Matching the Marketing Curriculum To Market Needs

Abstract

There is a strong need for marketing educators to carefully identify their markets and then make certain that their pro duct offering matches up well with market needs. One useful approach is to define the student as an intermediate market who buys and processes for resale, and the employer as the end market or final customer. To match the product offering to the expressed needs of these markets indicates the need for a change in curriculum design to switch the emphasis from sub ject matter acquisition to managerial skills development. The managerial skills desired by employers who hire our Business School graduates include written and verbal communicating, problem solving and decision making, project planning and im plementing, interpersonal competence, and others. Our course offerings should be so designed that the development of these skills becomes the primary product or objective and subject- matter mastery becomes the by-product.