Kay L. McLennan, Ph.D., Professor of Practice

Fall 2006

MKET 340-10 (Online)

Syllabus: Principles of Advertising

Professor of Practice:  Kay L. McLennan, Ph.D.

E-mail:  kmclenna@tulane.edu

Telephone:  504.862.8000 x1360

Office Hours:  by appointment Wednesdays 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

(Elmwood Campus--800 E. Commerce Road, Suite 100, Harahan, LA  70123)

  Catalog Description

UMKT 340, Principles of Advertising—This course covers the fundamentals of advertising, beginning with the history and evolution of advertising as an element in the economy, a specialized form of communication, a craft, and an area of ethical sensitivity. At the practical level, students will be introduced to media planning and the emergence of new media, market research, agency organization and creativity as well as the legal and ethical concerns that advertising professionals must bear in mind.

Textbooks & Other Required Reading

1.     Arens, William F. (2004), Contemporary Advertising, 9th/10thEdition.  Boston :  McGraw-Hill Irwin.  (ISBN 0-07-253772-8 or ISBN 0-39-057545-3.)  [Or you can order an e-book copy at:  http://ebooks.primisonline.com/eBookstore/index.jsp.

2.     Articles on electronic “reserve” in on-line Blackboard course site (see “Assignments” icon for reading assignments and “Course Documents” to find the articles).

Prerequisites for Taking an Internet-Based Course

Each student enrolled in an Internet-based course will need:

		Computer access (students are welcome to use any of the open computer labs on the campus);
		Minimum computer capabilities (see section below entitled “Minimum Computer Requirements”);
		An interest in utilizing the Internet as a distance education mode;
		Self-motivation – with an on-line course students need to take the initiative to review the on-line course materials, keep up with the reading and project assignments and participate in the on-line discussions; and
		Adequate written communication skills to communicate effectively through the mediums of essay submissions, e-mail and “chat” discussions.  (While the Instructor for Internet-based courses is available almost “on-demand” through e-correspondence and e-office hours, being comfortable with written communication is an imperative for distance education students.)

Course Topic Outline & Readings

Module Title	Module Dates	Essay, Project & Exam        Due Dates	Assigned Reading
I.  Introduction to the Field of Advertising What is Advertising Today? The Evolution of Advertising The Economic, Social, and Regulatory Aspects of Advertising The Scope of Advertising:  From Local to Global Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell  and advertise.                             --Ted Turner Advertising is of the very essence of democracy.  An election goes on every minute of the business day across the counters of hundreds of thousands of stores and shops where the customers state their preferences and determine which manufacturer and which product shall be the leader today, and which shall lead tomorrow.            –Bruce Barton Advertising is the lubricant for the free-enterprise system.                    --Leo-Arthur Kelmenson	August 30th –             September 22nd       (Labor Day Holiday:          September 4th)   Last Day to Drop: ·         For 100% refund = September 12th ·         Without a record = September 25th	Essays Due:      September 15th   Discussion period: September 16th – 22nd     (Essay questions      are located in the “Assignments” icon.)	Arens chapters 1, 2, 3 & 4 Explore relevant articles in “In the News” icon and links in the “External Links” icon.
II.  Crafting Marketing and Advertising Strategies Marketing and Consumer Behavior:  The Foundation of Advertising Market Segmentation and the Marketing Mix: Determinants of Advertising Strategy Marketing and Advertising Planning Planning Media Strategy The effectiveness of advertising depends  on the amount and kind of product information available to consumers….advertising will be more successful the more impoverished the consumer’s information environment.                      --Michael Schudson If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign,  you will soon see another agency steal it.  This is irritating, but don’t let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising.                                                       –David Ogilvy There are a lot of great technicians in advertising.  And unfortunately they talk the best game.  They know all the rules…but there’s one little rub.  They forget that advertising is persuasion, and persuasion is not a science, but an art.  Advertising is the art of persuasion.                           --William Bernbach	September 23rd –                 October 20th       (Yom Kippur Holiday:          October 2nd)	Essays Due:          October 13th     Discussion period:  October 14th- 20th	Arens chapters 5, 6, 8, & 9 Explore relevant articles in “In the News” icon and links in the        “External Links” icon.
III.  Advertising Media & the Communications Mix Relationship Building : Direct Marketing, Personal Selling,        and Sales Promotion Relationship Building : Public Relations, Sponsorship, and Corporate Advertising Using Print Media Using Electronic Media:  Television and Radio Using Digital Interactive  Media and Direct Mail Using Out-of-Home,  Exhibitive, and Supplementary Media People are very sophisticated about advertising now.  You have to entertain  them.  You have to present a product honestly and with a tremendous amount of pizzazz and flair, the way it’s done in a James Bond movie.  But you can’t run the same ad over and over again.  You have to change your approach constantly to keep  on getting their attention…  --Mary Wells Lawrence You have only 30 seconds [in a TV commercial].  If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding the viewer.  People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull…   When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire.                               --David Ogilvy  It has taken more than a hundred scientists two years to find out how to make the product in question; I have been given thirty days to create its personality and plan its launching.  If I do my job well,  I shall contribute as much as the hundred scientists to the success of this product.  --David Ogilvy	October 21st –              November 17th	Essays Due:        November 10th       Discussion period: November 11th – 17th	Arens chapters 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, & 18 Explore relevant articles in “In the News” icon and links in the      “External Links” icon.
IV.  Creating Advertisements and Commercials Creative Strategy and the Creative Process Creative Execution:  Art and Copy Producing Ads for Print, Electronic, and Digital Media Just because your ad looks good is no insurance that it will get looked at.  How many people do you know who are impeccably groomed…but dull?                                     --William Bernbach        If you don’t get noticed, you don’t have anything.  You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks.                             --Leo Burnett It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill.  For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it.  He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen.               –William Bernbach	November 18th –                   December 8th     Thanksgiving Holiday:  November 22nd - 26th	Essays Due:       December 1st  Discussion period: December 2nd – 8th     Final Project: (Advertising Plan)             And        Final Exam   Due: December 15th (Please post your advertising plan on the main discussion board.  Also, the final exam is online in the course site.)	Arens chapters 12,  13, & 14 Explore relevant articles in “In the News” icon and links in the       “External Links” icon.

Minimum Computer Requirements

This on-line course utilizes Tulane University 's Blackboard course software. In turn, the minimum computer system recommendations for using Blackboard software include the following. [Note: The Blackboard software platform may work on a computer that does not meet these minimum recommendations but using a lesser system could result in slow or problematic student access.]

		Platform: Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, ME or XP; MacOS 9 or MacOSX
		Hardware: 64 MB or RAM and 1 G of free disk space
		Browser: Internet Explorer 5.5 or Netscape 4.78 (JavaScript and Cookies must be enabled)
		Modem: 56 K
		A Tulane University e-mail (rs/6000) account (along with the knowledge of how to send and receive e-mail)  [Note: All newly admitted students will be automatically assigned a Tulane University e-mail account (your user name will be sent to you by mail and your password will be your social security number, without the dashes).  If you are a currently admitted student that lacks a Tulane University e-mail account, please contact the Computer Help Desk, at (504) 862-8888, to set up an account.]
		Basic computer knowledge (including knowledge of word processing, printing files, downloading files, uploading files, etc.

Course Format

Course Learning Goals and Objectives

After completing the requirements of this course, students should be able to:

		Understand the evolution of advertising in American society;
		Describe the economic, social, and regulatory aspects of advertising;
		Demonstrate how to craft marketing and advertising strategies;
		Analyze the optimal advertising media mix;
		Describe the role of relationship building in direct marketing, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, sponsorship, and corporate advertising;
		Understand how advertisements and commercials are created; and
		Develop an advertising plan.

In terms of the cognitive learning objectives to be attained for each topic area studied (see “Course Topic Outline” below), students will:

		Gather knowledge (or facts or theories) about each topic area from the readings, instructor lecture notes, and e-discussions with classmates and the instructor; and
		Demonstrate comprehension (or seeing relationships, concepts, principles, and abstractions beyond simply remembering material, typically involving translating, interpreting and estimating future trends) through essay answers, e-discussions with classmates, and the final project; and
		Understand the application (or the ability to use learned material in new and concrete situations, including the application of rules, methods, concepts, principles, laws and theories) to specific issues and challenges in marketing.

Further, in the composition of essay answers in each module, students will demonstrate their abilities to synthesize, analyze, and evaluate the material presented in the course.  [Synthesis is the ability to put parts together, forming new patterns or structures, such as a unique communication (or theme), a plan of operations, or a set of abstract relations (or scheme for classifying information).  Analysis is the ability to break down material into its component parts so that the organizational structure is understood, including the identification of the parts, analysis of the relationships between parts, and recognition of the organizational principles involved.  Evaluation is the ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose (learning in this area is the highest in the cognitive hierarchy because it involves elements of all the other categories, plus conscious value judgments based on clearly defined criteria).]

Required Student Participation  

Learning is best accomplished when students are provided with experiential opportunities.  Accordingly, class members are expected to log into the class site at least three times a week (please note that the Blackboard software keeps track of when you enter the class site) as well as post assigned essays, contribute substantive comments to the various on-going group discussions, and submit your final project within the specified time frame.  As a general rule of thumb, students are expected to respond to all of the comments made concerning their work and at least 60 percent of the essay postings of the other students in their group.

Grading

The final grade in the course will be made up of grades on essay submissions, group discussions and the final project submission.  The calculation of your final grade has the following components: essay submissions = 40 percent of the final grade; group discussion participation = 40 percent of the final grade; marketing plan project submission = 10 percent of the final grade; and final exam = 10 percent of the final grade.

With a potential of earning a total of 1,000 points in the course, the following point ranges (and accompanying grades) will be used.

Further, the following grading component criteria will be used.

·      Each essay is worth 25 points (taken together, the essay assignments in the course total 400 points).  The specific grading subcomponents for each essay include: 1) demonstrating a mastery of the subject material (worth 10 points); 2) meeting the assigned deadline (worth 5 points); and 3) crafting a well-written, grammatically correct composition that adheres to the length guidelines provided (10 points).  Note: While it is understood that most of the class members are already involved in demanding careers.  Accordingly, business commitments (including travel) will not excuse late work.  If you have a demanding job or travel commitments, it will be your responsibility to work ahead in the course so that you will be able to meet the deadlines specified.

·      Participation in group discussions (in your individual groups) will account for 400 points of the 1,000 points in the course.  More specifically, you will be able to earn 100 points during each of the four modules based on the following subcomponents:

1.      Providing substantive comments (25 points per module for the first four modules) - that include personal or real world examples and back up claims and assertions with relevant sources;

2.      Responding to the required 60 percent of the essay postings of your group members (25 points per module for the first four modules);

3.      Responding to group members’ comments on your essays (25 points per module for the first four modules); and

4.      Posting all comments in a timely manner (25 points per module for the first four modules).  In general, you should aim to respond to group members’ comments on your essays within a 2 day time frame.  If you are going to be off line for a few days (for example, on an out-of-town business trip), please let your group members know.  If you wait until the final few days of a module to comment on your group members’ work or your group members’ comments on your essays, the benefits of having meaningful discussions on the course material will be lost.  Also, untimely comments will compromise the educational experience for others in the class and will be penalized.

·      The final project—an advertising plan (for a real or fictitious company)--will be worth 100 points.  Refer to Appendix B (in the back of the text book), “Advertising Plan Outline,” for a detailed listing of the elements to include in your advertising plan.  The final exam will be worth 100 points.

Make Up Work Policies

Given the asynchronous nature of this course, the expectation is that students will be able to meet all deadlines for completing reading assignments, posting essay submissions and discussing group members’ submissions.  Tardy postings will compromise the quality of group discussions and accordingly are unacceptable.  In turn, only extraordinary or emergency circumstances will merit consideration for a deadline extension and will have to be evaluated by the instructor on a case-by-case basis.  Also, please e-mail the instructor as soon as possible to explain any anticipated or missed deadlines.

Honor Code

All academic assignments in this course are conducted under the provisions of the Tulane University Honor Code.  In particular, while students will collaborate during group discussions of the material and their work, when it comes to assembling their initial problem set/exercise/essay responses and taking module exams, students are expected to work independently.

Student Disability Accommodations

  Any student with a disability in need of course or examination accommodations should request accommodations through the University’s Office of Disability Services located in the Mechanical Engineering Building.  Please do this as soon as possible.  In turn, please let me know you are eligible for accommodation (through an e-mail correspondence) and provide a copy of your approved accommodation form from ODS to me (as well as to each professor in whose course you wish to receive accommodations).  I am committed to working with the Office of Disability Services to ensure that all approved accommodations are provided.  However, if you do not deliver the approved accommodation form, I will not know you have been approved to receive accommodations and will have no basis for providing those accommodations.

Last modified: May 26, 2008