MBA Team Takes Third in Brand Management Challenge

After preparing their case analysis for more than 30 hours straight, five Berkeley MBA students claimed third prize in the Carlson School's Elite Eight Brand Management Case Competition this past weekend.

The winning Berkeley-Haas team consisted of Nandita Batra, Gabe Cohen, Melissa Millan, Agustina Sacerdote, and Andrea Schalka, all MBA 13. The team beat out Duke, Wharton, and Kellogg to bring home $3,000 and the mantle of Berkeley-Haas’ continued strength in this invitation-only competition.

This year’s challenge was to modernize an 80-year-old food brand by highlighting its versatility through a repositioning and marketing plan.

“Our goal was to leverage emotional connection with the brand, since its functional attributes were well known,” says Schalka. She says the Berkeley-Haas team distinguished itself with its consumer insights and by ensuring consistency between the new positioning for the brand and the marketing plan that would activate it.

Michigan’s Ross School and Carlson took first and second place, respectively.


The Berkeley-Haas winners of the Elite Eight Brand Management Competition (l. to r.): Nandita Batra, Agustina Sacerdote, Andrea Schalka, Gabe Cohen, and Melissa Millan, all MBA 13.

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