From pet food to pancakes, Rachel Lewis shows how a journalism degree can lead to marketing success  

Hailey Brimhall, writer  

USU public relations students usually have a variety of career paths to choose from after graduation. For 2014 graduate Rachel Lewis, her interests were in marketing. Today, Rachel serves as a senior-brand manager for Park City-based Kodiak Cakes.  

Lewis started at USU as a nursing major and ended up changing her major multiple times during her years as a student. After having several internship experiences, many of which involved running social-media accounts and marketing for various companies and organizations, Lewis decided public relations was the major for her.  

 “As soon as I found the PR and journalism program, I knew that was where I wanted to be,” she said. 

 Lewis worked six internships throughout her time in her college, undergraduate and graduate programs, just to find out what kind of public relations and marketing work she was the most interested in. 

 Upon graduating, Lewis accepted a job offer as an assistant brand manager for American Nutrition, a pet food and treat manufacturer in Ogden, Utah. 

 “I felt like this role was something where I could do it all and learn a lot from really cool people,” Lewis said. 

 After spending some time figuring out where she wanted the trajectory of her future career to go, Lewis decided to go back to school and learn more. She graduated with her master of business administration degree from Brigham Young University. 

 After graduating with her MBA, Lewis asked herself, “How can I learn from the smartest people I can find?” 

 Lewis landed a job with General Mills where she worked as an assistant brand manager in the snack expansion division for two years, and then as a senior associate marketing manager for Blue Buffalo, a pet food brand under General Mills, for three months. 

 One day, one of Lewis’ friends from General Mills was hired by Kodiak Cakes as its first-brand manager and called her to say, “I think these are your people.” 

 “The more I got to learn about the company, that’s when I decided to make the jump and come back to Utah to work for Kodiak Cakes in Park City,” Lewis said. 

 A typical day at Lewis’ job entails analyzing different portions of the business to understand how the business can grow from a product, price, place and promotion perspective, but tasks can vary, depending on the time of year and what particular phase the business is in. 

 “In brand management, your scene is the hub of the wheel, ensuring everything is running smoothly and you’re achieving the strategies you set in your goals,” Lewis said. 

 The classes Lewis took in the USU JCOM program helped prepare her for her job, even though she works more on the business and marketing side rather than the public relations side of Kodiak Cakes. 

 “What I really took away from Utah State was how to craft a compelling story for a target consumer, whether that was in my journalism classes crafting stories, or in my marketing classes developing products for a certain audience,” Lewis said. 

 If she could give one piece of advice to students, it would be to make time for internships to find out what you like, but even better what you don’t like. 

 “It was really helpful to be able to know the path I wanted to go on,” Lewis said.  

 She is also a firm believer in setting aside the time to truly dive deep in exploring your interests, even if it means taking a break from other responsibilities. 

 If she would do anything differently regarding her college experience, Lewis said she would have taken time off from earning her degree to work internationally. 

 “I wish someone would have told me while I was in college that you have all the time, so take the year off and go travel.”