Marketing Education 2.0
Many marketers out there are graduates from formal institutions from around the world. Many of them also happen to hold post-graduate diplomas or certificates. But a current question in my mind is…
Are graduating marketers really prepared to face the challenge of New Media?
My “top-of-mind” (just to use some marketing lingo) is NO. Traditional media still remains as the top choice for advertising and communication use. Many faculty members in top universities have started to propose new media courses as part of a marketing student curriculum; and yet some universities have argued that new media might only be a trend or a fad and that they would have to keep modifying the program continuously.
I’m not going to even get into discussing that silly point some universities make. I think it’s of utter importance for new marketers to have the abilities and strategic tools to be able to manage new media. Whether it’ll be used to advertise directly, to communicate with other consumers, or to maintain a presence on the web; the use of new forms of media is ever more demanding and more important than ever before. I think we should be seeing much more “new media management” or “new media for marketing” courses out there, some kind of Education 2.0.
My blog is an extension of a marketing newsletter I developed for my fellow faculty. It came about because in a faculty meeting where some of the newer marketing concepts and media were being discussed, less than half the faculty even knew what a blog was, less than a quarter of them actually had read a blog at all and only three wrote a blog. In talking to other university faculty members, I have found that these numbers are fairly representative, give or take. Pathetic that these faculties are charged with preparing these students to deal with their contemporaries and younger markets who will be using this media routinely and the majority of the faculty does not have a clue.
Exactly Jim, this is a very important matter that universities and other teaching institutions should be dedicating more attention to. As I’ve commented on other topics, I think the opening is happening and the knowledge is expanding, but institutions and faculty members who dedicate their time on transmiting knowledge have (IMO) a greater responsibility to do so in a TIMELY manner.
Thanks Jim.
Great blog @ Marketing Canapes by the way.
Ron E.
I think that most formal institutions try to adhere to some kind of academic standard. For markting this means Strategic Marketing Management and not Tactic Marketing Communications. Talking about new media is far too instrumental for formal insitutions I think. And maybe rightfully so.
Pepita, thanks for your comments. I agree that teaching new media might be too instrumental for formal institutions to teach, but it happens to be very real too.
New graduates might have all the great strategic thinking and managing abilities that many universities teach, but lack the capacity to translate them into the “real world’s” language; hence, failing in the execution of their marketing tactics (which are supposed to be done effectively to achieve their strategic marketing objectives).
Do you think it would be negative or erratic to include new media management courses for marketing major students?
Hope to hear from you,
Ron E
Í remember thinking in my first job as a Brand Manager at Kellogg’s when I had to write the copy for the packaging, that I was never taught this in college. Later on I wondered if I ever learned anything in college.
In The Netherlands they basically have two types of higher learning after highschool. One teaches subjects in an academic way. The other is more practical and instrumental. In English both types are called universities. In the second you would learn about new media in a practical way. In the first one you probably would look at new media on a more abstract level.
Personally I picked up the more instrumental stuff along the way. New media taught in my day, are traditional media now. So if learning about new media hands on if ok for me then why not for younger people?
Ron and Pepita, my take on this depends on the level of marketing education that we are talking about. At the bachelor’s level, the education should be mostly applied with some supporting theory. I have never encountered anyone with a bachelors in charge of strategy unless they had buckets full of experience and the latter is what qualified them to work in strategy. Strategy is more appropriate to someone with a MBA and should be an inherent part of the coursework at that level.
Just one person’s nickel.
Hey Jim, nice to see you back. You’re right, someone with a bachelor’s degree usually isn’t in charge of strategy, perhaps because of what Pepita said on the last comment she did, on a bachelor’s level we’re still about to learn the tactics and instrumental ways of marketing. On an MBA level, well sure enough strategy is #1 in importance.
Pepita, you’re right, and judging from the experience you have as Brand Manager in Kellogg’s I’d say you have a wider view of it than I do, I just think (as a continuing student, myself), that it would be nice to know (even if theoretically) what I will be facing in the marketplace once I’m out.
Thanks guys,
-Ron E.
Mballah