April 1997 € Volume 24 € Number 2

Marketing Operations Research

By Ellen S. Jordan

Salespeople are the promoters, sellers and link between a product and the consumer. Are professors salespeople -- selling and marketing operations research to consumers? Do basic marketing and selling techniques need to be taught to college professors to make them successful promoters of their areas of expertise?

The communication network existing between the worlds of higher education and the students who purchase their product (knowledge) has been studied as a problem for a long time. Most faculty enter the college teaching arena with impressive credentials, vast experience, but little formal education or training in teaching methodologies (course structuring, session organization, testing and evaluation procedures, oral and written communication, learning styles, etc.). Would a successful business allow its most visible salespeople to approach clients or consumers with no formal training in the most effective techniques of marketing and selling its product? I think not!

The basics of marketing rely on the principles of satisfying consumer needs and wants with a quality product. Since students seeking quantitative degrees will eventually be on the "supply" end of the knowledge, they are easy to "sell" (they show up with the interest, background and desire to create). Let's look at the students majoring in the "user" degree areas (business, etc.) as the target market to satisfy. It is important to keep in mind these students have other career goals that do not include creating and proving formulas, building models, calculating extensive problems or memorizing terminology. They need to understand the benefits of quantitative support courses before they will want to invest time, energy and money.

Satisfying consumer needs from a marketing perspective can make structuring a course much easier for the faculty member and much more useful to the student. The four Ps of marketing are controllable factors that should be viewed as an organized approach to better communication methods. The following is an academic approach to the four Ps:

Product: Offering the knowledge, current usage, theory, documented case research, personal experience, current technological support, future outlook, benefits and interdisciplinary role of the knowledge being presented. A great outlook on the product of "education" is to always end a course making sure the student realizes how much more there is to learn. Open up the world of knowledge by stressing interdisciplinary usage and how to communicate learning.

The best educator is aware of how their area of expertise fits into and benefits the world. Academicians have to continuously expand their knowledge base in order to become competent in fields where their area of expertise is most needed. Faculty should be supported and expected to broaden their credentials by attending interdisciplinary and global experiences (workshops, seminars, classes, etc.). Education doesn't just answer questions. Education should create inquiry to new areas not realized before (for both the faculty member and the student).
Price: Making sure the interactive learning approach gives the student what they are paying for. Far too many class sessions are wasted on in-class tests, repeating textbook information and outdated case study discussion with no personal ownership and no input from the student. Anyone can buy a textbook and answer chapter questions on their own without paying for the high price of education.

The student pays higher education to bring in experts to communicate what they can't do on their own. Faculty must use every class moment to expand the knowledge and promote the worth of areas like operations research. For most of the students, this might be their only exposure to the discipline. The professor has a built-in clientele list supplied by the college. Sell what you have. Do not leave any student feeling they didn't get what they paid for. How they treat and use the product is up to them. If they got the message and are convinced of the worth, the marketing and selling has been accomplished.
Promotion: The faculty has to be made aware that they have the responsibility to communicate. The best product in the world will go unnoticed if not marketed for sale. The consumers desire to satisfy their needs and wants; therefore it is up to higher education to communicate all we have to offer.

No company would send its salesmen out without the techniques and methods necessary to sell its product. Higher education must supply its faculty "salesmen" with these tools. Quantitative courses must be viewed as a valuable product by the students and curriculum designers in order to gain a higher market share. Concerns of quantitative courses losing ground as required in curriculums and moving into the area of "electives" has been consumer driven with just cause. Promotion of the benefits has been assumed by experts in knowledge but not monitored by experts in communicating the knowledge!
Place: The availability to put our product into the hands of the consumer is totally the responsibility of each quantitative discipline. The amount of support classes for the promotion of operations research, statistics, etc., will rely heavily on student demand. We will continue to lose the "place" of promotion unless we change the method of marketing our product. Faculty need to share, support and learn techniques of communicating our knowledge. It is assumed faculty hold the credentials and knowledge.

A professor's "job" is to share that knowledge in a user friendly method in order to have an audience that will eventually invest in and appreciate the application.

Ellen S. Jordan is an associate professor and department chair, Mathematics, Tiffin University, Tiffin, Ohio.

E-mail to the Editorial Department of OR/MS Today: orms@lionhrtpub.com

Lionheart Publishing, Inc.
2555 Cumberland Parkway, Suite 299, Atlanta, GA 30339 USA
Phone: 770-431-0867 | Fax: 770-432-6969
E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com