Marketing Department Program
Objectives,
Assurance of Learning and Learning Outcomes
A
primary learning outcome for marketing majors is the ability to
develop a comprehensive marketing plan. According to the American
Marketing Association a marketing plan is a document composed of an
analysis of the current marketing situation, opportunities and
threats analysis, marketing objectives, marketing strategy, action
programs, and projected or pro-forma income (and other financial)
statements.
The rubric used to measure that outcome in the program's capstone
course, MKT 490, is listed below.
Students' comprehensive marketing plans are evaluated by external
marketing professionals. In the most recent evaluation in
2012, the overall performance score was 82% where below 60% is not
inadequate and 100% is perfect. Performance for each criterion
is listed after the criterion.
Specific Content Evaluation
1. Situational analysis (overall analysis of
internal and external factors) 84%
2. SWOT analysis (justification of organization’s
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) 85%
3. Marketing goals (relevancy to mission?,
realistic?, measurable?) 81%
4. Marketing strategies (targets, positioning,
distribution, pricing, promotion, product development, etc.) 82%
5. Marketing objectives (realistic?, clear?,
measurable?) 81%
6. Use of marketing data (e.g., forecasts,
competitive data, customer trends, etc.) 85%
7. Financials (realistic?, complete?) 78%
8. Implementation detail (is it complete or is
additional information needed?) 82%
9. Mechanisms for monitoring and controlling the
plan 79%
Overall Content Evaluation
1. Understanding of company needs 88%
2. Integration of company needs into plan’s goals
and recommendations 84%
3. Actionability of plan’s goals and
recommendations 83%
4. Consideration of Global/international factors
79%
5. Consideration of ethics/corporate social
responsibility 84%
Overall Report Evaluation
1. Professional presentation; salesmanship 86%
2. Justification of plan; rationale 85%
3. Practicality; usability; sensibility 83%
4. Thoroughness; clarity 83%
OVERALL EVALUATION OF PLAN 82.4%
Past and Ongoing Assessment Instruments
The Marketing Department has utilized a number of assessment
instruments during the past 10 years. These include both
direct and indirect assessment methods.
· Capstone course
assessment of marketing plan reports by external evaluators
· Internship
supervisors’ evaluations of student interns using a
Department-developed instrument
· Feedback from
Department Advisory Board and Alumni on industry trends and
entry-level skill and knowledge requirements for marketing graduates
The objectives and findings for these measures have been documented
in previous Departmental reports. In general, these
instruments indicate that our students have been performing well on
key learning objectives (e.g., elements of marketing plan
development).
These measurements have resulting in several curriculum
improvements including:
· Increasing the
emphasis on quantitative and research methods in three required
courses in the curriculum; Consumer Behavior, Marketing Research and
Marketing Management
· Adding Sales
Management as a requirement for the general marketing track
· Increasing the
emphasis on writing skills with the development of the Managerial
Writing course requirement for all marketing majors
Additionally, the Department has been monitoring the Quality of
Instruction student ratings of all Marketing faculty. The
Department median (two top boxes) has exceeded 90% on this Quality
measure for several years.
Development of a New Assessment Measurement
The Department continues to refine an additional assessment
instrument. This instrument is an objective, multiple-choice
test that requires students to apply marketing knowledge. A
set of short marketing cases is followed by questions that are
intended to measure performance on the key learning goals of the
four required marketing courses. The Department also reviewed
the marketing learning goals of two standardized business curriculum
tests, ETS and Technological Fluency Institute. For example,
the ETS learning goals include the following knowledge and
application areas:
A. Identifying attractive markets
1. Strategic marketing planning
2. Scanning marketing environment
3. Marketing research and information technology
tools
4. Consumer and organizational buyer behavior
B. Marketing institutions
1. The marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, and
Promotion)
2. Segmenting consumer and organizational markets
3. Marketing services
4. Marketing for not-for-profit organizations
5. Marketing of social causes
C. International marketing
Measurements of performance in the areas above were incorporated
into the more extensive list of the learning objectives of the four
required courses in the Marketing curriculum.
Implementation
Student performance has been measured at milestones in the Marketing
curriculum using a pre/post methodology. The findings from using
this instrument will point to strengths and weaknesses of student
performance on the key learning criteria and consequently help us to
focus on specific areas for curriculum or pedagogical improvement.
Testing and refinement of the instrument is ongoing since the pilot
test was conducted in the Spring 2009 semester.
A brief summary of the pilot test and results
Pre-Test – conducted in our Principles of Marketing course. This is
a sophomore-level course with multiple sections offered to marketing
and other business majors. The pilot instrument was
administered in class to two sections nine weeks into the semester.
Post-Test – conducted in our Marketing Management. This is a
second-semester, senior-level capstone course for our marketing
majors. Students were tested 10 weeks into the semester.
The results of the pilot study indicated that the Ancell Marketing
program provides significant educational value in key marketing
content areas compared to a baseline of students in week 9 of a
Principles of Marketing course. The composite mean performance score
of the post-test group was 58.8, compared to a mean in the pre-test
group of 37.8 (t Stat = 7.40; P < 0.001). The students in the
capstone course performed better on 47 of 54 items compared to the
students in the Principles of Marketing course (Sign Test; z Stat
=5.31; P<.001).
Status of Assessment Project 2010-2011
The Department continues to collect data each semester in MKT 490.
In Spring 2011, another analysis was performed specifically focusing
on concepts in the Marketing curriculum. On the following
concepts, MKT 490 student performance was at least 60% and the MKT
490 student performance on the each concept was greater than the MKT
301 student performance
· Attribute
Evaluation In Consumer Decision-Making
· Awareness As
Advertising Objective
· Brand Personality
· Communication
Objectives
· Corporate Plan
Basis For Marketing Planning
· Cultural /
Lifestyle Segmentation
· Cultural Issues In
Marketing Research
· Email
Implementation Tactics
· Ethics In
Marketing Research
· Family Lifestyle
Segmentation
· IMC (General
Concept)
· IMC Campaign Goals
· IMC Evaluation And
Control
· Implementation In
Marketing Planning
· Internal Marketing
· Multi-Attribute
Model In Consumer Decision-Making
· Opinion
Leadership/Innovator Influence In Consumer Behavior
· Peer Influence In
Consumer Behavior
· Product
Positioning
· Psychographics /
AIO Segmentation
· Role Of Primary
And Secondary Data In Marketing Research
· Sampling In
Marketing Research
· Segmentation
Criteria
· Situation Analysis
· Societal Marketing
Concept
· Stages In
Marketing Research Process
· SWOT Analysis
Feedback from the Marketing Advisory Board
The Marketing Department has maintained a productive Advisory Board
of industry professionals for more than 15 years. Input from
this Board has been used to provide perspectives on trends in the
industry and skills graduates need for marketing careers. At
the Spring 2011 Advisory Board Meeting we received input on the
following emerging trends.
· Mobile marketing
· Marketing
analytics (web analytics, forecast modeling, customer profiling,
etc.)
· Search engine
marketing
· Sustainable
development and the role of marketing
· Integration of
marketing channels with QR coding
· Survey development
and implementation
The Advisory Board also reinforced the need for students to develop
the following skills:
· Critical thinking
· Creative thinking
· Communication
· Team /Leadership
