Digital Innovation in Marketing: advising a new online masters program from Temple University

I have joined the advisory council for a new Masters in Science program on Digital Innovation in Marketing at Temple University’s Fox School of Business in Philadelphia.

I’m a graduate of Temple but not of the Fox School, so I’m not there as an alumni. Rather, I was asked by Professor Munir Mandviwalla, who is helping to organize the program, to offer some voice from the news media industry, in addition to the intersection of entrepreneurship and technology.

I’m interested in how the education sector needs to update its offerings to stay competitive in preparing students for careers of the future. I’m also taking part to meet and share with other members of the council.

We had our first council meeting last week. The meeting was in part to share more about the aim of the curriculum, which will balance online and offline experiences and intend to develop expertise in marketing in an increasingly fractured and data-driven web-based environment.

We also were asked to share initial thoughts on the curriculum focus and selling the program. Here are a few thoughts I shared:

• Much was made of the ‘Digital’ in ‘Digital Innovation.’ How long until that feels dated? Won’t marketing itself incorporate web-first moves? Yes, but the program is best for those who will identify today with those words.
• Marketing on the web is about building niche and relevant audiences, so we must understand and respect first the audience we aim to serve.
• In marketing anything (including a masters program), we must balance laggards and leaders. As digital access becomes digital literacy, this program itself has to wonder how far advanced it will become, while also needing to serve students who have a wide-range of comfort levels in the material, medium and mode.
• Using the web, there should be as much a focus on getting a company’s first five customers, as the next 100, which is something I’ve heard entrepreneurs say marketing don’t get.
• The first class should market it to the next year’s students as a project. Now that’s novel.
• I also shared that Loyola College in Baltimore has a similar program.