Photo © Evanston Photographic

Professor Tim Calkins is a clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He teaches a variety of marketing classes, including marketing strategy, the most popular marketing elective in the Kellogg MBA program. A Kellogg School faculty member since 1998, he also serves as co-academic director of the school’s branding program and instructs courses in the Kellogg School’s executive education programs. He is the author of Breakthrough Marketing Plans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and is co-editor of Kellogg on Branding (John Wiley & Sons, 2005).

In 2006, the Kellogg School recognized Professor Calkins with the coveted Lawrence G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award. Students bestowed the honor on the marketing professor for his dynamic teaching style and the ability to convey his subject in rich and vivid detail.

Professor Calkins compiled the first Super Bowl advertising review in 1999, and expanded it to the current format to include student input in 2005. His focus in evaluating Super Bowl advertising is simple: will the advertising build the brand and drive sales? Does the advertising make strategic sense? According to Professor Calkins, “Creativity is great, and popularity is great, but at the end the day advertising has to build the business.”

Both prior to and during his time with the Kellogg School, Professor Calkins has worked with major corporations around the world on marketing strategy and branding issues. Before entering the academic world, he spent nearly 11 years managing brands including Miracle Whip, Taco Bell, A.1. and DiGiorno at Kraft Foods. In the process, he received numerous industry awards, including a gold EFFIE and Hill and Holiday’s Against All Odds Award, for his direction and vision in creative advertising campaigns. Professor Calkins continues to work with and counsel companies on marketing issues. Locally, he sat on the Chicago 2016 marketing committee, successfully helping to secure Chicago as the official U.S. Olympic Committee Applicant City for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Professor Calkins has been quoted in publications including BusinessWeek, Newsweek, USA Today, Advertising Age and The New York Times.

Professor Calkins received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.