The Future of Marketing Education

Abstract

Drawing on the marketing literature, as well as the views of both marketing educators and current marketers in Canada, a survey was conducted of marketing practitioners to determine their top priorities for improvement in marketing education, as well as the key challenges in need of attention. An importance-performance analysis was carried out on these data. Findings indicate that the top current priority for practitioners is knowledge related to areas associated with measuring return-on-investment and strategic marketing. Results also support that meta-skills are perceived as high priorities for improvement, including the ability to creatively identify, formulate, and solve problems; the ability to write in a business environment; and the ability to set priorities. Some of the areas identified as lower priority in this study included design-related skills, production, and merchandising. Suggestions for changes to marketing education, future research, and considerations for practitioners are provided.