The past year accelerated, if not forced, many changes in marketing education. We believe that 2020 will be remembered not as a lost year but as a year of endurance and determination. As both a community and as individuals, we developed new ways to remain connected to colleagues and teach students. In that light, we present our special issue, Better Together, Again. While physical distancing became the norm for many, we hope that the teaching innovations herein will highlight the value of connectedness and the opportunities to learn from each other. While each of the authors’ work is singularly important, it is also essential to recognize the collective support of the community of educators whose foundational and behind-the-scenes efforts make such contributions to marketing pedagogy possible.
To facilitate access, we have grouped the articles within this issue according to the type of innovation. First, we showcase work from the Teaching Moments program at the 2020 Society for Marketing Advances Annual Conference. Second, we present articles that address marketing’s use of technology. Third, we share several pieces of work related to experiential learning. Fourth, the issue offers active learning activities that can be incorporated into a single or few classes. Fifth, innovations that offer methods to enhance existing projects are presented. Sixth, several authors address adapting marketing pedagogy to the changing environment related to the shift in generational cohorts and the challenges of the pandemic. Finally, we wrap up our issue with work related to long-term and interdisciplinary projects. We are pleased to introduce the following articles for this Innovations Issue.
The issue begins with a recap of the Teaching Moments program at the 2020 Society for Marketing Advances Annual Conference by Drehmer and Gala. There are many great ideas here. We hope you find them motivating and helpful.
The issue continues with a collection of work that addresses a new frontier in marketing education, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Thontirawong and Chinchanachokchai provide a guide to introduce marketing students to machine learning using AzureML Studio, a free tool with a graphic user interface. In the accompanying assignment, students are tasked with employing machine learning to predict customer churn. Dingus and Black describe a classroom project that uses IBM’s Watson Tone Analyzer to fine-tune marketing copy tonality.
The following articles are focused on topics related to experiential learning. Chapman, Schetzsle, and Zeiss offer a project where industry sales professionals and experienced (sales management) students help professional selling students refine their video roleplays. Saavedra Torres and Rawal share the surreal play experience for teaching sales. The SPE technique replicates real-life situations in sales practice that allow the students to develop or enhance critical thinking in the first three stages of the sales funnel: prospecting, information gathering, and uncovering needs. Raymond, Siemens, and Thyroff present a reverse mentoring pedagogy where students (mentors) and company employees (mentees) work together to help students gain job knowledge beyond what is usually taught in a traditional classroom setting. Minton and Krszjzaniek bring their marketing research classroom outside and back again to engage students using a hands-on nature therapy project. Billore, on the other hand, offers the Sandwich Model workshop, designed to provide academic and industry knowledge in an experiential and layered manner, bridging the gap between education and industry.
This special issue also offers options for those interested in innovations that can be implemented within a single- or multi-class format. VanMeter and Vander Schee present the Merch Game that can be executed in a single class. This in-class retail simulation uses student collaboration and competition to raise awareness regarding concepts related to merchandising. McDougal shares the Power of Story in the Telling the Tale two-class activity. This innovation pushes students to unleash their creativity and strengthen their critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills by giving students practice utilizing storytelling methodology to create a brand story for a company or product. In Talking Together, McCarthy, Pelletier, and McCoy share an intercollegiate podcasting assignment that is carried out over five weeks. The innovation outlines how students from two universities selected a marketing topic, found research supporting their viewpoints, then collaborated remotely to record a related podcast.
The issue continues with two articles that offer pedagogical methods which may be adopted to enhance one’s current projects. Hain and Ritz describe a visual framework that compels students to engage in critical data analysis via their enterprise marketing variation model. Gonzalez-Fuentes, Robertson, and Davis detail a reflective learning exercise via digital storytelling to solidify student learning.
Other work from this issue offers a new approach to teaching marketing content. Hass, Laverie, and Cours offer an innovation where a flipped classroom model is used in an active learning environment, wherein students complete team-driven activities to develop autonomy rather than a sage on the stage. Hapke, Lee-Post, and Dean share a 3-in-1 Hybrid learning environment model that allows students to attend class in a variety of ways while still promoting emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement. Hook, Line, and Sinker is an innovation that provides short in-class activities to relate familiar real-world concepts to class content. Magnotta and friends outline this innovation for the 4P’s of marketing. Ye and colleagues offer an innovative approach to peer teaching using the jigsaw method for teaching digital marketing content.
If you are searching for a long-term or interdisciplinary project, there is content within the issue for you. Raska and Keller outline the process of creating a student-run marketing agency. McDermott and colleagues offer the Integrated Core Program (ICP), which utilizes an interdisciplinary, team-based, project-based learning approach across four business core classes. Students cover traditional marketing, management, finance, and business communication, and student teams complete three interdisciplinary projects. Similarly, this issue concludes with the Society of Marketing Advance’s 2019 Cengage Pride/Ferrell Innovations in Teaching Award Winner by Mead and colleagues. In their manuscript, the authors present a student-led marketing research, branding, and community engagement project.
We were delighted with the authors’ quality of ideas and impressed with their commitment to developing and refining their work through the review process. We are grateful for the opportunity to play a small role in ushering these teaching innovations to an incredibly talented and engaged community of marketing educators. We wish to offer our gratitude to Barbara Wooldridge, the MER support staff, our dedicated team of reviewers, and all those who submitted their work. Lastly, it is our pleasure to announce the Innovation Editors for 2022; Pia A. Albinsson, Appalachian State University, and Lucy Matthews, Middle Tennessee State University. We wish them great success in their endeavor. We hope you enjoy this issue.