Victoria Gustafson is a Global Strategy Executive with a passion for business growth. She is currently a Partner, Business Evolution at Verde Associates, a boutique growth consulting firm headquartered in Chicago, IL. Prior to joining Verde, Victoria spent over a decade working at IRI in a variety of key roles, including content marketing, product development, account management, and corporate strategy. During her career, she helped the world’s leading brands, including Lysol, Mucinex, TRESemme, L’Oréal, Sally Hansen, and French’s to find growth through data-driven marketing and innovation. Victoria holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

1. Can you tell us about your initial interest in Marketing and your first professional break in this field?
My first job out of college was an internal auditor for Philips Electronics, N.A. based in the Silicon Valley. My travel schedule was grueling, the environment was not very friendly (who likes an auditor?), but the job was very interesting and exposed me to a wide variety of businesses and issues. This was the first time I became interested in marketing and strategy in a significant way. After a while, I was asking to be put on the teams that were conducting audits in that area, and I had a lot of fun with it. I found marketing to be the perfect intersection of psychology and math – two subjects that I have always loved. Later, I decided to pursue a graduate degree in marketing and strategic management. Philips was very supportive of me moving into this field. When I moved to Chicago to go to the University of Chicago then GSB, I got a job as a marketing analyst supporting one of their sales channels. And the rest is history.

2. Is there any single piece of advice you have received in your career that has proven to be instrumental to your professional success?
I was very lucky in my life and had many wonderful mentors, but one piece of advice that I received early on in my career became the guiding principle for all decisions I had to make. This advice came from Brian Dundon, the CEO of Lighting Electronics division of Philips Lighting. He once told me that the sign of a good business strategy is when it allows a company to “make money now, and make more money later”. Of course, I understood that it’s not only about money, it is about non-monetary wins too. But this idea that you have to strive to find a strategy that contributes to both short- and long-term gains really stuck with me. I have applied this principle to every major decision I had to make, both in professional and in personal life.

3. You will be teaching a new course on Marketing Content this summer. Its goal is to engage students in the creative process and the many ways of building brand awareness. This can be a daunting task. How do you get started in this process?
I am very excited about this class – I love new beginnings. When I think back on my professional career, the majority of jobs that I had were brand new positions. So, I’m approaching this class in the same way that made me successful in business. I’m starting with the question “what do we need to accomplish by the end of this class” and build a plan to get us there. I love the creativity of marketing, but I also want to make sure that this creativity is channeled to maximally contribute to the end goal. At the end of the day, we all want our work to be fun and effective. This is exactly how I’m building this course.

4. In your opinion, what should people interested in a career in digital marketing strategy know about this field or get acquainted with prior to seeking a college education?
Digital marketing is one of the fastest moving fields out there. This means that whatever you learn in college will give you a good foundation on how to think through specific issues, but you have to add professional curiosity and, in many cases, resilience, to succeed. You really have to have passion for learning new things and be constantly thinking about how to adapt existing processes and tools to fit in your specific needs. This kind of personal investment in one’s professional life is a lot to ask. So, before seeking a career in digital marketing, I would ask students to think about whether they have the drive and personality to sustain it long-term.

5. What aspects of your experience do you feel are the most valuable to our students?
Content marketing starts and ends with content. I think we are often preoccupied with “how you say it” and not with “what you say”. Engaging your current and potential customers with interesting, meaningful, relevant content has to be front and center. My background in market research – looking for insights that are both unique and actionable helps tremendously with creating this content. Plus, being in business development for so many years has given me a great understanding of how to motivate somebody to buy your product or service. Choosing the platform and form of communication is the fun part!

6. Are there any industry-specific trends you are interested in exploring?
I have spent a lot of time lately thinking about effectiveness and efficiency of digital consumer targeting. We have so many cutting edge tools at our disposal, and yet we can’t figure out how to target well. There is no reason why the same ad for a product that you have decided not to buy four months ago follows you everywhere you go on the internet. Not only does it waste precious resources, it also creates a negative feeling towards brands, creating exactly the opposite effect ads are set out to achieve. As an industry, we have got to do it better!

7. Can you share one of your greatest professional achievements with us?

I think my greatest professional achievement is my versatility. Over the course of my career, I worked in five different functions, and succeeded in every one of them. I am naturally a very curious person, and I’m also very driven to succeed. So, I do whatever it takes to do it. I always learn a lot in that process, and the more you learn, the more versatile you get. I have never become complacent because I constantly do new things and meet people who can teach me a great deal. I guess you can say that I like to take myself outside of the comfort zone. I’m very proud that I preserved this hunger for learning throughout my 20+ year career.

8. …and your most humbling professional experience?
Ha! Great question. Yes, I absolutely had one of those, and thanks to that experience I learned that passion beats brains every time. I was working on a project that I was absolutely qualified for professionally, but my heart was not really into it. So, I just went through the motions, while my colleagues were really invested. As a result, my section of the final report was just OK, a solid C+, I would say, while my colleagues left no stone unturned and delivered stellar work. I did not get fired, but this experience forever changed me. Ever since then, I have been avoiding projects or assignments that I’m absolutely and totally not excited about. If you are passionate about something, you will find a way to excel.

9. “Only busy people get things done”. It does seem to apply to you. What do you think of that statement?
I think it is absolutely true. Busy people are used to knocking tasks off of their To Do lists. I also find that people are as busy as they want to be, so those who are busy want to stay busy and the more they can do now, the more they can do in the future.

10. What do you like to do in your down time?
I have two passions: traveling and reading. I grew up in the Soviet Union, where we were not allowed to travel abroad, so ever since I came to the U.S. I travel every chance I get. I have a tradition of never celebrating my birthday in the country. So far, so good! But reading is my first passion. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a literary critic, so that passion stayed with me through the years. Reading is the true definition of ‘me time’—a luxury that I definitely treasure!

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