Sigma
Summer 2014 MMR Newsletter
Coca-Cola Center for Marketing Studies
Spring Board Meeting: Best of ESOMAR
Opening and Introduction to the Program
Niels Schillewaert, Managing Partner & Co-founder at InSites Consulting; ESOMAR
Council Member
How Culture Shifts and Brands Are Driving the Evolution of Brand
Tom LaForge, Global Director of Human & Cultural Insights, Coca-Cola USA
Most CPG companies have sophisticated means for identifying external market forces, but
few have developed methods for understanding the even larger cultural forces driving the
market dynamics. “The New World” can be characterized by a huge shift in the relationships that companies have with societies. In this relationship economy, the last thing you
want to do is transactionalize your relationship. Shopper researchers beware: do not lose
sight of the longer term relationship as you study the temporal, transactional moment of
purchase. This session addresses the large cultural forces that are reshaping the world in
which our companies, our brands and our consumers live.
Why Big Data is a Small Idea… And why you shouldn’t worry so much
Stephen Needel, Managing Partner, Advanced Simulations, USA
How big is Big Data to the marketing research industry? We haven’t seen this much zealotry and paranoia since Internet interviewing was first proposed or since FIFA abandoned
the Golden Goal. As it turns out, Big Data is not such a big deal. We are worrying way
too much about what it is, what it means, how to work with it, and who’s going to do
it. This session explains why Big Data is not such a big deal, why you shouldn’t worry so
much, and why you’ll be just fine in the future.
Mobilizing your Branded Panel: Panel data quality during the smartphone transition
Joseph Blechman, Sr. Research Manager, AOL, USA
Multi-modal surveys with a smartphone option are quickly becoming a necessity for proprietary consumer facing panels. Mobile presents the opportunity to reach and engage
more and better panelists, and the web underpinnings of smartphones allow the addition
of mobile to web-based data collection with little incremental cost. The challenge, as
with all new data collection techniques, is for researchers to understand and account for
the tradeoffs and fundamental differences between the web option and the burgeoning
mobile option in delivering accurate results and optimizing the investment in panels.
The ‘Irrationalisation’ of Surveys: Using Behavioural Economics to improve
research results
Kevin Karty, Technical Advisory Board, Affinnova Inc., USA
Survey design has been slow to respond to the key lessons from Behavioral Economics
that we often act first, then rationalize our action. This session started with the hypothesis
that replacing survey methods that assumed rationality with methods that accommodated
“predictably irrational” behavior would lead to greater accuracy. Accordingly, a best-inclass traditional approach (monadic) was tested against a discrete-choice exercise with a
naturalistic user interface, as well as more natural alternatives to the traditional “none of
continued on page 3
From the Director
The MMR Advisory Board met on
April 25, 2014 at the Terry Executive
Education Center
in Atlanta to hear
the updates from
the program as well
as status updates on
the incoming and
outgoing classes.
Following student
presentations of the
client-sponsored
Mason
team projects, a
number of alumni and guests joined the
group for lunch and an afternoon “Best
of ESOMAR” program. This was led by
Niels Schillewaert who agreed to serve
as co-chair of the Corporate Outreach
committee to fill the spot vacated by Rob
Arnett who officially took the helm as
MMR Advisory Board Chair following
several years of excellent leadership by Jeff
Miller. Thanks to all of you!
PLACEMENT FOR THE CLASS OF 2014
Once again nearly all of the class has
accepted positions and are settling into
new locales spanning California, Oregon,
Missouri, Indiana, Georgia, North
Carolina, New York and Washington,
DC. Half accepted client side positions
at firms including Aflac, Anheuser-Busch,
Eli Lilly, Hanes Brands, Kids II, Sealed
Air, and the United States Postal Service.
Supplier firms hiring 2014 graduates
include Bellomy, Blue Research, InSites
Consulting, Lieberman Research, MMR
Research Associates, and SKIM.
continued on page 3
Department and Faculty News
Several of Terry’s marketing faculty have been recognized among
the most productive marketing scholars for the 2009-2013 time
period. Sundar Bharadwaj and Son Lam are tied for 8th in
the world in terms of research productivity based on publications
in AMA’s premier journals Journal of Marketing and Journal
of Marketing Research. Caglar Irmak, Son Lam and Sundar
Bharadwaj are tied for 49th based on publications in the top
four marketing journals (i.e. Journal of Marketing, Journal of
Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research and Marketing
Science). As a marketing department, UGA is tied for 27th worldwide based on publications in the premier AMA journals for the
2009 – 2013 time period.
•
Caglar Irmak, Cheryl Wakslak and Yacov Trope, “Selling
the Forest, Buying the Trees: the Effect of Construal Level
on Seller-Buyer Price Discrepancy,” Journal of Consumer
Research, 2013.
•
Joseph Goodman and Caglar Irmak, “Having versus Using:
When a Failure to Estimate Usage Makes Consumers Prefer
Multi-Feature Products,” Journal of Marketing Research, 50
(February), 2013.
Anindita Chakravarty, Rajdeep Grewal , and V.
Sambamurthy, “The Complementary Effects of Information
Technology Capabilities and Organizational Agility in
Digital Firms: Accounting for Unobserved Heterogeneity”
Information Systems Research, 2013.
•
Son Lam was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
Marketing EDGE, a nonprofit education organization (formerly
known as the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation), has
announced that Charlotte Mason will receive the 2014 Robert
B. Clarke Outstanding Educator Award, recognizing an academician's overall achievement in marketing education.
Selected Recent and Forthcoming Publications include:
• Michael Ahearne, Son K. Lam, and Florian Kraus,
“Performance Impact of Middle Managers’ Adaptive Strategy
Implementation: The Role of Social Capital,” Strategic
Management Journal, 2014.
•
Michael Ahearne, Son K. Lam, Babak Hayati, and Florian Kraus,
“Intrafunctional Competitive Intelligence and Sales Performance: A
Social Network Perspective,” Journal of Marketing, 2013.
•
Son K. Lam, Michael Ahearne, Ryan Mullins, Babak
Hayati, and Niels Schillewaert, “Exploring the Dynamics of
Antecedents to Consumer–Brand Identification with a New
Brand,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2013.
•
Guiyang Xiong and Sundar Bharadwaj, “Pre-Release
Buzz Evolution Patterns and New Product Performance”,
Marketing Science, 2014.
•
Guiyang Xiong and Sundar Bharadwaj, “Asymmetric
Roles of Advertising and Marketing Capability in Financial
Returns to News: Turning Bad into Good and Good into
Great,” Journal of Marketing Research, 2013.
•
Promothesh Chatterjee, Caglar Irmak, and Randall Rose,
“Selling as Self-Threat and the Endowment Effect as SelfEnhancement,” Journal of Consumer Research, 2013.
2 • MMR Newsletter
•
Anindita Chakravarty, Rajdeep Grewal, Suprateek
Sarker, and V. Sambamurthy, “Choice of Geographical
Location as Governance Strategy in Outsourcing Contracts:
Localized Outsourcing, Global Outsourcing, and Onshore
Outsourcing” Customer Needs and Solutions, forthcoming.
•
Didem Kurt and John Hulland, “Aggressive Marketing
Strategy Following Equity Offerings and Firm Value: The
Role of Relative Strategic Flexibility,” Journal of Marketing,
2013.
•
Matthew Sarkees, John Hulland, and Rabikar Chatterjee,
“Investments in Exploitation and Exploration Capabilities:
Balance versus Focus,” Journal of Marketing Theory and
Practice, forthcoming.
•
Julio Sevilla and Barbara Kahn, “The Completeness
Heuristic: Product Shape Completeness Influences Size
Perceptions, Preference and Consumption,” Journal of
Marketing Research, 2014.
•
Julio Sevilla and Joseph Redden, “Limited Availability
Reduces the Rate of Satiation,” Journal of Marketing
Research, 2014.
•
J. H Song and Candice Hollenbeck, “Are Contextual
Advertisements Effective? The Moderating Role of
Complexity in Banner Advertising,” International Journal of
Advertising, forthcoming.
•
Scott Thompson, James Loveland, Paul Fombelle,
“Thematic Discrepancy Analysis: A Method to Gain Insights
into Lurkers and Test for Non-Response Bias,” Journal of
Interactive Marketing, 2013.
Summer 2014
FROM THE DIRECTOR
continued from 1
GRADUATION HONORS
The class of 2014, family and faculty enjoyed a graduation dinner
at the Athens Country Club. Following dinner, Professor John
Hulland was announced as recipient of the 2014 MMR Teacher
of the Year Award. Kevin Smith received the 2014 MMR Student
of the Year Award. Congratulations to John and Kevin!
SCHOOL NEWS
A number of changes and new initiatives involving people, facilities and programs are underway at the Terry College. Ben Ayers,
director of the Terry College’s J.M. Tull School of Accounting,
will be dean of the Terry College effective July 1. Correll Hall
which will house the MBA, MMR and Master of Accounting programs is well under construction – and the MMR classroom will
have windows! Classes are scheduled to begin in the new facility
in August 2015. You can follow the progress via the live construction cam at http://earthcam.net/projects/uga/. In terms of programs, the Terry College is launching an online Professional BBA
degree in Spring 2015. Aimed at working professionals, graduates
will earn their bachelor’s degree in General Business.
Finally, preparations are underway for another MMR Research
Summit and Anniversary for Fall 2014. Tentative dates are
November 19-21 with an opening reception on the 19th, full day
research summit followed by a dinner on the 20th, and MMR
Advisory Board meeting and Career Fair on the 21st. The 2011
Research Summit was a great success and I hope that many will
save the upcoming November date for an opportunity to hear
from industry experts, talk with peers, and reconnect with colleagues and alums.
ESOMAR
continued from 1
the above.” Across four CPG categories, the techniques inspired
by Behavioral Economics better predicted actual market volumes
than traditional techniques.
Kevin Karty presenting during the Best of ESOMAR session at the
Spring board meeting.
Summer 2014
New Faculty
Candice R. Hollenbeck received her Ph.D. from the University
of Georgia in Consumer Learning and Education with an emphasis in both the sociocultural and symbolic
dimensions of consumer behavior and the
cultural ecology of consumption identities.
Candice has taught the MMR qualitative
research course since 2005 and is now
transitioning from a part-time Assistant
Professor to full-time Lecturer within our
department. Her research uses qualitative
methods and she currently serves as a faculty member for the UGA Interdisciplinary
HOLLENBECK
Qualitative Studies Graduate Certificate
Program. She has published qualitative research papers in
the Journal of Retailing, Consumption, Markets, & Culture,
International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of
Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Advertising,
and Psychology & Marketing amongst others. Before her academic
career, Candice worked in research and practice related to public
health. She spent six years with Johnson and Johnson and has
worked on industry projects focused on improving public health
with clients such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Grady Hospital in Atlanta, American Cancer Society, and the
International Association of Worksite Health Promotion. Candice
enjoys yoga, hiking, and reading novels at the beach! She also
loves spending time with her husband Dave, two kids Alex (6)
and Anna Kate (4), and traveling.
Jennifer Osbon received her MBA from the University of
Georgia in 1997. She returns to UGA from her position as CEO
and Founder of MegaPlayer, a full service
digital and social media agency. Jennifer has
spent her entire career in digital marketing,
from the first Internet bubble to present.
She has worked on both the brand and
agency sides of the business with global
brands such as UPS, Coca-Cola, Sunglass
Hut and countless others. An entrepreneur, she founded MegaPlayer in 2007
and has enjoyed the personal and profesOSBON
sional growth that can only come from
starting and building a business. Turning her attention to the
development of young talent, she has accepted a full-time role as
Lecturer at The University of Georgia where she leads the Digital
Marketing Area of Emphasis. In this role she teaches social media
marketing strategy and digital analytics – curriculum that she
developed – to both undergraduates and MBA students. By participating in the Area of Emphasis in Digital Marketing, students
graduate with a highly valued, employable skill set. She sits on
the UGA Marketing Executive Board and is a very active member
of the Digital Community in Atlanta. In her extremely limited
downtime, she enjoys reading, playing tennis, traveling, and
drinking red wine. She lives in Duluth, Georgia with her three
daughters Kathryn, Rosemary and Veronica.
MMR Newsletter • 3
Altria Executive Seminar Series
The seminar series is an important component of the MMR
curriculum. Throughout the program, marketing research practitioners take time from busy schedules to visit the UGA campus
and share their insights and experiences with MMR students.
The series offers a valuable supplement to the traditional program
coursework and provides a medium for introducing MMR students to the latest industry trends and practices.
The seminar series is constantly evolving. New seminars and
speakers in the past year include Making Brain Science Pragmatic
(Lieberman Research), Packaging Research (Affinnova) and
Storytelling (BBDO). If you are interested in participating in
the Seminar Series or would like to recommend someone, please
contact Charlotte Mason (cmason@uga.edu) or Marcus Cunha
(cunhamv@uga.edu).
Gloria Guo, Mike Kessling and Remy
Denton
Kids II
Market Research in the Product Development Cycle
Bruce Olson MMR Research and
Brian Stifel Cox Communications
Report Writing Workshop
Francine Faiella
Nielsen Catalina Solutions
Digital Advertising Effectiveness
Barbara Connors, Jake King and
Lauren Washington
dunnhumbyUSA
Customer-First Analytics
Lindsay Zaltman
Olson Zaltman Associates
Tapping into the Consumer Unconscious
Paul Rubenstein
Accelerant Research
Behavioral Economics and Consumer Decision Making
John Traynor
In Vivo BVA USA
Panel: Careers in Market Research
Tim Norvell
Elon University
Interviewing & Careers in Marketing Research
Tom LaForge
The Coca-Cola Company
Macroforces & Trends
Niels Schillewaert
InSites Consulting
Social Media and Market Research
Alec Schendzelos
Camden Metrics
The Lost Art of Product Testing
Amy Avery
Proximity BBDO
Digital Analytics
Randy Adis and Sarah Alio
PepsiCo
Us and You 2.0: The Evolving Research Industry and Professional
Charles Swann
Lieberman Research Worldwide
Making Brain Science Pragmatic
4 • MMR Newsletter
Summer 2014
Benjamin Hagedorn
Infegy, Inc.
Social Radar: Demonstration and Applications
Laura Dahlgren, Brent Taylor, Brandis
Banks, and Chris D’Amico
Altria
Consumer Research and the New Product Development Process
Peter Cronin, Jemi Crooks,
and Andrew Zuehlke
Affinnova
Packaging Research
Vikram Hosur & Sonya Shen
FedEx
Project Management
Jill Eberle and Shelly Ray
Lynx Research
The Marketing Research Process
David Sackin
BBDO
Storytelling
Charles Guilbeau
Anheuser-Busch
Ad Testing (including Super Bowl)
Scott Layne, Cari Pirello and Stephanie Green
Marketing Workshop
International Product Launch of an Existing Brand
Chris Murphy
Millward Brown
Equity Measurement
CLASS OF 2015
The Class of 2015 at the UGA Challenge Course.
Summer 2014
MMR Newsletter • 5
MMR Class of 2014 Corporate Projects
The Coca-Cola Company 1
Project Team: Catherine Callaway,
Christina Collepardi, Emma Torpy
Faculty advisor: Caglar Irmak
This project investigated the traits consumers believe determine a brand’s
“warmth”, a factor that is becoming
increasingly important in today’s marketplace as consumers pay more attention to
corporations’ social responsibility activities. The first step in the project was an
extensive literature review to clearly define
brand warmth and to provide a framework
for the study. Next, the team assessed
how company/brand actions and policies
increase/decrease consumer perception
of a brand’s warmth based on the traits
that comprise brand warmth. To do so, a
survey was conducted with 500 American
consumers, who evaluated the brand
warmth of Coca-Cola with respect to the
relevant traits and real world scenarios.
The results were valuable to Coca-Cola
in deciding what actions would influence
consumers’ brand warmth perceptions,
as well as what types of consumers are
responsive to such actions.
The Coca-Cola Company 2
Project Team: Sarah Kalfon, Isaac
Kaufman, Nisha Sheth, Shawn Wicker
Faculty Advisor: Marcus Cunha
The objective of the study was to uncover
insights regarding thoughts, feelings and,
intended behavior toward sweeteners
among 18-25 year-olds. The team used
a three-pronged approach to address the
research problem. After reviewing secondary research about sweeteners, the
team conducted in-depth interviews with
respondents in the target audience. The
qualitative insights resulting from these
interviews were used to design a quantitative study involving a survey conducted
within the target audience. The results of
the quantitative survey were factor analyzed and the factors were used as inputs
to a cluster analysis that allowed the team
to segment the market. Parallel to the
6 • MMR Newsletter
qualitative and quantitative portions of the
project, the team also conducted an analysis of social media conversations about
sweeteners using Infegy’s Social Radar
software platform. Students reported having learned a great deal given the breadth
and the depth of the project and representatives of the Coca-Cola Company were
very impressed with the team's findings.
Eli Lilly
Project Team: Derick Davidson, Stephanie
Schultz, Chris Vaughan
Faculty Advisor: John Hulland
The UGA MMR Project Team working with Eli Lilly focused on addressing the following key research question:
How should Eli Lilly and Company
participate in the movement to reduce
the stigma associated with dementia due
to Alzheimer’s disease (AD)? The team
reviewed and critically evaluated previous
stigma work done on behalf of Eli Lilly,
conducted extensive secondary research
to identify appropriate disease analogs,
and developed – and presented – recommendations to a diverse and experienced
management group. Focusing on six key
dimensions of stigma, the team looked
at the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses that various stakeholders
have towards different stigma reduction
messages they encounter. Finally, they
reviewed how other companies and organizations have approached the issue of
stigma reduction, and identified a set of
best practices.
MeadWestvaco
Project Team: Van Blackwood, Chad
Cown, Kevin Smith
Faculty Advisor: Rich Fox
Sustainability refers to a system of development which meets current needs without compromising future generations’
ability to meet their needs. The term
sustainability has become increasingly
popular in recent years as governments,
businesses and consumers recognize their
joint responsibility for preserving our
environment. In the packaging industry,
there is growing demand for smarter
packaging solutions incorporating the
“3Rs” of sustainability: reduce, reuse and
recycle. As a major packaging manufacturer MeadWestvaco has a vested interest
in consumer understanding and response
to “green” marketing communications.
This project involved both qualitative
and quantitative phases focused on consumer understanding of commonly used
sustainability terminology and “green”
marketing claims such as certifications, use
of renewable energy and use of recycled
materials. The study also addressed consumer perceptions regarding the relative
environmental “friendliness” of various
packaging materials, as well as willingness
to pay for increased packaging sustainability. The team participated in the design of
the focus group study guide, reported the
findings, designed a quantitative follow-up
study which included a conjoint analysis
portion and several Max-Diff applications,
and summarized and reported the results.
The MeadWestvaco project yielded valuable insight and understanding to the
company and provided the MMR team
valuable experience in conducting a marketing research study.
Salon 124
Project Team: Emily Hall, Katherine
McComb, Hannah Thompson, Carolyn
Wittenbraker
Faculty Advisor: Candice Hollenbeck
Salon 124 operates two chains of hair
salons in the Metro Atlanta area – Salon
124 and Genesis Salon. Genesis is
designed to appeal to younger consumSummer 2014
ers than Salon 124 appeals to. The MMR
team addressed three business questions
related to strategy listed below.
• What strategies should be employed
to differentiate the Salon 124 and
Genesis Salon brands?
• What services/products should Salon
124 focus on in order to increase
sales?
• What specific locations should Salon
124 consider for opening additional
salons?
To address the first question, the team
conducted an online survey of clients in
order to define current client perceptions
of the brands, to determine client needs
and priorities and to explore the client
perceptions of luxury in the salon setting. The team conducted an online focus
group with company stylists to obtain
their thoughts regarding increasing sales
of products / services in the salons. A
portion of the online client survey also
addressed the business question regarding
increasing retail sales. Finally, to address
site location for additional salons, the
team used a map analysis along with a
geo-demographic analysis of current and
potential salon locations to pinpoint desirable locations. Salon 124 management was
pleased with the findings, and envisioned
several ways to implement them into
future strategy.
Master of
Marketing Research
Ben C. Ayers, Dean
Charlotte Mason, Director, MMR
Richard Fox, Graduate
Coordinator, MMR
Jamese Meyer, Program
Coordinator, MMR
The University of Georgia
Terry College of Business, Brooks Hall,
Athens, Georgia
(706) 542-0426
terry.uga.edu/mmr
ADVISORY BOARD
United States Postal Service
Project Team: Josh Darling, Allie
LeFeuvre, Syntrell Tate
Faculty Advisor: Son Lam
The objectives of the United States Postal
Service ( USPS ) project were to track
USPS market share ( in both C2C and C2B
contexts) and to identify determinants of
consumer shipping behavior (namely, shipper quality perceptions and shipper selection
criteria) , and to investigate how share and
customer priorities may vary during the
Christmas holiday season. Using randomlyselected samples of consumers, the MMR
team collected weekly data over ten weeks
before, during, and after Christmas (much
return shipping occurs after Christmas).
The team analyzed the weekly survey results
tracking market share, perceived brand
performance and carrier selection drivers
through the Christmas season. The data
analysis revealed not only weekly patterns,
but also the dynamics of market shares and
consumer behavior over the said period.
We Want
to Hear
from You!
Please send your
news via email to:
jmeyer@uga.edu
The Advisory Board is comprised of recognized leaders in marketing research from a
broad cross-section of client and supplier
firms. Board members provide strategic and
curricular guidance to the program, share
their experiences including new methodologies and practices via the Altria Executive
Seminar Series, and provide placement
opportunities for students.
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Altria
BBDO
Bellomy Research
Burke, Inc.
CASRO
Consumer Insights
Directions Research, Inc.
Eli Lilly and Company
InSites Consulting
Johnson & Johnson Vision Care
JPMorgan Chase
Kimberly-Clark
Lynx Research Consulting
M/A/R/C
McKinsey & Company
MeadWestvaco
Merck & Co., Inc.
Millward Brown
MMR Research Associates, Inc.
PepsiCo
The Coca-Cola Company
ADVISORY BOARD STEERING
COMMITTEE
Board Chair: Rob Arnett
Past Chair: Jeff Miller
Chair-elect: pending
Co-Chairs of Corporate Outreach
Committee: Niels Schillewaert and Lisa
Courtade
Co-Chairs of Student Skills Committee:
David Sackin and Leslie Schall
Chair of Alumni Engagement
Committee: Mike Courtney
MMR Director: Charlotte Mason
MMR Graduate Coordinator: Rich Fox
MMR Students of the Year (ex officio):
Kevin Smith (MMR ’14) and Leah Root
(MMR ’13)
or
cmason@uga.edu
Summer 2014
MMR Newsletter • 7
Alumni Corner
2011
2002
Anna Harvan is still with Eli Lilly where she received a promotion in February to Market Research Consultant. She is
now working in their New Product Planning business.
Praveen Sharma was promoted to Vice President, Marketing Science Center with TNS in July 2013 – and notes
that “whenever there is a chance, I enjoy going over my
notes from the MMR course.”
2010
Maria Celina (Iglesia) married Ping Wang in May 2014.
2009
Pam (Zellmer) and Jarrett Evett were married on November
2, 2013, in Johns Creek, GA. Pam and Jarrett currently reside
in Greenville, SC, where Pam continues to work at Michelin
North America. Pam recently was promoted from Marketing
Research Manager to Insights Manager, and she celebrated
her 5 year work anniversary at Michelin this June.
2008
Barbara Connors will be getting married to Rick Stumpf
on October 25, 2014 in Athens, Georgia
2006
Brenda Munroe, now Brenda Allen-Toon is off to Virginia! My
husband, Bill, accepted a job with the Loudon County Fire
Department as their Emergency Medicine Training Manager.
Bill, Brenda and Sierra will be relocating to Ashburn, Virginia
in June. Sierra says that attending the Gymdog meets are
what have inspired her passion for gymnastics. Despite being injured just prior to the state meet, she still managed to
take the Kansas State title for Vault for her level. In 2013, she
was the Kansas State Champion in the all-around, vault, bars
and floor. We also welcomed a new member to our family
in January of 2013. Her name is Evita. She is a Hungarian
Vizsla. She has quickly become Brenda’s running buddy.
Evita loves to catch chew bones, swim and catch Frisbees.
All my best to my fellow 2006 classmates!
2004
Since August 2013, Dr. Jens Keller has been working at The
Volkswagen Group as a Clinic and Ad-hoc Researcher.
2003
Manju Sudhakaran reports that he has been promoted to
the role of Manager, in the QCT Strategic Business Analysis team at Qualcomm.
8 • MMR Newsletter
1988
After working as a consultant for Chick-fil-A for several
years and conducting taste tests for everything from their
new salads to kids meals, Janet Jenness Eason made
a major career change and is the Director of Children's
Ministry for Intown Community Church in Atlanta, GA.
In January of 2014, Chris Fagan (MMR ’88) and her
husband Marty became the first American married couple
to ski, unguided and unsupported, from the edge of the
Antarctic continent to the South Pole. To get there, Chris
and Marty each hauled 220 pound sleds filled with food
and equipment, averaging 9 hours a day for 48 days over
a distance of 570 miles. During their seven weeks on the
ice they endured the coldest and windiest place on earth
while experiencing intense physical and mental challenges
– something few married couples have ever attempted.
Only about 100 people in history have completed an unsupported and unguided full expedition to the South Pole.
The Fagan’s hope their successful effort at the South Pole
will inspire their son, the students at his school and all the
people that followed their journey. “We want to inspire
people to imagine possibilities that seem beyond their
reach, to push outside their comfort zones, and reach their
full potential,” says Chris. Chris is the founder of SparkFire, a creative thinking consultancy. Learn more about her
expedition at www.3belowzero.com.
Industry News
Bill Denk (MMR ’82) and Bruce Olson (MMR ’93) are
excited to announce they recently acquired full ownership
of MMR Research Associates, Inc. from company founder
Mark Jones (MMR ’84). MMR Research is in its 15th year
of operation, and not surprisingly, many of the company’s
employees are alumni of the MMR program (including
recent graduate, Shawn Wicker). Company headquarters
are at 80 Mill Street, Roswell, Ga 30075, with additional
offices in Dallas, TX; Washington, DC; Detroit, MI; and
Athens, GA.
Summer 2014