by Scott Huch
Part II of my interview with Theresa Clarke, Ph.D, recipient of the 2015 DMAW/EF O’Hara Leadership Award, focuses on her experiences in the classroom. A professor at James Madison University (JMU), Dr. Clarke teaches marketing to undergraduate and MBA students.
Q. As you were in the process of becoming an academic—earning your graduate degrees and writing papers and attending conferences—what pulled you toward direct marketing as an academic field of study? (Or were you “pushed” into the field by something?)
When I started my doctoral program, I was studying sales. I had a work background in and planned to teach sales, but as I was finishing my program, the World Wide Web was starting to take off. I sensed how marketing was about to change, so I decided to switch focus. I got a lot of flack from my colleagues. Other people didn’t necessarily see what I saw and tried to talk me out of it. But I believed the Internet was going to be a powerful force in marketing, so I took the risk and pursued it. It has become my passion for the last two decades.
Q. What are some of the direct marketing courses you have developed and taught?
When I was at Old Dominion University, I developed a course called “Internet Marketing.” After a couple years, I realized I needed to teach more than I could fit into one class. So I developed “Advanced Internet Marketing.” When I came to James Madison University, they already had this line of study in place, but I started to see more specialization. I began to develop coursework in Search Engine Marketing at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Q. What motivates your students to take your direct marketing courses?
A lot of the students realize direct and interactive marketing is the future. In order to stay current and relevant, they need to understand this kind of marketing. It’s mostly about their career choices, to survive in today’s highly competitive marketplace. Typically, I get more comments after the course, rather than before it. I get a lot of “Thank You” messages from students for teaching courses with this content. Their employers tell them, “We’re so glad you bring these skills to our organization.”
Q. What are your students’ most common misconceptions about direct marketing? And how do you go about correcting those?
That’s a good question. Perhaps the most common misconception is people don’t pay attention to direct mail … that it’s all thrown away. I try to correct students’ terminology because they’re coming into my courses from a consumerist point of view. I tell them, “The term ‘junk mail’ is not permitted in this classroom!” I like to show them my collection of very effective direct mail. I talk about things like the choice of paper stock, and how the envelope’s appearance can have a big impact on response rates. Once they see direct mail through a different lens, they see it differently. I teach this in a course called “Integrated Direct Marketing.” The students leave more positive.
Scott Huch is president of The Delta Group. He is secretary of the DMAW/EF Board of Directors.