Download Assessing and Enhancing the Basic Writing Skills

Writing in Marketing
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Writing in Marketing:
Essentials for New Students
Kelly Almeida
Longwood University
Writing in Marketing
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Introduction
Students across all disciplines learn to write in different ways, depending
primarily on the area of study, the school the student is attending, and the professor(s)
who are teaching them. This led me to question what similarities are there across all
Marketing courses in regards to writing, and more importantly, what techniques or tips
are the most important to learn in order to write efficiently. The basis of my research
was, what are the mechanisms by which new students in Marketing can learn to write
for their major? Through research, I have found that the three most important
mechanisms of writing in the major are appealing to the audience, being timeless with
our words, and using creativity to maneuver around any difficulties.
Literature Review
Every school, professor, and student takes a different path in the development of
writing. In order to find the most efficient way of learning, it is crucial to know what the
most important parts are. Through my research, I hope to discover how Marketing
students learn how to write most efficiently within the major.
In “The Concept of Discourse Community,” John Swales (1990) explains the
concept of discourse communities. He describes the six characteristics of a discourse
community, tying his definition together for other researchers. The goals that Swales
describes are having a common public goal, using mechanisms of intercommunication
among members, providing information and feedback, using genres, using lexis, and
having members with knowledge and relevant content. His definition of the concept
helped me understand that the Marketing major is a discourse community, and
therefore will aid me in understanding how to navigate the learning process of writing in
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Marketing courses at Longwood. For example, use of lexis would be used by students
as a learning mechanism for familiarizing themselves with the language and tone, and
voice of writing in the subject. This Argument gives the conversation an argument of
how Marketing students, as a discourse community, will be an influence on the way a
Marketing student will learn to write.
In “Teaching Innovation Skills: Application of Design Thinking in a Graduate
Marketing Course,” Benza and Lee (2015) introduce the topic discussing the importance
of innovation for today’s Marketing students from a teaching standpoint, given the
twenty-first century technology and competitive world of Business. The authors then
summarize the parts of innovation and those essential for Marketing students, including
critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, communication, and collaboration. After
weaving these topics and finding overlapping terms, they summarize these moving
parts into three categories: thinking, telling, and doing. It moves into the “Design
Thinking” process used to teach many Marketing students these innovation skills with
hands on methods. This narrowed the essentials of Marketing down into a more specific
skillset and gave a method in order to obtain the knowledge and write efficiently in the
discipline. In addition, this article poses a different point of view other than a student’s,
as this article is written for teachers of Marketing students. Knowing about the 21st
century objectives this is essential in the development of writing in Marketing. This 21st
century knowledge and skillset is a part of the discourse community, and provides
members with knowledge and relevant content, just as Swales defines a discourse
community.
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Bacon and Anderson’s article can also be connected to Swales’ on discourse
community because it also provides students with knowledge and relevant content.
Bacon and Anderson’s Article also proved that the Marketing major is a discourse
community because it informs the reader of editing methods used and improvements for
the grading system. To initiate the article, “Assessing and Enhancing the Basic Writing
Skills of Marketing Students,” Bacon and Anderson explain what employers find
important in the written communication skills of Marketing students, and how many
educators in business programs overlook basic communication skills in order to master
the content and concepts of the course instead. However, the article reveals that
automated scoring systems may reveal minor grammatical errors, but is otherwise
inefficient in student’s learning of the content. One study, for example, revealed that
making grammatical errors found by a computer part of the grade improved because it
gave students an incentive to be more attentive to basic writing skills (Anderson and
Bacon, 2015). Bacon and Anderson’s article states that the most important part of
writing in Marketing is the content, but employers look for both basic writing skills, and
knowledge in the discipline. This has revealed that while in Marketing courses, the
focus will be put on content of the assignment, although employers are looking for both
thorough content and correct conventions.
Although some emphasis is put on mechanics and conventions, McCorkle,
Payan, Reardon, and Kling (2007) stress the value of creativity in Marketing education
in “Perceptions and Reality: Creativity in the Marketing Classroom.” In this, they
discuss the importance in a company, perceptions and the reality of what creativity is
and whether it can be taught or nurtured, if professors are steering students towards
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creativity, and recommendations in order to do so. They have concluded that creativity
can, in fact, be learned. Ways in which Creativity can be nurtured include, “Giving
imaginative assignments, brainstorming, creating a classroom environment in which risk
taking is encouraged, and forming grading systems that recognize the creativity
displayed in performing assignments” (McCorkle et al.). This article gives examples of
practices that are used to learn creativity, and using that creativity in writing within the
major.
Like Bacon and Anderson, de los Santos believes in a balance of writing skills
and critical thinking skills, as told in “Marketing Controversy in the Retailing Classroom:
Teaching Critical Thinking and Writing to Millennial Business Students.” de los Santos
reveals that she uses a variety of assignments, ranging from editing, to finding
debatable ideas, assessing credibility of sources, and integrating knowledge from other
business courses into a paper. This article exhibits the variety of strategies a professor
could take while teaching students to write in a Marketing course, and helps
discriminate whether teaching creativity should occur in a marketing course.
Data Collection
My data is composed of a book called Creative Marketing Communications by
Daniel Yadin. The book contains creative Marketing techniques and guidelines for
Marketing Communications such as copywriting, headlines, and body copies. I read
through the guidelines Yadin explained would generate a better consumer reaction if
executed correctly. In addition, I collected rubrics for writing assignments in Marketing
courses from two different sources. One, from the Pittsburg State University Marketing
department, and the other from a Dutch firm for a thesis paper on Marketing. I looked
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for common themes throughout the explanations of the guidelines and the rubrics and
dissected three that were clear and cohesive. Once I found the themes, I went back to
the sources and analyzed the most important pieces of information into themes.
Findings
Through coding my data, I found three themes pertaining to learning how to write
in Marketing. The themes are appealing to the audience, being timeless with words and
sentences, and creativity. The point of Marketing is to get consumers to buy the
product so learning how to appeal to the consumers is essential for any Marketing
major. Learning to appeal to them quickly is a mechanism that must be used in
Marketing so that you catch their eye so they don’t lose interest. Lastly, creativity is the
basis of constructing any type of writing in Marketing but also serves as a means of
working around obstacles one might face in this field. With these themes, students of
Marketing will know what the most important parts of writing in the field are and
ultimately be more prepared as they begin their studies.
Appealing to your Audience
The most important action to take in writing in Marketing is to appeal to the
consumers. The “umbrella” that I am using for expressing themes in writing in
Marketing is appealing to a specific audience. For example, the author informs that you
should intrigue consumers in headlines and make the reader feel involved. In order to
do this, Yadin says “if you want to influence your reader, talk direct to that reader. Use
words like you, yours, yourself, your company, your home.” Personalizing the headline
will involve the reader more than if you address an “anonymous third party” and attract
the specific group of consumers to buy your product. In addition, in the rubric for the
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Marketing research paper from the Dutch firm defines distinguished “Design-Layout and
Organization” as “Content was well organized with headings and subheadings. Text
and graphics were neatly organized and made the project easy to read.” An organized
and pleasing design and layout will help to support content, and entice consumers.
Timeless words and sentences
The second theme I found was being quick and timeless in using your words and
sentences. Because it is essential that you express a potentially large amount of
information while interesting a specific audience, it is important that you catch their eye
with your words. There are some techniques that the author believes are ways to do
this. In the sections of “Creative Marketing Communications” concerned with writing
body copies and headlines, one guideline is to keep words terse. The book emphasizes
that terse means tight, concise, and smooth-flowing, making sure that each word has a
use. He suggests using “trigger words” to defines a trigger word as “One which propels
your reader into your proposition, towards the action you want.” (Yadin, 28). This will
catch the reader’s attention and make them feel some emotion, seducing them to buy
your product. In Pittsburg State University’s Marketing Department’s rubric, under
“Exceeds Expectations” for Style, it states, “Sentences are clear, effective, and
coherent; vocabulary is broad.” This, too says that in order to catch the reader’s
attention and keep it, it is important that you are clear, effective, and quick.
Creativity
The last theme I found was using creativity. You must be creative in order to find
ways to appeal to the specific audience in a fast manner. Creative planning in
Marketing is not the type of creativity that one might think it is. It is “more professional,
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more structured, and systematic” (Yadin, 21). Because writing in Marketing is appealing
to consumers, and all consumers are different, you must manipulate consumers in a
creative way in order to overcome these obstacles. In the book, while creativity is
significant, it is exemplified as not something you can do to learn to write in the field, but
something you can’t write without, it is the main component of Marketing. Also, in the
Dutch firm’s rubric, it defines the highest level of “Content-Creativity” as, “Project
demonstrated student’s own interpretation and expression of research material. Used
pictures, images, or other visual aids to display information in multiple ways.” Although
this rubric is for a thesis paper in the marketing field, it still requires creativity. Not only
is creativity important to overcome difficulties and issues, it also can be used to appeal
to your audience.
Discussion
The conception that creativity is an important component of writing in Marketing
is supported in McCorkle, Payan, Reardon, and Kling’s “Perceptions and Reality:
Creativity in the Marketing Classroom.” In this, they describe the importance of
creativity in Marketing courses. However, they also argue that creativity can be learned.
Teachers can nurture students with creativity by “Giving imaginative assignments,
brainstorming, creating a classroom environment in which risk taking is encouraged,
and forming grading systems that recognize the creativity displayed in performing
assignments.” (McCorkle et al., 8). This argument leads me to believe that creativity is
more important to some professors than others. Furthermore, my findings suggest that
one must conform to the consumers’ lives to be successful in the field, just as a middle
school student conforms to the requests of their art teacher.
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Implications
Learning how to appeal to an audience and doing so quickly is undeniably
essential for students in marketing. Whether or not professors should attempt to nurture
or teach creativity in the classroom is debatable. Some students will already have a
knack for creativity, but others will need to be nurtured to gain creativity in the
classroom. This means that some teachers may need to add activities to the course
that would stimulate creativity. On the contrary, this might mean that the marketing
major at some schools is only meant for those who have a knack for creativity. This
depends on whether professors in the field believe that Marketing courses should teach
creativity or if students in the major must already have creativity. Ultimately, the
development of Marketing students is held in the hands of their professors, but since
creativity is a vital part of a career in marketing, it is worth the time to attempt to teach
and nurture it.
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References:
Anderson, E., & Bacon, D. (2004). Assessing and Enhancing the Basic Writing
Skills OF Marketing Students. Business Communication Quarterly, 67(4), 443-454.
doi:10.1177/1080569904271083
Benza, R., & Lee, C. (2015). Teaching Innovation Skills: Application of Design
Thinking in a Graduate Marketing Course. Business Education Innovation Journal,
7(1), 43-50. Retrieved from Business Source Complete.
de los Santos, E. (2014). MARKETING CONTROVERSY IN THE RETAILING
CLASSROOM: TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING TO
MILLENNIAL BUSINESS STUDENTS. Proceedings Of The Marketing
Management Association, 112-113.
Mccorkle, D., Payan, J., Reardon, J., & Kling, N. (2007). Perceptions and Reality:
Creativity in the Marketing Classroom. Journal of Marketing Education, 254-261.
Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Genre Analysis: English in
Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print
Yadin, D. (2001). Creative marketing communications: A practical guide to
planning, skills and techniques (3rd ed.). London: Kogan Page.