Manajemen | Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji 08832320209599705
Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Schoolwork as Products, Professors as Customers:
A Practical Teaching Approach in Business
Education
Charles R. Emery & Robert G. Tian
To cite this article: Charles R. Emery & Robert G. Tian (2002) Schoolwork as Products,
Professors as Customers: A Practical Teaching Approach in Business Education, Journal of
Education for Business, 78:2, 97-102, DOI: 10.1080/08832320209599705
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832320209599705
Published online: 31 Mar 2010.
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Schoolwork as Products,
Professors as Customers:
A Practical Teaching Approach in
Business Education
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CHARLES R. EMERY
Lander University
Greenwood, South Carolina
T
eaching marketing principles, like
teaching almost any principles
courses, involves assigning new terms
or terminologies to unfamiliar theoretical frameworks and concepts. To
accomplish this, professors break down
the subject matter into a number of relatively distinct subareas for study, such
as the four Ps in the marketing mix.
Unfortunately, students typically have
problems understanding the conceptual
linkages between the fundamental components, although understanding them
helps businesses be competitive (Porter,
1980). Thus, practitioners suggest more
use of practice-oriented exercises to
help students understand the interactions between various concepts
(Oblinger & Verville, 1998). Furthermore, business supervisors expect their
employees to take a systems approach
to problem solving (Emery, 2002). In
this study, we explored the impact that a
practitioner approach might have on
student enthusiasm and learning.
A marketing principles course offers
several traditional opportunities for
experiential learning (e.g., developing
marketing plans, conducting focus
groups, developing ad campaigns).
Though these methods are excellent for
helping the students learn various components of the marketing process, we
were looking for something that would
pull the whole process together. Hence,
ROBERT G. TlAN
Erskine College
Due West, South Carolina
ABSTRACT. The common perception is that only hands-on learning can
help students understand the interactions between various concepts. In this
article, the authors describe a method
of teaching the four Ps-product,
price, place, and promotion-in a
marketing principles course in which
the students market their coursework
to the professor as the customer. The
professor-as-customer paradigm is
based on the Japanese Kano model,
which identifies and quantifies customer expectations. In a 2-year experiment, they investigated two professors and 357 students and found that
progress occurred on several nationally normed learning objectives.
money or something else of value. Students learn that their schoolwork can be
considered a product because it is of
value to the professor (customers). Professors want to know how much information is being absorbed by students
from resources both inside and outside
of the classroom. Students soon realize
that by marketing their products to professors, a mutually beneficial exchange
relationship can be established: Professors enjoy seeing students’ learning
progress, and students enhance their
communication skills and improve their
quality of knowledge by responding to
professors’ feedback.
In the marketing priciples course
described in this article, students come
to understand that the foremost goal of
marketers is to create and maintain good
relationships with their customers (i.e.,
customer relationship management).
Thus, students must strive to build relationships with their professors both
inside and outside of the classroom to
understand product needs effectively
and to communicate product values.
Students quickly learn that one must
know one’s customers, because the
requirements of some customers vary
dramatically from those of others.
These various product needs translate
into various product specifications and
opportunities for differentiation. For
example, if a student has a question
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we elected to have the students market
their work as products to their professors as customers. The students were
very enthusiastic when we told them
that we were going to help them apply
marketing concepts to improve their
grades. Specifically, we intended to
relate each of the four Ps continuously
to the objective of customer satisfaction
over the course of the semester. The
principal products of this experiment
were to be two term projects (one individual and one team), a team presentation, and a final term paper.
Product: The Schoolwork
A product is a good, service, or idea
that a customer acquires to satisfy a
need or want through the exchange of
Novernber/Decernber 2002
97
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about a project’s instructions, he or she
should be encouraged to request clarification from the professor rather than
guessing what the customer needs. This
opportunity for a one-on-one exchange
can be likened to a minifocus group that
energizes the producers by helping them
understand the reasons for various
requirements. This energy often takes
the form of improving product differentiation (e.g., features, conformance, aesthetics, reliability). Furthermore, competitors will be constantly striving to
imitate a business’s best products, so
students must learn to innovate continually and strive for uniqueness. Today’s
order winner is tomorrow’s order qualifier (Hill, 1989). Although one needs to
be aware of the competition, there is far
less to fear from outside competition
than there is from inside factors such as
inefficiency, discourteous behavior, and
bad service. One’s own product reliability is the most influential dimension
(Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman,
1988).
Finally, we required students to
develop marketing principles and strategies based on their perceptions of the
professor’s expectation. To accomplish
this task, each student first had to perform market research to determine the
customer’s wants and needs. Students
realized, as one-person companies, that
market research was critical: There
were no margins for errors, and they had
to hit the bulls-eye the first time because
resources (e.g., time) were tight. Second, the students had to outline their
marketing strategies formally according
to marketing principles, theories, and
empirical research. These strategies
often took the form of entertaining as
well as selling and striving to be unique.
Customer satisfied
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Dysfunctional
.--
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Price: The Grade for the
Schoolwork
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Customer dissatisfied
FIGURE 1. The Kano model of customer needs.
strategic alliances, and economies of
scale and scope.
Place: Handing in Works at the
Desired Location and Time
In the marketing mix, place is a vital
aspect of the marketing process through
which marketers deliver products to
consumers. This factor-product delivery at the desired place and time-has
grown in importance as customers
expect better service and more convenience from businesses. Students have
come to realize that this trend also
applies to production, delivery (logistical management), and follow-up (customer service). For example, in business, logistics management is defined as
the process of managing suppliers and
the movement of raw materials, parts,
work in progress, finished products, and
related information through the value
chain in an efficient, cost-effective manner that meets customer requirements.
Students participate in logistics management during the course of each
semester. Suppliers are the professors,
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Price is the amount of money or other
valuable that the marketer asks for in
exchange for a product. The true value
of a product, however, is what someone
is willing to pay for it. Similarly, the
price or value of a student’s product
(schoolwork) is reflected in the grade
that he or she receives from the professor. Unfortunately, students often perceive the grade as a function of the pro-
98
fessor rather than his or her value creation. An interesting exercise that brings
this notion into clearer focus is to have
the students place the price or grade on
the paper before they submit it to the
customer (Emery, 2001a). The better
students have a good sense of the value
that they create; that is, whether they
have met, exceeded, or failed to exceed
a professor’s expectations. Over time,
this exercise tends to raise the performance level of the lower performing
students because most want to be
acknowledged for their accurate selfassessment and few are willing to
acknowledge that they are intentionally
turning in “C” work.
Additionally, students come to realize
that cost is an important aspect of creating value. For example, they must balance their costs and production schedules across a variety of customers. Also,
they must consider which products are
the most important (heaviest weighted)
to the consumer. Furthermore, they
must examine opportunities for reducing their costs by improving production
efficiencies through use of technology,
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Journal of Education for Business
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support agencies, and other students
who provide them with the raw materials or knowledge. Parts represent the
bundles of knowledge that one uses to
construct the product. Work in progress
is the partially completed customer
orders. Finished products are the papers
and presentations produced for grades.
Another aspect of logistics management is the timely delivery of the product through marketing channels. Marketing channels are extremely important
for all marketers because they function
in the value chain as a network of partners who cooperate to bring products
from producers to ultimate consumers.
Marketers often opt to use channel partners (e.g., other students) because they
add value to the marketing process as
they complete exchange functions,
logistical functions, and facilitation
functions. Students realize that their
schoolwork may pass through various
channels before reaching the consumer
and that each of these channels has
advantages and disadvantages. For
example, the direct channel action of
taking schoolwork directly to the professor's office has the advantage of
offering the student the opportunity for
making a last-minute sales pitch, but it
has the disadvantage of requiring scheduling of a time in which both parties can
meet. Indirect channel actions, such as
transmitting the product via email, posting the project on a personal student
Website, letting others hand in one's
schoolwork, or leaving it in the professor's drop-box all offer a certain convenience and reduced cost but do not offer
the opportunity for face-to-face branding. Most important, however, is the student's understanding of the customer's
desired place and his or her ensuring
that it meets the promised due date.
Meeting the due date is a customer's
basic expectation of the producer's reliability. Thus, meeting the deadline does
not increase customer satisfaction, but
missing it certainly produces customer
dissatisfaction.
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FIGURE 2. Marketing professors' expectations for projectslterm papers.
while building a healthy relationship
with them through two-way communications. Objectives of promotion
include building brand loyalty, providing information, managing demand, and
building sales. Central to promotion is
the notion of persuasion. Producers
must dedicate time for a one-on-one
sales pitch to persuade customers that
they will fulfill their wants and needs.
Furthermore, persuasion is closely
linked to the producer's need to differentiate his or her product from competitors' products; to influence the customer's perception, attitudes, and
behaviors; and to build brand image.
This suggests several actions on the part
of the students. First, producers must
take the time to understand the products
and features that the competition offers
and to use the best producers to create
benchmarks. Second, producers must
create a memorable image. For example, in a large classroom, a professor
inevitably grows weary of reading paper
after mediocre paper. However, if a student uses different techniques and creates a unique product, the professor will
be more likely to remember that paper
and perhaps grade that student's future
work more favorably (i.e., this could
create something akin to brand loyalty,
which influences customers to overlook
minor imperfections in the future).
By implementing promotion theory,
students realize that the format of their
work is as important as the content, as is
the case in the packaging of a real product. They also agree on the importance
of establishing and maintaining good
relations with professors. For instance,
the student must create a personal reputation to ensure that the professor knows
that he or she is dedicated and efficient.
As the ultimate customers of students'
schoolwork, professors must be made
aware of the students' dedication and
commitment to superior work. More-
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Promotion: Marketing the
Product
Promotion is a vital component of the
marketing mix because it informs and
educates consumers about the product
November/December 2002
99
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TABLE 1. Results from the Student Evaluation Survey: IDEA Form
Pretest
M/SD
(N= 338)
Posttest
M/SD
( N = 357)
Sig.
Comment
1. Encourages students to use
multiple resources to improve
understanding
3.311.2
3.910.9
.001
Hi: T, > Ti
supported
2. Related course material to
real-life situations
4.210.7
4.610.6
.001
H,: T, > Ti
supported
3. Encourages student-faculty
interaction outside of class
(office visits, phone calls,
e-mail, etc.)
4.010.6
4.310.5
.001
H,: T, > T I
supported
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Question
The Japanese manufacturing industry
uses the Kano model to determine and
prioritize or weight customer requirements. The horizontal axis in Figure 1
shows the extent to which customers’
expectations are achieved. The vertical
axis shows the customer satisfaction
associated with this achievement. Three
types of needs are identified in this
model: basic needs, satisfiers, and
delighters. The first type of expectation,
the basic need, is the assumptions that
customers have about a service (e.g., the
availability of a restroom in a restaurant
or error-free spelling on a homework
assignment). Though filling these needs
does not satisfy the customer, not filling
them quickly causes dissatisfaction.The
second type of expectation is the satisfiers, or the list of items that customers
would normally mention as keys to their
satisfaction (e.g., responsiveness of a
server in a restaurant or well-justified
recommendations for a case study).
Achievement of the satisfiers increases
customer satisfaction, but only at a linear rate. The third type of expectation is
the delighters, the needs that a customer
does not have conscious knowledge of
or that fall into the category of “Wouldn‘t it be great if someday a student provided.. ..” Examples of this would be a
fine restaurant that provides baby-sitting facilities or a student who synthesizes material into a new way of looking
at things. A provider that does not provide delighters will still have satisfied
customers, but those that provide
delighters will experience a nonlinear
increase in customer satisfaction. The
dotted lines graphically depict that all
needs are not created equal, and the resolution of all needs does not have the
same impact on customer satisfaction.
For example, the additive effect of failing to fulfill basic needs or expectations
is a geometric increase in dissatisfaction. The additive effect of providing
delighters is a geometric increase in satisfaction. Lastly, the additive effect of
providing satisfiers is tantamount to a
linear increase in the customer’s satisfaction.
This model suggests four important
points to the students wishing to market
their product successfully. First, all
basic needs must be fulfilled. Failure to
satisfy a basic need has a dramatic
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4. Developing specific skills,
competencies, and points of
view needed by professionals
in the field most closely related
to this course
3.711.1
4.210.6
,001
H,: T, > T,
supported
5. Developing creative capacities
(writing, inventing, designing,
performing, etc.)
2.511.2
3.410.9
.001
H,:T, > T,
supported
6. Developing skill in expressing
myself orally or in writing
2.911.1
3.011.2
.467
H,: T, > Ti
not supported
7. Learning how to find and use
resources for answering questions or solving problems
3.311.1
3.910.8
.oo1
H,: T, > T i
supported
8. Learning to analyze and
critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view
3.910.9
3.811.0
.672
H,: T, > T I
not supported
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Note. Questions 1-3 asked the students to rate their professors on a 5-point Likert scale ranging
from 1 (hardly ever) to 5 (almost always). Questions 4-8 asked students to rate their progress in
this course compared with their progress in other courses at the college or university on a 5-point
Likert scale ranging from 1 (low [lowest 10% of courses I h e taken]) to 5 (high [highest 10% of
courses I have taken]).
over, a successful student should be
open to constructive criticism and be
willing to change the “product” according to the professor’s instruction. After
all, good producers want to hear complaints so that they have the chance to
improve and perhaps prevent customer
defection.
Customer: The Professor
The primary principle of total quality
management suggests that providers
should achieve success by understanding and satisfying their customers’
needs. As previously suggested, this can
100
Journal of Education for Business
be applied to education through a paradigm in which the professors are the
customers (Emery, 2001b). Students
become the providers, and it is their
responsibility to determine and satisfy
customer expectations. It is not enough,
however, for the students to understand
customer needs or expectations; they
must be able to quantify them accurately. All needs are not created equal, and
the resolution of a11 needs does not have
the same impact on customer satisfaction or a project grade (payment).
This concept is easily illustrated
through the Kano model (Kano, Seraku,
Takahashi, & Tsuji, 1984; see Figure 1).
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TABLE 2. Results from the Student End-of-Course Survey ( N = 357)
Question
M/SD
Comments
4.310.9
46% rated it as a 5.
36% rated it as a 4.
4.710.5
57% rated it as a 5.
31% rated it as a 4.
1. I believe this practitioner-oriented approach to
learning motivated me to work harder than I
might have ordinarily.
2. I would recommend that this technique of
instruction be used the next time this course
is taught.
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3. I believe the experience has helped me to
understand the importance of focusing on
4.510.7
52% rated it as a 5.
43% rated it as a 4.
4. I believe the experience helped me to better
understand the relationship between marketing,
production, and customer satisfaction.
4.011.2
36% rated it as a 5.
33% rated it as a 4.
5. I am now more likely to do a better job of
determining professor expectations in my
future courses.
4.410.8
46% rated it as a 5.
52% rated it as a 4.
customer expectations.
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for instructor’s teaching and five for
learning progress. In turn, each professor calculated the students’ mean
responses for each of the eight questions
over the 2-year period before the test.
We compared these means with the student means from the test period through
a t test (see Table 1). Implicit in these
comparisons were the notional hypotheses that the test period (T2) responses
would be significantly higher than the
pretest (Tl) responses at the p < .05
level of significance.
The results indicate that six out of the
eight hypotheses were supported at a p
< .05 level of significance. Particularly
noteworthy were the high mean scores
on the questions regarding students’
progress in relating course materials to
real-life situations, their development of
competencies needed by the profession,
and instructor availability for studentfaculty interaction. The test sample
means for the learning objective concerning the development of competencies needed by the profession was rated
in the top 2% of the nation for both faculty members.
The second method of assessment
was a four-question, end-of-course survey that we administered to the test
group of students to ascertain their attitudes toward the professor-as-customer
paradigm. We strongly encouraged the
students to clarify their responses by
commenting in the space below each
question so that we could capture their
perceptions accurately (see Table 2).
In the third method of assessment, we
compared the professors’ expectations
with the students’ perceptions of those
expectations. At the beginning of each
semester, the two participating professors brainstormed to develop a composite of their expectations for student projectdterm papers in terms of the Kano
categories (see Figure 2). On the endof-course survey, the students were
given a list of the professors’ 28 expectations and asked to indicate which ones
were basic needs, satisfiers, and
delighters. In turn, we developed an
expectation gap measure by comparing
the students’ perceptions of the professors’ expectations with those indicated
by the professors. We calculated a gap
measure for individual students by giving them a score of -3 for each missed
Nore. Questions were rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (dejhitely false), 2 (morefalse
than true), 3 (in between), 4 (more true than false), and 5 (definitely true).
effect on customer satisfaction. In other
words, one “ah shucks” outweighs 10
“atta boys.” Second, the provider must
determine and provide as many linear
satisfiers as possible. Each satisfier has
an additive effect toward total customer
satisfaction or customer loyalty. The
customer will enter a zone of moderate
satisfaction if the provider fulfills all of
the customer’s basic needs and a few of
the satisfiers. Third, the provider needs
to create delighters, because real service
differentiation is created through them.
Each time a provider produces a
delighter, it is a memorable event for the
customer and his or her satisfaction is
increased geometrically. Thus, one
might say that one delighter outweighs a
number of satisfiers. Fourth, any advantage gained by delighting customers
only holds temporarily until the competition catches up. Continuous innovation is necessary for maintaining an
edge.
As we mentioned previously in the
“product” section, we introduce our paradigm as a market research task at the
beginning of the semester. The class is
assigned the task of determining and
quantifying the professor’s needs
through brainstorming within groups
and individual interviews with the professor. Often the use of Bloom’s taxonomy is an excellent tool for illustrating
examples of basic needs, satisfiers, and
delighters to the students.
Assessment: Learning and
Enthusiasm
We conducted an assessment of the
professor-as-customer approach over 4
semesters of a principles of marketing
course at a public university and a private college. Two professors taught 12
sections of 357 students between fall
2000 and fall 2002. We used three types
of evaluations to assess the students’
enthusiasm for this teaching technique
and their understanding of the relationship between customer satisfaction,
marketing, and production.
For the first method of assessment,
we asked students questions taken from
a nationally standardized student survey
(IDEA form) to investigate their perceptions of the instructors’ teaching and the
students’ progress toward certain specific learning objectives. We selected eight
questions from the 47-item form; three
NovembedDecember 2002
101
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TABLE 3. Correlation Between the Student‘s Gap Measure (Difference
Between the Professors’Expectations and the Student’s Perception of
Those Expectations) and Grades ( N = 357)
Comparison
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Correlation/
sig.
I
Comments
I
I
1. Relationship between the
student’s gap score and hisher
course grade
2. Relationship between the
student’s gap score and hisher
grade point average
R = ,672,
p < .001
R = .451,
p < .001
The lower perception gaps
correlate with higher course
grades.
The lower perception gaps
correlate with higher GPAs.
I
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Note. A high perception gap score indicates that the student was very perceptive in determiningthe
professor’s expectation.
basic need, +1 for each identified satisfier, and +2 for each identified delighter.
In turn, we conducted correlation analyses to compare the gap measures with
the students’ course grades and overall
grade point averages. Implicit in these
comparisons were the notional hypotheses that there would be significant and
positive correlation between the student’s ability to properly perceive the
professors’ expectations and his or her
course grade. Furthermore, we believed
that students who properly perceived
the professor’s expectations probably
would have a higher degree of “pattern
sense,” which would be reflected in a
higher grade point average (Butler,
1978) (see Table 3).
Conclusions
Overall, this experiment in experiential learning appeared to be an overwhelming success. Students demonstrated increased progress on the
nationally normed learning objectives,
increased motivation to work harder,
and a keener understanding of the relationship between customer expectations
and customer satisfaction. In this case,
learning the skill of understanding professor expectations is particularly germane to the real world. Today’s employ-
102
We suggest that professors wishing
to improve student understanding of
the relationship between customer
expectations and customer satisfaction
try two activities. First, near the beginning of the semester they should assign
a project in which the students identify
and quantify the professor’s expectations through use of the Kano model.
Second, before following the professor’s instruction on the four Ps, the
professor could have the students prepare a short paper in which they apply
the four Ps of marketing to the marketing, production, and delivery of their
schoolwork. We believe that instructors
will find both of these exercises very
enriching for their students.
ers indicate that undergraduates do a
poor job of understanding supervisor
expectations (Emery, 2002).
The students who participated in this
exercise realized that we are all trying to
market our products, whether these are
ideas or concepts. They began to understand the philosophy that customer satisfaction is a key and most worthwhile
means to an end. Furthermore, use of the
Kano model helped them develop a life
strategy based on awareness of the need
to fulfill a customer’s basic expectation
and then concentrate on the delighters.
The question of whether this experiment actually provided the students
with a better understanding of the linkages among the four Ps (i.e., learning)
seems clear. The students’ self-reported
understanding of the information was
very encouraging, and their answers to
essay questions on the linkages among
the four Ps were much more insightful
and innovative than their answers on
pre-experiment exams. However, the
link between understanding the
teacher’s expectations and learning is
not so clear. Does increased learning of
the subject matter take place through
use of these teaching methods, or do the
students simply learn how to better satisfy the customer? This is an area for
future study.
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REFERENCES
Butler, J. K. (1 978). Of rates and managers: Reality testing the LMX in the career maze. Unpublished manuscript. Clemson University, SC.
Emery, C. R. (2001a). Student selfassessment: An
experiment in improving the value of student
products. Unpublished manuscript, 2001-3,
Lander University, Greenwood, SC.
Emery, C. R. (2001b). The professor is the customer. In Lamb, Hair & McDaniel (Eds.), Great
ideas for teaching marketing (6th ed., pp.
86-89). New York: South-Western College
Publishing.
Emery, C. R. (2003). Delighters, satisfiers and
basic needs: A study of supervisor expectations. Manuscript in preparation.
Emery, C., Kramer, T., & Tian, R. (2001). Customers vs. products: Adopting an effective
approach to the business students. Journal of
Quality Assurance in Education, 9(2), 34-4 1.
Hill, T. (1989). Manufacturing strafegy. Homewood, IL:Irwin.
DEA Form. (1998). Manhattan, KS: Kansas State
University, Center for Faculty Evaluation and
Development.
Kano, N., Seraku, N., Takahashi, F., & Tsuji. S.
(1984). Attractive quality and must-be quality.
Hinshitsu, 14(2).39-48.
Oblinger, D. G., & Verville, A. (1998). What business wants fmm higher education. Phoenix,
AZ: The Oryx Press.
Porter, M. E. (1980). Competitive strategy. New
York:Free Press.
Tian, R. G. (2001). Applying 4 Ps to students’
schoolwork. In Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel
(Eds.), Great ideas for teaching marketing (6th
ed., pp. 102-105). New York: South-Western
College Publishing.
Zeithaml, V, A,, Berry, L. L., & Parasuraman, A.
(1988). Communication and control processes
in the delivery of service quality. Journal of
Marketing, 53, 36-39.
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Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Schoolwork as Products, Professors as Customers:
A Practical Teaching Approach in Business
Education
Charles R. Emery & Robert G. Tian
To cite this article: Charles R. Emery & Robert G. Tian (2002) Schoolwork as Products,
Professors as Customers: A Practical Teaching Approach in Business Education, Journal of
Education for Business, 78:2, 97-102, DOI: 10.1080/08832320209599705
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832320209599705
Published online: 31 Mar 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 19
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Citing articles: 13 View citing articles
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Date: 12 January 2016, At: 23:45
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:45 12 January 2016
Schoolwork as Products,
Professors as Customers:
A Practical Teaching Approach in
Business Education
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CHARLES R. EMERY
Lander University
Greenwood, South Carolina
T
eaching marketing principles, like
teaching almost any principles
courses, involves assigning new terms
or terminologies to unfamiliar theoretical frameworks and concepts. To
accomplish this, professors break down
the subject matter into a number of relatively distinct subareas for study, such
as the four Ps in the marketing mix.
Unfortunately, students typically have
problems understanding the conceptual
linkages between the fundamental components, although understanding them
helps businesses be competitive (Porter,
1980). Thus, practitioners suggest more
use of practice-oriented exercises to
help students understand the interactions between various concepts
(Oblinger & Verville, 1998). Furthermore, business supervisors expect their
employees to take a systems approach
to problem solving (Emery, 2002). In
this study, we explored the impact that a
practitioner approach might have on
student enthusiasm and learning.
A marketing principles course offers
several traditional opportunities for
experiential learning (e.g., developing
marketing plans, conducting focus
groups, developing ad campaigns).
Though these methods are excellent for
helping the students learn various components of the marketing process, we
were looking for something that would
pull the whole process together. Hence,
ROBERT G. TlAN
Erskine College
Due West, South Carolina
ABSTRACT. The common perception is that only hands-on learning can
help students understand the interactions between various concepts. In this
article, the authors describe a method
of teaching the four Ps-product,
price, place, and promotion-in a
marketing principles course in which
the students market their coursework
to the professor as the customer. The
professor-as-customer paradigm is
based on the Japanese Kano model,
which identifies and quantifies customer expectations. In a 2-year experiment, they investigated two professors and 357 students and found that
progress occurred on several nationally normed learning objectives.
money or something else of value. Students learn that their schoolwork can be
considered a product because it is of
value to the professor (customers). Professors want to know how much information is being absorbed by students
from resources both inside and outside
of the classroom. Students soon realize
that by marketing their products to professors, a mutually beneficial exchange
relationship can be established: Professors enjoy seeing students’ learning
progress, and students enhance their
communication skills and improve their
quality of knowledge by responding to
professors’ feedback.
In the marketing priciples course
described in this article, students come
to understand that the foremost goal of
marketers is to create and maintain good
relationships with their customers (i.e.,
customer relationship management).
Thus, students must strive to build relationships with their professors both
inside and outside of the classroom to
understand product needs effectively
and to communicate product values.
Students quickly learn that one must
know one’s customers, because the
requirements of some customers vary
dramatically from those of others.
These various product needs translate
into various product specifications and
opportunities for differentiation. For
example, if a student has a question
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z
we elected to have the students market
their work as products to their professors as customers. The students were
very enthusiastic when we told them
that we were going to help them apply
marketing concepts to improve their
grades. Specifically, we intended to
relate each of the four Ps continuously
to the objective of customer satisfaction
over the course of the semester. The
principal products of this experiment
were to be two term projects (one individual and one team), a team presentation, and a final term paper.
Product: The Schoolwork
A product is a good, service, or idea
that a customer acquires to satisfy a
need or want through the exchange of
Novernber/Decernber 2002
97
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about a project’s instructions, he or she
should be encouraged to request clarification from the professor rather than
guessing what the customer needs. This
opportunity for a one-on-one exchange
can be likened to a minifocus group that
energizes the producers by helping them
understand the reasons for various
requirements. This energy often takes
the form of improving product differentiation (e.g., features, conformance, aesthetics, reliability). Furthermore, competitors will be constantly striving to
imitate a business’s best products, so
students must learn to innovate continually and strive for uniqueness. Today’s
order winner is tomorrow’s order qualifier (Hill, 1989). Although one needs to
be aware of the competition, there is far
less to fear from outside competition
than there is from inside factors such as
inefficiency, discourteous behavior, and
bad service. One’s own product reliability is the most influential dimension
(Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman,
1988).
Finally, we required students to
develop marketing principles and strategies based on their perceptions of the
professor’s expectation. To accomplish
this task, each student first had to perform market research to determine the
customer’s wants and needs. Students
realized, as one-person companies, that
market research was critical: There
were no margins for errors, and they had
to hit the bulls-eye the first time because
resources (e.g., time) were tight. Second, the students had to outline their
marketing strategies formally according
to marketing principles, theories, and
empirical research. These strategies
often took the form of entertaining as
well as selling and striving to be unique.
Customer satisfied
I
I
Fully functional
Dysfunctional
.--
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Price: The Grade for the
Schoolwork
I
I
Customer dissatisfied
FIGURE 1. The Kano model of customer needs.
strategic alliances, and economies of
scale and scope.
Place: Handing in Works at the
Desired Location and Time
In the marketing mix, place is a vital
aspect of the marketing process through
which marketers deliver products to
consumers. This factor-product delivery at the desired place and time-has
grown in importance as customers
expect better service and more convenience from businesses. Students have
come to realize that this trend also
applies to production, delivery (logistical management), and follow-up (customer service). For example, in business, logistics management is defined as
the process of managing suppliers and
the movement of raw materials, parts,
work in progress, finished products, and
related information through the value
chain in an efficient, cost-effective manner that meets customer requirements.
Students participate in logistics management during the course of each
semester. Suppliers are the professors,
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Price is the amount of money or other
valuable that the marketer asks for in
exchange for a product. The true value
of a product, however, is what someone
is willing to pay for it. Similarly, the
price or value of a student’s product
(schoolwork) is reflected in the grade
that he or she receives from the professor. Unfortunately, students often perceive the grade as a function of the pro-
98
fessor rather than his or her value creation. An interesting exercise that brings
this notion into clearer focus is to have
the students place the price or grade on
the paper before they submit it to the
customer (Emery, 2001a). The better
students have a good sense of the value
that they create; that is, whether they
have met, exceeded, or failed to exceed
a professor’s expectations. Over time,
this exercise tends to raise the performance level of the lower performing
students because most want to be
acknowledged for their accurate selfassessment and few are willing to
acknowledge that they are intentionally
turning in “C” work.
Additionally, students come to realize
that cost is an important aspect of creating value. For example, they must balance their costs and production schedules across a variety of customers. Also,
they must consider which products are
the most important (heaviest weighted)
to the consumer. Furthermore, they
must examine opportunities for reducing their costs by improving production
efficiencies through use of technology,
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Journal of Education for Business
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support agencies, and other students
who provide them with the raw materials or knowledge. Parts represent the
bundles of knowledge that one uses to
construct the product. Work in progress
is the partially completed customer
orders. Finished products are the papers
and presentations produced for grades.
Another aspect of logistics management is the timely delivery of the product through marketing channels. Marketing channels are extremely important
for all marketers because they function
in the value chain as a network of partners who cooperate to bring products
from producers to ultimate consumers.
Marketers often opt to use channel partners (e.g., other students) because they
add value to the marketing process as
they complete exchange functions,
logistical functions, and facilitation
functions. Students realize that their
schoolwork may pass through various
channels before reaching the consumer
and that each of these channels has
advantages and disadvantages. For
example, the direct channel action of
taking schoolwork directly to the professor's office has the advantage of
offering the student the opportunity for
making a last-minute sales pitch, but it
has the disadvantage of requiring scheduling of a time in which both parties can
meet. Indirect channel actions, such as
transmitting the product via email, posting the project on a personal student
Website, letting others hand in one's
schoolwork, or leaving it in the professor's drop-box all offer a certain convenience and reduced cost but do not offer
the opportunity for face-to-face branding. Most important, however, is the student's understanding of the customer's
desired place and his or her ensuring
that it meets the promised due date.
Meeting the due date is a customer's
basic expectation of the producer's reliability. Thus, meeting the deadline does
not increase customer satisfaction, but
missing it certainly produces customer
dissatisfaction.
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II
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*
Qusslion traditionalsolutions and
exammelpresent atha altemativss
Demonnmte critical reasoning and thinkmg.
* Dsmonstratc an integration or analysis
beyond the matend given in the textbook.
Suggest additionaltopics far study in L e
COncluSlO" o f answcnlpapen.
m Demonstrare smng malh skills 10 include
quantilativemethods.
Demonstrate bat you can apply learned
concepts to new IIW1l""l.
Use learned concepts10 propose fheorier.
Infegrats ~n-clmsconcepts with I ~ S learned
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maids ofelass (psaonal expcrienceand
other classes).
a Pmvide P crealive appmach IDdeveloping
--
manner.
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quslity a n w e n (w.. time spent IS evident)
Provideyour mswnptmm when problems do not
pmvide all L e necessary factan to amve 81 a
*
*
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*
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sppmprislc (I e , do not avoid the use of malh lo
p r s f y snswcm).
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tcrmmologylvocabulary
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p e ~ n sobservalmn).
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work).
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'discovery learning' tasb (I c ,tasks given
withoul speeilic directions or examples of
requiredoutcomer).
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Seek professorfor assistace bg., ofice hours)
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Answer the SPECIFIC quwmnls)
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and computer applratmnr
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FIGURE 2. Marketing professors' expectations for projectslterm papers.
while building a healthy relationship
with them through two-way communications. Objectives of promotion
include building brand loyalty, providing information, managing demand, and
building sales. Central to promotion is
the notion of persuasion. Producers
must dedicate time for a one-on-one
sales pitch to persuade customers that
they will fulfill their wants and needs.
Furthermore, persuasion is closely
linked to the producer's need to differentiate his or her product from competitors' products; to influence the customer's perception, attitudes, and
behaviors; and to build brand image.
This suggests several actions on the part
of the students. First, producers must
take the time to understand the products
and features that the competition offers
and to use the best producers to create
benchmarks. Second, producers must
create a memorable image. For example, in a large classroom, a professor
inevitably grows weary of reading paper
after mediocre paper. However, if a student uses different techniques and creates a unique product, the professor will
be more likely to remember that paper
and perhaps grade that student's future
work more favorably (i.e., this could
create something akin to brand loyalty,
which influences customers to overlook
minor imperfections in the future).
By implementing promotion theory,
students realize that the format of their
work is as important as the content, as is
the case in the packaging of a real product. They also agree on the importance
of establishing and maintaining good
relations with professors. For instance,
the student must create a personal reputation to ensure that the professor knows
that he or she is dedicated and efficient.
As the ultimate customers of students'
schoolwork, professors must be made
aware of the students' dedication and
commitment to superior work. More-
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Promotion: Marketing the
Product
Promotion is a vital component of the
marketing mix because it informs and
educates consumers about the product
November/December 2002
99
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TABLE 1. Results from the Student Evaluation Survey: IDEA Form
Pretest
M/SD
(N= 338)
Posttest
M/SD
( N = 357)
Sig.
Comment
1. Encourages students to use
multiple resources to improve
understanding
3.311.2
3.910.9
.001
Hi: T, > Ti
supported
2. Related course material to
real-life situations
4.210.7
4.610.6
.001
H,: T, > Ti
supported
3. Encourages student-faculty
interaction outside of class
(office visits, phone calls,
e-mail, etc.)
4.010.6
4.310.5
.001
H,: T, > T I
supported
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Question
The Japanese manufacturing industry
uses the Kano model to determine and
prioritize or weight customer requirements. The horizontal axis in Figure 1
shows the extent to which customers’
expectations are achieved. The vertical
axis shows the customer satisfaction
associated with this achievement. Three
types of needs are identified in this
model: basic needs, satisfiers, and
delighters. The first type of expectation,
the basic need, is the assumptions that
customers have about a service (e.g., the
availability of a restroom in a restaurant
or error-free spelling on a homework
assignment). Though filling these needs
does not satisfy the customer, not filling
them quickly causes dissatisfaction.The
second type of expectation is the satisfiers, or the list of items that customers
would normally mention as keys to their
satisfaction (e.g., responsiveness of a
server in a restaurant or well-justified
recommendations for a case study).
Achievement of the satisfiers increases
customer satisfaction, but only at a linear rate. The third type of expectation is
the delighters, the needs that a customer
does not have conscious knowledge of
or that fall into the category of “Wouldn‘t it be great if someday a student provided.. ..” Examples of this would be a
fine restaurant that provides baby-sitting facilities or a student who synthesizes material into a new way of looking
at things. A provider that does not provide delighters will still have satisfied
customers, but those that provide
delighters will experience a nonlinear
increase in customer satisfaction. The
dotted lines graphically depict that all
needs are not created equal, and the resolution of all needs does not have the
same impact on customer satisfaction.
For example, the additive effect of failing to fulfill basic needs or expectations
is a geometric increase in dissatisfaction. The additive effect of providing
delighters is a geometric increase in satisfaction. Lastly, the additive effect of
providing satisfiers is tantamount to a
linear increase in the customer’s satisfaction.
This model suggests four important
points to the students wishing to market
their product successfully. First, all
basic needs must be fulfilled. Failure to
satisfy a basic need has a dramatic
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4. Developing specific skills,
competencies, and points of
view needed by professionals
in the field most closely related
to this course
3.711.1
4.210.6
,001
H,: T, > T,
supported
5. Developing creative capacities
(writing, inventing, designing,
performing, etc.)
2.511.2
3.410.9
.001
H,:T, > T,
supported
6. Developing skill in expressing
myself orally or in writing
2.911.1
3.011.2
.467
H,: T, > Ti
not supported
7. Learning how to find and use
resources for answering questions or solving problems
3.311.1
3.910.8
.oo1
H,: T, > T i
supported
8. Learning to analyze and
critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view
3.910.9
3.811.0
.672
H,: T, > T I
not supported
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Note. Questions 1-3 asked the students to rate their professors on a 5-point Likert scale ranging
from 1 (hardly ever) to 5 (almost always). Questions 4-8 asked students to rate their progress in
this course compared with their progress in other courses at the college or university on a 5-point
Likert scale ranging from 1 (low [lowest 10% of courses I h e taken]) to 5 (high [highest 10% of
courses I have taken]).
over, a successful student should be
open to constructive criticism and be
willing to change the “product” according to the professor’s instruction. After
all, good producers want to hear complaints so that they have the chance to
improve and perhaps prevent customer
defection.
Customer: The Professor
The primary principle of total quality
management suggests that providers
should achieve success by understanding and satisfying their customers’
needs. As previously suggested, this can
100
Journal of Education for Business
be applied to education through a paradigm in which the professors are the
customers (Emery, 2001b). Students
become the providers, and it is their
responsibility to determine and satisfy
customer expectations. It is not enough,
however, for the students to understand
customer needs or expectations; they
must be able to quantify them accurately. All needs are not created equal, and
the resolution of a11 needs does not have
the same impact on customer satisfaction or a project grade (payment).
This concept is easily illustrated
through the Kano model (Kano, Seraku,
Takahashi, & Tsuji, 1984; see Figure 1).
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TABLE 2. Results from the Student End-of-Course Survey ( N = 357)
Question
M/SD
Comments
4.310.9
46% rated it as a 5.
36% rated it as a 4.
4.710.5
57% rated it as a 5.
31% rated it as a 4.
1. I believe this practitioner-oriented approach to
learning motivated me to work harder than I
might have ordinarily.
2. I would recommend that this technique of
instruction be used the next time this course
is taught.
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3. I believe the experience has helped me to
understand the importance of focusing on
4.510.7
52% rated it as a 5.
43% rated it as a 4.
4. I believe the experience helped me to better
understand the relationship between marketing,
production, and customer satisfaction.
4.011.2
36% rated it as a 5.
33% rated it as a 4.
5. I am now more likely to do a better job of
determining professor expectations in my
future courses.
4.410.8
46% rated it as a 5.
52% rated it as a 4.
customer expectations.
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for instructor’s teaching and five for
learning progress. In turn, each professor calculated the students’ mean
responses for each of the eight questions
over the 2-year period before the test.
We compared these means with the student means from the test period through
a t test (see Table 1). Implicit in these
comparisons were the notional hypotheses that the test period (T2) responses
would be significantly higher than the
pretest (Tl) responses at the p < .05
level of significance.
The results indicate that six out of the
eight hypotheses were supported at a p
< .05 level of significance. Particularly
noteworthy were the high mean scores
on the questions regarding students’
progress in relating course materials to
real-life situations, their development of
competencies needed by the profession,
and instructor availability for studentfaculty interaction. The test sample
means for the learning objective concerning the development of competencies needed by the profession was rated
in the top 2% of the nation for both faculty members.
The second method of assessment
was a four-question, end-of-course survey that we administered to the test
group of students to ascertain their attitudes toward the professor-as-customer
paradigm. We strongly encouraged the
students to clarify their responses by
commenting in the space below each
question so that we could capture their
perceptions accurately (see Table 2).
In the third method of assessment, we
compared the professors’ expectations
with the students’ perceptions of those
expectations. At the beginning of each
semester, the two participating professors brainstormed to develop a composite of their expectations for student projectdterm papers in terms of the Kano
categories (see Figure 2). On the endof-course survey, the students were
given a list of the professors’ 28 expectations and asked to indicate which ones
were basic needs, satisfiers, and
delighters. In turn, we developed an
expectation gap measure by comparing
the students’ perceptions of the professors’ expectations with those indicated
by the professors. We calculated a gap
measure for individual students by giving them a score of -3 for each missed
Nore. Questions were rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (dejhitely false), 2 (morefalse
than true), 3 (in between), 4 (more true than false), and 5 (definitely true).
effect on customer satisfaction. In other
words, one “ah shucks” outweighs 10
“atta boys.” Second, the provider must
determine and provide as many linear
satisfiers as possible. Each satisfier has
an additive effect toward total customer
satisfaction or customer loyalty. The
customer will enter a zone of moderate
satisfaction if the provider fulfills all of
the customer’s basic needs and a few of
the satisfiers. Third, the provider needs
to create delighters, because real service
differentiation is created through them.
Each time a provider produces a
delighter, it is a memorable event for the
customer and his or her satisfaction is
increased geometrically. Thus, one
might say that one delighter outweighs a
number of satisfiers. Fourth, any advantage gained by delighting customers
only holds temporarily until the competition catches up. Continuous innovation is necessary for maintaining an
edge.
As we mentioned previously in the
“product” section, we introduce our paradigm as a market research task at the
beginning of the semester. The class is
assigned the task of determining and
quantifying the professor’s needs
through brainstorming within groups
and individual interviews with the professor. Often the use of Bloom’s taxonomy is an excellent tool for illustrating
examples of basic needs, satisfiers, and
delighters to the students.
Assessment: Learning and
Enthusiasm
We conducted an assessment of the
professor-as-customer approach over 4
semesters of a principles of marketing
course at a public university and a private college. Two professors taught 12
sections of 357 students between fall
2000 and fall 2002. We used three types
of evaluations to assess the students’
enthusiasm for this teaching technique
and their understanding of the relationship between customer satisfaction,
marketing, and production.
For the first method of assessment,
we asked students questions taken from
a nationally standardized student survey
(IDEA form) to investigate their perceptions of the instructors’ teaching and the
students’ progress toward certain specific learning objectives. We selected eight
questions from the 47-item form; three
NovembedDecember 2002
101
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TABLE 3. Correlation Between the Student‘s Gap Measure (Difference
Between the Professors’Expectations and the Student’s Perception of
Those Expectations) and Grades ( N = 357)
Comparison
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Correlation/
sig.
I
Comments
I
I
1. Relationship between the
student’s gap score and hisher
course grade
2. Relationship between the
student’s gap score and hisher
grade point average
R = ,672,
p < .001
R = .451,
p < .001
The lower perception gaps
correlate with higher course
grades.
The lower perception gaps
correlate with higher GPAs.
I
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Note. A high perception gap score indicates that the student was very perceptive in determiningthe
professor’s expectation.
basic need, +1 for each identified satisfier, and +2 for each identified delighter.
In turn, we conducted correlation analyses to compare the gap measures with
the students’ course grades and overall
grade point averages. Implicit in these
comparisons were the notional hypotheses that there would be significant and
positive correlation between the student’s ability to properly perceive the
professors’ expectations and his or her
course grade. Furthermore, we believed
that students who properly perceived
the professor’s expectations probably
would have a higher degree of “pattern
sense,” which would be reflected in a
higher grade point average (Butler,
1978) (see Table 3).
Conclusions
Overall, this experiment in experiential learning appeared to be an overwhelming success. Students demonstrated increased progress on the
nationally normed learning objectives,
increased motivation to work harder,
and a keener understanding of the relationship between customer expectations
and customer satisfaction. In this case,
learning the skill of understanding professor expectations is particularly germane to the real world. Today’s employ-
102
We suggest that professors wishing
to improve student understanding of
the relationship between customer
expectations and customer satisfaction
try two activities. First, near the beginning of the semester they should assign
a project in which the students identify
and quantify the professor’s expectations through use of the Kano model.
Second, before following the professor’s instruction on the four Ps, the
professor could have the students prepare a short paper in which they apply
the four Ps of marketing to the marketing, production, and delivery of their
schoolwork. We believe that instructors
will find both of these exercises very
enriching for their students.
ers indicate that undergraduates do a
poor job of understanding supervisor
expectations (Emery, 2002).
The students who participated in this
exercise realized that we are all trying to
market our products, whether these are
ideas or concepts. They began to understand the philosophy that customer satisfaction is a key and most worthwhile
means to an end. Furthermore, use of the
Kano model helped them develop a life
strategy based on awareness of the need
to fulfill a customer’s basic expectation
and then concentrate on the delighters.
The question of whether this experiment actually provided the students
with a better understanding of the linkages among the four Ps (i.e., learning)
seems clear. The students’ self-reported
understanding of the information was
very encouraging, and their answers to
essay questions on the linkages among
the four Ps were much more insightful
and innovative than their answers on
pre-experiment exams. However, the
link between understanding the
teacher’s expectations and learning is
not so clear. Does increased learning of
the subject matter take place through
use of these teaching methods, or do the
students simply learn how to better satisfy the customer? This is an area for
future study.
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Journal of Education for Business