From Chevrolet’s perspective, Majoros said the DTU program’s fellows and mentors have made the brand and General Motors realize “there’s awesome talent everywhere.” Its dispelled the notion that the company needs to keep going back to the University of Michigan’s Kellogg School, Duke University’s Fuqua School or other more lauded business schools to find the level of talent necessary to fill GM’s marketing ranks. It also reinforced the need to provide opportunities to HBCU students, who’ve increased the number of applications to the DTU program each year and have sought second internships with the company after completing their first.
By providing students that opportunity and successful training that actually results in employment—even at companies other than GM—the DTU program functions as its own form of marketing for Chevrolet. By connecting the brand with positive experiences, DTU introduces Chevrolet to students who may never have given it their consideration. Those same students may one day reintroduce the brand to a similarly indifferent world.
“These young folks produce great content, they are socially savvy, they give us perspective on the audience that they can help us engage with, but importantly they become someone who can look at a company like General Motors and Chevrolet,” Majoros said. “There are people that don’t have an experience with our brand, or perhaps have one terrible experience with a crappy 1985 Chevy Beretta or something, and it takes a lot to get people to think differently about a traditional legacy company.”
Source link
