Should an Introduction to Marketing Undergraduate Business Major Read 'What is Marketing?' by Silk?

This semester one of the books that my Introduction to Marketing class read and did chapter presentations on was the book What is Marketing? by Silk.

I asked students to write essays answering the following question: “Should a future Introduction to Marketing student read What is Marketing? by Silk?”  This question could have been “Should a future Introduction to Marketing student read a marketing textbook?”  Introduction to Marketing textbooks are all more or less the same.  What is Marketing? costs about $15.  A lot of Introduction to Marketing textbooks cost a lot more.

Thanks for all of the feedback, and thanks to those of you brave enough to share your essays on your tumblr blogs.

My answer to the question would go something like this:

I do not think a future Introduction to Marketing student should read What is Marketing? by Silk.  First, the book’s marketing concepts are available online for free.  Second, there are better marketing examples/cases available online for free.  Third, What is Marketing? does not cover specific contemporary marketing skills that can help a marketing student build their online portfolio/resume.  Fourth, the book does not encourage any interaction between a marketing student and their online professional community.

The proliferation of online dictionaries and reference sites that define and outline marketing concepts has made the need for a marketing textbook like What is Marketing obsolete.  Sites like Wikipedia and NetMBA have the same definitions, taxonomies, diagrams, and outlines of marketing concepts as those contained in the book What is Marketing?.  Googling a marketing term is a good way to learn about a marketing concept as well.

The proliferation of online marketing examples, case studies, and multimedia content make the examples and cases presented in What is Marketing? seem simplistic and outdated.  Marketing podcasts available on iTunes, marketing videos available on YouTube, marketing articles in the business sections of online newspapers, and marketing blog posts make textbook examples seem campy.  It is difficult for a teacher to organize all of this online marketing content, but online services like delicious are making it easier to bookmark, tag, and organzie online content.

An Introduction to Marketing class could spend an entire semester immersed in marketing concepts and marketing examples/case studies without ever practicing any marketing skills.  When skills are taught, they are usually skills practiced by senior managers that don’t pertain to entry level marketing positions or entrepreneurial marketing activities.  There is a need for marketing students that can create digital content, manage digital content online, and distribute digital content online.  Freelancers get paid to do this type of work.  My first corporate job out of college sucked.  It’s a good idea to have some skills you can fall back on just in case.  It’s also good to know what type of projects you like to work on before your graduate.

What is Marketing? does not encourage interactivity between a student and their future online professional community.  It is becoming more of a trend for authors with marketing-related books to create online communities and forums around the content in their books.  For example, Rob Walker, author of Buying In, Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crushit, and Chris Coyier, author of Digging Into WordPress, all have online communities that they participate in.  Online professional community members interact through blogs and social networks continuously.  This opportunity to interact with prospective employers and thought leaders prior to graduation is not encouraged in most marketing textbooks.  Most marketing academics and textbook corporations whose names appear on textbooks don’t offer professional online communities for students to explore and to establish an identity in.

There is not a simple alternative to using a textbook in an Introduction to Marketing class.  It is easy to spend an entire semester entertaining students with books and videos.  It is is difficult to teach contemporary marketing skills to students.  I hope students in my Introduction to Marketing classes have learned something new this semester, that you do something cool with your time to work on your projects, and that you continue to build your online portfolio and to interact with your future online professional community.  Think about what part of this diagram you want to focus on.  Don’t try to do everything, try to do one thing well for your final project!