Category: October Newsletter 2020

Assistant professor of marketing, Andrea Luangrath, was recently recognized for her work on the study, “Caring for the Commons: Using Psychological Ownership to Enhance Stewardship Behavior for Public Goods,” which was published in the Journal of Marketing on September 25, 2020. With a goal of understanding how to motivate people to care for public goods, Andrea described performing a series of “really fun” studies to try and instill a sense of ownership in users of public resources.  

To learn more about the research topic that Andrea later claimed, “resonates nicely with people,” I hopped on Zoom to chat with the co-author herself. In the interview below, Andrea discusses her latest research publication including the motivation behind studying psychological ownership, using the findings for various marketing applications, and the importance of research related to social and environmental welfare.  

 

First, could you tell me a little about the concept of psychological ownership? How did you become interested in the topic? 

The concept of psychological ownership is one of my areas of research, so it’s an exciting topic to me. The idea for psychological ownership really originated in management. It was born out of this idea that it’s actually better if employees can feel ownership of their job and what they’re doing workwise. In those cases when they actually do feel ownership, it leads to really positive outcomes, like job satisfaction. 

One thing that’s important about psychological ownership is this feeling that something is “mine”; feeling like you personally have ownership, even if you don’t. Even in the absence of legal ownership, you can still feel like something is yours. You might not legally be an owner of a company, but you might feel like you have ownership of the company because you’re an employee of it. This feeling of ownership is really important. 

In this [research], we were interested in trying to find psychological mechanisms to get people to care for public resources. The general idea is if you can get someone to feel ownership of a public good, like a public park or a public lake, then people will be more likely to care for that good.  

In general, I’m interested in why consumers do what they do. Broadly, I’m interested in human behavior. More specifically, I’m interested in consumer behavior and how people make decisions around the consumption that happens in their lives. To me, it was intriguing that we don’t necessarily need to be actual owners of something to be able to have consequences, as if we were actual owners.  

It’s intriguing that a lot of the psychological processes that happen behind the scenes can actually influence consumers’ decisions, purchases, and ultimately, their lives. Very broadly, I’m interested in those psychological forces, and I’m interested in those psychological forces because they’re independent of other types of forces.  

With this project you can think of a lot of ways that we can nudge or change behavior. But if we can nudge and change behavior with simple psychological routes, that’s actually very effective because you don’t need to enact social norms or levy fees for bad behavior. There are lots of other mechanisms to get people to behave in a way that you want them to behave. If you can simply try to have subtle manipulations to get people to care more or invest themselves in something, then we can nudge behavior in a very positive way.  

 

What drew you to start researching the effect of psychological ownership on public goods? Specifically, why public goods? 

This is such an important topic right now. You look at a lot of different factors that make this so important – dwindling public resources, climate change, a lot of issues around sustainability and environmental concerns – and there are a lot of questions about, “how do we get people to take care of the environment and to take care of resources that they do not own?”  

In this context it’s a fundamentally important question, right? I think starting from that point [of a fundamentally important question] is often a good starting point with research. We attempt to do things that are relevant to people and that have really positive consequences. From a societal benefit perspective, this is an important question. That was really the motivation for setting out to do this research, especially in a public goods domain. 

A lot of the theories that we know about ownership can apply to products – apply to products we own, apply to searching for products and our purchase decisions – in a very consumer-oriented context. They can also apply very broadly to things like this, citizenship kinds of questions, and globally, environmental questions too. 

 

Typically, when thinking about marketing, my initial thoughts relate to the purchase of goods and services. How do you draw the connection between your research and other areas of marketing? 

Within marketing, it’s a very broad field. A lot of the research being done in marketing [is] a wave of research called Transformative Consumer Research (TCR). There’s a whole bunch of people that are doing work [in the area of TCR] with the aims of bettering society. The whole idea is to study problems, to ask questions, to find interventions, and to conduct a lot of research around topics that are important to social welfare and for bettering our world. That really is one of the primary drivers of a lot of the research that happens in marketing.  

Often times peoples’ traditional notions of what marketing research should constitute, or what it does constitute, or the domains in which the theories apply would be a fairly narrow perspective. The reality is that a lot of the work that’s being done is being done from a consumer welfare perspective and a societal welfare perspective. So, I don’t really see [my research] as incongruent, I actually see it as part of what is now a lot of the mainstream work being done in the field. 

 

What implications do you think your findings will have in other areas of research or marketing applications? 

One of main goals of this work – aside from studying a topic that was relevant for social welfare perspectives – was to create specific, actionable insights for managers. If you’re a manager of a public good, hopefully, from this research, you will be able to find interventions that are very simple. [The findings] are actionable interventions that anyone could implement to see potential positive effects.  

In terms of applications, there’s very direct application to what people could actually do. People could pick up [our research] paper and look at all the things we’ve tested, in terms of ways that you could manipulate and nudge behavior, to positively influence the likelihood that someone will care for that public good. Application-wise, it has very direct relevance to what managers could and should do for encouraging behavior.  

 

Where do you see this area of research moving in the next few years? Specifically, where do you see yourself pushing the area of research on psychological ownership into next? 

I have a number of different projects that study psychological ownership in different ways. I have some work right now that’s looking at psychological ownership in more of a product sense, but in virtual domains. I think there’s a lot of potential for exploring how we essentially feel ownership of digital goods, of goods even when they’re mediated by technology.  

The same can be considered in the context of public goods too. We often experience public spaces digitally before we even visit them. We might look at what a beach looks like, you might take a 360-degree tour of different monuments. We’re doing these things all the time, so I think there’s a lot of opportunity for exploring the effects of ownership in a more digital environment. 

 

With social distancing still in effect and other areas of life continuing to be impacted by COVID-19, could you speak to the importance of your findings regarding the changes we’ve seen in everyday life? 

We know that in the pandemic a lot of people have turned to activities that are feasible for them. People have turned to outdoor activities. As a result, our national, state, and local parks have seen massive increases in attendance, and a lot of people utilizing these resources who might not otherwise or who don’t necessarily do it as frequently as they are now. From that standpoint, we’re seeing that there’s this massive uptick in traffic to these places. At the same time, the worry is essentially what they would call in economics, “the tragedy of the commons”, where common-shared resources are overexploited and under-cared for. The worry is that people don’t actually steward these resources and care for them. The ways that we tried to encourage that type of behavior are more relevant now than they ever are.  

 

Would you say that your most recent published research is related to previous topics you’ve researched?  

I don’t do a lot of sustainability-related work – that hasn’t been a massive area of focus for me – but this idea of psychological ownership is a thread that ties together a lot of the work that I’ve done. Across a lot of my projects, you will see some measurement of psychological ownership and thinking about that as a mechanism to affect consumers’ behavior. That idea threads with this paper. This paper is just situated in a little bit more of an adjacent domain [to sustainability research], mostly because it’s such an important topic.  

The issue of stewardship and caring for our public resources is important. It makes sense for people of all different disciplines, methodological approaches, and philosophies on science to figure out how to combat some of these issues. Approaching it from a marketing or psychological perspective is actually really important.  

 

 

You can check out this additional article on the Tippie website to read about some of the studies Andrea’s team performed. 

Andrea’s research on psychological ownership was recently selected to be featured in the Journal of Marketing’s webinar series on Nov 19th. Andrea and lead author, Joann Peck, will be giving an abbreviated talk about their research, with an open forum for participants to ask questions. If interested in attending, the webinar will begin at 12 pm CST and you can register for the event here.  

DEO and Professor of Marketing, Dhananjay (DJ) Nayakankuppam, is teaching a new CRM course this semester for undergraduate Marketing students. As the world of marketing continuously evolves, so do the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in workplace. CRM has been around for decades, but continues to advance in its applications for the increasingly digital marketplace. DJ provides an inside look at the course he is teaching this semester and why it’s more relevant that ever.

 

Could you start by telling me a little bit about the CRM course you’re teaching this semester? 

CRM (or Customer Relationship Management) is really a rather old idea but has burgeoned recently because of a slew of new tools that make it possible to practice in a much more powerful way than before. In the past, a ‘mom and pop’ store where the proprietor that knew all customers by name and their needs and shopping habits was, in a sense, practicing CRM. However, all the knowledge resided in his/her head. The explosion (and reduction in cost) of database technologies and computing power now makes it possible to employ similar concepts in a much more powerful fashion.

One way to think of CRM is that it is the marketing idea of segmentation on steroids. Segments of size 1. Instead of a focus on a purchase process, the focus shifts to customer lifetime value. The course can be thought of as equally divided between discussing marketing ideas in the CRM space and analytical tools for someone looking to work in this space.

Students can expect to be exposed to a range of analytical techniques for dealing with data typical of the CRM world. I should also point out that marketing jobs are increasingly shifting from the mass media/advertising orientation towards a more CRM orientation. If you work for Amazon, iTunes, banking (and many more…), there is CRM in your future.  

Is this the first time a CRM course is being taught at the undergrad or graduate level? Do you plan to continue teaching/offering the course in future semesters? 

I believe it is. Assuming there is demand for the course, we certainly plan to continue offering the course.  

In your opinion, why is understanding CRM important to marketing or overall business operations? 

The marketing world is increasingly shifting towards a CRM focus. I’ll not engage in the usual hyperbole of ‘X is dead, make way for Y…’. For many decades now, there has been an increasing shift away from mass markets towards more and more highly segmented markets. This process has accelerated over the last 15 years or so. Look, for e.g., at the rise of online retailers – Amazon, Suitsupply, iTunes, Spotify etc. are not interested in the money they make on their first sale to you – it is your lifetime value to them that they are interested in managing. Arguably, this has always been the case but it was operationally difficult to do in the past. In other words, while the principles have always been known, it was difficult to actually put into practice – we had to wait until database and computing technologies caught up. But that has happened now.  

Why do you think undergraduate Marketing students should have an understanding on this topic?  

Jobs….. in one way or another, this is likely in your future. The more prepared you are for it, the better your prospects.  

What do you hope your students will gain from completing the CRM course? 

Analytical skills for managing CRM and a greater appreciation for the creativity that is possible with a mix of analytical skills and marketing principles.

How is this course similar and/or different from the PhD courses you’ve previously taught? 

Ph.D. courses are designed to prepare one for a career in academia. You can think of it as the difference between basic science and applied science (like the difference between physics and engineering – physics may want to understand the nature of force, engineers want to build bridges). We often seem to imply that one is better than the other, depending on our individual proclivities. There is, in actuality, a back and forth between those two things in human knowledge. However, to do either well requires a very specific way of thinking – the constraints and challenges are unique to each discipline and getting the two mixed up can result in not doing either thing well.  

Ph.D. courses are designed to help you tackle questions in basic science – the emphasis here is on control. The real world is messy and everything is moving at the same time. So we build artificial laboratories that do not resemble the real world at all but they hold everything constant except the things we want to vary. This allows very clear inferences from studies. Are the findings useful in the real world? Sometimes, but sometimes not – sometimes, it might have to wait for other discoveries and creative combinations of various findings to make something useful in the real world. Einstein’s theory of ‘time dilation at near light speeds’ made mostly for interesting science fiction for a long time till we came up with GPS satellites that were 20,000 km above the ground, experienced weaker gravity and the clocks on these satellites ticked about 38ms faster than clocks on the ground. May not seem like much but it can really mess up someone in a car in rush hour traffic in Chicago if it is not accounted for.  

This course is different in that it is more applied in nature. We start with ‘Here are things we are pretty sure about as of now because we did these things in those artificial labs etc.…’. If you want to be able to use it in the messy, fast moving, real world, here are techniques that you will need. A bit like saying, “Here is the theory of force. Given that, here are equations and models you will need to build bridges.” 

 

A huge thank you to DJ for taking the time to provide an overview of his new CRM course.

“Since March, I’ve been furloughed from my previous company, filed for unemployment, been recruited by a direct competitor of my previous employer (in the same industry), worked for that competitor for about 2 months, and then finally received a job offer with a company in the digital experiences space.” – Stephanie Coupland

 

It’s no question that COVID-19 has had some level of impact on all of us over the last 9 months. If you’re like Tippie Alum, Stephanie Coupland, you’ve experienced firsthand the direct impacts of COVID-19 in the workplace. Despite many challenges, the Tippie community is resilient. For companies and individuals, adjustments have been made, priorities reevaluated, and Zoom meeting fatigue is battled daily.

With all the change happening around us, life after graduation is sure to look slightly different than in past years. With that in mind, we sought out some answers from our Tippie family. They shared their insight on what marketing in the workplace looks like in the age of COVID-19.

 

Meet the brilliant Tippie alumni who volunteered to share their experiences and observations of the impacts COVID-19 has had on marketing.

Jillian Book: graduated in 2010, works as a Global Business Development Director for Publicis Media in the Advertising industry

Alexa Brown: graduated in 2017, works as a Marketing Analyst in the High Tech industry

Stephanie Coupland: graduated in 2017, until recently worked as a Marketing Specialist in the Trade Shows & Events industry,

Tom Lyons: graduated in 2017, works as an Account Manager in the Professional Sports Sales industry

Jill Kofron: graduated in 2018, works as a Sales Executive for Cottingham & Butler in the Insurance Brokerage industry

Matthew Koziol: graduated in 2016, works as a Category Manager for Anheuser Busch in the Beverage industry

Erin Foley: graduated in 2020, works as a Digital Marketing Specialist for J.W. Morton & Associates in the Advertising industry

 

In what ways has COVID-19 influenced marketing strategies within your company or across your industry? 

“This has been a very emotional, and disruptive time for a lot of people. The sports industry has had to deal with a lot of adversity, and had to create ways to still keep people interested in attending sporting events. Our marketing team had to come up with ways to keep our fan base engaged throughout the off season without coming off as tone deaf to the environment we’re all living in, which was not easy.” – Tom Lyons 

“When COVID-19 hit, the entire events world shut down completely. Our clients still needed ways to connect with a large number of customers at once, so events quickly shifted from live to virtual. Instead of focusing our marketing on how to create impactful live experiences, we now had to focus on how to do it virtually. With that came developing new content and marketing materials such as capabilities decks, blog posts, and informational webinars.” – Stephanie Coupland 

“We have had to shift many of our event strategies to online forums. We’ve created a whole webinar series to educate and inform our audience, rather than hosting in-person events, which had been a primary method of marketing to our community. This has forced our team to increase our agility and flexibility in terms of content creation.” – Alexa Brown

“Ad spend is forecasted to be down 20% from last year due to COVID’s economic impact. With nearly all major companies feeling uncertain about their business, it has driven our agency to behave differently. Our focus this year is on client relationships and our employees. Given the times of uncertainty, we are doing everything we can to weather the crisis together. Not only has this been a year marked by COVID, but also influenced by the Black Lives Matter movement. There is a renewed focus for both our clients and people on safety, mental health, and diversity and inclusion.” – Jillian Book

“Covid-19 has created a transparency apparent now more than ever. If a company was not being ethical, moral or even fair, folks know about it now. Marketing strategies have the ability to show the impact of who you are as a company, what you stand for, and especially bring light to who you are employing whether it be behind the zoom conference or even an email. People need people right now. Our company motto is “Better Every Day”, for us and for our clients. Through our marketing efforts, we’re able to communicate compliance updates, teach new strategies, and give voice to all the people who need it most during this time.” – Jill Kofron

“We’re starting to push a greater online presence to our clients during COVID-19. Rather than going to physical storefronts, customers are shopping online for the most part. Our tracking and reporting systems are becoming a lot more robust because of this, and we are able to show our clients how beneficial our digital work for them can be.” – Erin Foley

“CPG companies have been challenged to conduct business differently due to our interaction with consumers, shoppers, retailers, and wholesalers. I have listed the market reaction to COVID and our response below:

1. Consumers are forced to enjoy in isolation.
   • Our advertising has catered to safety, overcoming adversity and welcoming the return of major sports to name a few.
2. Shoppers are highly discouraged to purchase at bars and restaurants.
   • On Premise (Bars and Restaurants)- we have installed “buy back” programs and prepared “welcome back” packages to assist bars and restaurants during the peak of the shut down.
   • Off Premise (Grocery, Mass, Convenience and Drug stores)- we have shifted most of our channel focus to “Off Premise” retailers since sales trends are massive this year.
3. Retailers need to enforce social distance and support changes in shopper preferences.
   • We have updated signage to promote social distance and installed “virtual sampling” with video embedded QR codes and trial size packages.
4. Wholesalers are ordering as much as possible to support the massive growth.
   • Our logistics team is hard at work completing orders and closing out inventory gaps.
5. Lastly, Suppliers (like us) are trying desperately to acquire more supply (namely aluminum cans) to support the growth.
   • Our buyers are sourcing more inventory from countries that were impacted less and have a surplus of inventory.” – Matthew Koziol

 

What are some of the biggest adjustments you/your team have had to make this year in response to COVID-19? 

“As most people would say, way more Zoom meetings! Although I haven’t experienced the office before COVID-19, my team members have said the workspace was very collaborative, and they would often congregate to discuss thoughts and ideas throughout the day. Now, we use Zoom for all meetings involving more than 3 people. Most of us are still working in the office since we all have individual working spaces. We’ve found ways to continue being collaborative, but you don’t see activity in the office like before.” – Erin Foley

“Personally, I have had to be mindful and careful about writing copy that is in-line with the current environment. We provide solutions to the retail sector, who has obviously taken a massive hit this past year. I have had to shift my usual tone of talking about store shutdowns or dark stores and spinning it as advantages for retailers. For example. using dark stores as inventory warehouses as retailers slowly reopen their higher trafficked stores first. Moreover, on social, I was pretty free to write about anything before the pandemic. I have to go through a chain of approvals now, which forces me to really think about what I’m writing and who I am writing to. We/I have to routinely be cognizant of the tone we use for all mediums.” – Alexa Brown

“My organization had to quickly pivot and start developing messaging and examples that showed that we could be great at virtual events, too. The other big adjustment was that over 75% of our company was either let go or furloughed indefinitely, which definitely affected the structure and responsibilities of the remaining individuals. The people that are left have to pick up the pieces and take on new duties that were left behind.” – Stephanie Coupland

“Our job is to serve our clients, before COVID and during COVID, that objective has never changed. What has changed is the avenue in doing so. Largely pre-COVID, we had many internal meetings together huddled in a conference, jumping on an airplane to deliver a presentation or working side by side with clients to uncover and solve problems. While our duties haven’t changed, the way that we deliver those has. Now we face zoom issues, technical difficulties, and building a client relationship through a computer. While it may have brought challenges, it’s made each and every one of us better client consultants.” – Jill Kofron

“My team is charged with managing the relationship with a large grocery chain. As an additional service, we also manage their total beer category as Beer Category Captains. Since many of our annual processes revolve around large meetings, we have needed to adjust to virtual meetings. Additionally, COVID-19 has driven sales figures up significantly and caused out of stocks for some suppliers. Because of this, we have been asked to ‘control’ for COVID-19’s effects for future space and assortment plans.” – Matthew Koziol

“We were lucky enough to be one of the teams that figured out a way to allow a limited capacity this season. In order to do so, the management team developed top of the line & innovative safety measures where people could feel comfortable at a football game. We then went from selling a 65,000 capacity stadium, to only 13,000 fans for just 8 football games.” – Tom Lyons 

 

Have your primary job responsibilities, priorities, or expectations changed since before the start of COVID-19?  

“My job changed drastically. I went from being fairly busy on a regular basis and traveling about once a month to having not much to do because our workflow stopped. A big part of my job was content creation. I had previously created that content with information from new client projects and things we were seeing at live events. When COVID-19 hit, I had to redefine my content strategy. No longer did people care about recent live events or successful client case studies. They wanted to see relevant content to the pandemic and virtual events.” – Stephanie Coupland

“There’s obviously a greater focus on technology and working digitally. My role includes pitching for new client business globally, so ensuring the technology is set up properly is crucial. It’s forced us to think through every scenario, planning for the worst and hoping for the best. In addition, with everyone working from home, it’s created a greater focus on balance and understanding that we are all humans.” – Jillian Book

“My position has become more analytical with the surge in digital content. Clients appreciate constant communication of their results from online campaigns and how they can generate a positive ROI from those results. Especially in industries that have been deeply affected by COVID-19.” – Erin Foley

“My primary responsibilities center around serving clients and growing business. If you read any of the recent news, you will hear something related to the insurance industry every day. It’s nearly impossible for our clients to keep up with every change of legislation or compliance coming their way. Not only are we managing our customary and usual job, now we’ve added keeping up with the ever changing environment. However, that’s what makes our jobs important and what makes me fall in love with my job more every day.” – Jill Kofron

“It’s all about making sure my accounts are looped in on what all of these changes means for them, and guiding them to what’s best for them and their family. COVID did unravel a quick turn around on a lot of different things for us such as opting out of their season tickets, rolling their account over to 2021, and even picking seats in a limited capacity configuration. More or less, there was a lot to take care of in a short period of time.” – Tom Lyons 

“Our priorities have changed slightly but otherwise my job has been the same. Essentially, we have placed more focus on getting ample inventory to support the surge in sales.” – Matthew Koziol

“Not too much. If anything, we have been busier than ever as we constantly work to churn out content since the whole world is at home right now.” – Alexa Brown

 

Are there any marketing trends you’ve noticed starting to emerge recently, either related or unrelated to COVID-19? 

“Everyone has been impacted by COVID differently. Some have lost loved ones, some have lost their employment or even their healthcare. What I’ve noticed most is people marketing or relating to people individually, rather than as a whole. People are taking the time to care for one and another, to help solve problems, and mostly trying to take the time to understand the issue at hand, and relate to them one on one. ” – Jill Kofron

“For us, it’s all about engaging virtually right now. We must take advantage of the zoom type trends that make people feel safe, yet involved in what they care about. It’s not an easy task, but it’s been a main focus of ours for the fans that still don’t feel comfortable leaving their homes to show we care.” – Tom Lyons 

“The shift to digital, both in the events world and outside of it. I’ve also seen recently that webinars and virtual speaker sessions are being shortened greatly. We’ve been doing this now for 6 months and people don’t want to sit through hour long presentations on their computers. It’s now very important to be able to say what you need to say in about 20-30 minutes.” – Stephanie Coupland

“Live, online events were a big emergence during COVID. Everyone had to ditch in-person events and either participate in virtual events/booths or come up with enough content to produce webinars to attract our audiences.” – Alexa Brown

“Many areas of business that have always done traditional media and advertising are now seeing how beneficial advertising on social media can be. While we still do print media, Facebook, for example, is one of the top sites for advertising and should be utilized. Some businesses that have been around for a long time didn’t recognize the growth opportunities that could come from it. I think COVID-19 is pushing those types of businesses in a direction that they hadn’t thought of before.” – Erin Foley

“Since COVID hit the US earlier this year, consumer behaviors have changed significantly. There’s more time spent with media overall, but particularly with TV, OTT (streaming), mobile and gaming. With more time spent streaming content, but delayed production schedules, many publishers within the industry are hungry to acquire new content. In addition, the growth of e-commerce has surged, achieving a 3-year forecast for adoption in just 3-months. While people will return to brick and mortar stores post-COVID, the adoption rates of online ordering will never decrease to levels prior.” – Jillian Book

“Unrelated to COVID-19, Hard Seltzers continue to take market share from Beer, Wine and Spirits as a merger of qualities from each of those categories. It exploded in August of last year but has been steadily growing for several years now. Expect a craft beer type innovation to drive growth in Hard Seltzers. There will be many brands with little recognition with a few mainstays dominating the market. Due to COVID-19, we have seen a shift towards trusted brands, like Bud Light, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, Miller Lite and Coors Light.” – Matthew Koziol

 

What areas or applications of marketing do you think will see the most change in the next couple of years? 

“As we say in our industry: pivoting to customer. Creating experiences that are so personalized to consumers instead of broad marketing tactics. This includes honing in on specialized offers, emphasizing subscriptions, offering all channels for purchasing and pickup (BOPIS, BOPUC, etc.). Customers have so many choices these days. It’s important to pivot to them to maintain and gain their business.” – Alexa Brown

“Multicultural marketing will be a greater focus with companies committing to an investment to grow strategy with minority owned and operated publishers and content creators. Many businesses are acknowledging that their best efforts have not gone far enough and are committed to better serving all communities.” – Jillian Book

“I think development of online platforms, such as online learning, will continue to increase even after the pandemic is over. Many institutions, whether it be in the workplace or in schools, are realizing that their work doesn’t have to be done primarily in person. With that being said, I think marketing for emerging platforms that can foster online learning and remote work is going to be a lot more prevalent.” – Erin Foley

“I think in the years to come people are going to be digitally overwhelmed. I can’t say with certainty what the best marketing effort will be. What I can say is those that can develop something creative, that reaches people in a new way of contact, will be the way to create new interactions and grow any business. As I mentioned before people need people. We have to find a way to be responsible with regard to our health, yet have the human interaction we desire.” – Jill Kofron

“For us, we generally offer a lot of face to face events to build relationships with clients or prospects. I don’t see much of that happening going forward with it being such a liability. Cashless POS systems, push notifications on cell phones through different apps consumers may have downloaded seems to be the way of the future.” – Tom Lyons 

 

What are the most important skills or traits for a new grad to succeed in the changing Marketing environment? 

“The circumstances have changed but the job of a marketer have not. Find out what your customers are looking for and do what you can do to help them. As I mentioned above, their priorities may change but the way you help them does not need to!” – Matthew Koziol

“This goes for a changing marketing environment or not, but it’s work ethic. Especially when first coming out of college, you should strive to stand out.  

• Expect the unexpected. Again, this wasn’t in the cards for most of us. Businesses who succeed coming out of this saw it as an opportunity to innovate and improve their current business to be flexible and able to generate revenue. Preparation + Opportunity = Success.  
• Be innovative. Think of ways that can better your organization given the environment we’re in. Leaders truly appreciate and respect someone young and willing to speak their minds in order to better their organization.  
• Be next up. In a time like this, managers look for people they can depend on in their teams to be their second voice. Being that person is important to career advancement. This has generated a lot of turnover in companies, which means positions open up for you. Make sure you’re the first person they think of when wondering who can fill the spot.” – Tom Lyons 

“I think new grads should keep an open mind about entering the workforce during this time and be adaptable. My advice is to network, be persistent, and find other ways to add value to yourself during this time. Whether that’s earning online certifications, finding temporary work in customer service, or something else—use this time to make yourself even more marketable than you already are. And hang in there because this won’t last forever!” – Stephanie Coupland

“I’ve been lucky enough to coach a lot of great people. Those that always impress me most have a deep curiosity and need to continuously learn. It’s table stakes to do a job well and to completion, but those who dive deeper and continue to be students usually rise to the top.” – Jillian Book

“You have to be flexible. If you set your mind on one outcome or strategy, there’s a good chance you’ll get burned. Employers are looking for employees they can trust, that are going to do what they say they will do. Most importantly, you have to be positive. The only thing that’s known right now is there is a lot of unknown about the future. If you can come into a new job with a fresh mindset, willingness to work hard, and be dedicated with an open mindset, you will far out succeed your peers.” – Jill Kofron

“Constant communication with clients is key. When businesses are sourcing out their marketing efforts to a third party, they don’t want to be completely uninvolved. They want to know how your work is benefitting them. Daily, weekly, or monthly detailed reporting will get you respect and trust from your clients and allow you to continue building a long-term relationship with them. This is especially important in the agency world, where most new business comes from word of mouth.” – Erin Foley

“It depends what sector of marketing you want to go into. Something I wish I would have had experience with before joining the field was having hands on experience with marketing tools. SEMrush for SEO, Adobe Illustrator and After Effects for content creation, and others. Instead of just showing you have a good understanding of the job requirements, showing you know how to successfully use the necessary tools will put you far ahead of others.” – Alexa Brown