TEACHING INNOVATION SPECIAL ISSUE (2023) – HAVE IT YOUR WAY: MASS CUSTOMIZATION IN MARKETING EDUCATION

This special issue of Marketing Education Review offers twelve articles with interesting and novel pedagogy and course activities. Hopefully, these articles stimulate marketing educators to take a risk in the classroom. As the world emerges from the lockdowns and, especially in North America, confronts issues related to social justice and myriad inequalities, the Marketing academy finds itself confronting the one-size-fits-all approach to pedagogy. Differing technologies and modalities allow us the ability to offer different types or customizations of material to better achieve learning outcomes. In turn, we find the opportunity and freedom to try different approaches with our courses and to learn and adapt from these approaches until we find assignments and activities that foster learning in our students.

Technology Aided Learning

Killian provides an approach to teaching quantitative skills to Marketing majors using an online format. Quantitative skills while very much demanded by employers still foster a sense of fear, uncertainty, and doubt among students. To prepare students for the workplace while meeting AACSB’s quantitative competency development, instructors can introduce needed skills using an online tool followed by in-class activities before completing the process with an exam.

Xu et al. (review an activity that involved students applying knowledge gained from a social media course to aid local businesses. Using the #OpenforBusiness hashtag, students developed, posted, and evaluated a variety of social media posts.

In a related assignment, Hansen and Wilson incorporate meme generating and showcasing in a Marketing course. The exercise allows for students to understand how to incorporate humor and what makes effective and ineffective use of humor in the meme format.

Saavedra, Torress and Heath detail how students can improve their elevator pitch using artificial intelligence. This assignment is designed for Sales course but could be adapted for inclusion in a variety of Marketing course. Furthermore, it can be used in virtual as well as physical courses.

Chinchanachokchai and McKelvey offer how to involve eye tracking and facial recognition technology into a Market Research course. Students gain exposure to current data collection technique that relies on participants’ webcams.

Conversations

Black, Milovic, and Dingus explain how students in a Marketing course can develop and activate a professional network. This semester-long activity can be incorporated in a variety of courses beyond Sales. Students develop a potential list of people they want to meet, identify points of conversations with the specific person, and then meet with the person. Following the meeting, students reflect on the meeting specifically and generate a series of next steps.

For an advanced sales course, Dugan and Lee discuss how a variation of the role-play can help future account executives prepare the benefits of product. The innovation relies on developing and implementing a choreographed set of questions and statements that culminate with an ask for the business. The key to this choreography centers on showing the buyer an element of their business they had not considered.

Inclusiveness and Creativity

Hollenbeck and Patrick offer a six-step process that introduces students to the concept of inclusive market orientation. In this extension of market orientation as a set of behaviors, students can understand and develop marketing activities geared toward extreme consumers rather than average consumers. They present a process referred to RECIPE for students to learn this concept.

To blend design thinking, public good, and Marketing, Blocker presents a class exercise where students design an open space. Each group takes on a specified role to reach a consensus given the budget constraints and the user segments that would enjoy the space.

Dorland offers an approach to sparking creativity among Marketing students through online materials. These materials incorporate six modules ahead of a final assessment. Students receive feedback from peers and the instructor. As part of the final assessment, students can provide recommendations and commendations related to the creative capacity project.

Mass Customization

Gilbert and Gonzalez-Fuentes review a mass customization effort toward mastery of Marketing-related topics through a choose your own adventure approach. Students can select from an assortment of assignments to complete. The instructor then offers chances to redo and retake to encourage mastery.

Finally, Watson concludes this special issue devoted to innovative teaching in the Marketing discipline with a set of activities. Through these activities students apply organizational-level activities such as developing a mission statement and writing goals. By shifting these activities from the organizational level to the individual level, students better internalize the lesson of mission statements, goals, and the link between the two.

We consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to serve as co-guest editors for this special issue of Marketing Education Review. We offer our deepest gratitude to editor Dr. Seung Hwan (Mark) Lee for his patience, support, and assistance during our time. Additionally, we extend our gratefulness to the support staff and production team of Marketing Education Review. Finally, we say thank you to all the contributors and reviewers for this issue. We would not have been able to produce this issue without everybody’s time and energy. We hope that in reading this issue that you have found inspiration for a teaching innovation and encourage you to submit to the 2024 Innovation Co-Editors Michael Levin, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Amy Watson, Valdosta State University. We wish them great successes. Please enjoy the innovations in this issue.