The Grant Project
A place for wisdom and credit.
What is Marketing, by Alvin Sink is a more conventional method of teaching about marketing. It covers all the basic points that traditionally marketing students should be introduced to at least in an introductory class. The question asked to us is whether or not we would reccomend this book to future classes. In the following short paper I will explain the pros and cons of this book and ultimately reach a conclusion and an answer for that question.
What is Marketing is definitely full conventional marketing knowledge. This point alone does make a very strong arguement in the favor of using this book for introductory marketing classes, as it can easily be foreseen that any marketing major would be expected to know the concepts explained in it. While somewhat boring, I think that in order to later revolutionize and recreate old marketing theories and practices, one must first understand the old ones so that they can better improve on them.
That being said however, most of the concepts that the book talks about are almost verbatum the instructions given to new employees at low entry level sales positions. Part of chapter 8 in particular outlined the selling process, which listed the same 5 or 6 steps that one of the first training videos I watched at my first sales job listed. So it could be argued that someone who had read a book like What is Marketing would be better prepared for the workforce.
I don’t think being prepared for an entry level position that will explain the same concepts to you and pay you to listen has any real value though. Marketing majors are not going to miss basic concepts from a lack of reading books like this. The other 80-90% of students who will not likely take another marketing class afterwards should get more out of a class then basic concepts they memorize through rote memorization.
Basic concepts as outlined in this book are better presented as a sidenote to other more modern and contemporary activites done in class. Examples would be the blogs and personal selling strategies we are creating during lab hours. During these times the 5 step selling process can be mentioned to organize and possibly better outline the structure of the website or blog. This is just one example of the possibilities.
In conclusion, I think the book would be valuable as a reccomended resource for students. However, I do not think it holds much value as a required read. The marketing students will either know or quickly learn anything that book has to offer, and frankly the rest won’t care. In order to make sure students leave a class having learned something it is important to avoid boring tasks and material, or at the very least dress them up a bit.
