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FP_76105.PDF If you imbed it…? Don Price, Metropolitan State College of Denver, CO ABSTRACT Businesses and organizations, faced with ever increasing competitive pressures, need to make better decisions. Better decision making requires superior analytics – the extensive use of data, statistical, quantitative, and qualitative analysis, exploratory and predictive models, and fact-based management. These same companies are faced with a growing talent shortage – a shortage of skilled analysts. Recent anecdotal articles and academic studies highlight the need to incorporate contemporary information technology developments in the practice of marketing. This paper provides insights into the efforts of Metropolitan State College of Denver to incorporate these developments into undergraduate marketing studies by imbedding the subject of analytics into marketing curriculum. PURPOSE The purpose of this paper is to share the efforts of Metropolitan State College of Denver (MSCD), Department of Marketing‘s journey to imbed analytics in their marketing curriculum, preparing marketing students for today‘s job market. INTRODUCTION In 1965, in an article ―Marketing Intelligence for Top Management‖, William Kelley wrote Today, by contrast, the business executive often feels ‗snowed under‘ by the deluge of facts, figures, surveys, censuses, articles and so on that pile up on his desk. To make matters worse, his own organization is busy generating such a plethora of operating, figures, reports, staff studies, and the like that he finds it virtually impossible to read, let alone digest, them. Yet he is always haunted by the feeling that he has overlooked some important report or study that might make a vital difference to the welfare of his firm (p. 19). Sound familiar? Businesses, governments, and nonprofits have been accumulating data--reams of data—for years. What have they done with all of the data? Mostly nothing. But that is changing. A few of these organizations have found that by analyzing the available data they are able to take advantage of these vast resources. They have found that competing with analytics gives their company a competitive advantage in the marketplace. And now, a growing number of organizations are getting onboard with analytics (Davenport & Harris, 2007). In the 1967 movie, The Graduate, Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman) is advised that the future was in ―plastics‖. Today, in a re- make of ―The Graduate‖ the line should be changed to the future is in ―analytics‖! Organizations are competing on analytics not just because they can but because they should. At a time when firms in many industries offer similar products, use comparable technologies, business processes are among the last remaining points of differentiation. Like other companies, they know what products the customers want, they also know what prices they will pay, how many items each will buy in a lifetime, and what triggers will make people buy. Like other companies, they know compensation cost and turnover rates but they can also calculate how much personnel contribute to or detract from the bottom line. Like other companies, they know when inventories are running low but they can also predict problems with demand and supply chains, to achieve flow rates of inventory at high rates of perfect orders. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2010-2011forecasts an increase demand (13-30%) for occupational fields with a particularly strong need for analytics skills through 2018. A 2010 Forrester Research study showed that business analytics is the fastest growing category of global information technology (IT) software expenditures, and approximately 69 percent of businesses are interested in using analytics. 1 Employment of market research analysts is expected to grow by 28 percent, much faster than the average, over the 2008-18 decade. Market research analysts will experience much faster than average job growth because competition between companies seeking to expand their market and sales of their products will generate a growing need for marketing professionals. Marketing research provides organizations valuable feedback from purchasers, allowing companies to evaluate consumer satisfaction and adjust their marketing strategies and plan more effectively for the future. In addition, globalization of the marketplace creates a need for more market researchers to analyze foreign markets and competition. What is Analytics? Analytics is the processes of taking existing data collected from either a single source or multiple sources and use it to arrive at the optimal decision. Using sophisticated analysis and business data to enable fact-based decision making at every level of your organization, analytics can drive superior performance – from customer management to the supply chain to product/service development to strategic planning. In their book, Competing on Analytics, Davenport and Harris (2007) defined analytics as ―the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models, and fact-based management to drive decisions and actions‖ (p. 7). Analytics can be performed using paper, a pencil, and a calculator. However, with the current state of information technology, a person using analytics today should consider a variety of available software tools. Analytical software packages range from relatively simple statistical optimization tools and spreadsheets (Excel), to statistical software packages (e.g., R, PSPP, DAP, Minitab), to complex business intelligence suites (SAS, Cognos, and Business Objects), predictive industry applications (Fair Isaac), and the reporting and analytical modules of major enterprise systems (SAP and Oracle). Who needs analytics? Today‘s businesses are rapidly generating and accumulating vast amounts of data. This data needs to be transformed into information and provided to the right person to make a decision. Faced with ever increasing competitive pressures, organizations need to make better decisions. Better decision making requires superior analytics – the extensive use of data, statistical, quantitative, and qualitative analysis, exploratory and predictive models, and fact-based management. Government organizations and agencies use analytics to enable and drive their strategies and performance in increasingly volatile and turbulent environments. Analytics and fact-based decision-making can have just as much or even more of a powerful effect on government functions as on corporate business objectives. The use of analytics by federal, state, and local governments can be strategic, supporting or even driving the accomplishment key missions and objectives, or tactical (Davenport & Jarvenpaa, 2008). Nonprofit organizations, like their for-profit counterparts, use analytics to enable and drive their strategies and performance. From fund-raising, marketing, program analysis, to program process improvement, analytics play key roles in accessing data, transforming the data into information, and using the resulting information to make evidence- based decisions. Business, government, and nonprofits share a common need: individuals to analyze the data! According to Davenport, Harris, and Morison (2010) computers and data drive analytical decision making but it is the people that drive analytics. ―Finding, developing, managing, and deploying analysts – the people who make the day-to-day-work of such organizations possible – is critical to a firm‘s success‖ (p. 91).The need to produce undergraduates that meet the requirements of employers is recognized by institutions of higher education world-wide (Elrod, Flachsbart & Kehr, 2009; Kalu, 2010). Imbedded: A Definition According to the Oxford Dictionary, imbedding (embedding) is ―implanting (an idea or feeling) within something else so it becomes an ingrained or essential characteristic of it‖. For the purpose of this paper, imbedding refers to aligning analytic objectives with learning outcomes of an academic course or program in the marketing curriculum. Imbedding requires teaching, learning, and assessment strategies where students have a seamless ongoing interaction and reflection with analytics. Therefore analytics is to be woven into curriculum content, structure, and sequence. Why is Analytics to be ‘Imbedded’ into the Marketing Curriculum? 2 Analytics is to be imbedded in MSCD Marketing Department courses rather than treated as a separate elective or required course (McBane, 2003; Hannaford, Erffmeyer & Tomkovich, 2005; Elrod, Flachsbart & Kehr, 2009). Research suggests that students are more likely to engage and retain knowledge if it is imbedded and contextualized (Schunk, 2000; Freudenberg & Lupton, 2004). The expectation is that imbedding will encourage students to value the importance of analytic skills in the marketing discipline and see their link between educational content and professional practice (Shoemaker, 2003). The objective is to motivate students and encourage a deeper level of understanding of marketing analytics. How Analytics became Imbedded into the Marketing Curriculum? The decision to imbed analytics into the marketing curriculum, in hindsight, was the easy part. How best to implement the decision has been more challenging. In academia, a review of literature on the topic of interest is a generally accepted practice. Specifically, a review was initiated with a focus on marketing and technology. Not surprising, academic literature contained very little on the subject.

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