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Teaching direct marketing and competing for the collegiate echo award
M A R K E T P L A C E DENNY E. McCORKLE
Teaching Direct Marketing and Competing for the Collegiate Echo Award DENNY E. MCCORKLE, an Associate Professor of Marketing, has taught Direct Marketing for the College of Business Administration at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado, for the past seven years. His DBA is from Memphis State University and his MBA is from Louisiana Tech University. He has received several national awards for his innovative course in Direct Marketing, including a 1996 Distinguished Teaching Award and a 1992 Outstanding Direct Marketing Educator Award given by the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF).
DENNY E. MCCORKLE
ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to provide motivation and direction for marketing, journalism, and mass communication professors to consider offering a basic undergraduate Direct Marketing course and, more specifically, to encourage entry into the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation’s Collegiate Echo Competition as a means of structuring the course design and content. The paper addresses the issues of adding a Direct Marketing course, promoting enrollment, and the benefits of the Collegiate Echo Competition to students, potential employers, and professors/instructors. Additional topics covered by the author include: (1) managing and organizing, (2) setting standards of quality, (3) measuring the quality, and (4) measuring the results of using the Collegiate Echo Competition.
q 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, Inc. CCC 0892-0591/97/01066-09
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INTRODUCTION According to the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, a basic direct marketing undergraduate course is taught at approximately 150 different colleges and universities in the United States. Around 80 percent of these courses are taught at business schools, with the rest taught primarily by journalism and mass communications schools (5). This is a relatively small number when considering there are over 1,300 colleges offering four-year business degrees and over 450 colleges offering four-year journalism degrees in the United States (7). Since 1986, the DMEF has sponsored the Collegiate Echo Competition (later named after Leonard J. Raymond). In this national competition, student teams prepare a direct marketing plan that includes research, media, creative, and budgeting for a sponsoring client. Past sponsors have included PitneyBowes, American Express, BMG Music Clubs, the Ford Motor Company, and others. Over the past four years there have been an average of 224 entries (a high of 269 in 1994) from 54 different colleges and universities (a high of 62 in 1994) (2). Again, a small number of different schools, when considering the number that offer a basic direct marketing course and the number of business schools in the United States. The purpose of this article is to provide motivation and direction for marketing, journalism, and mass communication professors to consider offering a basic undergraduate direct marketing course, and more specifically, to encourage entry into the DMEF’s Collegiate Echo Competition as a means of structuring the course design and content.
ADDING A DIRECT MARKETING COURSE It is beyond the scope of this paper to define and justify the need for a direct marketing course. This has previously been done by Sherman (8) and by Katzenstein et al. (6). Also, the Direct Marketing Ed-
ucational Foundation in New York provides a wealth of materials to assist in this process (3). Any interested professors who have not done so are first recommended to apply for attendance to a DMEF Professors’ Institute. This fellowship program addresses the basics of direct marketing and provides information on curriculum development. Of special importance, this program provides the material needed to convince department colleagues, department chairs, and school deans of the rationale of adding a direct marketing course to the curriculum. One often-practiced means to add such a course to the curriculum is to prove its demand with students by initially offering it for a few years as a special topics course. Once proven successful, it is often easier to add a specific course in direct marketing. Alternatively, one could also consider making direct marketing a major component of an existing course. For example, some schools continue to teach direct marketing as a primary component under course titles such as Advertising Campaigns, Current Issues (or Special Topics) in Marketing, Promotion Management (or Strategy), Special (or Independent) Study, Marketing Communication, etc., (5).
PROMOTING ENROLLMENT IN A DIRECT MARKETING COURSE Obviously, once a course has been set, the first concern is with enrollment. Students have to be made aware of new courses, and this is especially true with a new direct marketing course. A problem is that students can easily have a misperception concerning the nature and scope of direct marketing. This is particularly true since: 1) direct marketing is not always adequately covered in basic marketing courses and textbooks, 2) students are often not of the income to be regular mail-order shoppers, and 3) many students receive a below-average quantity of quality direct mail. Unfortunately, student perceptions of direct marketing can too often be of negativism toward ‘‘junk mail,’’ pesky telephone salespersons, late-night in-
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fomercials and door-to-door selling. Therefore, the introduction of a new course in direct marketing may require some promotional effort. At its simplest, a direct mail flyer providing details of the course and facts and information about the scope and growth of direct marketing (taken from DMEF materials) could be sent to qualified students, with a follow-up telephone call to those expressing interest. This promotional effort also demonstrates direct marketing in practice. Additional suggestions for promoting a new direct marketing course can be found in a JDM editorial by John Yeck (11). Once a direct marketing course has been taught for the first time, word-of-mouth and personal selling can become an extremely effective additional means of promoting it in subsequent semesters. It is also useful, where possible, to post each semester’s course syllabi on the World Wide Web. This will allow students to learn about a particular professor’s classroom policies and course content concerning what is typically an unfamiliar course and topic.
BENEFITS OF THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION Using the Collegiate Echo Competition as a means for organizing a basic undergraduate direct marketing course can provide numerous benefits to students, potential employers, and direct marketing professors. Benefits to Students Students who take a direct marketing course and participate in the Echo Competition receive the benefit of specialized knowledge and direct marketing planning and strategy skills. As mentioned earlier, with such a small percentage of schools offering a direct marketing course and even fewer entering the Echo Competition, it is rather easy for students to use this to be competitive in the job market and to offer potential employers something unique. Completion of a direct marketing course and the Echo Competition can also excite students about new career opportunities they had not previously
considered. Again, the DMEF provides supporting materials about careers in direct marketing. Many students who have been chosen by the DMEF to attend their Collegiate Institutes have returned to their schools with absolute insistence on a career in direct marketing or in continuing their education in a direct marketing graduate program such as that of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Even beyond work opportunities with direct marketing companies, bright graduates of a direct marketing course should be able to apply their unique knowledge and skills to any job they choose to go after. Whether in retailing, sales or marketing research, direct marketing knowledge and skills can help them improve their performance and to stand out among their co-workers. Benefits to Potential Employers In the business world, small businesses to large businesses have heard of direct marketing, are interested in learning more, but often lack the education and skills to apply it. Then along comes a rare student job applicant who has not only completed a course in the subject, but has also practiced direct marketing for a real client. Employers are even further impressed when job applicants use the Echo project as part of their portfolio and provide it as evidence of their skills in the job interview. After reviewing a copy of a student’s Collegiate Echo Competition entry, a potential employer can feel more confident in the quality and scope of a job applicant’s understanding of direct marketing strategy. Evidence of direct marketing skills and knowledge should always be more impressive to potential employers than evidence of direct marketing knowledge alone. Benefits to Direct Marketing Professors/ Instructors Having a direct marketing team become finalists (top ten percent of entries) or win or place in the top three can help to build a reputation of quality for a professor, department, college, and university. Such accomplishments often receive considerable public-
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ity in the local community and national trade press. This publicity is recognized by marketing and direct marketing business professionals and can often lead to opportunities for consulting, professional speaking engagements, foreign teaching assignments, student internships and full-time jobs, direct marketing guest speakers, and so forth. Whether a professor’s teams win or not, there are also other benefits. Due to the breadth and depth of the subject of direct marketing, it is difficult to cover anything other than a basic introduction to direct marketing in a one-semester undergraduate course. As mentioned above, Northwestern University offers a degree program in direct marketing. Also, the Institute of Direct Marketing in London has been offering a 150-hour-long Diploma in Direct Marketing for the past ten years. So there is certainly no shortage of course material. If anything, the difficulty is in deciding what to cover and what to leave out. Therefore, participation in the Collegiate Echo Competition provides a professor the opportunity and direction to add depth to areas relevant to each year’s sponsoring client. One year the client may be a consumer mail-order marketer, another year a business-to-business client, another year a retailer, or another year a packaged goods manufacturer. This variety insures each year’s class is fresh and different from the previous year’s. It also helps a professor to define a priority for topic coverage. A final benefit to the professor concerns longterm relationships. Lecture courses rarely result in close relationships between the professor and the students. Conversely, when class projects are involved, a bonding is more likely as all involved work more closely together to practice knowledge, develop skills, and solve a particular problem for the client. Additionally, these students are more likely to continue this relationship with the professor beyond their graduation and on through their career, thus providing a direct link to the business community for consulting, student internships, full-time jobs, and guest speakers. The following sections of this paper represent the author’s experiences from teaching a direct market-
ing course using the Collegiate Echo Competition over the past nine years. During that time, teams from his classes have placed first or second on several occasions and have made it to the final round of judging on many occasions.
MANAGING AND ORGANIZING FOR THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION Organizing a class to enter the Collegiate Echo Competition does require a substantial amount of preparation and planning, although once this is done, subsequent semesters may only require minimal modifications and improvements. The key to ongoing improvement is to end each semester with a selfreview and a careful analysis of the formal student evaluations from each class. If the course is only offered once a year (as most are), waiting seven months to review and make adjustments will not allow adequate opportunity to learn from the previous year’s mistakes. It is recommended that class topics be organized to fit the structure of the Echo project, rather than using the more typical method of organizing by the order of the topics covered in the chosen textbook. Many of the textbooks more commonly used for the undergraduate direct marketing course are designed to address the basics of direct marketing and are not necessarily designed specifically as instruction for completing a direct marketing plan. To do so may require development of a lecture or series of lectures on the strategic planning process and other similar topics not addressed in the assigned textbook. Some of these planning materials can be found in Resource Reports in the DMA Manual, published by the Direct Marketing Association or in direct marketing trade publications such as Direct Marketing, Direct, Target Marketing, and DM News, or can be adapted from any of the many books written on marketing plans. The Collegiate Echo Competition Rules and Regulations (4) typically require four sections: 1) Marketing Strategy, including a situation analysis, secondary and primary research, targeting and positioning
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strategies and objectives; 2) Media Plan, including the integration of all elements of the promotional mix; 3) Creative Plan, including a supplemental creative samples package; and 4) Budget. This structure requires that the topics of research and the situation analysis should be covered as early in the semester as possible, and the topics of budgeting, projected results, and creative production should be addressed in the latter weeks of the semester, with all other topics covered in an appropriate order. To facilitate the dissemination of information and research concerning the project, a direct marketing resource library should be maintained by the professor or department (or materials should be placed on reserve in the library). These resources could include: 1) copies of all class handouts from the professor or the DMEF, 2) copies of past winning campaigns (often provided by the DMEF), 3) copies of client and competitors’ sample advertisements and other client information, 4) sample direct mail pieces and other direct response ads, 5) mailing list catalogs, advertising specialities catalogs, and mail order catalogs, 6) relevant magazine and journal articles, 7) direct marketing trade publications not found in the library, but subscribed to by the professor (several are offered free to marketing professors), 8) direct marketing books not found in the library, but owned by the professor, and 9) the most appropriate reference books relevant to the Echo Competition assignment and sponsoring client (such as SRDS, MediaMark, Simmons, etc.). For more effective organization, it is also recommended that group assignment not be made until at least the second or third week of class, after the enrollment (drops and adds) has settled. Sometimes, and for some schools that begin their fall semester in August, the details of the competition client and assignment are not known until several weeks into the fall semester. Besides waiting for the enrollment to settle, this time is best used to adequately address the nature, scope, and understanding of direct marketing and the direct marketing planning process. Once groups are assigned (either by professor or by students), each group should be treated as a di-
rect response advertising agency with specific titles, duties, and responsibilities for all group members, i.e., account coordinator, marketing research director, media/communications director, and creative director. According to the DMEF rules and regulations, the maximum number allowed per group is four. When a group is smaller, the duties of account coordinator and marketing research director can be combined. In-class time for the course might be used for any combination of the following: 1) course lectures, 2) exams or in-class assignments/exercises, 3) guest speakers, and/or 4) Echo project workshop. In order to have time for the other elements of the course, the lectures are best used to provide depth, clarification, and examples to the topics covered in the reading assignments, and to cover additional material and relevant topics not addressed by the textbook and other reading assignments. Thus, this structure would not be described as a lecture course. At most, about half of the author’s class time is used for lecturing. To encourage students to come to class prepared for discussion and questions, and to ensure they are more likely to apply the theories, practice, and experience of the professionals presented in the textbook and reading materials, exams and other graded assignments are usually needed, though the Echo project remains the largest component of the course grade. A good part of the in-class time is used for class discussion of planning, organization, problems, issues, and questions that surface concerning completion of the Echo Competition, or in-class group meetings and group consultation with the professor concerning the competition. During a semester, three to five direct marketing guest speakers are invited to visit the class. These speakers are used to focus on specific topics for the project, such as conducting primary research, making direct response media decisions, or creating print direct response ads, particularly focusing on the type of client sponsoring the competition. If the competition concerns a business-to-business sponsor, then guest speakers with related experience are
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invited to the class. Guest speakers are also great to use to cover relevant topics that a particular professor is uncomfortable with or unknowledgeable about, such as telemarketing, calculating lifetime values, alternative media, or creating direct response ads. (Though the rules and regulations do make it clear that guest speakers or the professor should not make decisions for the students.)
SETTING STANDARDS OF QUALITY FOR THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION When a direct marketing class is structured as proposed here, in many instances the Echo project could be one of the most comprehensive and timeconsuming projects experienced by the students. For this reason, it is very important to clarify the objectives of the course and to set the standards and expectations high. The objectives of such a course would likely include: 1) to enhance direct marketing knowledge and understanding, 2) to develop direct marketing planning and strategy skills, and 3) to provide a base of concepts and skills that will facilitate further learning and thinking in direct marketing. It is always emphasized to the students that while some may find new career and job opportunities in direct marketing, this is neither promised nor guaranteed. To set the standards high for the class, sample copies of the best previous student campaign entries (two copies are required at the end of the semester; one for entry and one for professor grading and future reference) and past winning campaigns (often provided by DMEF) are shown during the first week of class. With these examples as standards, typically, each year several groups strive and accomplish improvement over past year’s entries. This ensures that the standards continue to improve from year to year. The author also provides a basic style sheet that specifies the minimum qualifications for grading, including grammar, spelling, proper footnoting, important rules and regulations, and so forth. About an hour of class time is used to review the DMEF’s
rules and regulations and this basic style sheet. It is made clear that entries that do not meet these guidelines for professionalism could result in a low grade and will not be entered into the competition. This is simple to enforce, since the entry forms for the competition require the instructor’s signature. The author also encourages creative ideas and approaches to solving the client’s problem. Nevertheless, it is made clear that these decisions should be based on research (secondary or primary) and footnoted in the project. A final suggestion for setting standards of quality involves motivation. On several occasions during the semester, the author presents regular pep talks and other means of motivation to remind the students of the long-term objectives and value of completing the Echo project. They are reminded that doing their best is more important than being the best. While not everyone can win the competition, everyone can be very proud of the completed project and use it to job and career advantage.
MEASURING THE QUALITY OF THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION The primary elements of the course for measurement purposes include: (1) exams and smaller assignments, (2) the Echo project, (3) group evaluations, and (4) attendance and participation. The exams, as discussed earlier, serve the purpose of ensuring class preparation and application of the course materials to the project. These exams are usually made up of essay questions, small cases, and problems. Since the class is primarily focused on the Echo project, good exam grades should also be reflected on the project grades. Therefore, the exam and small assignments component of the grade has usually been no more than 30 percent of the total grade. Past experience has indicated the importance of setting preliminary deadlines for each major section of the campaign—marketing strategy, media plan, creative plan, etc. The first marketing strategy/research section is usually due just before midterm,
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while the media section, the creative section, and the overall final plan are due approximately every two weeks thereafter. Since a large percentage of a student’s grade is based on the Echo project, preliminary grades and comments from the professor are needed by the students for feedback and improved direction. Obviously, these preliminary deadlines require coordination with the related topics assigned for reading, lectures, and guest speakers. Since a large component of the grade, 60 to 70 percent, comes from the group project, careful monitoring and measurement of group work is required. This is accomplished using group member evaluations, progress reports, group meeting reports, and weekly meetings with the account coordinators. Group member evaluations are important to ensure equal quantity and quality of group work. An evaluation form developed by Clark (1) has been used successfully by the author. This form measures group work on the multiple dimensions of interest and enthusiasm, repeat performance, quality of work, active role assumed, creativity, volunteerism, dependability, recommendation, and quantity of work. This evaluation form is provided to the students early in the semester to set a standard of group work expectations. It is due just before midterm when the marketing strategy section is turned in for preliminary grading and at the end of the semester when the final plan is turned in for entry. Preliminary group performance is also measured through weekly meetings with the account coordinators. Group problems discovered early in the semester before the first formal evaluation can usually be addressed and resolved without need of group or grade adjustment. Before the formal evaluations are turned in, students should fully understand that the group grade is adjusted based on the evaluations by the other members of their groups. During the first half of the semester they must also understand that problem group members will be expected to change their behavior, could plan on getting a poor individual project grade even if the group grade is good, and/or may be asked to complete the project on their own. Strong and Anderson provide addi-
tional insight on dealing with ‘‘free-riding’’ in group work (9). For additional measurement, individual students are also required to turn in progress reports that provide documentation of the individual and group time spent working on the project. The account coordinator is required to complete group meeting reports that measure group meeting attendance, tardiness, and preparation. These supplemental measures provide additional reliability of the group member evaluations. When a student receives poor evaluations from the other group members, this performance is usually confirmed in the progress reports and the group meeting reports. These multiple measures, when presented and discussed with a problem student, usually result in major improvement by the end of the semester and the second formal evaluation. An additional measurement of quality relates to attendance and participation. This component of the course grade ranges from 5 to 10 percent of the overall grade. When group work is used as a primary component in a course such as this, the attendance and participation of each individual group member can affect their contribution to the group. Thus, attendance and participation by each group member can have an effect on the group’s grade and the group’s evaluation of each group member. Again, it should be made very clear at the beginning of the semester that a course of this design requires class attendance and participation. Just as in a real work situations: if you do not come to work, you do not get paid; if you do not come to class, you do not get a good grade. It is recommended that students be offered recognition and reward for meeting their objectives at the end of the semester. Since the project-based course was presented to the students as having benefits beyond that of a short-term grade, it is useful to draw attention to specific group accomplishments concerning the project. The DMEF evaluation form provided in the rules and regulations can be used to determine for the class the Gold, Silver, and Bronze overall best campaigns; the most innovative approach; the best marketing strategy; the best creative
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plan; and the most efficient budget. If possible, in addition to the above group awards, it is also recommended each individual student receive a suitablefor-framing personalized certificate recognizing their completion of a valuable and unique course for their career. As a final bonus, it is recommended that the last class meeting of the semester be used to discuss the use of direct marketing strategies and techniques in finding a job. It is specifically important to address how the valuable practical experience from the direct marketing course can be used for the beginning and the rest of their careers to enhance their cover letters, resumes, and job interviews.
MEASURING THE RESULTS OF THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION The success of a direct marketing course using the Collegiate Echo Competition can be measured by addressing how well the course objectives were met. This measurement can come in several ways: 1) grades, 2) student response, and 3) Echo competition results. Grades Due to the extremely high involvement in the class by students and the professor, the desire to get more out of the class than grades, and the multiple measures of group member evaluations, grades do tend to be higher than in other classes with smaller projects or more lectures. This does not mean that there are no poor grades given in a class of this nature. It just means that there are a greater than usual number of high grades. And this pulls up the class grade average. Student Response During the Class The uniqueness of the subject and the project tends to promote positive comments from the students. It is very rewarding to hear students make comments during the semester such as: ‘‘Wow, I didn’t know that was direct marketing;’’ or, ‘‘It’s amazing that this is not covered in other marketing classes.’’
From the author’s formal, end-of-the-semester, anonymous student evaluations, the following comments are representative of the past five years: ‘‘The course material appears relevant and useful to not only future employment, but also to other marketing classes.’’ ‘‘I truly enjoyed this class. I will never look at catalogs, direct mail, bill inserts, etc., the same way again.’’ ‘‘I loved the class, but God was it time consuming!’’ ‘‘The involvement it takes to do well in this class is a big strength because it prepares students for real life working situations. Also, the relevance of the work to real life gives the class meaningful use.’’ ‘‘Great class, it builds confidence and tests your limits.’’ ‘‘This course definitely made us work which was good because we had to do a lot of what true direct marketers do for their job.’’ ‘‘The real world application of the class is the differentiation between this and other courses.’’ With a more formal student evaluation conducted by Wilkens and Hsu (10), it was found that a majority of students in their Seminar in Advertising course felt that completion of the Collegiate Echo project 1) was a valuable learning activity, 2) was a stimulating and rewarding experience, 3) helped them to understand direct marketing more than before the course, 4) gained them a better feel for real-life direct marketing situations, and 5) helped them learn and use direct marketing skills.
Student Response Beyond the Class The course and the Echo Project typically generate an enormous amount of word-of-mouth attention. During the course, the word-of-mouth reputation is usually focused on the uniqueness of the course content and the challenges of the project. After the course, the focus is more on a strong sense of accomplishment, almost a ‘‘rite of passage.’’ This feedback to other students can often ensure a greater interest in and future enrollment by the higher quality students. Student response also goes beyond graduation. Due to the increased bonding between the professor and some of the students, there is an increased likelihood of continued contact after graduation. Former
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students of the author have obtained jobs in direct marketing, continued their education in direct marketing, used direct marketing strategies and techniques in their first jobs, and even become direct marketing entrepreneurs.
Results of the Competition When a student team wins, places, or is a finalist in the Collegiate Echo Competition, an additional measurable result is realized. Since notification of the winners does not come until May, after the course is over, and the winner’s recognition at the Echo Awards Show does not come until the following fall, after many of the senior-level students have already graduated and have begun work, this provides an added bonus and reward for all involved. The industry recognition and school congratulations can provide a bonus job/career boost and ensure a memorable experience not soon forgotten.
CONCLUSIONS The easier means of teaching a direct marketing course is to make it a lecture course, use guest speakers to cover difficult topics, and give several exams as a primary means of measurement. Unfortunately, some students may prefer this method, too. The more difficult and time-consuming option for teaching a direct marketing course is to use the Collegiate Echo Competition as a primary structure for the course. Such a design requires considerable planning and development, ongoing monitoring and improvement, and lots of time working with students outside of the classroom. Nevertheless, this second option is preferred by the author and the many others who compete in each year’s competition. And once they have completed the course and the project, option two also seems to be the preference of students. The Collegiate Echo Competition offers numerous benefits and measurable results to students, potential employers, and professors. It provides an op-
portunity and challenge to professors and students. The changing client sponsorship provides variety that keeps the subject and course fresh and exciting to all involved. It often attracts a higher quality of student in subsequent offerings. And the final results can bring recognition and lifelong career rewards to all involved. In the author’s opinion, the benefits of using the Collegiate Echo Competition as a means of teaching a direct marketing course far outweighs the additional investment of time for planning, development, and implementation.
REFERENCES 1. Clark, Gary L. (1989), ‘‘Peer Evaluations: An Empirical Test of Their Validity and Reliability,’’ Journal of Marketing Education, 11, 3 (Fall) 41–58. 2. Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (1992–1995), Annual Reports, New York: DMEF. 3. Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (1995), Direct Marketing Course Rationale, New York: DMEF. 4. Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (1995), Rules and Regulations Governing the 1996 Leonard J. Raymond Collegiate Echo Competition, New York: DMEF. 5. Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (1995), Where Shall I Go to College to Study Direct Marketing? New York: DMEF. 6. Katzenstein, Herbert, Kavil, Sreedhar, Mummalaneni, Venkat, and Dubas, Khalid (1994), ‘‘Design of an Ideal Direct Marketing Course from the Students’ Perspective,’’ Journal of Direct Marketing, 8, 2 (Spring), 66–72. 7. Peterson’s Four-Year Colleges (1996), 26th ed., Princeton, NJ: Peterson’s. 8. Sherman, Elaine (1987), ‘‘The Process of Developing and Assessing a Collegiate Direct Marketing Course,’’ Journal of Direct Marketing, 1, 2 (Spring), 45–53. 9. Strong, James T. and Anderson, Rolph E. (1990), ‘‘Free-riding in Group Projects: Control Mechanisms and Preliminary Data,’’ Journal of Marketing Education, 12, 2 (Summer), 61–67. 10. Wilkens, Henry T. and Hsu, Margaretha M. (1988), ‘‘An Evaluation of Using a Real-Life Experience to Teach Direct Marketing, Journal of Direct Marketing, 2, 3 (Summer) 42–47. 11. Yeck, John D. (1990), ‘‘From the Foundation: Breaking Through the Walls of Ignorance,’’ Journal of Direct Marketing, 4, 3 (Summer), 2–3.
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Teaching Direct Marketing and Competing for the Collegiate Echo Award DENNY E. MCCORKLE, an Associate Professor of Marketing, has taught Direct Marketing for the College of Business Administration at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado, for the past seven years. His DBA is from Memphis State University and his MBA is from Louisiana Tech University. He has received several national awards for his innovative course in Direct Marketing, including a 1996 Distinguished Teaching Award and a 1992 Outstanding Direct Marketing Educator Award given by the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF).
DENNY E. MCCORKLE
ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to provide motivation and direction for marketing, journalism, and mass communication professors to consider offering a basic undergraduate Direct Marketing course and, more specifically, to encourage entry into the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation’s Collegiate Echo Competition as a means of structuring the course design and content. The paper addresses the issues of adding a Direct Marketing course, promoting enrollment, and the benefits of the Collegiate Echo Competition to students, potential employers, and professors/instructors. Additional topics covered by the author include: (1) managing and organizing, (2) setting standards of quality, (3) measuring the quality, and (4) measuring the results of using the Collegiate Echo Competition.
q 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, Inc. CCC 0892-0591/97/01066-09
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INTRODUCTION According to the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, a basic direct marketing undergraduate course is taught at approximately 150 different colleges and universities in the United States. Around 80 percent of these courses are taught at business schools, with the rest taught primarily by journalism and mass communications schools (5). This is a relatively small number when considering there are over 1,300 colleges offering four-year business degrees and over 450 colleges offering four-year journalism degrees in the United States (7). Since 1986, the DMEF has sponsored the Collegiate Echo Competition (later named after Leonard J. Raymond). In this national competition, student teams prepare a direct marketing plan that includes research, media, creative, and budgeting for a sponsoring client. Past sponsors have included PitneyBowes, American Express, BMG Music Clubs, the Ford Motor Company, and others. Over the past four years there have been an average of 224 entries (a high of 269 in 1994) from 54 different colleges and universities (a high of 62 in 1994) (2). Again, a small number of different schools, when considering the number that offer a basic direct marketing course and the number of business schools in the United States. The purpose of this article is to provide motivation and direction for marketing, journalism, and mass communication professors to consider offering a basic undergraduate direct marketing course, and more specifically, to encourage entry into the DMEF’s Collegiate Echo Competition as a means of structuring the course design and content.
ADDING A DIRECT MARKETING COURSE It is beyond the scope of this paper to define and justify the need for a direct marketing course. This has previously been done by Sherman (8) and by Katzenstein et al. (6). Also, the Direct Marketing Ed-
ucational Foundation in New York provides a wealth of materials to assist in this process (3). Any interested professors who have not done so are first recommended to apply for attendance to a DMEF Professors’ Institute. This fellowship program addresses the basics of direct marketing and provides information on curriculum development. Of special importance, this program provides the material needed to convince department colleagues, department chairs, and school deans of the rationale of adding a direct marketing course to the curriculum. One often-practiced means to add such a course to the curriculum is to prove its demand with students by initially offering it for a few years as a special topics course. Once proven successful, it is often easier to add a specific course in direct marketing. Alternatively, one could also consider making direct marketing a major component of an existing course. For example, some schools continue to teach direct marketing as a primary component under course titles such as Advertising Campaigns, Current Issues (or Special Topics) in Marketing, Promotion Management (or Strategy), Special (or Independent) Study, Marketing Communication, etc., (5).
PROMOTING ENROLLMENT IN A DIRECT MARKETING COURSE Obviously, once a course has been set, the first concern is with enrollment. Students have to be made aware of new courses, and this is especially true with a new direct marketing course. A problem is that students can easily have a misperception concerning the nature and scope of direct marketing. This is particularly true since: 1) direct marketing is not always adequately covered in basic marketing courses and textbooks, 2) students are often not of the income to be regular mail-order shoppers, and 3) many students receive a below-average quantity of quality direct mail. Unfortunately, student perceptions of direct marketing can too often be of negativism toward ‘‘junk mail,’’ pesky telephone salespersons, late-night in-
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fomercials and door-to-door selling. Therefore, the introduction of a new course in direct marketing may require some promotional effort. At its simplest, a direct mail flyer providing details of the course and facts and information about the scope and growth of direct marketing (taken from DMEF materials) could be sent to qualified students, with a follow-up telephone call to those expressing interest. This promotional effort also demonstrates direct marketing in practice. Additional suggestions for promoting a new direct marketing course can be found in a JDM editorial by John Yeck (11). Once a direct marketing course has been taught for the first time, word-of-mouth and personal selling can become an extremely effective additional means of promoting it in subsequent semesters. It is also useful, where possible, to post each semester’s course syllabi on the World Wide Web. This will allow students to learn about a particular professor’s classroom policies and course content concerning what is typically an unfamiliar course and topic.
BENEFITS OF THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION Using the Collegiate Echo Competition as a means for organizing a basic undergraduate direct marketing course can provide numerous benefits to students, potential employers, and direct marketing professors. Benefits to Students Students who take a direct marketing course and participate in the Echo Competition receive the benefit of specialized knowledge and direct marketing planning and strategy skills. As mentioned earlier, with such a small percentage of schools offering a direct marketing course and even fewer entering the Echo Competition, it is rather easy for students to use this to be competitive in the job market and to offer potential employers something unique. Completion of a direct marketing course and the Echo Competition can also excite students about new career opportunities they had not previously
considered. Again, the DMEF provides supporting materials about careers in direct marketing. Many students who have been chosen by the DMEF to attend their Collegiate Institutes have returned to their schools with absolute insistence on a career in direct marketing or in continuing their education in a direct marketing graduate program such as that of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Even beyond work opportunities with direct marketing companies, bright graduates of a direct marketing course should be able to apply their unique knowledge and skills to any job they choose to go after. Whether in retailing, sales or marketing research, direct marketing knowledge and skills can help them improve their performance and to stand out among their co-workers. Benefits to Potential Employers In the business world, small businesses to large businesses have heard of direct marketing, are interested in learning more, but often lack the education and skills to apply it. Then along comes a rare student job applicant who has not only completed a course in the subject, but has also practiced direct marketing for a real client. Employers are even further impressed when job applicants use the Echo project as part of their portfolio and provide it as evidence of their skills in the job interview. After reviewing a copy of a student’s Collegiate Echo Competition entry, a potential employer can feel more confident in the quality and scope of a job applicant’s understanding of direct marketing strategy. Evidence of direct marketing skills and knowledge should always be more impressive to potential employers than evidence of direct marketing knowledge alone. Benefits to Direct Marketing Professors/ Instructors Having a direct marketing team become finalists (top ten percent of entries) or win or place in the top three can help to build a reputation of quality for a professor, department, college, and university. Such accomplishments often receive considerable public-
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ity in the local community and national trade press. This publicity is recognized by marketing and direct marketing business professionals and can often lead to opportunities for consulting, professional speaking engagements, foreign teaching assignments, student internships and full-time jobs, direct marketing guest speakers, and so forth. Whether a professor’s teams win or not, there are also other benefits. Due to the breadth and depth of the subject of direct marketing, it is difficult to cover anything other than a basic introduction to direct marketing in a one-semester undergraduate course. As mentioned above, Northwestern University offers a degree program in direct marketing. Also, the Institute of Direct Marketing in London has been offering a 150-hour-long Diploma in Direct Marketing for the past ten years. So there is certainly no shortage of course material. If anything, the difficulty is in deciding what to cover and what to leave out. Therefore, participation in the Collegiate Echo Competition provides a professor the opportunity and direction to add depth to areas relevant to each year’s sponsoring client. One year the client may be a consumer mail-order marketer, another year a business-to-business client, another year a retailer, or another year a packaged goods manufacturer. This variety insures each year’s class is fresh and different from the previous year’s. It also helps a professor to define a priority for topic coverage. A final benefit to the professor concerns longterm relationships. Lecture courses rarely result in close relationships between the professor and the students. Conversely, when class projects are involved, a bonding is more likely as all involved work more closely together to practice knowledge, develop skills, and solve a particular problem for the client. Additionally, these students are more likely to continue this relationship with the professor beyond their graduation and on through their career, thus providing a direct link to the business community for consulting, student internships, full-time jobs, and guest speakers. The following sections of this paper represent the author’s experiences from teaching a direct market-
ing course using the Collegiate Echo Competition over the past nine years. During that time, teams from his classes have placed first or second on several occasions and have made it to the final round of judging on many occasions.
MANAGING AND ORGANIZING FOR THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION Organizing a class to enter the Collegiate Echo Competition does require a substantial amount of preparation and planning, although once this is done, subsequent semesters may only require minimal modifications and improvements. The key to ongoing improvement is to end each semester with a selfreview and a careful analysis of the formal student evaluations from each class. If the course is only offered once a year (as most are), waiting seven months to review and make adjustments will not allow adequate opportunity to learn from the previous year’s mistakes. It is recommended that class topics be organized to fit the structure of the Echo project, rather than using the more typical method of organizing by the order of the topics covered in the chosen textbook. Many of the textbooks more commonly used for the undergraduate direct marketing course are designed to address the basics of direct marketing and are not necessarily designed specifically as instruction for completing a direct marketing plan. To do so may require development of a lecture or series of lectures on the strategic planning process and other similar topics not addressed in the assigned textbook. Some of these planning materials can be found in Resource Reports in the DMA Manual, published by the Direct Marketing Association or in direct marketing trade publications such as Direct Marketing, Direct, Target Marketing, and DM News, or can be adapted from any of the many books written on marketing plans. The Collegiate Echo Competition Rules and Regulations (4) typically require four sections: 1) Marketing Strategy, including a situation analysis, secondary and primary research, targeting and positioning
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strategies and objectives; 2) Media Plan, including the integration of all elements of the promotional mix; 3) Creative Plan, including a supplemental creative samples package; and 4) Budget. This structure requires that the topics of research and the situation analysis should be covered as early in the semester as possible, and the topics of budgeting, projected results, and creative production should be addressed in the latter weeks of the semester, with all other topics covered in an appropriate order. To facilitate the dissemination of information and research concerning the project, a direct marketing resource library should be maintained by the professor or department (or materials should be placed on reserve in the library). These resources could include: 1) copies of all class handouts from the professor or the DMEF, 2) copies of past winning campaigns (often provided by the DMEF), 3) copies of client and competitors’ sample advertisements and other client information, 4) sample direct mail pieces and other direct response ads, 5) mailing list catalogs, advertising specialities catalogs, and mail order catalogs, 6) relevant magazine and journal articles, 7) direct marketing trade publications not found in the library, but subscribed to by the professor (several are offered free to marketing professors), 8) direct marketing books not found in the library, but owned by the professor, and 9) the most appropriate reference books relevant to the Echo Competition assignment and sponsoring client (such as SRDS, MediaMark, Simmons, etc.). For more effective organization, it is also recommended that group assignment not be made until at least the second or third week of class, after the enrollment (drops and adds) has settled. Sometimes, and for some schools that begin their fall semester in August, the details of the competition client and assignment are not known until several weeks into the fall semester. Besides waiting for the enrollment to settle, this time is best used to adequately address the nature, scope, and understanding of direct marketing and the direct marketing planning process. Once groups are assigned (either by professor or by students), each group should be treated as a di-
rect response advertising agency with specific titles, duties, and responsibilities for all group members, i.e., account coordinator, marketing research director, media/communications director, and creative director. According to the DMEF rules and regulations, the maximum number allowed per group is four. When a group is smaller, the duties of account coordinator and marketing research director can be combined. In-class time for the course might be used for any combination of the following: 1) course lectures, 2) exams or in-class assignments/exercises, 3) guest speakers, and/or 4) Echo project workshop. In order to have time for the other elements of the course, the lectures are best used to provide depth, clarification, and examples to the topics covered in the reading assignments, and to cover additional material and relevant topics not addressed by the textbook and other reading assignments. Thus, this structure would not be described as a lecture course. At most, about half of the author’s class time is used for lecturing. To encourage students to come to class prepared for discussion and questions, and to ensure they are more likely to apply the theories, practice, and experience of the professionals presented in the textbook and reading materials, exams and other graded assignments are usually needed, though the Echo project remains the largest component of the course grade. A good part of the in-class time is used for class discussion of planning, organization, problems, issues, and questions that surface concerning completion of the Echo Competition, or in-class group meetings and group consultation with the professor concerning the competition. During a semester, three to five direct marketing guest speakers are invited to visit the class. These speakers are used to focus on specific topics for the project, such as conducting primary research, making direct response media decisions, or creating print direct response ads, particularly focusing on the type of client sponsoring the competition. If the competition concerns a business-to-business sponsor, then guest speakers with related experience are
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invited to the class. Guest speakers are also great to use to cover relevant topics that a particular professor is uncomfortable with or unknowledgeable about, such as telemarketing, calculating lifetime values, alternative media, or creating direct response ads. (Though the rules and regulations do make it clear that guest speakers or the professor should not make decisions for the students.)
SETTING STANDARDS OF QUALITY FOR THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION When a direct marketing class is structured as proposed here, in many instances the Echo project could be one of the most comprehensive and timeconsuming projects experienced by the students. For this reason, it is very important to clarify the objectives of the course and to set the standards and expectations high. The objectives of such a course would likely include: 1) to enhance direct marketing knowledge and understanding, 2) to develop direct marketing planning and strategy skills, and 3) to provide a base of concepts and skills that will facilitate further learning and thinking in direct marketing. It is always emphasized to the students that while some may find new career and job opportunities in direct marketing, this is neither promised nor guaranteed. To set the standards high for the class, sample copies of the best previous student campaign entries (two copies are required at the end of the semester; one for entry and one for professor grading and future reference) and past winning campaigns (often provided by DMEF) are shown during the first week of class. With these examples as standards, typically, each year several groups strive and accomplish improvement over past year’s entries. This ensures that the standards continue to improve from year to year. The author also provides a basic style sheet that specifies the minimum qualifications for grading, including grammar, spelling, proper footnoting, important rules and regulations, and so forth. About an hour of class time is used to review the DMEF’s
rules and regulations and this basic style sheet. It is made clear that entries that do not meet these guidelines for professionalism could result in a low grade and will not be entered into the competition. This is simple to enforce, since the entry forms for the competition require the instructor’s signature. The author also encourages creative ideas and approaches to solving the client’s problem. Nevertheless, it is made clear that these decisions should be based on research (secondary or primary) and footnoted in the project. A final suggestion for setting standards of quality involves motivation. On several occasions during the semester, the author presents regular pep talks and other means of motivation to remind the students of the long-term objectives and value of completing the Echo project. They are reminded that doing their best is more important than being the best. While not everyone can win the competition, everyone can be very proud of the completed project and use it to job and career advantage.
MEASURING THE QUALITY OF THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION The primary elements of the course for measurement purposes include: (1) exams and smaller assignments, (2) the Echo project, (3) group evaluations, and (4) attendance and participation. The exams, as discussed earlier, serve the purpose of ensuring class preparation and application of the course materials to the project. These exams are usually made up of essay questions, small cases, and problems. Since the class is primarily focused on the Echo project, good exam grades should also be reflected on the project grades. Therefore, the exam and small assignments component of the grade has usually been no more than 30 percent of the total grade. Past experience has indicated the importance of setting preliminary deadlines for each major section of the campaign—marketing strategy, media plan, creative plan, etc. The first marketing strategy/research section is usually due just before midterm,
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while the media section, the creative section, and the overall final plan are due approximately every two weeks thereafter. Since a large percentage of a student’s grade is based on the Echo project, preliminary grades and comments from the professor are needed by the students for feedback and improved direction. Obviously, these preliminary deadlines require coordination with the related topics assigned for reading, lectures, and guest speakers. Since a large component of the grade, 60 to 70 percent, comes from the group project, careful monitoring and measurement of group work is required. This is accomplished using group member evaluations, progress reports, group meeting reports, and weekly meetings with the account coordinators. Group member evaluations are important to ensure equal quantity and quality of group work. An evaluation form developed by Clark (1) has been used successfully by the author. This form measures group work on the multiple dimensions of interest and enthusiasm, repeat performance, quality of work, active role assumed, creativity, volunteerism, dependability, recommendation, and quantity of work. This evaluation form is provided to the students early in the semester to set a standard of group work expectations. It is due just before midterm when the marketing strategy section is turned in for preliminary grading and at the end of the semester when the final plan is turned in for entry. Preliminary group performance is also measured through weekly meetings with the account coordinators. Group problems discovered early in the semester before the first formal evaluation can usually be addressed and resolved without need of group or grade adjustment. Before the formal evaluations are turned in, students should fully understand that the group grade is adjusted based on the evaluations by the other members of their groups. During the first half of the semester they must also understand that problem group members will be expected to change their behavior, could plan on getting a poor individual project grade even if the group grade is good, and/or may be asked to complete the project on their own. Strong and Anderson provide addi-
tional insight on dealing with ‘‘free-riding’’ in group work (9). For additional measurement, individual students are also required to turn in progress reports that provide documentation of the individual and group time spent working on the project. The account coordinator is required to complete group meeting reports that measure group meeting attendance, tardiness, and preparation. These supplemental measures provide additional reliability of the group member evaluations. When a student receives poor evaluations from the other group members, this performance is usually confirmed in the progress reports and the group meeting reports. These multiple measures, when presented and discussed with a problem student, usually result in major improvement by the end of the semester and the second formal evaluation. An additional measurement of quality relates to attendance and participation. This component of the course grade ranges from 5 to 10 percent of the overall grade. When group work is used as a primary component in a course such as this, the attendance and participation of each individual group member can affect their contribution to the group. Thus, attendance and participation by each group member can have an effect on the group’s grade and the group’s evaluation of each group member. Again, it should be made very clear at the beginning of the semester that a course of this design requires class attendance and participation. Just as in a real work situations: if you do not come to work, you do not get paid; if you do not come to class, you do not get a good grade. It is recommended that students be offered recognition and reward for meeting their objectives at the end of the semester. Since the project-based course was presented to the students as having benefits beyond that of a short-term grade, it is useful to draw attention to specific group accomplishments concerning the project. The DMEF evaluation form provided in the rules and regulations can be used to determine for the class the Gold, Silver, and Bronze overall best campaigns; the most innovative approach; the best marketing strategy; the best creative
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plan; and the most efficient budget. If possible, in addition to the above group awards, it is also recommended each individual student receive a suitablefor-framing personalized certificate recognizing their completion of a valuable and unique course for their career. As a final bonus, it is recommended that the last class meeting of the semester be used to discuss the use of direct marketing strategies and techniques in finding a job. It is specifically important to address how the valuable practical experience from the direct marketing course can be used for the beginning and the rest of their careers to enhance their cover letters, resumes, and job interviews.
MEASURING THE RESULTS OF THE COLLEGIATE ECHO COMPETITION The success of a direct marketing course using the Collegiate Echo Competition can be measured by addressing how well the course objectives were met. This measurement can come in several ways: 1) grades, 2) student response, and 3) Echo competition results. Grades Due to the extremely high involvement in the class by students and the professor, the desire to get more out of the class than grades, and the multiple measures of group member evaluations, grades do tend to be higher than in other classes with smaller projects or more lectures. This does not mean that there are no poor grades given in a class of this nature. It just means that there are a greater than usual number of high grades. And this pulls up the class grade average. Student Response During the Class The uniqueness of the subject and the project tends to promote positive comments from the students. It is very rewarding to hear students make comments during the semester such as: ‘‘Wow, I didn’t know that was direct marketing;’’ or, ‘‘It’s amazing that this is not covered in other marketing classes.’’
From the author’s formal, end-of-the-semester, anonymous student evaluations, the following comments are representative of the past five years: ‘‘The course material appears relevant and useful to not only future employment, but also to other marketing classes.’’ ‘‘I truly enjoyed this class. I will never look at catalogs, direct mail, bill inserts, etc., the same way again.’’ ‘‘I loved the class, but God was it time consuming!’’ ‘‘The involvement it takes to do well in this class is a big strength because it prepares students for real life working situations. Also, the relevance of the work to real life gives the class meaningful use.’’ ‘‘Great class, it builds confidence and tests your limits.’’ ‘‘This course definitely made us work which was good because we had to do a lot of what true direct marketers do for their job.’’ ‘‘The real world application of the class is the differentiation between this and other courses.’’ With a more formal student evaluation conducted by Wilkens and Hsu (10), it was found that a majority of students in their Seminar in Advertising course felt that completion of the Collegiate Echo project 1) was a valuable learning activity, 2) was a stimulating and rewarding experience, 3) helped them to understand direct marketing more than before the course, 4) gained them a better feel for real-life direct marketing situations, and 5) helped them learn and use direct marketing skills.
Student Response Beyond the Class The course and the Echo Project typically generate an enormous amount of word-of-mouth attention. During the course, the word-of-mouth reputation is usually focused on the uniqueness of the course content and the challenges of the project. After the course, the focus is more on a strong sense of accomplishment, almost a ‘‘rite of passage.’’ This feedback to other students can often ensure a greater interest in and future enrollment by the higher quality students. Student response also goes beyond graduation. Due to the increased bonding between the professor and some of the students, there is an increased likelihood of continued contact after graduation. Former
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students of the author have obtained jobs in direct marketing, continued their education in direct marketing, used direct marketing strategies and techniques in their first jobs, and even become direct marketing entrepreneurs.
Results of the Competition When a student team wins, places, or is a finalist in the Collegiate Echo Competition, an additional measurable result is realized. Since notification of the winners does not come until May, after the course is over, and the winner’s recognition at the Echo Awards Show does not come until the following fall, after many of the senior-level students have already graduated and have begun work, this provides an added bonus and reward for all involved. The industry recognition and school congratulations can provide a bonus job/career boost and ensure a memorable experience not soon forgotten.
CONCLUSIONS The easier means of teaching a direct marketing course is to make it a lecture course, use guest speakers to cover difficult topics, and give several exams as a primary means of measurement. Unfortunately, some students may prefer this method, too. The more difficult and time-consuming option for teaching a direct marketing course is to use the Collegiate Echo Competition as a primary structure for the course. Such a design requires considerable planning and development, ongoing monitoring and improvement, and lots of time working with students outside of the classroom. Nevertheless, this second option is preferred by the author and the many others who compete in each year’s competition. And once they have completed the course and the project, option two also seems to be the preference of students. The Collegiate Echo Competition offers numerous benefits and measurable results to students, potential employers, and professors. It provides an op-
portunity and challenge to professors and students. The changing client sponsorship provides variety that keeps the subject and course fresh and exciting to all involved. It often attracts a higher quality of student in subsequent offerings. And the final results can bring recognition and lifelong career rewards to all involved. In the author’s opinion, the benefits of using the Collegiate Echo Competition as a means of teaching a direct marketing course far outweighs the additional investment of time for planning, development, and implementation.
REFERENCES 1. Clark, Gary L. (1989), ‘‘Peer Evaluations: An Empirical Test of Their Validity and Reliability,’’ Journal of Marketing Education, 11, 3 (Fall) 41–58. 2. Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (1992–1995), Annual Reports, New York: DMEF. 3. Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (1995), Direct Marketing Course Rationale, New York: DMEF. 4. Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (1995), Rules and Regulations Governing the 1996 Leonard J. Raymond Collegiate Echo Competition, New York: DMEF. 5. Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (1995), Where Shall I Go to College to Study Direct Marketing? New York: DMEF. 6. Katzenstein, Herbert, Kavil, Sreedhar, Mummalaneni, Venkat, and Dubas, Khalid (1994), ‘‘Design of an Ideal Direct Marketing Course from the Students’ Perspective,’’ Journal of Direct Marketing, 8, 2 (Spring), 66–72. 7. Peterson’s Four-Year Colleges (1996), 26th ed., Princeton, NJ: Peterson’s. 8. Sherman, Elaine (1987), ‘‘The Process of Developing and Assessing a Collegiate Direct Marketing Course,’’ Journal of Direct Marketing, 1, 2 (Spring), 45–53. 9. Strong, James T. and Anderson, Rolph E. (1990), ‘‘Free-riding in Group Projects: Control Mechanisms and Preliminary Data,’’ Journal of Marketing Education, 12, 2 (Summer), 61–67. 10. Wilkens, Henry T. and Hsu, Margaretha M. (1988), ‘‘An Evaluation of Using a Real-Life Experience to Teach Direct Marketing, Journal of Direct Marketing, 2, 3 (Summer) 42–47. 11. Yeck, John D. (1990), ‘‘From the Foundation: Breaking Through the Walls of Ignorance,’’ Journal of Direct Marketing, 4, 3 (Summer), 2–3.
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