Finding teaching resources for marketing subjects that stay relevant year over year is difficult. Identifying ones that engage students too are four-leaf clovers.
Stukent’s learning simulations closely align with yearly updated textbooks to provide teachers with up-to-date resources and students with hands-on learning experiences. With first-in-the-world digital and social media marketing simulations in its current courseware, Stukent is pleased to announce the release of FOUR new, first-in-the-world simulations: Public Relations, Consumer Behavior, Market Research, and Digital Marketing Analytics.
Stukent marketing simulations empower instructors to teach a subject’s core principles and allow students to apply them through scenarios based on real-world situations.
Mimic Public Relations
In the Mimic Public Relations simulation, students will:
- Identify email content for effective media contact pitches.
- Analyze media contact information to identify those best suited to receive pitches.
- Analyze target audience research to guide audience-based decisions.
- Select content for handling public relations crises.
- Select content for use in press release communication.
- Write a press release.
- Demonstrate content sequencing for press release content.
- Demonstrate knowledge of Associated Press style.
- Select sound responses to ethics-based questions.
- Respond to social-media-related questions.
Mimic Public Relations is crafted to teach students public relations best practices, to allow them to repeatedly apply their learnings, and to build upon their knowledge with more advanced public relations strategies. Jamie Ward, co-author of the “PR Principles: Current. Proven. Practical.” textbook with Alisa Agozzino, expressed her view of Mimic Public Relations. Ward explained, “Mimic Public Relations is a great tool to supplement the work I do in the classroom. The scaffolded learning modules allow students to hone their skills and gain confidence as they move from selecting content from a fixed set of options to developing their own pieces that focus on strategy, audience, and format.”
Mimic Consumer Behavior
Mimic Consumer Behavior allows students to take the consumer behavior theory they’ve learned in the classroom and gain the industry experience they need through practical application.
In the Mimic Consumer Behavior simulation, students will:
- Select market segments based on internal and external data.
- Purchase qualitative and quantitative research to narrow a target market.
- Create a consumer survey to identify an ideal target market.
- Analyze a focus group as well as secondary research and survey results to guide marketing decisions.
- Construct a customer profile that identifies important characteristics of a target market.
- Build a value proposition and positioning statement based on market research and a target customer profile.
- Allocate ad spend across various social media channels and strategies based on competitor research and advertising data.
- Select stylistic elements to craft a campaign guide that will resonate with a target market.
- Adjust messaging and ad spending following market disruptions.
Mimic Market Research
Mimic Market Research provides students with the knowledge and experience to address a company’s research objectives. This includes deciding which research methods will best gather the requested data, how to conduct those research techniques, and how to report findings to the company requesting the data.
In Mimic Market Research, students will:
- Analyze requests for proposal to determine appropriate research methodologies.
- Select important findings from secondary and primary research to guide product development and further research.
- Create moderators’ guides for conducting focus group discussions that yield valuable qualitative data.
- Create effective survey instruments from which useful primary data are gathered.
- Calculate sample size estimates based on various parameters and market research standards.
- Identify sampling techniques used in various types of sampling plans.
- Select a sampling plan for data collection.
- Categorize open-ended survey responses using a code list.
- Identify study limitations based on a client’s target market and survey responses to demographic questions.
- Select appropriate visuals for quantitative and qualitative survey data.
- Evaluate cross-tabulations to identify segment differences.
- Make conclusions and strategic recommendations from market research.
Steven Stromp, author of the “Market Research Essentials” textbook says, “Mimic Market Research is a comprehensive market research simulation. It follows the storyline of projects just like those I have managed in my career as a market researcher. It runs the full gamut of primary and secondary methods as well as qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. From proposal to strategic recommendations, students learn and demonstrate proper research techniques by experiencing all facets of a new product development research project. The feedback given to students after every round reinforces textbook concepts.”
Mimic Digital Marketing Analytics
Mimic Digital Marketing Analytics is designed to give students confidence in their ability to analyze datasets and make sound marketing decisions based on their analysis and A/B testing.
In Mimic Digital Marketing Analytics, students will:
- Strategically prioritize digital marketing analytics projects.
- Effectively allocate budget to maximize profits.
- Interpret vanity metrics (impressions and clicks) and where they fit when evaluating the value of a campaign.
- Calculate and use KPIs, including ROI, and learn when to prioritize these metrics.
- Utilize digital tools and tactics to improve campaign performance.
- Perform A/B testing to identify the best approach for retargeting.
- Use web analytics to optimize campaign performance.
Nathan David, the author of the “Digital Marketing Analytics” textbook, talked about the simulation in this way, “It’s hard to get lots of data around A/B testing and allow a student to go through multiple tests because it’s just not feasible when you’re using free tools. That’s the first component [of Mimic Digital Marketing Analytics]. It gives students tons of feedback and lots of rounds to do A/B testing and make decisions based on the data they’re seeing. The other component is giving students access to performance data for a hundred-plus digital marketing campaigns across social, across search, across display, across affiliate. The goal is to allow the students to work with data that is dynamic and changing and allows them to go through exercises that they might not be exposed to until they were actually working at a company.”