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What Would You Teach The Suits? Help Me Design an IM course for MBA students

by Flierboy
2 replies
Hi Folks,

I will be teaching IM to MBA students in Europe. Need your help in designing an IM course. I know IM is being taught in some MBA programs already, but haven't been able to access any syllabus yet.

Here's a broad outline I am thinking of:

Part1: Brand Management using IM (the classic Park Avenue market). This would involve managing brand, building relationships, product announcements, customer service etc. using Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.

Part2: Direct Marketing. This would involve the IM that we all know of; the measurable, quantifiable, results oriented marketing. This would include:
a) Defining your business in terms of laser targeted niches
b) Traffic Generation - Organic & Paid
c) Traffic Conversion - getting people to take a specific action (purchase, sign up, download whitepaper, submit personal details etc.)

What would you change/add/remove?

The students are executive MBA students, in their early 30s, having 7+ years experience, and are sponsored by their employer companies.

Thanks for any suggestions you have. Ideas for in classroom exercises/demos/anything to make it more fun would be most welcome :-)

-Ritesh
#design #mba #students #suits #teach
  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    I wonder if their companies will be outsourcing. If that's the case, then
    I'm curious about having an MBA in IM in the company. That's not a
    criticism, just a thought.

    So, I presume an IM MBA will probably manage people who really know
    how to do IM. Maybe the MBA person will manage/oversee outsourced
    IM people. Or will the companies want these MBA's to actually do the
    IM duties for them.

    Sorry... just thinking outloud.

    - There's nothing about email marketing in there. As you know, that's still
    a huge part of relationship marketing.

    - How about market research and demographics. But if these are large corps,
    I'd tend to think their marketing dept has that covered. They should!

    - The use of all their demographics research in paid advertising. The whole
    being relevant thing with ppc advertising and why it's important.

    - Conversion. A big one. Website useability and conversion. Useability is a
    large subset itself. A fair amount of good research out there about that.

    - Testing. Huge. What you test, why, and how. Testing methodologies such
    as classic A/B split and multivariate. Use of Google Analytics.

    - Anything about copywriting? But I imagine these corps have that covered.

    - Have them read about the importance of the marketing dept. One of the most
    successful copywriters argues that the marketing dept is the most important dept
    in the entire corp. Of course lots of other people in large corps would disagree, but
    they're also not hugely successful copywriters, either.

    - Nothing mentioned about product launches.

    - Other important marketing methods such as video marketing.

    - Ok... you mention brand management which to me has more of
    a general approach component as it relates to 'the market.' Then,
    you mention defining a business in terms of laser targeted niches.
    I think you'll need to find a bridge between the two and figure out
    a way to marry them.

    - Traffic generation: You gonna teach them SEO and SEM? I imagine
    their employers have that outsourced, or people directly hired to do it.
    So not sure what the point is for having another layer of management
    learn whatever about it. Not busting on you, just kinda wondering about
    it all.

    - Can't forget about JV's when talking about IM. I'm sure the marketing
    dept has that covered, too. But guess any IM MBA worth their salt should
    at least know what JV stands for. I guess in Europe they don't have Junior
    Varsity sports. Probably called something else.

    - Be sure they know what WF stands for, and that the War Room has nothing
    to do with the defense department.

    Hope some of that helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author JeffMitchell
      You have to realize that 99.9% of the world has NO real world understanding of marketing on the internet. Brand management to the MBA is all about Vegas and Times Square...plaster your image all over town so that every jo schmo knows who you are.

      Teach them about real relationship building like many of the greats.. John Carlton, Mike Dillard..etc. That is real brand management.

      Just showing the basics of social media in relation to the uses of corporations like CNN, Fox Media Harpo (Oprah's network) and Wall Street,and they will grasp the social media concept.

      Direct Marketing...Again I will return to greats like John Carlton, Eban Pagen and many others. Emphesis the relationship between writing effective copy and grasping the emotional values of the potential prospect or customer.

      Pay geat attention to testing. There is nothing more importantant than understanding your metrix when you are building an empire on the internet.

      Hope that helps a bit.

      Jeff Mitchell
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