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Introduction
Savvy consumers, changing tastes and shifting patterns of buying behavior—such as increased e-commerce at the expense of traditional “brick and mortar” retailers—are just a few of the reasons that marketing is a rapidly-changing field of study. To help you stay current, and to reinforce what you are learning in your marketing textbook, we continually search the Web for the most relevant articles and resources. In addition, we add our own content to keep you interested and challenged, such as the company profiles and exercises you'll read about below. Then, we organize all this material into a menu of marketing topics.
Each topic contains one or more of the following types of resources:
- Articles of Interest. We only select the articles that will either reinforce or expand your understanding of a topic or help you learn about current practices and issues. For example, visit the pricing topic to see articles on the basics, current pricing strategies and break-even analysis as a pricing tool.
- Publications. Access publications catering to professionals who specialize in specific areas of marketing, such as advertising, public relations and retailing, as well as general marketing publications.
- Company Profiles. Learn about companies involved in a specific aspect of marketing, including services marketing, retailing, and marketing research.
- Exercises. Confirm your understanding of a marketing topic or gain marketing experience by applying what you learn in class and on the Web. Some examples:
Brand Management: Prepare a competitive analysis of Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's.
Global Marketing: Identify a country that offers good opportunities for a business venture of your choice.
Market Segmentation & Targeting: Take a VALS (Values and Lifestyles Segmentation) survey to identify which of nine values and lifestyles groups describe you and then test your understanding of these groups.
- Marketing Trends and Data. Read about key trends and statistics covering such marketing subjects as advertising, marketing planning and forecasting and retailing.
Other Resources
In addition to the specific resources for each marketing topic, you may access these valuable resources:
- Marketing Careers. If you're considering a marketing career, this is where you can learn about opportunities. We list over 30 job and career sites and how to obtain information about companies that interest you. For example, Individual.com provides information on approximately 65,000 companies! You can even explore places where you might want to live. That way you can target employers and opportunities in those areas.
- National Reading Room. Select your state from a map of the United States to access business news in your local area. For example, if you select Texas, you can read online business news from newspapers in Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, Galveston, Lubbock and San Antonio. If you prefer to keep pace with national business news and features, select either Daily Business News (USA Today Money, CNBC, Business Wire, etc.) or General Business Publications (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, etc.). Get instant access to business news from distant countries or your local area.
- International Reading Room. Select a region of the world, such as East Asia (covering China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan), to read publications covering the entire area or a specific country. As with the national reading room, we try to link you directly to the business sections of general news publications. Of course there are many more online publications both nationally and internationally than we list, but we only select those offering substantial business coverage.
- Time Management. Learn how to make the best use of your time while attending college and focus your efforts in the right direction. There are three sections to help you, each of which contains links to some of the best time management advice for college students on the Web:
- Setting Goals and Priorities Practical methods for setting priorities, such as creating a master timetable covering class schedules, study time and recreation. Detailed study strategies for note taking, exam preparation, textbook reading and other areas.
- Getting Organized Having prepared the big picture, this section helps you implement it. Some examples: time scheduling, when to study, where to study and how to ensure that friends and family do not interrupt your study sessions.
- Avoiding Procrastination Understand the reasons why so many students procrastinate and specific remedies for preventing it through such articles as “Controlling Procrastination,” “Seven Strategies for Eliminating Procrastination” and “12 Techniques to Manage Procrastination.”