As the President of the Washington, DC chapter of the American Marketing Association, I recently had the privilege of speaking to a class of high school students about marketing. I won’t mention the high school, because some of you may have students there.
When I first arrived, I wanted to get a lay of the land. So I spoke to the teacher as I had several times before. She explained the students’ level of marketing knowledge in a bit more detail than she had in previous conversations, and outlined the course curriculum, so I was aware of what subjects may be a bit too advanced for them, and what might require just a little more explanation.
My plan was pretty simple. I wanted to give some information about my educational and professional background; explain the mission and goals of the AMA; discuss some recent marketing trends; and facilitate a dialogue about what they were learning in their marketing class, followed by a Q & A.
That was the plan…
What I quickly learned was that there was ONE question I should have asked before I ever agreed to the presentation: “How many of you are interested in pursuing marketing in college or as a profession?”
When I finally did ask that question at the start of my discussion, I was disappointed to see only a few hands go up out of a class of 30. I suddenly felt a surge of heat pulsate through my body as it became painfully clear that to most of the students in the room, this may very well be the ever-popular…”blow off class”! This was not a core class, it was an elective. Since few wanted to pursue marketing, they must have thought it would be easy. I should have known!
OK I thought…If they’re not interested, I’m going to win them over. I’ll engage them with some compelling information, humorous anecdotes and fascinating case studies. Wow! What a marketing geek I am!
My intro started out fine. But once I got into the discussion portion of the presentation, you would have thought that every student in that room believed they would spontaneously combust if they raised their hands. From there things just went downhill. The heads started to fall down on the desks, the cell phones came out, the yawns seemed to last for days, and the eyes began looking in every direction but mine (mostly inside their eyelids)! Now granted, it was 7:30 in the morning, which is pretty early for a group of adults, much less teenagers, so that may have played a role.
Regardless, I found myself starting to dig for additional subjects to touch on, going back to my days in the radio business hoping that discussions about music, DJs and concerts might pull them back from the point of no return. Unfortunately - I don’t think I the rope I threw was long enough. I had lost them.
It was a humbling feeling.
I have given successful presentations and interviews to professionals, graduate students, the media, and conferences of hundreds! But somehow, someway - I managed to lose a class of 30 teenagers. How could this happen?! Here I was, a seasoned marketer – yet I couldn’t adequately reach a group of “consumers” sitting right in front of me.
It certainly taught me something though. I’ll definitely know how to prepare for my next presentation to a group of high school students…if one is ever offered! I will engage them in a discussion about products that are important to them (which is at the core of my presentations on social media. Shame on me!). I made the mistake of believing that marketing was important to them, simply because they were in a marketing class. Why? Because I didn’t ask the right question until it was too late. I didn’t do my basic market research.
I guess it just goes to show you - know your audience, and don’t make assumptions. Chalk one up in the “lesson’s learned” column for me.
However, to the three students who seemed to find value and interest in my presentation…I humbly thank you.
