Marketing and Advertising
(Progress Report Submitted in 2006)

BBA Advertising / Public Relations [35]

The primary mission of the marketing and advertising department is to prepare students for a professional career in marketing and/or advertising in the private and public sectors. The curriculum provides a solid foundation for students planning graduate study in marketing and business.

The department, in cooperation with the journalism program in the School of Mass Communication, offers a sequence in Public Relations. The purpose of this sequence is to prepare students to become public relations specialists through a variety of communication skills courses. Students in this sequence will be exposed to the journalistic aspects of public relations through course work in print and broadcast news media and in advertising and public relations, thus combining study in communication skills with study in the business and management aspects of the field.

A student seeking to specialize in Public Relations may declare a major either in marketing and advertising or in journalism. See the chairperson of the Department of Marketing and Advertising or the director of the School of Mass Communication for more information.

Contact Person

Gary Geissler

Assistant Professor of Marketing and Advertising
Reynolds Center, Room 377

glgeissler@ualr.edu
(501) 683-7137

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Program Goals

The goals of the Advertising and Public Relations program include: providing quality instruction in advertising and public relations that provide breadth and depth of understanding for undergraduate students; ensuring that all course content is current and relevant to professional practice and development; ensuring that all courses offer students both theoretical and applied knowledge in advertising and public relations; and developing student skills and competencies that are relevant to the needs of current and future employers. These goals descend from the program’s central mission of preparing students for careers in leadership and service in advertising and public relations.

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Program Objectives

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the role of advertising and other forms of marketing communication in a global economy;
2. A facility with effective planning, goal-setting, and budgeting techniques;
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the history of advertising and the role of advertising within organizations;
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the role of primary and secondary research in advertising planning and an ability to apply appropriate research methods;
5. Demonstrate an understanding of the social and cultural environments of advertising;
6. Demonstrate an ability to utilize library and other research resources to address advertising problems;
7. Demonstrate an appreciation of the ethical and social responsibilities of advertisers, as well as the approaches available for resolving ethical dilemmas;
8. Demonstrate an ability to apply segmentation techniques to define target audiences or publics;
9. Demonstrate an understanding of the regulatory constraints on advertising and the legal protections afforded advertising;
10. Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of copywriting and art direction and a facility with creative strategies advertising;
11. Demonstrate an understanding of the overlapping roles of advertisers, advertising agencies, and media firms in the creation and placement of advertising;
12. Demonstrate an understanding of media planning tools, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each major medium for advertisers;
13. Demonstrate an ability to apply appropriate evaluation plans to assess the effectiveness of advertising and promotional efforts;
14. Demonstrate proficiency in small-group work, persuasive writing and presentation skills.

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Brief Statement of Methods

All objectives were assessed this year. However, the results of assessment normally presented in this report are not available because all required data cannot be collected by the time of this writing.

Student learning objectives are assessed using the following methodological structure:

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Results and Use for Program Building

FINDINGS

a) Background

The advertising program at UALR has historically been staffed by only one full-time professor, who by tradition has been responsible for the set of four major courses listed above. In the Fall of the 2005-06 academic year, a new faculty member assumed responsibilities as the principal instructor for the core ADVT courses. The new faculty member has a Ph.D. in mass communication with graduate level course work in advertising and public relations, marketing and management. Additionally the new faculty member has experience in professional public relations and campaign management.

b) Findings

Based on the experiences of students and faculty members over the course of several years of participating in the Ad Fed NSAC case competition, a proactive effort was made to seek alternative methods for providing an even more suitable real world advertising/public relations experience for our Ad/PR students. Although the NSAC competition has been helpful in achieving program goals and learning objectives, several limitations were recently identified. First, students are not allowed to interact with the client, and they receive no feedback from the client during campaign development. The actual advertising process involves much interaction between the agency and the client. This “give and take” process is instrumental in achieving the client’s objectives. Second, the case competition structure is limited in terms of specific actions and periodic deadlines, which are primarily provided by the instructor with little assistance from the Ad Fed. Third, students tend to focus too much on the competition, rather than the learning process itself. Typically, they feel that their success or failure in developing an effective campaign is dependent, in large part, on how they place in the competition. This unrealistic expectation places much unnecessary pressure on students. It is important to bear in mind that our students are likely developing their first comprehensive integrated marketing campaign, and they are competing with many universities that are able to allocate more funding and resources to the project. Fourth, the NSAC competition offers no official budget allocation for the competing students. Funding is entirely dependent on money and donations earmarked for the project at each university. Overall, the students are competing on a less than level playing field. Fifth, the students’ outside support is somewhat limited to help that they might receive from local ad agencies with regard to advertising media rates. Sixth, the NSAC competition focuses on campaign development and provides no opportunity for students to actually implement their campaign.

c) Use of Findings

As a result of the findings outlined in the paragraph above, a departmental
decision was made to restructure the advertising program. The primary goal of this restructuring is to provide a more realistic, dynamic, and useful learning experience for our students. A secondary goal is to free the program’s student learning outcomes from the idiosyncratic methods of the particular individual or individuals assigned to teach the core courses.

During 2004-05, students’ participation in the Ad Fed case competition was suspended, and the students were given the opportunity to participate in a new advertising program. The department partnered with another organization, EdVenture Partners of California, which sponsors hundreds of highly reputable university advertising programs (including the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville) in working on real advertising problems for numerous, high-profile clients, such as General Motors and the U. S. Army. That academic year, our students developed an integrated marketing communications program for the FBI to be implemented in the local market. The results were successful enough for the FBI to request UALR’s participation in the 2006 campaign. Spring semester 2006 marks the second year in a row for participation in this program.

The table below illustrates how the strengths of the EdVenture Partners program overcome the limitations of the Ad Fed NSAC case competition, and thus provide better learning for our students.

As shown in the table, students have extensive contact with their client via the EdVenture Partners program. In fact, the client attends the class at least twice during each semester. Initially, the client provided students with information concerning the FBI and their advertising objectives, and answered students’ questions. Also, the students have presented their research findings (from several focus groups and nearly 400 surveys) to the client. This semester, a Marketing Strategy Meeting is planned mid-term. This meeting allows students to present their campaign ideas to the client to gather feedback and approval. A final meeting with the client is scheduled at the end of the semester to present a final pre- and post-campaign evaluation of the ad campaign. (By the way, the EdVenture Partners Coordinator also attends these meetings). In addition, the students are free to contact the client at any time via phone, e-mail, or fax, if they have any questions, concerns, or need additional information. In contrast, students in the Ad Fed case competition are warned against calling or having direct contact with the client or its partners.

The new program is highly-structured. EdVenture Partners has a web site for both students and instructors. Numerous forms, guidelines, and schedules are provided to help keep the students on track and to facilitate meeting deadlines. Both EdVenture Partners and the client provide a student handbook with additional background, guidelines, and instructions. For example, students are required to submit a Client Approval Document with each piece of work. The Ad Fed case competition structure is limited to a relatively brief case booklet and a final deadline.
Since the EdVenture Partners program is not directly tied to a case competition, the students are under somewhat less pressure and have a more enjoyable learning experience. They are certainly able to focus more on actually learning the advertising process and how a real ad agency works than on competing against other universities. Learning is more important than competing at this point. The students participating in this program format are learning first-hand the difficulties and challenges they will face when working in a “real-world” advertising agency.
Another advantage of the EdVenture Partners program is that they provide students with a $2,500 budget and suggestions for generating additional funds. The Ad Fed case competition provides no official funding to students.

An EdVenture Partners Student Coordinator is assigned to each university. This person is instrumental in providing additional support and guidance to the students. Typically, the coordinator visits the class 3 – 4 times each semester. For example, the coordinator helps students rehearse their client presentation and reviews their reports and other materials. Also, the coordinator provides feedback to the students via a weekly conference call and a weekly status report that must be submitted by the students. The students can call the coordinator at any time on a toll-free number to ask questions. The Ad Fed provides relatively limited support to students.

Importantly, the new program provides students with the opportunity not only to develop an integrated marketing campaign for a real client but also to implement the campaign. A pre- and post-campaign evaluation is provided through surveys of the target audience. This implementation and assessment of the campaign’s effectiveness is a major advantage over the Ad Fed case competition, which only allows for campaign development.

Another advantage the EdVenture Partners program has over the Ad Fed NSAC competition deals directly with student interaction within the program itself. The new faculty member, having been enrolled at an institution that won the national competition saw first hand how students in that competition had problems dealing with faculty members and other students. Tempers often flared and administrators often had to get involved to restore order when things got out of hand. The EdVenture Partners format is better structured and allows the students the sense that their work is actually contributing to an overall business objective. The results of their labors can be seen first-hand, whereas in the Ad Fed NSAC competition, student work, once judged often fell by the wayside and students felt they often had wasted their time. The EdVenture Partners program actually enhances the student learning experience by allowing students to establish their own agency and work through the related issues that arise in a business environment. The Ad Fed NSAC competition falls far short on that note.

In summary, the students learn a great deal more via the support and structure provided by the newly adopted program. The learning is more focused, structured, realistic, and complete. The students will be much better prepared for a real advertising/public relations job, after they complete this program.

In addition, a curriculum proposal has been submitted to add a new course, Advertising Research, targeted to ultimately replace Advertising Campaigns I in the core program. The Advertising Research course will cover standardized material in a format familiar to any qualified advertising professor, and can address cases such as the preparatory work done in the first semester of the student AdFed competition, or an EdVenture Partners project, or any other advertising project real or hypothetical. Until ADVT 3310 is formally changed to Advertising Research, the current instructor will divide the course into two modules. The first module will deal with the theoretical underpinnings of advertising campaigns. The second module will allow students to run a “mini-campaign” utilizing the available resources from ASBDC in preparation for ADVT 4320. By allowing the students to work for a shortened time period on a smaller campaign prior to embarking on the EdVenture Partner’s semester-long project, advertising majors and minors will be better prepared for the challenges in dealing with promoting a national client.

It is recommended that UALR continue its partnership with EdVenture Partners to give our students the best chance of practical learning applications from the campaign projects. By combining the learned material from the preliminary courses to the realities of the applied advanced courses our students should be well-prepared to compete in the job market after graduation.

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Faculty and Stakeholder Involvement

Not reported.

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