Findings from The Marketing Theatre Approach in an MBA Programme

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1 Page 1 of 7 ANZMAC 2009 Findings from The Marketing Theatre Approach in an MBA Programme Jörg Finsterwalder, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, [email protected] Billy O Steen, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, [email protected] Abstract An approach to teaching marketing theory and skills was developed in the MBA programme at the University of Canterbury. The Marketing Theatre Approach was created and implemented in 2008 as a collaborative effort among a marketing lecturer, a higher education lecturer, and two actor-facilitators from a local theatre company. The marketing instructor asked the actors to deliver two improvisational sessions in order to have students learn marketing objectives through experiential means. Data was collected from students openended responses to questions before and after the sessions and from observations during and after the sessions. The findings suggest that students experiences aligned with the intended objectives and also provided specific ways in which to improve the approach for its next iteration. Keywords: Improvisation, creative ability, active learning, experiential learning, MBA

2 ANZMAC 2009 Page 2 of 7 Findings from The Marketing Theatre Approach in an MBA Programme Introduction: A Rationale for The Marketing Theatre Approach A need to integrate facts and usage in marketing education is described in Chonko's (1993) critique of the quality of business school graduates, a majority of which are perceived as lacking communication, analytical thinking, and ambiguity-tolerating skills. It does appear that some within marketing education are responding to this challenge by changing their teaching approaches (see e.g. Smart, Kelley and Conant, 1999). Building off of Smart, Kelley and Conant s (1999) suggestion to teach marketing in different and more effective ways, what are some approaches that can be implemented and researched? The Marketing Theatre Approach was developed and used in the MBA Programme at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand in It builds upon existing literature that equates marketing to theatre and enacts that analogy in the classroom through improvisation experiences. A brief review of the literature that this approach is based upon will be useful to understand its theoretical rationale before considering the findings from the data collected. A Brief Review of the Literature Connecting Marketing and Theatre Theatre and drama (see e.g. Neelands, 2004; O'Neill, 1995; O'Toole, 1992; Schechner, 2003) and research on drama (O'Toole, 2006) in education have long been an area of interest for researchers and teachers. There is an existing body of knowledge in educational literature which links learning with theatre or drama (see Bolton, 1979; 1984; Dickinson et al. 2006; Heathcote and Bolton, 1995; Jackson, 1980; Martin, Leberman and Neill, 2002; Robinson, 1980). Similarly, researchers and practitioners in business have adopted theatrical concepts and applied them to companies through professional development (e.g. Second City Communications, 2009; Out of the Blue, 2009; The Court Theatre, 2009; The Learning Theatre Organisation, 2009) and investigated the applications of theatrical models and concepts to organisations (e.g. Pine and Gilmore, 1999). The work of Fisk et al. (2007) and their numerous and very closely related publications on the same topic (see Grove and Fisk, 1983; 1992; 1995; Grove, Fisk and Bitner, 1992; Grove, Fisk and Dorsch, 1998; Grove, Fisk and John, 2000) which connect services marketing and theatre can be regarded as key contributions to the field. Fisk et al. s (2007) work suggests that theatre is a metaphor to be used in a service setting. Their model is based on services literature and the extension of the 4P's - Product, Price, Place and Promotion - of the Marketing-Mix (see McCarthy, 1960) for services by adding three more P's: Physical facilities, People or Participants and Processes (e.g. Bitner, 1991; Magrath, 1986). Interestingly enough, Fisk et al. (2007) link only those three additional P s to a theatre setting. A potentially powerful way to familiarise with the 4 P s of the Marketing-Mix and the skill set required of a marketer is through improvisational theatre which is a highly dynamic and unscripted experience (Pine and Gilmore, 1999) and shares many similarities to the marketing environment. Using improvisational theatre allows students the opportunity to learn how to (re-)act in marketing situations where there is little time to think and how to be adaptable if they have to deviate from scripted processes or usual procedures. Thus, by using improvisation, the Marketing Theatre Model can create that link between the 'acting requirements' of the real world and the teaching of marketing skills.

3 Page 3 of 7 ANZMAC 2009 The Marketing Theatre Approach at the University of Canterbury Based on this Marketing Theatre Approach, a teaching approach was created at the University of Canterbury to provide tertiary students with an opportunity to apply both marketing concepts and skills through improvisation within the classroom setting. In order for students to best achieve Chonko s (1993) missing learning outcomes, the theatrical experience was used as a teaching method. Through collaboration with two actor-facilitators from a local theatre company, two improvisational sessions were planned around these marketing skills that were identified by the instructor of the course and are in his order of priority: imagination and creativity, flexibility and ability to deal with chaos or the unknown, oral communication skills, listening skills, interpersonal skills, and teamwork. In the two sessions, the actor-facilitators led students through a sequence of acting experiences that focused on the application of the marketing skills listed above. In order to determine how students experiences with this approach were teaching them the marketing skills, the following research questions were developed: 1. How do MBA students experiences with the Marketing Theatre Approach align with the instructors intended content-based objectives? 2. What other unintended effects occurred as a result of students experiences with the Marketing Theatre Approach? 3. In what ways can this approach be refined and developed for use again with MBA students and, potentially, transferred to other contexts? Methodology: Collecting and Analysing Data on The Marketing Theatre Approach To best answer the research questions, the Naturalistic Inquiry conceptual framework, data collection, and data processing strategies described by Lincoln and Guba (1985) were employed. The focus was to collect participants perspectives on their experiences with the Marketing Theatre Approach and how these aligned with the instructor s content-based objectives with the understanding that, realities are multiple, constructed, and holistic (Lincoln and Guba, 1985, p. 37). To collect these realities, participants were: observed during the two improvisation sessions, observed during their subsequent classes, and invited to respond to open-ended questions before and after the sessions via . All participants were asked the same questions in order to provide for comparison of responses. While all 31 students in the MBA class were invited to voluntarily attend the improvisation sessions, 25 participated in the first one and 13 of them participated in the second one. All students were invited to participate in this research by providing them with information about the research questions and asking for their consent if they were willing to have their responses be used. Students were informed that their responses would be used anonymously and that their decision to participate was not linked in any way to the evaluation of their performance in the overall course. Of all the participants, seven asked that their responses not be used. The goal in analysing and presenting the findings from the data was to reconstruct the categories used by subjects to conceptualise their own experiences and world view (Lincoln and Guba 1985, p. 334) and see how those categories aligned with the instructor s intended objectives of students learning the marketing skills mentioned above. To reconstruct the students categories (in other words, to allow occurrences in the data suggest categories and not use pre-determined categories), participants responses to the open-ended questions were

4 ANZMAC 2009 Page 4 of 7 analysed individually and then compared across all students to determine the frequency of occurrence among all responses. Then, these categories of most commonly occurring descriptions and answers were compared with the instructor s intended marketing skills. Thus, the ultimate intention of data analysis was to determine how many students saw their experiences as being related to learning the marketing skills intended by the instructor. Findings The following findings are presented as answers to the research questions and utilize both student responses and observations during the sessions and afterwards in class. The findings here summarise the overall character of students qualitative responses with the primary purpose of providing the instructor and the field of marketing education with an initial understanding as to whether to continue the marketing theatre teaching approach. As previously mentioned, students were asked to respond via to questions before and after the Improvisation sessions. The questions included: What do you think are marketing skills? (before first session) What are your thoughts and feelings after the Improv session? (after each session) Of the activities that you took part in, which one in particular did you engage in most and why? (after each session) What did you get out of the Marketing Theatre Improv Session? (after each session) Students responses to these questions are represented in the following table 1 where n is equal to the total number of students who both responded and allowed their responses to be used for the research. Content-Based Objectives (in instructor s order of priority) Pre-Improv n = 24 Improv 1 n = 15 Improv 2 n = 12 Totals from Improv 1+2 n = 27 Imagination and creativity 8 or 33% 8 or 53% 3 or 25% 11 or 41% Flexibility and ability to 0 or 0% 2 or 13% 0 or 0% 2 or 7% deal with chaos/unknown Oral communication skills 11 or 46% 4 or 26.7% 7 or 58% 11 or 41% Listening skills 5 or 21% 2 or 13% 0 or 0% 2 or 7% Interpersonal/social skills 3 or 13% 6 or 40% 7 or 58% 13 or 48% Teamwork 0 or 0% 5 or 33% 0 or 0% 5 or 19% Table 1: Students experiences with Marketing Theatre Improvisation Alignment of the Instructors intended Objectives with MBA Students Experiences The data related to research question 1 suggests several findings to consider. Prior to the Improv sessions, the percentage of students responses that mentioned the instructor s intended marketing skills came out in an order different than his: 1) oral communication skills, 2) imagination/creativity, 3) listening skills, and 4) interpersonal/social skills. None mentioned flexibility or teamwork. After the Improv sessions, the percentage order of students responses changed to: 1) interpersonal/social skills, 2) imagination/creativity and oral communication skills, 3) teamwork, 4) listening skills and flexibility. While the shift in order is important, perhaps the increase from zero to some mention of teamwork and flexibility is most noteworthy. If nothing else, this data suggests that students entered into the Improv experiences with an individual focus and after engaging in the sessions, left them with at least a sense of the roles that teamwork and flexibility play in marketing situations.

5 Page 5 of 7 ANZMAC 2009 It is clear that students perceived an emphasis on particular marketing skills in each of the Improv sessions. For example, session 1 appears to have involved more teamwork, flexibility, and listening skills than session 2. This is good information for the instructor and the actorfacilitators to consider for the next iteration in that it appears that specific exercises led students to mention specific marketing skills. So, the design of the Improv sessions is critical in determining and prioritising what it is that the instructor wants students to learn. Unintended Effects as a Result of MBA Students Experiences Both from observations during the Improv sessions and in class afterwards, two related effects appeared to have occurred as a result of this Model: 1) students increased awareness that group dynamics play an important role in the function or dysfunction of their class and that this awareness directly translates to marketing situations and 2) students increased appreciation for the presentation aspect of marketing. These findings are supported both by the shift illustrated above of an increase in students responses about teamwork and the strong percentage of students mentioning oral communication skills across all three response periods. In addition, this student quote further highlights potential lasting lessons: Improv session 2 was especially connected with marketing since we exercised how to effectively sell our product/service to the audience/potential customers. Conclusions and Implications While it appears that this Marketing Theatre Model was an effective way for MBA students to experience and learn specific content-based objectives, there are opportunities to improve it for the next iteration. Answering the final research question of determining what ways that the Model can be refined and developed will provide these implications. Despite the positive responses from students, both individually and collectively through the percentages, of this approach, it was clear that many of them saw key ways to improve it. First and foremost, several students mentioned that they would have preferred to have more up front explanations from the instructor as to why he had chosen this Model for teaching these objectives. One student s comments about being clearer about the purpose of these sessions reflects a view shared by several students: the attendants will be bewildered what the intention of the session(s) is or what they are getting out from the session(s). Related to this, the other main suggestion that students had for the approach was that it be done as an orientation experience for the MBA programme in general and not just limited to marketing with this student s comments: I think it should be offered to the wider MBA program as a orientation exercise - simply because the greatest benefit would be from team building ( ). To some degree, both of these suggestions can be linked to some of the MBA students parttime students, full-time employees in that they view their time as a scarce commodity and any of it devoted to study needs to have explicit objectives, outcomes, and meaning for them. The responses from the students indicate that revising the approach to better fit with their profile and the perceived demands on their time will make it more engaging and valuable to them. Importantly, that lesson of being clear to students about any curriculum innovation can be transferred to most other tertiary studies, particularly ones where the students are required to juggle many obligations and want to quickly establish the relevance of any out of the ordinary classroom activity.

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