Martha Stewart Visited Marketing 101, Cracked Some Jokes

Martha Stewart was on campus today to deliver a lecture to Marketing 101 students. Dr. Keith Niedermeier introduced Martha, who immediately confirmed what we already know. “He told me his name was Professor Eye Candy,” she said. While many have already formed opinions about the business magnate, there’s no question that she came across as extremely personable and funny. In response to Penn’s beautiful architecture, she commented, “I hope the men are as good-looking as the buildings named after them.” And when discussing how David Letterman tried to mess up her cooking, she said, “He tried to distract me… not sexually.”

Aside from making jokes and dissing the Phillies, Martha talked primarily about building up her company. She traced its growth from a single lifestyle magazine to its current status as an internationally-recognized brand that encompasses her TV show, several magazines, books, radio programs and a whole range of products, from bedding to cooking items to pet products to furniture.

A focus of her lecture was on her company’s use of the Internet to strengthen bonds with her customers. Her website draws millions of unique visitors per month, and she herself maintains a blog and Twitter account, which she finds as an effective marketing tool since it allows for instant research. Even her dogs have a blog, and she talked about their recent disagreement with Bill O’Reilly. Martha is a big fan of social media, as she believes that interacting with her fans and customers is vital.

Finally, Martha opened it up to questions from the audience. These were largely uninteresting, but there were some stand-out moments. A freshman boy drew laughs when he cutely asked an in depth question about how Martha decides what aesthetic notions to endorse, since it’s obvious she doesn’t personally like the very stark and modern look she has been doing recently. He’s definitely been watching a lot of HGTV. Finally, a male business student thanked Martha for helping him and his fiancée plan their wedding. But he then naively asked what her advice would be to someone who wants to be the next Martha Stewart. Ha.