We begin with the premise that empathy adds value as a strategic marketing skill. Getting into the heads and hearts of consumers enables tailored offerings and tactics that meet the unique, richly contextualized needs of a given target audience segment. The advent of marketing automation and artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to make…

This article describes the process of implementing a field-based experiential learning activity using a marketplace scavenger hunt. Evidence for integrating short-term field-based learning in marketing classes is limited, compared to other disciplines. This is surprising given the accessibility and richness of marketplace settings that can add…

Technology continues to change and improve the marketing profession. Marketing research technologies such as eye-tracking and facial expression analysis allow marketers to gain more insights into consumer behaviors. Recently, these technologies have become more affordable and applicable in the classroom learning environment. A very recent addition…

While marketing educators have identified the need for integrating transformative consumer behavior (TCR) in the marketing curriculum, they offer scant examples as it relates to actual student projects. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how marketing educators can help students design interventions that address macro-level marketing…

Technology and new digital media tools can enhance student learning; however, the opposite also can be true. Abstaining from technology and digital media can help students understand how such technology influences consumer behavior and how marketers may use it. This paper describes the purpose, design, and methods of an unplugged class assignment.…

Marketing in contemporary society is undergoing a shift in its foundational beliefs, including those concerning how the discipline treats customers. In this article, we present marketing educators with new ways of thinking about customers and challenge core marketing concepts by leveraging an elevated marketing perspective. We provide a roadmap to…

Gone are the days of transactional marketing, and here to stay are increased expectations for marketers to act as trusted advisors while providing value customized specifically to each customer. Accordingly, marketers must clearly identify the competitive advantage of their products or services, and they need to be sure this competitive advantage…

In 1950 Mason Haire used projective research techniques to examine consumer perceptions of a new product, instant coffee. This article adapts his original experiment for use as a classroom exercise, discusses the pedagogical benefits of the exercise, and demonstrates how it can facilitate discussions about marketing history, the changing nature of…

One of the key challenges marketers face today is to build awareness against the tendency of overconfidence that can hamper gaining and leveraging customer insights. This article presents a pedagogical innovation that allows students to become more aware and reflective of themselves as consumers while exposing them to diversity of consumer…

Consumer insights are all around us. Yet it can be difficult for students to examine everyday consumption practices and see how this understanding has application. Using the simple premise of a favorite family recipe, students learn how insight can be hidden in plain sight. Beginning with conducting an in-depth interview, the assignment gives…

Every time shoppers make a purchase at a store or browse a Web site, customer behavior is tracked, analyzed, and perhaps shared with other businesses. Target Corporation is a leader in analyzing vast amounts of data to identify buying patterns, improve customer satisfaction, predict future trends, select promotional strategies, and increase…

Because of the ever-increasing demand by faculty for realistic, experiential-learning exercises easily incorporated into the marketing curriculum, this article offers a new exercise that is based on Parlin's early work in marketing research with Campbell's soup: garbology. Garbology is an entertaining, experiential learning activity that serves as…

This article presents the BuzzFeed Marketing Challenge, which helps students gain integrative real-world marketing experience by selecting a target market, then creating, publishing, and promoting an article for the target market on entertainment publisher BuzzFeed.com. The challenge is for students to effectively use marketing strategy and…

This paper demonstrates a strategy to speed teaching innovation transfer between marketing educators. Nine teaching innovations presented at the Society for Marketing Advances 2012 Annual Conference are offered in a brief catalog form. The reader can also download support materials at www.salesleadershipcenter.com/research.html#mer-tm13/.…

This paper describes a course development project designed to address the obligation of consumer goods companies to engage in socially responsible advertising and promotion. Course development was informed by stakeholder theory. Videotaped interviews with 46 stakeholder representatives were integrated into the course, providing students with an…