Macromarketing Pedagogy at the 2024 Conference

Abstract

This commentary summarizes the presentations made during three Macromarketing Pedagogy sessions at the 2024 Macromarketing Conference held in Helsinki, Finland, in June. Presentations focused on (1) broad business school challenges in teaching macromarketing and sustainability; (2) the value of specific tools for a broad set of marketing courses; and (3) illustration of tools being applied to specific marketing courses. Macromarketers are encourage to read the full abstracts or papers on the Macromarketing Society's website.

Introduction

As the pedagogy section of the journal continues to grow, so does interest in the Macromarketing Pedagogy track at the annual conference. Indeed, the number of presentations and the sessions needed to accommodate them were at their highest in Helsinki this year, further suggesting that there is a growing appetite to develop and share macromarketing-infused teaching practices. It is in that spirit that we provide a summary of those conference presentations here, and encourage readers to use these or similar approaches to infuse macromarketing lessons in their own courses.

Abstracts for each of the presentations can found in the 2024 Macromarketing Conference Proceedings volume available on the Society's website. The eight papers differ greatly in the topics explored, but each has potential of generating far-reaching impacts. Collectively, they point the way toward significant changes both in what it is that macromarketers teach and how they teach it.

Rethinking Marketing Education

Presenters of the first set of papers highlighted the common challenge associated with macromarketing pedagogy, namely that current practices in business schools often promote economic growth and profit generation over the many other crucial considerations that are important to achieving well-being.

In the first paper, Sabrina Helm tackles the challenging task of addressing climate change in marketing classes. The author does so with particular attention to avoiding an outcome many of us might not have anticipated—the sense of hopelessness that could be created in the classroom if the topic is presented in an overly negative manner. She encourages a gentle approach, one that respects the students’ images of their future, while also encouraging a solution-oriented mindset. Instructors who engage in building “active” or “constructive” hope in their students show them how to transform their concerns into promising action, and build both content knowledge and proactive strategies. Universities who support instructors in this effort then may fulfill their obligations to provide both human and social capital in their graduates. Additional material enriching this presentation is found in papers co-authored by Professor Helm and submitted to the Conference's Climate Change track.

In the second paper in this group, Sujit Jagadale argued that business school curricula and pedagogical methods in India tend to follow a Western model, and, as a result, generally overlook major economic and social-cultural issues such as poverty, inequality, and food waste. That is, the current model relies on methods and materials that have little or no relevance to hundreds of millions of impoverished Indian citizens. As a result, the author argues, graduates are trained more to think of individuals as customers rather than humans. In the presentation, the author shared his efforts to engage students in the larger complexity of the marketing system in an historic town in India, by introducing a project that focused on the market's sociology. For the market segment of their choice, students were asked to identify how resources are deployed, how competitors inter-relate, what function intermediaries serve, how differentiation is accomplished, how political processes can be seen, and how threats are handled by market actors, among other questions. Through this experience, attention is given to the reductionism inherent to western marketing education models, making way for experiences with ‘wicked’ problems in the classroom.

The final paper in this group, authored by Stefanie Beninger, Julie Stanton, Alex Reppel and Forrest Watson, explored the reaction of higher education to the new technology that is Generative AI. The technology's rapid expansion illustrates how stakeholders in each system – in this case university-level – are advantaged or disadvantaged depending on their power to influence its application. In the paper, the authors show that poor understanding of the technology's societal and systemic impacts is common among students, and that guardrails are needed to help students understand these impacts. Simply accessing the technology, and using it casually, does not provide the guidance that would be needed if the ethical and social implications are to be understood and controlled, suggesting an important responsibility of the institution to provide that guidance.

Macromarketing Pedagogical Tools – Systems & Other Holistic Considerations

The second group of papers illustrated how broad macromarketing considerations could be infused into marketing education. This breadth may stem from the system itself, with its many nuances and complexities, or from the issue to be addressed, e.g., sustainability, as one with varied priorities and distinctions.

In the first paper, Dmitry Brychkov, Joseph McKenna and Christine Domegan utilize provisioning systems as the lens for illustrating how social change and sustainability can be addressed. Even with the power of this systems lens, the pedagogical questions that must be addressed are many, including how much depth of information is needed for students to engage, and on which specific topics. The authors suggest several tools that can be helpful in designing meaningful pedagogy in this area, including Lifecycle assessments, PESTEL analysis, simulations, segmentation, causal loop diagrams, stakeholder analysis, marketing system categorization, exchange analysis, barrier and enabler analysis, and intervention mix. The authors then provide details on two of these, and argue that they allow students to grasp the complexity of the challenges inherent to systems, and provide pathways for action.

In the second paper, Christine Domegan and Dmitry Brychkov build on the first paper by showing how a second-year class of 180 students were engaged in projects with a sustainable provisioning system focus. Their project, the Climate House, involved designing a not-for-profit educational center focused on sustainable tourism. It championed ecological science, as well as economic, social and cultural values. Students conducted several system-oriented analyses including situational and PESTLE analysis, social listening market research, stakeholder analysis and exchange analysis. In addition, the authors also report working with a professional social marketer tasked with identifying a sustainable transportation system for their organization. By recognizing the prescriptive (network, infrastructure), marketing (commercialization), and collaboration (carpooling) options in the system, the marketer was able to illustrate a way forward that addressed the needs and preferences of multiple stakeholders.

The final paper in this group was presented by Helge Löbler who argued for a new approach to teaching subjects such as macromarketing and sustainability, giving emphasis to moving past knowledge and awareness and into action. The author argued for developing a holistic approach to the learning environment, one that influences abilities and attitudes. This approach is more consistent with a constructivist approach to pedagogy, rather than one depending on transmitting knowledge. The constructivist approach seeks the independent, self-governed learning by students, who are assisted by their teacher, but who also reach the action stage of applying their learning. The author provides 10 guiding principles for building this approach into specific courses, including fostering open information flow among all students, changing the nature of assessments, and designing activities that require socio-cognitive conflict. In many ways, this paper represents the “think differently” goal of this pedagogy section of the journal.

Macromarketing Pedagogical Tools – Classroom Examples

In our final grouping, we had papers that provided examples of how macromarketing could be incorporated into specific courses. These examples not only allow us to see the direct value of pedagogical changes in these courses, but also provide solid insight into how variations of these exercises can be utilized in many courses.

The first paper in this group was offered by Ksenia Silchenko who illustrated how both macro and critical thought can be infused into a digital marketing course. The key element of this transformation is to frame the digitalization of marketing practices as a source of value creation opportunities, using a critical approach. The author acknowledged how the rapid speed of digital technology change can challenge course preparation over time, and offers perspective for how to minimize the downside of that. The author also grappled with practical v. theoretical approaches to teaching digital marketing – particularly as the former may miss key macro considerations – and settles on “relevance” as a guideline. The course focuses on “technology paradoxes” that help prepare students to handle ambiguity in decision-making. With a framework built on theory of consumer vulnerability, multi-faceted challenges could be digested in the course. The author ends with a reflection on how the course is received by students.

The second paper presented in this group, by Satyam and Rajesh Aithal, provided four exercises that assist in infusing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals into a course focused on decision-making in base-of-the pyramid and rural contexts. The first exercise involved analyzing a case study of an app designed to connect rural villagers with the nearest medical professionals. The second involved a field visit to an innovative school in an Indian slum. The third involved bringing an entrepreneur to the classroom to explain a tech-enabled smart toilet system suitable for the rural context, while the fourth exercise took students out in to a regular rural market for observation. The authors indicate that they link each of these exercise to individual UN SDGs, while retaining a focus on the larger course objectives.

Summary

The papers briefly summarized above differ greatly in focus, assumptions and recommended practice. Collectively they provide insight into new and exciting pedagogical practices. Also worth noting is the fact that another session presented in Helsinki, this one chaired by Professor Ray Benton, spelled out what previously published literature of all types could contribute to more effective macromarketing pedagogy. Benton's own contribution to this session is especially noteworthy.

In some respects, of course, what's past is now prologue. The Call for Papers for the 50^th Anniversary Macromarketing Conference – to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2025 –went out some time ago. We look forward to this track receiving another set of intellectually exciting contributions to add to the existing literature on macromarketing pedagogy, both at the conference and, hopefully, in the journal as well.