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Update | Spring/Summer 2025

Business Badgers Team Up to Lead Marketing Efforts at ALDI

Chris Malina

Photography by Mary Rafferty

From left to right, Katherine Sodeika (BBA '16) sitting on a chair in the shape of a bear and Suzanne Marovec (BBA '17) holding a large cupcake plushie
From left to right, Katherine Sodeika (BBA ‘16) and Suzanne Marovec (BBA ‘17).

Katherine Sodeika (BBA ’16) and Suzanne Marovec (BBA ’17) were bound to connect eventually.

Despite having similar paths at the Wisconsin School of Business, the two just missed meeting each other while in Madison, but now find themselves working closely together and leading marketing efforts for one of the nation’s fastest growing retailers: ALDI.

“It’s just one of those serendipitous things,” says Sodeika.

The two play key roles on the company’s Brand and Campaigns team. As marketing director, Sodeika manages all aspects of the ALDI brand while shaping the company’s regional and national marketing strategy. As executive manager, Marovec drives operations and processes to ensure the company’s internal marketing teams and agency partner work cohesively and toward one unified strategy.

Sodeika and Marovec get their quarter’s worth as they load up a cart at an ALDI store
Sodeika and Marovec get their quarter’s worth as they load up a cart at an ALDI store.

They’re complimentary roles on a growing team with exciting opportunities ahead. In 2024, ALDI announced it is on track to add 800 more stores to its portfolio by 2028.

“We have such a great opportunity to really put the pedal to the metal on the things that we’re already doing,” says Sodeika. “But our number one focus is still the customer, and we’ll continue to make sure that every decision we make aligns with the customer experience.”

Unafraid to innovate

Both Sodeika and Marovec grew up in the greater Chicagoland area. They’ve each worked at the Illinois-based ALDI headquarters and in the stores themselves. And both have found themselves on the forefront of innovation in their early careers. With so much in common, it’s no wonder they’ve hit it off.

For Sodeika, an entrepreneurial spirit runs in the family. It’s what drew her to study management, human resources, and entrepreneurship at WSB. After graduating, she was recruited by ALDI as a district manager, where she championed a new concept in the grocery business: curbside pickup. She successfully led a pilot at her three stores before accepting a position as an e-commerce manager in 2019. In that role, she expanded the pilot program to nearly 50 ALDI stores—then unexpectedly but successfully scaled it to 500 as demand surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That was definitely a huge accomplishment,” says Sodeika, who notes that curbside pickup is now available at nearly every ALDI location. “I’m proud that we could be so nimble and give the customer what they needed at that time.”

For Marovec, who came to UW–Madison with the intention of studying engineering, business was a bit of a surprise discovery, but one that aligned with her interest in how things work.

“It was like a science in and of itself,” says Marovec, who pivoted her studies to marketing, management, and human resources. “Just the art of business and how businesses run and generate profits—it was all very interesting to me.”

“We are putting our WSB education and experience to the test every day.”

—Suzanne Marovec (BBA ’17)

After graduation, she launched her business career with Bon-Ton Stores in Milwaukee before joining ALDI as a marketing assistant in the corporate office. She later transitioned to a district manager role, where she led the rollout of the company’s newest in-store innovations, including electronic shelf labels and self-checkout, across her stores.

Then, in 2024, when Sodeika’s brand team expanded to include an executive manager role, Marovec returned to corporate headquarters to take on the challenge. It was a perfect blend of her marketing and operations expertise—and was made even better by finding out that her new boss was a Business Badger.

The pair immediately bonded over their shared WSB connection and agree the school was instrumental in their early career success.

“WSB really did a good job of hammering home those essential professional skills like leadership, teamwork, and communication,” says Marovec. “Because of that, I was able to soar in my operations role.”

The sentiment about teamwork is one Sodeika shares. “The most successful things we’ve done at ALDI have been collaborative efforts,” she says. “None of us can do this work independently, so you need to have the skills to reach out to folks, make introductions, ask questions, and be vulnerable. The business school provided me with the confidence to go out and do that.”

Making a bold statement

As both Business Badgers continue to build and support a marketing strategy for the future, they’re crafting an approach that respects the ALDI brand’s history while infusing it with a new energy.

“We’ve seen a shift away from that old school, dented-can grocer image to this really vibrant, value-added brand that people are making a part of their household,” says Marovec. “We’re really carving out a name for ourselves.”

Marovec highlights the company’s reputation for quality products and price leadership—drivers of ALDI marketing since the global grocer’s earliest days in its home country of Germany. While those core values remain, the way they’re communicated is evolving under Sodeika and Marovec’s leadership.

“We want to be bolder than we have been historically and want to take some more risks,” says Sodeika. That means refreshing the company’s advertisements, having more fun on social media, and doubling down on the things that make ALDI unique, like the in-store selection of nongrocery items—from sweatpants to pet sofas—affectionately known to fans as the “aisle of shame,” due to customers’ tendencies to leave the store with an unexpected item not originally on their shopping list.

“It’s like a scavenger hunt for our customers,” says Sodeika. “They love it, and we love watching our fans lean into the fun stuff we do.”

That spirit of experimentation, while remaining grounded in strategy, also guides Marovec’s approach to internal processes.

“We’re challenging our teams to really think and work in different ways that we haven’t done before,” says Marovec. “In doing so, I think you really start to find your stride of what works, what doesn’t, and what’s the best way to collaborate.”

In an ever-evolving, highly competitive industry, there’s always something new to explore, an emerging technology to test, or a novel channel to pursue to gain that edge. In these moments, having a Business Badger—or better yet, two—on your team is always an advantage.

“With the continued growth of ALDI, there’s a lot happening and it’s fun to be a part of,” says Marovec. “We are putting our WSB education and experience to the test every day with this prominent and growing company.”