NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Maria Joyce, William Fang and Elizabeth Dahm, students in the UCLA Anderson School of Business, take part in a marketing competition for KB Homes during an eight-week summer internship.

By Rachel Makabi

Daily Bruin Reporter



Students from UCLA and USC are battling again this summer as they compete in an internship marketing program.

After working two months, three students from the UCLA Anderson School of Business and three from the USC Marshall School will present their final ideas Tuesday to the chief executive officer of KB Homes, a company that builds residential communities.

The winning team, which will be announced Sept. 6, will have its idea implemented by the company.

The students had to devise a marketing plan that will increase the company’s sales by 10 percent and traffic to the homes by 25 percent. The project must include a target audience, provide supporting research, and address the expected impact on traffic.

KB Homes Manager Kate Mulhearn said the competition will likely be repeated next year.

“There aren’t a lot of internships that give you free reign to take your vision and present it to the president,” Mulhearn said.

Mulhearn said the company contributed to the UCLA-USC rivalry by decorating the office with the school colors and giving students hard hats with their school logos on them.

Many employees at the company who are UCLA or USC alumni also played up the rivalry by endorsing the team from their respective schools.

“There was definitely a lot of rivalry, but overall, we are all MBA students,” said Elizabeth Dahm, a second-year MBA student from UCLA.

“We are in the same industry, and part of it is learning how to work well with others. We can respect them for their talent, but still joke around,” she continued.

Each UCLA student was paired with a USC student to travel to the company’s other branches for research and to make business contacts.

Though they were scheduled to work from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., students said they didn’t leave the office until 10 p.m. during the final weeks of the project.

“We had strong time limitations. In eight weeks we had to understand the company and collect all of our data,” said William Fang, a second-year MBA student from UCLA.

USC student Morgan Ward said regardless of the competitive nature of the program, she had much interaction with UCLA students.

“It’s just been a dream opportunity for us to deal with such a large project,” Ward said. “But I know that the rivalry will definitely build up once we enter the competition.”