Indiana Marketing Educators' Update
A Newsletter for Marketing Educators January 2000

In this issue...
 
Lodging Management Program

The Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association has developed a new curriculum to help prepare students to take a leadership role in this fast-paced, exciting industry. Lodging Management Program is designed for eleventh and twelfth grade students. The Indiana Department of Education, Business & Marketing Division, has approved the new curriculum program and is helping to identify target schools for implementation in the Fall of 2000.
 
This two-year program combines school-based and work-based learning, which includes paid internships at lodging worksites. The competencies are based on the high standards set forth in the Educational Institutes post-secondary curriculum. This allows schools to form articulation agreements between high schools and local community colleges and universities.

The two-year curriculum covers the World of Hospitality, Front Office Operations, Housekeeping Operations, Leadership Roles, Marketing and Sales and Food and Beverage Sales. With the labor shortage we are facing as an industry, this program will help fill the need for excited, motivated and educated employees.
 
This program could easily fit into your existing Marketing Program or the Hospitality and Tourism course. If marketing teachers do not offer to teach this course, there are other disciplines who are very interested. I hope marketing teachers will take the leadership role. For more information, call Faye Gayes at (317) 675-4249 or fgayes@livengood-soards.com. Application information is enclosed. You may also access the application and program criteria on our web site.
 
Textbook Adoption

The State approved list of textbooks for Business Technology Education is listed at http://www.doe.state.in.us/octe/bme. Click onto Textbook Adoption. The following courses have textbooks listed:
• Accounting I and II
• Business Foundations
• Business Math/Personal Finance
• Business and Personal Law
• Computer Keyboarding/Document Formatting
 
All other courses require local decision on textbooks including marketing. You will probably want to contact publishers to see what is available for your marketing classes. If you have questions, please contact Barb Beadle at (317) 232-9179 or Linda Dierstein at (317) 232-9120.
 
MarkED Conclave

It's the premier professional development conference for marketing, management, and entrepreneurship, and it's located in Boston, June 22-25. This conference is always insightful and relevant to the needs of marketing teachers. For information, contact MarkED at 800 448-0398 or www.mark-ed.com.
 
SREM Workshops

This one-day workshop will cover the new Sports, Recreation, and Entertainment Marketing curriculum. The developers of the course, Rick Commers from Michigan City High School and Carol Pearson from Twin Lakes High School, will conduct the hands-on Professional Development Workshops at three locations throughout the State. (See attached registration)
 
The presenters will walk you through the curriculum and present ideas for instructional strategies, project-based learning, assessment strategies, actual work related projects, etc. Attendees will have opportunities to ask questions, discuss issues, and make suggestions.
 
If you or anyone in your school is planning to implement this course for the 2000-2001 school year, they should attend one of these workshops. Also, if you have an interest in starting a course for the 2001-2002 school year, now is the time to get information from the experts.
Don't miss this great opportunity to hear from the developers of the SREM curriculum. These people teach the course and know what works and what doesn't. Come find out for yourself.
 
Registration forms are available on the web at www.doe.state.in.us/octe/bme. Click onto Professional Development. A copy is enclosed in this newsletter.
 
Marketing Academy

The Indiana Marketing Educators' Academy will be held June 12-16 in Indianapolis. The purpose of the Academy is to prepare marketing teachers to implement competency-based instruction and mastery learning in their classes. Lodging and most meals will be provided through IDOE if funding is provided. If you are a teacher with under five years experience, you need to enroll in this Academy. College credit is available. Contact Barb Beadle for an application or you may access on the web site; deadline is March 31.
Summer Workshops

Plans are being made to provide three to four summer workshops in project-based learning and MOUS certification. The exact dates and complete information will be listed on the web site by February 15. Please access the web site for registration information. Click onto Professional Development. Dates for the workshops have been tentatively set for the weeks of July 10-14, July 17-21, July 24-28, and July 31-August 4. College credit may be available.

Curriculum Materials Available

The 2000-2001 school year will require that all schools offer the new course titles for Marketing Education. The course titles have been approved by the Indiana State Board of Education. The course titles and descriptions are posted at http://www.doe.state.in.us/octe/bme. Click onto Curriculum. You may also access the content standards and performance expectations for each course at that site.
If you are interested in receiving a more detailed curriculum document which includes instructional strategies, assessment strategies, and supplementary resources, you may purchase a hard copy for $10 (limited quantities available) and a CD for $5. Make checks payable to IBEA, and send to the attention of Barb Beadle at the Indiana Department of Education. Charge for materials is on a cost recovery basis only.
 
Target Marketing Prop

To introduce students to the term "target market" and to serve as a constant reminder that marketing to a specific target audience is the key to a business's success, try this nifty idea. Hang a dartboard on one of the walls in your classroom. Use the dartboard as a reference whenever the class discussion focuses on target market or target audience. Obviously, be sure there are no darts in the board.
 
Source: Teaching Business Education. January/ February 2000.
Entrepreneurship Story

If you are fishing at 40 degrees below zero and you pull a fish up through the ice, an obvious thing happens. The fish freezes, fast and hard. But Clarence Birdseye, grinding out a living as a fur trader in Labrador in the years before World War I, noted something not so obvious about these quick-frozen fish.
 
When thawed, the fish were tender, flaky, and moist–almost as good as fresh caught. The same was true for the frozen caribou, geese, and heads of cabbage that he stored outside his cabin during the long Canadian winter.
 
That observation, recalled a decade later, made Clarence Birdseye a wealthy man. The quick-freezing process pioneered by Birdseye produced frozen foods that were palatable to consumers. It created a multi-billion dollar industry, and gave farmers the incentive to grow crops for a year-round market. In the case of frozen orange juice, it created a product where none had existed before.
 
"There was nothing remarkable about what I had done," Birdseye wrote years later, noting that northern aboriginal people practiced quick-freezing for centuries. "What I accomplished...was merely to make quick-frozen goods available to the general public."
 
Source: Adapted from the Speaker's Library of Business Stories, Anecdotes and Humor.
 
Pay Students Commission Points

Here's a quick idea to reinforce the concept of commissions to students and, at the same time, to encourage them to achieve higher grades. Pay them commission points on their next test or quiz.
 
Here's how it works. On the next quiz, any student who earns a 90% or more receives 5 extra points; 80% or more, 3 extra points; 70% or more, 2 points; 69% or less, no commission points are awarded. The commission point scale can be higher or lower according to teacher preference and the school's grading scale.

Source: Teaching Business Education. January/ February 2000.
 
How To Satisfy Customers

Research International, a company that continually builds a body of knowledge about market research, shares these thoughts and directions on customer satisfaction.
 
  • Service accounts for almost 40% of a customer's decision to buy from a specific home electronics retailer. Stores with managers show work at pleasing customers who a solid increase in profitability each year.
  • Customer service has to be improved by starting with the CEO's office. Commitment from the top must be communicated to all employees.
  • Carefully estimate training time and make sure your people get it.
  • Make sure employees know what you're trying to improve and know how to go about helping.
  • If you've improved your customer service, make sure customers know it. If a survey shows that people think it takes a week to get materials delivered, and you're delivering them in two days, make sure you get credit for your new accomplishment. Run an awareness campaign.

Source: Marketing News & Communication Briefings

How To Be A Great Manager

Management consultant Peter Stark suggests the following if you want to make it to the top in management:
  • Develop positive vision. See success before it arrives. Example: Successful managers–when visualizing themselves walking across a high wire-see themselves walking to the other side. Managers who struggle usually have their focus on not falling off the rope.
  • Think big. Look for ideas that will be contagious and excite people.
  • Encourage others to do their best. Successful managers believe that people do want to make a significant contribution. Coach, counsel and develop people to live up to their potential
  • Set and maintain high expectations for all who work with you. Mediocrity does not generate a highly motivated work force.
  • Overuse polite phrases. Unsuccessful managers don't seem to find the time to say "please" and "thank you."

Source: The Manager's Advisor.

Interview All Your Customers
  • To create a thorough marketing plan, you should first quiz your internal customers. What to ask:
  • "What's unique about our organization?" "What special expertise do we offer?"
  • "What do our customers complain about?" "What do they say about us, and what suggestions do they offer?"
  • "What should we change or what services should we add to better meet the needs of our customers and prospects?"
  • Then ask your external customers these questions:
  • "Did something you want or need bring you to us?"
  • "What do you feel we should add or do more of?"
  • "Which of our services do you consider the best?" "What's special about them, and why do you use them?"
  • If we kept only one of our services, which one do you feel it should be?"
  • "What are your needs now, and what do you expect them to be next year?"

Source: Jan Cohen, trainer and consultant, writing in Nonprofit World.

The Power of Advertising

Remember the old Tide laundry detergent commercial where the guy dressed in a bow tie places a stained white T-shirt into a shaker with some ice and Tide detergent? He briskly shakes up the contents for a few moments and voila, the T-shirt is spotless. Try this demonstration right in your own classroom and see if it really works. We tried it, and it did not. Use the demonstration to explain to students that marketing a product is the key to its success and to also teach them not to believe everything they see or read.

Source: Teaching Business Education, September/ October 1999.
 
Global Grocery Project

A great activity to get your students aware of global prices is to conduct the Global Grocery Project. The Global Grocery Project has students visit their local grocery stores and record the prices of the items on an on-line grocery list, then share their prices with other participating classes all over the world by submitting their research via the Internet. The result is a growing table of current, peer collected data that can be used when teaching economic principles.
 
To plan for the project, the teacher will need to visit the Web site and print out the on-line shopping list form. The form is then copied and distributed to students. Students then complete the form on-line and submit. Once submitted, students are given an on-line receipt. They can then view their shopping list and compare it with other global entries.
 
Visit the Global Grocery Project Web site at http://www.schoollife.net/schools/ggl.

Source: Teaching Business Education, September/ October 1999.
 
Web Sites

Using the Internet can save teachers time, cut costs, and help promote your program. As marketing teachers, we have an obligation to be as up-to-date as the topics we teach. Today technology is integral to marketing education. Try out the following Web sites:
For information in this newsletter, contact
Barbara K. Beadle, Program Specialist
Business & Marketing Education
(317) 232-9179-office or (317) 232-9121-fax
email: bbeadle@doe.state.in.us
http://www.doe.state.in.us/octe/bme