Great Ways to Teach Students about Marketing

Students tend to become too engrossed in the luxuries of life that they sooner or later forget what is being taught to them in school. While it is true that a great and reliable teacher holds the key to their unyielding interest on any topic, it is the teaching strategies that prove whether or not the students would be willing to learn more.

To some, marketing could be considered that specific field in which only future marketing majors in universities would be willing to study. This is a challenge not just for the unreliable attention spans of the youth, but for the tried-and-tested patience of the instructors as well. This article shall teach educators alike a few great ways to teach students about marketing.

1. Slogan/jingle making

What better way to create a fun atmosphere inside the classroom than to initiate an activity that involves slogan or jingle making. As forthcoming businessmen, students would be able to develop their thinking skills in order to create that fitting catchphrase or that catchy tune in order to make a certain product stand out among the mass consumers. In this activity, teachers can divide the class into groups and assign each a product. The first round can involve the usually advertised shampoo, soda drink or fast food burger while the second round can advance the activity's complexity by giving them products such as foot powder, cat litter box, or even a simple bottle of mineral water.

2. Turning the old into the new

A number of products exist in the market that the producers are constantly thinking of new ways on how to improve them to prolong brand loyalty. An example would be a cola drink that comes with a variety of flavors. An activity inside the classroom can involve assigning students a famous product and letting them think of a step on how to enhance it. Their answers must not be something that exists or has existed. This exercise is a great way to maximize the students' creativity as marketing heavily involves putting a new spin on everyday products.

3. Making commercials and recording radio promos

Teachers can initiate this activity as a special project or a term-ender activity. One of the most critical factors in the field of marketing involves thinking of ways to shoot or record the right product advertisement. It is first important to teach them the basics of doing such by giving them beforehand the long history of radio adverts. Afterwards, split them in groups and assign a product, made-up or not. The students will then make a choice if they would want to shoot a commercial with actors or simply use their voices to record a radio ad complete with music.

4. Product implementation

This is ideally a final activity that will test whether or not the students have grasped enough knowledge on a teacher's marketing class. Using everything they have learned within the term, students will be tasked to create a product from scratch using the proper methods in marketing as learned from the lessons in class. They will be responsible for the brainstorming to the initiation to the advertisements. The culmination will involve selling the product itself within school premises. As teachers, it is their duty to take hold from the school board a set of special permissions to execute a mini-fair within the grounds. This activity is an immersive eye-opener for the students as they will be experiencing first-hand how it is to sell a product. Various schools have tried this and have proven that this is one of the great ways to teach students about marketing.

Subject Matter Websites for Marketing

  1. Alternative Health Practitioners Mktg Tips
  2. The Future of Marketing
  3. Give to Get Marketing
  4. MarcommWise
  5. MarketingSherpa.com
  6. Networking Times
  7. Reveries
  8. Strategy Magazine
  9. Trendwatching