11 Colleges and Universities To Tap for Next-Gen CPG Talent
When CPG companies seek to hire new top marketing and technology talent, the most desired attribute is often experience. But the high number of senior executives opting for retirement during the Great Resignation means more lower-level executives moving up the ranks.
As a result, the influx of suddenly now-open lower-level positions could lead to employers turning to new grads to fill those open positions, says Dennis Theodorou, managing director of Detroit-based JMJ Phillip Executive Search.
“Talent acquisition departments have been beefed up a little bit, but also hiring third-party recruiters to be head hunting more often within the CPG industry has seen an uptick,” he tells CGT.
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Forward-thinking CPGs can fill their lower ranks with up-and-coming talent with the latest business school undergraduates, who not only come infused with — and are enthused for — the latest tech, trends, and techniques, but can be more easily inculcated into their new company’s culture, mission, and methodologies.
To accelerate the recruitment process, many companies build relationships with local schools “because, with the competitive landscape of top talent, you’re going to have to build relationships with more than one university,” Theodorou advises.
“You have people coming from similar universities that work at that company being able to go back as alumni and sharing their experiences and recruiting out of those programs. It benefits the CPG company to create that relationship because it creates a constant feeder tool they have for recruitment.”
To determine some of the top undergraduate colleges and universities for CPG marketing and technology, we examined the most recent business university and college rankings and ratings from Poets&Quants, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, QS World University Rankings, College Consensus, and others.
However, many top business schools focus primarily on training for jobs in finance, consulting, and high tech, with far fewer degree earners taking jobs in CPG-related fields. As a result, we also examined which business schools had close associations with, curricula designed for, geographic proximity to, and were major talent feeders for major CPG companies.
We also looked at B-School professors listing real-world CPG experience on their curriculum vitae. “All universities kind of trickle in that real-life experience with the professors that have more of an academia background,” Theodorou said. “I do hear and see that is on the rise.”
While this is not intended to be a definitive ranking of the “best” schools, presented here are 11 strong universities and colleges from which CPG companies can recruit marketing and technology talent. Since geography plays a part in where college grads find work, we present this otherwise-unranked list from East to West Coast.
“It makes sense to grab students from universities that are nearby,” Theodorou notes. “There’s familiarity of that CPG company in that specific geography [and], culture wise, very similar, of course. By staying in the same geography, there are small factors that play a big role. It just makes sense to target universities within your geography.”
New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business
Consistently ranked as one of the top business schools in the country — #5 for its business programs overall and #6 for marketing specifically in U.S. News’ undergrad business program rankings, #5 by College Consensus, and #8 by Poets&Quants — NYU Stern graduates earn jobs at a wide variety of CPGs including Bayer, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Mars Wrigley, PepsiCo, and Kraft Heinz. (The ability for Stern students to receive four years of exposure to and experience in a global capitalism hub is worth noting as well.)
Cornell University S.C. Johnson School of Business
Cornell’s Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics includes two graduate programs and the highly-rated but exclusive S.C. Johnson undergrad program — Poets&Quants found it had the most competitive B-school acceptance rate, at just 4.17%. In overall business school rankings, Poets&Quants rated S.C. Johnson #6 and #8 in career outcomes, U.S. News ranked the school as the #8 business program, and College Consensus #6. Considering its famous namesake, the school is one of the few to tout its CPG bona fides, noting that its “grads take their supply chain, consumer behavior, marketing, and product management knowledge to big brands like S.C. Johnson, L’Oréal, and Amazon.”
University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School
With Procter & Gamble as a leading corporate partner, UNC Kenan-Flagler provides an impressive CPG undergrad education imprimatur. The university brags that P&G “is highly engaged across UNC Kenan-Flagler programs and centers,” and notes that Kenan-Flagler’s Global Business Center was one of only three universities awarded a $50,000 grant for the development of a new Inclusive Global Leadership curriculum. P&G also sponsors the school’s Undergraduate Business Symposium, Digital Marketing Bootcamp, and numerous student clubs and organizations. Overall, UNC Kenan-Flagler ranked #8 in U.S. News’ undergraduate business school ratings, and #10 in Poets&Quants’ listing.
Indiana University Kelley School of Business
Seven of Kelley’s 20 business majors ranked in U.S. News’ top 10 undergrad business programs, including #3 in marketing. Perhaps more impressive for potential CPG recruiters, in 2023 Kelley was awarded the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Model Entrepreneurship Program Award “in recognition of bold and innovative programs that make an impact in the field of entrepreneurship education.” Procter & Gamble was Kelley’s top undergrad CPG employer, with General Mills and Kraft Heinz also providing Kelley MBA earners with CPG jobs.
Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management
If you’re looking for a well-rounded liberal arts business executive, Northwestern’s Kellogg offers a special program: Instead of the usual business administration degree, students can earn four-year Financial Economics or Managerial Academic certificates that supplement a non-business major to develop “mathematically-based analytical tools and models needed to make business decisions.” The school lists CPG as one of its top five target industries for those who go on to its MBA program, feeding hires to companies like Nike, Pepsico, Kraft Heinz, Procter & Gamble, and Tyson.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Gies College of Business
Ranked #12 in Poets&Quants top undergrad business programs and #17 by U.S. News, UI’s Gies is a regularly highly-rated public institution that sends a notable percentage of grads to jobs at major CPGs including PepsiCo and Frito-Lay, 3M, Eli Lilly, and Kraft Heinz. Gies’ “cohort sequence” goes beyond the usual business administration curricula via four foundational courses in professional responsibility, business dynamics, business in action, and global business, all of which embodies the school’s core Business on Purpose purpose-driven philosophy.
Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan
Regularly ranked among the best public universities in the nation, U.S. News awarded Michigan Ross its top undergrad marketing school ranking in 2023 and ranked it #4 for undergraduate business programs, QS World University rated Michigan Ross #4 globally in undergraduate business programs and #3 in supply chain management, and Poets&Quants ranked Ross #8 overall and #5 in career outcomes. While Ross sent only 2.7% of its Business Administration degree earners into CPG, top employers for graduates include Clorox, Kimberly-Clark, General Mills, and PepsiCo.
Western Michigan University Haworth College of Business
As noted in the intro, numbers and rankings never tell the whole story, and this list would be incomplete without adding Western Michigan's dedicated Food and CPG Marketing program. Deeply embedded within the CPG industry, WMU offers a bachelor's degree in food marketing and sends students on to work at such consumer goods stalwarts as E. & J. Gallo, Hormel Foods, SpartanNash, The Kellogg Company (now Kellanova), and Kraft Heinz. Russell Zwanka, director of the program, has deep roots in the retail and CPG industry, including tenures at Price Chopper Supermarkets and The North West Company, and the program is widely accepted to be a strong feeder to today's major CPGs.
University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business
Rated #4 in marketing, #1 in accounting, and #9 top public school by U.S. News, as well as #8 overall by College Consensus, 5.6% of UT Austin McCombs’ 2022 graduates obtained positions with CPG firms including Abercrombie & Fitch, Chewy, Kraft Heinz, Nike, PepsiCo and Frito-Lay, Procter & Gamble, and Texas-based HEB and Keurig Dr. Pepper. CPGs attending the school’s Career Expo this fall also include Eli Lilly, General Mills, and Uniqlo. Among McCombs’ 10 business majors are CPG-oriented marketing, management information systems, business analytics, and supply chain management. Lamar Johnson, executive director of McComb’s Center for Customer Insights & Marketing Solutions, served more than 33 years as an executive at Procter & Gamble.
University of Southern California Marshall School of Business
Perched at the top of Poets&Quants’ 2023 top business school rankings, USC Marshall became just the third school to top the site’s undergrad B-school list. U.S. News rated Marshall at #12 in marketing and #8 in business programs. Included in Marshall’s CPG applicable curriculum is its Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab designed to build “an ecosystem of students and professionals equipped with the business skills and resources to advance market-based approaches to pressing societal issues,” the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and the Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute.
University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business
Overall, Haas tied as U.S. News’ second best undergrad business school in the just-released 2024 rankings, and ranked #3 in the College Consensus rankings. In addition to its usual business school degrees, Haas offers a second simultaneous undergrad degree in Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (MET), “a program for students who want to be at the intersection of engineering and business.” MET includes an Entrepreneurial Fellows Program (EFP) in which startup partners hire MET students for 10-12-week summer internships.
