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Marketing Education Review

ISSN: 1052-8008 (Print) 2153-9987 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/mmer20

Fostering Information Literacy in the Marketing Curriculum by Engaging Students with Print Marketing Resources Irvine Clarke III & Theresa B. Flaherty To cite this article: Irvine Clarke III & Theresa B. Flaherty (2007) Fostering Information Literacy in the Marketing Curriculum by Engaging Students with Print Marketing Resources, Marketing Education Review, 17:1, 79-85, DOI: 10.1080/10528008.2007.11488991 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2007.11488991

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FOSTERING INFORMATION LITERACY IN THE MARKETING CURRICULUM BY ENGAGING STUDENTS WITH PRINT MARKETING RESOURCES Irvine Clarke III and Theresa B. Flaherty

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Marketing students are challenged to operate in a knowledge-based environment where they need strong information literacy skills. To successfully solve real-world problems, students must know how to find, evaluate, and use information in a timely and cost-efficient manner. This assignment helps students become involved with print marketing resources in an active and engaging way. Students learn to creatively dramatize the features, advantages, and benefits of two different print marketing resources by designing magazine-style advertisements and delivering sales pitches. The primary benefit of this assignment is that students learn to solve marketing-oriented problems as they simultaneously strengthen aptitude in information literacy.

Introduction Information literacy is considered to be an essential skill for business and marketing problem-solving in the information age (d. Bunn and Lavin 1992; Burger and Schmidt 1987; Cooney and Hiris 2004; Hawbaker and Littlejohn 1988; Hawes 1994; Hunt, Eagle, and Kitchen 2004; Korobili and Tilikidou 2005; Lombardo and Miree 2003; Spitzer, Eisenberg, and Lowe 2004; Sterngold and Hurlbert 1998). According to the Association of College and Research Libraries (2006), information literacy encompasses the following abilities: knowing when information is needed; finding information efficiently; evaluating its quality; using it effectively for a purpose; and observing ethical use of information. Information literacy forms a basis for lifelong learning that can help students assume greater control over their own learning (Association of College Research & Libraries 2000, O'Sullivan 2002) and has been given more attention in the higher education sector (Abell 2000). Compared to other business disciplines, marketing students face exceptional information-gathering challenges because of the overwhelming quantity of sources providing private and public marketing information (Hawbaker and Littlejohn 1998). Furthermore, time and financial restrictions limit students' overall ability to extract relevant data applicable to a current marketing problem. Because of these unique challenges, in order to prepare marketing students for life-long competence in a concentrated knowledge-based environment, the advancement of information literacy is steadilybecomIRVINE CLARKE III (PhD., Old Dominion University) is WamplerLongacre Professor of Marketing at James Madison University, Department of Marketing. (email: [email protected]) THERESA B. FLAHERTY (PhD., University of Kentucky) is Professor of Marketing atJames Madison University, Department of Marketing. (email: [email protected])

ing a principal objective of university marketing curriculums (Sterngold and Hurlbert 1998). Within a marketing curriculum, students may be required to develop a number of different informationintensive reports such as marketing plans, business plans, new product development proposals, marketing research projects, advertising campaigns, and integrated marketing communication plans. Instructors often assume that students possess the necessary information literacy skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information for such reports (Lombardo and Miree 2003). However, Boyer (1987) found that undergraduates are given little exposure to the use and appreciation of library resources with approximately 87% reporting occasionally or never using library resources. Furthermore, marketing faculty may not adequately motivate students to utilize library resources for completion of extensive research papers (Korobili and Tilikidou 2005). Business schools have been urged to examine how information literacy objectives can be more effectively incorporated within the curriculum in order to enhance fundamental research activities and information management skills (Burger and Schmidt 1997; Hawes 1994). Yet, few articles have been written on information literacy strategies, programs, and assessment efforts aimed at business students (Cooney and Hiris 2004). In a review of information literacy endeavors within business schools, Hawes (1994) found that efforts to improve information literacy typically followed a "lecture-in-acontent-course" model where either a faculty member or library liaison made a class presentation on library resources and/ or searching strategies. Students generally report only moderate levels of satisfaction with this particular model of library instruction (Hawbaker and Littlejohn 1998) and feel unprepared to perform Marketing Education Review, Volume 17, Number 1 (Spring 2007).

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much valuable information (Miller and Mangold 1996), the traditional print marketing resources seem to be ignored. Students may not recognize the value of nonelectronic forms of information or they are unmotivated/underprepared to utilize these resources since web-based resources are more readily available and convenient to obtain. By combining traditional print media with electronic resources, a plethora of opportunities should emerge for students conducting research (Sridhar 1995). The specific purpose of this teaching innovation is to help students reconnect with traditional print resources (e.g., reference books, directories, yearbooks, statistical guides, encyclopedias, ranking guides, handbooks, manuals, etc.) in a more meaningful way. The assignment prepares introductory marketing students for upper-division coursework in marketing where extensive secondary research is usually required to complete course projects. These upper-division marketing course projects often advocate use of the "resource trifecta approach" (Walker 2006), which involves students gathering information from three areas: 1) traditional print resources, 2) databases (e.g., ABI Inform, Factiva, LexisNexis, Choices III/Simmons Study of Media and Markets, etc.), and 3) web-based resources (e.g., company web sites, online access to popular press articles, Google searches, etc.).

extensive library research on their own (Bunn and Lavin 1992; Li 1998). The teaching innovation described in this manuscript represents a step towards assisting marketing students to feel more satisfied and prepared to conduct extensive library research for course projects.

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Context of the Teaching Innovation The current teaching innovation takes place within Principles of Marketing, a required course taught to junior-level business students. In the past, before implementing this innovation in the principles course, a business librarian would conduct a library orientation to introduce students to various print, online, and database resources that can be used for marketing decision making. Information was conveyed via an oral presentation and by providing an electronic summary of the various resources on the library's website. Students were then encouraged to practice and strengthen their infor. mation literacy skills by including a wide variety of different sources of information into their final course projects. The impetus for developing this teaching innovation was due to a "disconnect" observed in reviewing the References/Bibliography sections of students' final projects in the Principles of Marketing class as well as upper-level marketing courses. The References/Bibliography sections included few, if any, of the print marketing resources that students were exposed to during the library orientation. Some of the examples of print marketing resources include Advertising Manager's Handbook, Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook, Business Rankings Annual, Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns, Internet Dimensions, Market Share Reporter, Sourcebook of County Demographics, and SRDS Lifestyle Market Analyst. The typical college student of today does not take advantage of the full spectrum of library resources available and instead tends to focus only on a few types of information sources (Li 1998). The current trend is for students to provide a listing of references derived from a Google-based or other search engine query. For example, in a study of perceptions and use of print and online resources, Lombardo and Miree (2003) found that business students preferred, typically used, and used most often web-based resources (83%) more so than library databases (16%) and library print resources (1%). While Google is currently the public's favored means of searching, as well as an effective means of obtaining information, it provides access to only a limited portion of the web (Egger-Sider and Devine 2006) and can result in the problem of using misleading and unreliable information (Calvert 1999; Scott and O'Sullivan 2000). While online technologies provide powerful access to

The Teaching Innovation Concept: Print Marketing Resources Assignment Because students learn most when they are actively engaged in the learning process (Hunt, Eagle, and Kitchen 2004), the pedagogical challenge lies in facilitating higherlevel student involvement with print resources. This teaching innovation attempts to address this challenge by providing a methodology to help students ''become better friends" with the print marketing resources. 1. Overview of the Exercise: The overview begins

with a brief discussion of the importance of information literacy within the context of lifelong learning (d. Cooney and Hiris 2003) and the relationship between the assignment's purpose and the course / curriculum learning objectives. Next, students are introduced to the products (print marketing resources), the target market (college students studying marketing), and the promotional communication deliverables (two magazine-style print ads and a "sales pitch" presentation). This information can be discussed within the context of the definition of marketing, marketing strategy, and/ or the marketing mix. Finally, present and explain the goals of the assignment. 80

__----------------------------------------------------------------------------Spring2007 Table 1 Product Pairs (Print Marketing Resources) Randomly Assigned to Each Team Product Pairs

Team

Team Team Team Team Team Team

A B C D E F

Consumer USA SRDS Lifestyle Market Analyst Sourcebook of Zip Code Demographics Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands Advertising Manager's Handbook Consumer Dimensions

market analysis is certainly an important aspect of marketing, emphasis is not placed on this process because the target market for this assignment consists of their peers, undergraduate students studying marketing. This high level of familiarity with the target audience should help the students to shape their work appropriately for the assignment.

Goals Downloaded by [James Madison University] at 13:10 24 March 2016

Standard and Poor's Industry Surveys Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns Market Share Reporter Magazine Dimensions Editor & Publisher Market Guide

To evaluate and recommend two print marketing resources that could be used for marketing decision making and strategy development. More specifically, students will:

Creatively dramatize the features, advantages, and benefits of two different print marketing resources through development of magazinestyle advertisements and sales pitches. The magazine-style ads and sales pitches should:

4. Development of Promotional Communication Deliverables: For each of the two print marketing resources assigned, student teams are responsible for developing various promotional communication deliverables: a) a magazine-style advertisement and b) a "sales pitch" presentation . With each of these deliverables, the goal is to effectively market the two print marketing resources to the target market and convince them how each product provides value. The promotional communications should creatively dramatize the features, advantages, and benefits of the print marketing resource, explain the primary information that each print marketing resource contains, and identify specifically where and how each print marketing resource could be used in marketing decision making and strategy development. Students are encouraged to be as creative as possible in formulating their promotional communication deliverables.

• explain the primary information that each print marketing resource contains, and • identify specifically where and how each print marketing resource could be used for marketing decision making and strategy development. 2. Team Formation and Random Assignment of Products: Students are divided into small teams. For variety and to ensure equity across the class, as well as provide an opportunity for comparing and contrasting resources, each team is randomly assigned two different types of print marketing resources (products). For example, one team might be assigned an industry-oriented resource and a consumer-oriented resource; another team could be assigned a directory and a statistical guide (see Table 1 for samples of assignments for teams).

a. Magazine-style Advertisements: Students are given flexibility to develop the two ads in any format they desire (e.g., Power Point, Word, Photoshop or any other software program). They could also develop an ad by hand and then scan or digitally photograph it into electronic format. Table 2 provides examples of magazine-style ads developed by students.

3. Learn the Products and Target Market: In much the same manner that an organization would study a product in order to market it effectively, students are challenged to learn as much as they can about their two print marketing resources. Approximately two to three weeks are allocated for students to immerse themselves in their assigned products and, if desired, learn their competitors' products as well (e.g., print marketing resources assigned to other teams). While target

b. Sales pitch Presentations: Student teams develop a 60-second "sales pitch" for each print marketing resource. Their magazine-style ads 81

Marketing Education Review

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Table 2 Samples of Student-Developed Ads

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