Strategic Marketing and New Product Development — Introduction to Library resources
Supporting materials
- Slides/materials: PowerPoint slides
- Online session materials: Mentimeter
Practicalities
- Group: Large group (100–150)
- Length: 30 minutes
- Room: Large lecture theatre
- Discipline: Business and Management
- Level: PGT
Learning outcomes
- Effectively plan and manage assignments, projects and other pieces of work
- Develop an awareness of a wide range of information sources available to use in academic work
Suggested online resources
- Citing it right: Introducing referencing
- Get a grip: understanding your task
- What’s the big idea? Developing and organsing your argument
- Planning your dissertation
- Know your sources: types of information
- Shopping for information: introducing subject databases
- EndNote online: A beginnner’s guide
Session content
The purpose of this session is to introduce PGT Marketing students to the range of information resources provided by UML. The session should cover searching and evaluation techniques, and also demonstrate how the My Learning Essentials online resources can help students to evaluate the quality of the information which they locate.
Introduction (Slide 1–2)
Activity: Introduce Mentimeter through use of an ice-breaker question — e.g. “Is Brexit a good idea?”
Information landscape (Slides 3–5)
Run a Google search for “nike new product development”. Use slide 5 to illustrate the huge range of information which is available when conducting research in this area.
What, Where, How (Slide 6)
Introduce the format for information searching, and explain that these 3 elements will form the basis and structure of the presentation.
What am I looking for? (Slides 7–10)
Use the examples of the settee (Slide 8) and Fruit (Slide 9) to introduce the concepts of keywords and synonyms.
Activity: Using Mentimeter ask students to search for synonyms for “Strategic marketing” and / or “New product development”
Where will I look for it? (Slides 11–18)
- Use slide 12 to introduce the range of relevant information sources available
Activity: Using Mentimeter ask students to rate the following information sources for reliability and objectivity 1. Article from Guardian 2. Article from New York Times 3. Market research report from Mintel 4. Article from Journal of Marketing research
- Use slides 14–16 to highlight instances where information sources above have provided inaccurate / unreliable information
- Use Slide 17 to highlight that market research data will often be taken from a small sample size and will often need a corroborating source in order to confidently use within assignments
- Use slide 18 to introduce the evaluation checklist
How will I look for it? (Slides 19–21)
- Use the image of the iceberg to highlight that many information resources will not be easily accessible via Google and will require students to explore a variety of options
Search options (Slide 22)
Explain that for this subject students could successfully use the following
- General web search
- Library search / Google Scholar
- Market research databases
General web search (Slide 24)
Highlight effectiveness of site commands using Google and Bing. Suggested searches:
- “new product” site:nike.com
- “new product” site:ac.uk
Library search / Google Scholar (Slide 25)
Activity: Ask students to run a search for “new product development marketing” on Library search and Google Scholar — collate responses to differences between the 2 using Mentimeter. Follow up with brief explanation of the differences between the 2 tools.
Library databases (Slide 26)
- Search Mintel for “clothing retailing” report — Demonstrate how to find information within the report pertinent to “ASOS”
- Search WARC for case studies relating to Nike — demonstrate case studies which focus on “Nike on demand”
Further support (Slides 27–28)
- Highlight support which is available throughout Masters year via MLE online resources (though Blackboard) Drop in support and MLE workshops. Highlight referencing support options in particular (per academics request)
Internal ID: R18–0477
