Underlying all good business ads, there is a business person
The Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico is offering a special topics course in advertising in the Spring 2007 semester. This is the first course of its kind at Anderson.
The advertising course will be taught by Linda Ferrell, who recently joined the Anderson School from the University of Wyoming. She has extensive experience teaching advertising classes, and prior to joining academia was an advertising account executive on McDonald’s and Pizza Hut accounts, working with Laurence Charles Free and Lawson in Philadelphia, Montgomery Zucherman and Davis in Indianapolis and Winius Brandon Advertising in Houston.
Traditionally, advertising classes have been held under the umbrella of the UNM department of Communication and Journalism. But according to Ferrell, business students also need a firm grounding in marketing communications – including advertising.
“Underlying all good business ads, there is a business person,” she says. Communication and Journalism schools tend to focus more on creative execution and media buying, she says. Business schools focus on advertising strategy, product positioning, market segmentation, and the strategic elements of managing clients and accounts.
The class will complement the Anderson promotions class taught by John Benavidez, which involves creating advertising for a specific client. The addition of the advertising class strengthens marketing students’ ability to specialize in integrated marketing communication, says Benavidez.
The course syllabus includes both advertising strategy and implementation. Ferrell will include information in the course about the profession of advertising and its history, while teaching students to appreciate the economic, social, and regulatory aspects of advertising. Through this, students are expected to learn how consumer behavior, market segmentation, and marketing research influence and shape advertising strategy and implementation.
For more information regarding this course, the public can contact Dr. Ferrell at (505) 277-7056 or LFerrell@mgt.unm.edu.