Fast 15: Nik Kennett

The psychology behind why consumers behave the way they do led Nik Kennett into a marketing career.

“I’ve always been a people person,” he said.

While his day job is in marketing, he’s also involved in music as a drum line instructor at Bentonville High School and a drummer for funk band Joe Chill.

“My entire life has been essentially trying to figure out where to expend my resources,” Kennett said. “I very much feel like a jack of all trades, master of none.”

About four years before he was born, his father established Kerusso, which sells Christian-themed apparel, accessories and gifts.

As a toddler, Kennett recalls crawling around in boxes in the warehouse. The Berryville-based company had less than 10 employees at the time and has since grown to about 150 employees.

In 2015, Kennett started at Kerruso as strategic planning director and was in the position for six months before moving to his current position. He’s worked to understand the demographics of products, the market, the data and consumer insights. He’s also a member of the company’s executive team.

“I’m generally just frustrated with the status quo,” he said. “I question things just for the heck of it.”

His first job in the marketing field was working as a contract analyst for a consumer insights firm.

In summer 2013, he started working at Harvest Group and was there for two years. While there, he built an insights program from scratch and ran customized research studies for clients.

At the time, he was working on a master’s degree in business administration. Earning an MBA is like “getting an executive summary of 1 million things.” It teaches one “how to keep a bunch of plates spinning,” he said. “I’ve been doing that my whole life.”

His career highlight is still to be determined, but he’s preparing to become a husband and teaching students how to play drums. He previously taught drum line at Shiloh Christian and Van Buren schools.

“My ‘what’s next’ is discovering what I was born to do and working my butt off and enjoying the ride,” he said.

As a long-term goal, he wants to travel to more than 50 countries and every continent with his fiancée Allie Taylor.