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Marketing

Clinical Professor of Marketing

Associate Chair of the Marketing Department

Portrait of Timothy Calkins, Faculty at the Kellogg School of Management

Tim Calkins helps people and organizations build strong brands. He is an award-winning marketing professor, author, speaker, and consultant.

He is Associate Chair of the Marketing Department and Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He teaches courses including Marketing Strategy, Biomedical Marketing and Strategic Marketing Decisions.

Tim is a prolific author. 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). Earlier, Tim wrote Breakthrough Marketing Plans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 and 2008).

Tim has received numerous awards for his teaching. 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 a small number of people to have won it twice. He was a finalist again in 2022 and 2023. In 2018, he received the Top Professor Award from Germany’s Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA Program. He received the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award in 2008 and 2022. In 2016, Poets & Quants included him on its list “Favorite MBA Professors.”

Tim maintains a blog on brand strategy: Building Strong Brands. Inc. included the blog on its list of “Six Blogs That Can Teach You More Than an MBA.” You can find the blog at www.timcalkins.com

In addition to teaching at Kellogg, Tim works with major corporations on strategy and branding issues. His recent clients include Lundbeck, Abbott, Caterpillar and AbbVie.

Tim began his career at the consulting firm Booz Allen and Hamilton. 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.

About Timothy
Research interests
  • Research interests include branding
  • marketing strategy and healthcare marketing.
Teaching interests
  • Courses include Marketing Strategy
  • Biomedical Marketing and Strategic Marketing Decisions.
  • MBA, 1991, Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration
    BA, 1987, History, Yale University, cum laude
  • 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
  • Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management, Kellogg School of Management
    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
    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
    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
    Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management
    L. G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, Kellogg School of Management

Advanced Marketing Strategy (MKTGX-469-0)

Business simulations are one of the best ways to learn; simulations are challenging, engaging and fun. In the Strategic Marketing Decisions course, you will participate in one of the most famous marketing simulations, Markstrat. Working with your global team, you will manage a company, launch brands, work with P&Ls and study competitors. During the simulation you will also develop and implement marketing plans. You will build your skills in developing strategy, influencing a team and creating powerful plans. This is not an easy course but it is certainly memorable; many students say it is a highlight of the MBA program.