With online marketing changing at such a rapid pace, it's hard for educators to keep up. Columnist Travis Wright suggests ways business schools should revamp their marketing programs for the 21st century.
First of all, if you get into Marketing… you’d better love learning. This space changes more frequently than Lady Gaga’s weird outfits. If you stand still for too long, you will get passed by. You have to be on top of your game, to keep learning and growing.
When asked what my secret to success in marketing is, my answer is immediate: continual education. You can’t graduate with a degree and be amazing at marketing — especially since many business schools that teach marketing aren’t giving their students the right information.
There are going to be some exceptions to this list, of course, as some programs are more innovative than others. However, one thing is certain across the board: marketing programs aren’t doing their best to get students ready for real marketing careers.
The Typical Marketing Degree
The Washington University Olin Business School is regularly ranked by Bloomberg BusinessWeekas one of the top undergraduate schools for marketing in the United States. Sorry to pick on you, Washington U., but looking at the requirements for your Bachelor of Science in Business Administration for the class of 2015, you’re left wanting.
There area variety of course options, with students required to complete “42.5 units of professional business requirements,” “12 units of business electives,” “17.5 units of additional electives” and “48 units from the College of Arts & Sciences” to earn their degree in marketing.
Here’s a sampling of available courses, with the ones most applicable to Real Life Marketing highlighted:
- Capital Marketing and Financial Management
- Principles of Marketing
- Market Competition and Value Appropriation
- Financial Intermediaries and Market Econ.
- Capital Market Imperfections
- Marketing Research
- Intro to Entrepreneurship
- Web Development
- Venture Consulting
- Brand Management
- Marketing Strategy
- Leadership in Organizations
None of these listed courses have any “Part 2s” — what you see is what you get.
While there’s a hint at relating to real world marketing in courses like Web Development and Intro to Entrepreneurship, a single course on the subject isn’t going to do anything except give students a whiff of what they’ll be expected to have mastered.
So, what should a truly helpful undergraduate marketing degree course load look like? Here are a few ideas.
Do Marketing Degrees Include Analytics?
In marketing these days, every decision is based on data. We are in a data-driven world — and if you don’t understand the basics of analytics, you’ll be passed up for someone who does.
If you look at a slide from Rise Interactive‘s latest marketing deck, it has the perfect slide for describing why analytics is so important. Look at the customer journey cycle, from awareness, consideration, conversion and advocacy — analytics is the one channel that ties it all together.
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