Macromarketing Pedagogy at the 2023 Conference

Abstract

This commentary summarizes the presentations made during two sessions at the 2023 Macromarketing Conference held in Seattle in June. The two sessions were focused on macromarketing pedagogy, and offer examples of how we can further macromarketing understanding in our students.

Introduction

As macromarketing educators continue to marry their research interests with course teaching, the tools and tips we share with one another gain increasing importance. The pedagogy section of the Journal of Macromarketing is intended as a consistent source of inspiration, but the annual conference offers its own opportunity to engage with one another on our teaching. This piece briefly summarizes what was presented during the two sessions that were part of the 2023 conference in Seattle, with the hope of continuing to inspire each other well beyond each conference.

Session One – Shaking up the Classroom

In the first session, three presentations covered in- and out-of-class assignments that push classroom norms into space where students are purposefully supported in developing their macro-related critical thinking skills. As we seek new ideas to infuse our instruction with macromarketing principles, these tools can be used directly as well as inspire additional innovations.

In the first paper, Forrest Watson, Stefanie Beninger and Julie Stanton built on their team's previous work, which had illustrated how controversy statements can be useful teaching tools, by offering a “3D's” lens to foster student engagement with such controversies. The 3D's are Debate, Discussion and Dialogue. Essentially, students with a relevant controversy statement to digest can initially Discuss it to identify key considerations that may influence any solution. They can then be encouraged to Debate from multiple sides, such that more detailed and impactful points and data are identified. Finally – and most distinctly from the traditional in-class use of debates – students are asked to Dialogue with one another to develop a mutually supportable solution to the controversy. This emphasis on going beyond the oppositional nature of debates on what are often crucial macromarketing topics helps students to see how consensus can be reached and new perspectives are formed.

In the second paper, Stan Shapiro and Julie Stanton continued the conversation about breaking long-standing norms by suggesting that student engagement with external source materials could be fostered by assigning related material in a variety of formats. Using the context of a popular press book entitled The Day the World Stopped Shopping, the presenters shared how students were scaffolded into deeper and deeper responses to the question “What is sustainable consumption?” by assigning book excerpts, author interviews, book reviews and subsequent author writing, all related to the book mentioned. These more “bite-sized” elements, as opposed to the entire book, were easily digested by the students and fostered focused expansion of their learning. In the same course, another popular press book has been largely ignored by students, even with a grade-oriented in-class discussion on the horizon. Utilizing the variety of formats available to support engagement with The Day the World Stopped Shopping produced desired learning outcomes. The book is just one of many that have obvious macromarketing relevance and lend themselves to the same scaffolded approach.

In the final paper of the first session, Sujit Jagadale shared how autoethnography can be used to foster macromarketing critical thinking skills. Despite widespread poverty in India, the author asserts that most business school students there have limited understanding of the marginalized “prosumer”, and the curriculum does little to address that. The author uses autoethnography to change “us v. them” thinking and instead generate compassion in students to help them understand the space between us and them. The assignment requires students to self-reflect (“auto”) on their experience with rural society, including poor and marginalized persons. Then they are asked to seek the views of others (“ethno”) by asking service providers, domestic helpers and sweepers to tell their own stories. Finally, students discuss and analyze (“graphy”) their collective findings to identify systemic phenomena in the rural prosumer's world. This led to both a deeper understanding of the links between poverty and markets, and a better understanding of the larger experience of prosumers in India.

Session Two – Technology in the Classroom

The second Macromarketing Pedagogy session at the conference focused on technology and its value in the classroom. As technological innovations, particularly in the digital world, impact both everyday lives as well as business decision-making, macromarketing educators are challenged to purposefully and creatively incorporate technology into their teaching. Preparing students to be competent in the use of technology begins with its integration into our pedagogy.

In the first paper, Alex Reppel, Stefanie Beninger and Christine Domegan discussed both the drawbacks of generative artificial intelligence (AI) as it relates to student work and the potential for benefits to students, faculty and others. This balanced assessment of how tools such as ChatGPT impact business decision-making was then the basis for arguing for business education to include “AI literacy” as a competency. The authors pointed to the warnings that were made, and ignored, regarding social media technology, and how ChatGPT in particular has had an even faster adoption rate. Taking on this new technology within our pedagogy can help create AI literacy in our future business professionals. Recognizing the marketing system implications of AI usage also elevates student understanding of macromarketing concerns.

In the second paper, Alex Reppel and Darryn Mitussis provided a general guide for how technology can contribute to more efficiency in our teaching preparation. As faculty members invest considerable time developing details course outlines, technology such as GPT-3 can be employed to reduce the manual effort require to develop presentation slides, “bite-sized” videos and other engagement tools. Over time, this approach allows for a more automated method of generating updates to those slides, etc. when course materials themselves are updated. As a result, new topical coverage, updated cases, reorganized material etc. can more easily be translated into tools for engaging students when technology such as GPT-3 is used, thus providing an advantage to the macromarketing educator.

In the final paper of the session, Forrest Watson showed how StoryMaps can be useful engagement tools in the classroom. In particular, the ArcGIS StoryMap facilitates students’ creation of digital stories with interactive elements and multimedia components. It combines complex data points into a synthesized communication tool for its intended audience. For the macromarketing educator, StoryMaps also provide a method to emphasize system connections and the contextual factors which shape them. In his own course, the author asked students to use StoryMaps to generate a PESTEL analysis, a fairly standard lens for international business decision-making. However, due to the rich connections fostered via a StoryMap, their PESTEL analyses were more macromarketing in nature, showing interactions between forces which shape the overall system itself.

Going Forward

These six macromarketing pedagogy presentations shared a common goal – enhancing the manner by which we can integrate macromarketing principles and topics into our current courses, thus engaging students effectively in the critical thinking skills required to help address macromarketing concerns. What they demonstrate is that future educators will need to break the current mold in regard to normalized teaching practices, and find interesting new ways to build competent and deep-thinking business professionals.