Tim Calkins helps people and organizations build strong brands; he is a marketing professor, author, speaker and consultant.

He is Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He teaches courses including Marketing Strategy and Biomedical Marketing, and is co-academic director of the Kellogg on Branding executive education program.

Tim has received numerous awards for his teaching. In 2018, he received the Top Professor Award from Germany’s Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA Program. He won the Lawrence G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, the top teaching award at Kellogg, in 2006 and 2013, making him one of just five people in the award’s more than forty-year history to have won it twice. He also received the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, two Kellogg Faculty Impact Awards and the Kellogg Executive MBA Program’s Top Professor Award four times. Poets & Quants included him on its list “Favorite MBA Professors of 2016.”

He has written three books. His latest book, How to Wash a Chicken – Mastering the Business Presentation (Page Two, 2018), was named Top Business Book by the IndieReader Discovery Awards, and received the Gold Prize for Business and Economics from the Foreword Indie Book of the Year Awards. 

Tim also wrote Defending Your Brand: How Smart Companies Use Defensive Strategy to Deal with Competitive Attacks (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Expert Marketer Magazine named Defending Your Brand the 2013 Marketing Book of the Year. Earlier, Tim wrote Breakthrough Marketing Plans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 and 2008).

In addition, Tim was co-editor of Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World (John Wiley & Sons, 2019) and Kellogg on Branding (John Wiley & Sons, 2005).

Tim manages Building Strong Brands, a blog on brand strategy. Inc. included the blog on its list of “Six Blogs That Can Teach You More Than an MBA.”

He has published more than a dozen Kellogg case studies including Crestor, MedImmune: FluMist Introduction and Genzyme: the Synvisc-One Investment Decision. He has authored more than two dozen articles on marketing topics.

Tim is an expert on Super Bowl advertising. He created the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review in 2005 and has led the event ever since. Over the past ten years, the program has generated more than five billion media impressions. He has served as a judge for the ANA Genius Awards, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s WOMMY Awards, the Native Creatives Awards and the EthicMark Awards.

In addition to teaching at Kellogg, Tim works with major corporations around the world on strategy and branding issues. His recent clients include Eli Lilly, Medtronic, AB InBev and AbbVie. He is managing director of Class 5 Consulting, a marketing strategy firm.

Tim is frequently cited by the media. He has been quoted in publications including Business Week, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He has appeared on all of the major television networks.

He serves on the board of the Alliance Française de Chicago and completed two terms on the board of the Lycée Français, Chicago’s French-International School.

Tim began his career at the consulting firm Booz Allen and Hamilton, where he worked on strategy projects. He joined the marketing team at Kraft Foods in 1991. During his almost 11 years at Kraft, he led brands including Miracle Whip, Taco Bell, Parkay and DiGiorno. He was responsible for the launch of more than two dozen new products.

He received his BA from Yale and his MBA from Harvard.

Tim lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.

Research interests include branding, marketing strategy and marketing in the biomedical industry.

• MBA, 1991, Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration
• BA, 1987, Yale University

• Clinical Professor of Marketing, Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2006-present
• Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing, Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2002-2006
• Adjunct Assistant Professor of Marketing, Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1998-2002
• Faculty, Keller Graduate School of Management, DeVry University, 1996-1999

• First Runner Up, Business Category, Eric Hoffer Book Award
• Gold Prize for Business and Economics, Foreword Indie Book of the Year Awards
• Top Business Book, IndieReader Discovery Awards
• Top Professor Award, Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA Program
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Faculty Impact Award, Kellogg School of Management
• L. G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, Kellogg School of Management
• L. G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, Kellogg School of Management
• L. G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award
• L. G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
• L. G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award
• Faculty Impact Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Faculty Impact Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Favorite MBA Professors of 2016, Poets & Quants
• L. G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Faculty Impact Award, Kellogg School of Management
• Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management

Courses include Marketing Strategy, Biomedical Marketing and Strategic Marketing Decisions.

Kellogg on Branding

Learn from the people who wrote the book on branding how to build and strengthen the power of your brand. Kellogg’s latest thinking combined with hands-on experience will equip you to boost customer loyalty, heighten competitive advantage and increase profitability.

Strategic Marketing Communications

Explore the power of an integrated marketing communications strategy from fundamental planning to tactical execution utilizing the most current thinking about media channels, customer engagement and measurement. The frameworks and examples provided are applicable to developing both B2C and B2B marketing communications strategies.

The PHYSICIAN CEO™ Program

Strategic Marketing Decisions (MKTGX-468-0)
The basic concepts of marketing are not complicated. It is easy to understand the importance of segmentation and customer research. Few people have gotten confused by the 4 Ps and almost everyone can remember the 3 Cs. Finance concepts are difficult but marketing concepts? Not so much. The challenge in marketing is applying the concepts. Every situation is different so leaders have to consider the best way to approach it. Making strategic marketing decisions isn’t easy; you have incomplete information, not enough resources, smart and driven competitors and changing conditions. You also have to work with a team of people to get agreement and alignment. Understanding the core marketing concepts is not sufficient; marketing leaders have to be able to apply the concepts in different and often challenging situations. The Strategic Marketing Decisions course is designed to help you make smart and strategic choices.

Marketing Strategy (MKTGX-466-0)
The goal of this course is to enhance your knowledge of marketing strategy. Specifically, this course aims to introduce the key elements of marketing strategy, provide a sound framework for problem analysis and action planning, and sharpen your leadership, analytical, and communication skills.

Field Study (MKTG-498-0)
Field Studies include those opportunities outside of the regular curriculum in which a student is working with an outside company or non-profit organization to address a real-world business challenge for course credit under the oversight of a faculty member.

Marketing Strategy for Growth and Defense (MKTG-466-0)
This course presents a dynamic view of competitive brand strategy, with an emphasis on both growth and defense. The course focuses on understanding, developing and evaluating brand strategies over the life of a product market. Topics include developing a strong marketing plan, creating customer advantage, launching new products, finding profitable growth opportunities and responding to competitive moves. The course focuses on overall company strategy, with a heavy emphasis on the financial challenges and tradeoffs, and spends less time on executional, tactical details. The course includes lectures, case studies and a simulation, Markstrat. Final deliverables are an exam and often a final product.

Biomedical Marketing (HCAK-470-0)
The Biomedical Marketing course will give you introduction to marketing in the enormous biomedical industry. The course explores how core marketing concepts like segmentation, targeting, positioning, pricing and new business strategy play out in the complex world of healthcare. In terms of scope, the material includes marketing to providers, physicians, patients, payers and politicians. The course is ideal for students who plan to go into the medical device and pharmaceutical industries, and for students headed to consulting or with an interest in this fast moving arena. Students who have healthcare experience and students new to healthcare will both find the course interesting and thought-provoking. The course includes lectures, case studies, guest speakers and student presentations. Assignments include two short-written essays. The main deliverable is a final project: students analyze a recent new product launch in the industry, and this culminates with a presentation and paper. There is also a final exam.