Teaching Digital Marketing

I am the curator, editor, and instructor for Digital Marketing (Information Technology Applications in Marketing) and I have been teaching this course, in one form or another, since 1997. The following are notes I compiled for the class in 2006.

This page serves as a resource for the class; I also use the Twitter hashtag #buad477 to post current articles that are relevant to this course. Those articles are discussed at the beginning of each class, and are archived here. I also publish a weekly newspaper, with the articles: Digital Marketing Today.

  1. Background

    Key takeaways: We are at a moment in time, we have come far, and we will go far. Which events, and people, shaped the internet and technology as it is today. Why is this important? Examine the state of the social media landscape so we can understand how the different platforms co-exist.

  2. From HTML to SEO

    Key takeaways: Learn the language of the internet, and the structure of a web page. Use this to understand search engine optimization and other design issues to maximize the return of a web presence. Do the design issues change for mobile consumption?

  3. Media Evolution Key takeaways: Understand the key drivers behind the shift in media consumption, from a top-down, controlled paradigm, to a fragmented, algorthmically-driven paradigm. Why these changes are occuring and their relevance to marketers who rely on media to communicate with audiences.

  4. Consumer Behavior

    Key takeaways: We look at the rapid growth in the use of the internet and social media. We also explore the increasing shift from PC-based access to mobile access. These changes impact consumer behavior, as does the rapid rise in the use of the internet. Consumers are now more empowered through the decision making process, as the internet has become more ubiquitous.

  5. Marketing Evolution

    Key takeaways: Digital media is different. It used to be paid media opportunities only for advertisers; advertisements were designed to disrupt traditional media consumption. Now we have an explosion of paid, owned and earned media opportunities, as a result of the internet and the subsequent evolution of social media, which has expanded the "free marketing" space. Marketers can engage in a direct dialogue, rather than a one-way monologue via an independent medium, with consumers. Marketers' investment continues to shift to digital, while the Super Bowl continues to break records for advertisers. We will explore all this, and more.

  6. Global Governance

    Key takeaways: We are used to living in a society that is governed at a nation-state level. The internet is global and rather chaotic in design. We look at China and Wikileaks, separately, to understand some of the new challenges.

  7. Analytics: One-to-One Targeting

    Key takeaways: More data, cheaper storage, better analytics. What does all this mean? How are algorithms changing marketing, and how real is machine learning. We also look at Cloud Computing, and how this changes the costs of computing, and provides additional services opportunities. All this presents privacy challenges that are proving difficult to legislate effectively.

  8. Product Issues

    Key takeaways: How did Open Source development go from a "geeky cool" idea to a mainstream product development methodology used in many fundamental technologies? How do ecosystems impact product success, and additional intellectual property issues.

  9. Distribution Issues

    Key takeaways: How the new internet channel has disrupted traditional channels, and how mobile disrupts even the traditional shopping experience, for good and bad.

  10. Price Issues

    Key takeaways: How transparency has increased price competition, and the evolution of new online payment systems.

  11. Social Media Vehicles

    Key takeaways: Making sense of some stunning growth in users, without a corresponding growth in revenue, let alone profits. How is each vehicle different, which will thrive, which will falter?