Campus News

Media Contact: Rita Elliott, Director of Communications, 815-226-3374

The PURI School of Business at Rockford University is pleased present the first Thought Leaders Lecture Serieswith special guest speaker Mohanbir Sawhney, Ph.D., from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University on Monday, April 18 at 4:30 p.m. in the PURI School of Business building, located on the campus of Rockford University, 5050 East State Street, Rockford.

Dr. Sawhney is the McCormick Foundation Chair of Technology, Clinical Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Center for Research in Technology & Innovation. His presentation, “The New Rules of Digital Age Marketing,” addresses how marketing needs to transform to stay relevant in the digital age. Customers are becoming immune to traditional push-based marketing. Customers demand personalization, relevance and timeliness of marketing messages. To connect with the new customers, marketers and marketing will have to transform. Marketing will need to be anchored in creative storytelling but be powered by analytics and agile experimentation.

Dr. Sawhney will present five shifts that will define Modern Marketing:

• Strategy: From Product-Led Outbound Marketing to Content-Led Inbound Marketing
• Creative: From Rational Information to Emotional Storytelling
• Media: From Offline/Online Media to Transmedia
• Process: From Waterfall Marketing to Agile Marketing
• Execution: From Campaign-Centric Marketing to Always-On Marketing

Dr. Sawhney will paint a clear picture of the future of marketing processes, marketing skills and the marketing organization that will be needed to survive and thrive in the digital age. In addition, he will bring these ideas to life with examples and case studies from his experience with leading technology companies, analytics companies and technology startups that are creating new tools for Modern Marketing.

For more information, please contact Sydney Holmgren, Office of Graduate Studies, at 815.226.4021 or SHolmgren@rockford.edu.