industry experts from the USDA, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the Chicago Board of Trade.
Over
the past 12 months, nine graduate students (photo left with Professor Brian
Wansink far right) working in the Food
& Brand Lab -- all PhD or MBA
students in the College of Commerce and Business Administration -- have become
commodity branding experts for different commodities. Their insights were pooled
into a series of "best theory and best practices" presentations that
dealt with differentiating commodities, identity preservation in the production
chain, sustainable competitive advantage, and the pricing, promoting, and distribution
of branded commodities.
The day began with a coffee reception and a welcome by Brian Wansink, associate professor of marketing in the College of Commerce and Business Administration and director of the Food & Brand Lab. Twenty-minute long project presentations were followed by panel discussions. Cynthia Eisenhardt, vice-president of marketing from Dean Foods, was the luncheon speaker. Ms. Eisenhardt is responsible for launching the Milk Chug.
Details from the presentations will soon be available on www.ConsumerPsychology.net. This Branding Commodities Symposium is the 4th Annual Discovery Day for the Food & Brand Lab. Last year's Discovery Day focused on how World War II influenced the habits of consumers. Entitled "Surveying Private Ryan," that day attracted participants and audience members from as far away as Georgia and California.
Discovery Day is a program jointly sponsored by the Food & Brand Lab and the Food and Agribusiness Management Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.