Teaching students to see the invisible architecture of marketing.
Every purchase you make was shaped by decisions you never noticed. The pricing structure, the journey design, the psychological trigger. I teach undergraduate marketing students to see that layer, understand why it works, and build it themselves.
I earned my M.S. in Digital Marketing at Sacred Heart University, served as the Marketing Department's Graduate Assistant, and now teach marketing at the AACSB-accredited Jack Welch College of Business & Technology.
I also run a marketing consulting practice providing go-to-market strategy, competitive intelligence, and brand positioning for clients across wellness technology, consumer products, and e-commerce. My consulting clients give me problems on Monday that become teaching examples by Thursday.
Students learn what marketing is, who their customers are, how they think, why strategies work, where and when to execute them. I meet them where they are by teaching through original activities built on learning science research and adapted for how this generation of students learns best. The goal: they build analytical habits that hold up long after they walk out the door.
Students have access to an anonymous feedback form throughout the semester, and I use that input to adjust the class in real time.
Below are my attempts to solve a few specific problems I kept running into. Each method started with a gap I noticed, and each one draws on learning science to close it.
Duck Walk
An embodied cognition activity where students build consumer personas using a custom web app, then physically walk through five customer journey stages holding their persona card, identifying friction at each stage.
Why it works: Holding someone else's persona card while physically moving through stages forces genuine perspective-taking.
Show → So → Do
Show = a specific cited fact. So = the strategic implication. Do = the concrete action. Applied across all major assignments.
Why it works: This forces the full analytical chain on every deliverable. No fact without a meaning. No meaning without a decision.
Intentional Ambiguity
Major assignments are structured with real-world ambiguity on purpose. Structured debriefs connect the struggle to professional skill development.
Why it works: Kapur (2008, 2016) found that structured struggle before instruction can improve conceptual understanding and transfer.
MK 201 Strategy Lab
A custom digital learning platform with structured input fields, coaching prompts, and metacognitive checkpoints that guide students through analytical reasoning step by step.
Why it works: Built-in prompts catch surface-level responses before they become habits.
Interactive Narrated Lessons
Lessons built with Manus AI: narration, embedded video, interactive knowledge checks. See also: Super Bowl LX
Why it works: Interactive formats maintain attention and allow self-paced review, matching how this generation processes information.
Library Mystery
A whodunit with progressive clues. Students apply STP through active investigation to solve a concrete problem.
Why it works: The mystery format forces segmentation thinking to crack a real problem rather than recite a definition.
Students walk into an 8 a.m. marketing class half-awake. Before I say a word, there is a creative task on the screen, an EDM-influenced playlist is playing, and they have a few minutes to work. No right or wrong answer. No grade. Just a prompt that forces specific thinking: analogical reasoning, inversion, constraint, perspective-taking. High-arousal, positive-valence tracks can improve divergent thinking compared to silence (Ritter & Ferguson, 2017). Each Neuro Nudge uses a learning science principle to pre-activate the exact concept the lecture will formalize. Students experience the idea before they hear the term for it.
🎵 Listen to the Neuro Nudge Playlist on Spotify
Sell a Car in 1850
Make It Worse on Purpose
The Breakup Letter
The Root Problem
New Product Mashup
Draw Toast
Sell Me This... Invisible
I Wish I Invented It
Inherited Behaviors
The full library: 26+ activities, 50+ peer-reviewed sources.
If you teach marketing and want to build something like this for your students, I am happy to share what has worked in my classroom and what hasn't, brainstorm together, and help you create something that fits your students.
AI literacy through practice. Students use these tools, critique their output, and learn where they break.
Claude
Persona development, brainstorming, and drafting. Students critique the output and improve it.
ChatGPT
Drafting copy and early creative. Students build custom GPT chatbots trained on a specific brand's voice, audience, and product line.
Custom ChatGPT bot built to help guide students through their marketing plan without giving them the answers.
Gemini
Research, explanation, multimodal analysis. Cross-model comparison.
Perplexity
AI search with live web access and citations.
Notion
Class dashboard, lesson planning, student resources.
Higgsfield
Video ad concepts from text prompts, and so much more.
Sora
Text-to-video for campaign mockups.
NanoBanana
Gemini's image generation model (internally codenamed NanoBanana) for visual assets.
Manus
Narrated interactive modules with voiceover and pacing.
Gamma
Outlines to slide decks, refined for professional quality.
Canva
Mood boards, brand identity, decks from week one.
Stukent
Marketing simulations with budget and messaging decisions.
Course-specific interactive and adaptive tool that lets students chat with the course material. Structured knowledge checkpoints guide understanding without giving away answers.
Career Dreamer
Google's AI-powered career exploration tool. Students map interests to real marketing roles.
AI tools change faster than any syllabus can keep up with. A platform that existed in September might be deprecated by November.
What I do.
I often rebuild lesson materials during the semester. The Labubu case study, the Super Bowl LX analysis, and the structured prompting lesson were all built during the semester they were taught. New tools get introduced when they solve a real problem students are facing, not because they appeared on a list. Students learn how to evaluate and adopt whatever comes next, not just the tools that existed at the start of the semester, or last week for that matter.
Why it matters.
Gartner predicted in early 2024 that traditional search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026 as users shift to AI assistants (Gartner, February 2024). The marketing roles students will fill in two years will require AI fluency that did not exist when they enrolled. A syllabus locked in August is already behind by October.
This class is built around marketing fundamentals and AI fluency together. By the end of the semester, students walk out with both.
Analyze a marketing situation.
Students acquire core marketing concepts, frameworks, and vocabulary. They can break down a real business problem using the 5 C's, STP, and marketing mix.
Build a marketing strategy.
Students practice formulating strategies and developing a marketing mix. They move from research to recommendation using the Show → So → Do framework.
Solve marketing problems.
Students critically assess real business challenges and develop solutions. They identify what's wrong, why it matters, and what to do about it.
Communicate and persuade.
Students present marketing ideas to peers and business owners. They learn to pitch, defend a recommendation, and pivot when challenged.
Use AI as a thinking partner.
Brainstorm, build personas, break down problems. Compare outputs across models. Cross-check rather than accept.
Research with verification.
Pull facts from multiple sources, summarize into decision-ready briefs, check claims against originals.
Prototype creative and justify it.
Mock up ads, storyboards, campaign materials. The question is always: why does this work for this audience?
See AI everywhere.
AI is in more of your professional life than you realize. Students learn to see it, evaluate it, and decide when to use it well.
Interview-ready, day one.
I want students to walk into a job interview, a client pitch, or a marketing meeting and hold their own. That means being able to answer hard questions, defend a recommendation with evidence, and pivot when someone pushes back. Every assignment in this class is practice for that moment.
25% of hiring managers say recent college graduates are unprepared for interviews (Intelligent.com, December 2024). 55% of hiring managers fired a recent graduate in 2024. 60% of the Class of 2026 is pessimistic about their career prospects (Handshake/Fortune, November 2025).
Interview-ready, day one.
I want students to walk into a job interview, a client pitch, or a marketing meeting and hold their own. That means:
• Answer hard questions without freezing
• Defend a recommendation with evidence
• Pivot when someone pushes back
• Walk into a room with proof of what they can do
Every assignment in this class is practice for that moment.
The gap students walk in with.
Students arrive knowing concepts but without practice defending them out loud. Research shows 75% of HR leaders consider most graduates underprepared, with communication, critical thinking, and handling feedback as the top gaps (Workplace Intelligence/Hult, 2024).
What my class does differently.
Students present, defend, and get challenged every week. Show → So → Do forces them to connect data to decisions out loud. The Duck Walk forces perspective-taking they can't fake. By semester's end, they have both the skills and the proof.
Why this works for Gen Z.
• Need the "why" immediately — every assignment framed as a professional scenario
• Freeze without structure — Show → So → Do moves them from data to decisions
• Disengage from pure lecture — Neuro Nudges and group exercises keep sessions active
• Thrive with social stakes — peer presentations and in-class pitches they actually care about
The environment students are graduating into.
Intelligent.com, 2024
Intelligent.com, 2024
CNBC, 2025
Handshake, 2025
When students use AI tools in my class, I ask these four questions out loud. By mid-semester, students start asking them before I do.
See
Tools: Google Career Dreamer, LinkedIn, Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini to surface interests, skills, and plausible marketing roles.
What happens: Each student articulates a specific role they want. The class returns to that benchmark all semester.
Why: Career thinking starts week one, not week fifteen.
Simulate
Scenarios: "Your manager asks why this underperformed." "A client wants three options by Friday."
What happens: Students practice making calls and defending them under pressure.
Why: The job interview is not the first time they should face a hard question.
Ship
Deliverables: Campaign mockups, AI video concepts, high-fidelity ad designs, functioning landing pages, apps, boardroom-quality decks.
The bar: Would your boss put this in front of a client?
Why: Students leave with proof of what they can do, not just a transcript.
Support
In class: Career Services presents: career portal, resume + LinkedIn, internship planning.
All semester: A competitive analysis becomes a portfolio piece. A campaign pitch becomes an interview story.
Why: Every assignment does double duty as career preparation.
Founder & Marketing Consultant
Go-to-market strategy, competitive intelligence, brand positioning across wellness technology, consumer products, neurotech, and e-commerce.
Senior Product Manager
International cobranded product launches in France. Product roadmaps across B2B and B2C. Rebranding across packaging, website, and education content.
Director of Marketing
Marketing operations: budget, vendor coordination, e-commerce, content, SEO, email, social. Managed paid media through agency coordination. Platform migration from Infusionsoft to HubSpot. Two WordPress redesigns.
Membership & Development Coordinator
Membership marketing, donor database, corporate partnerships.
Marketing Communications Coordinator
Corporate rebrand. National trade shows. Market research. Website redesign.
Students are assigned podcast episodes throughout the semester with short reflections: what they learned and how they'd apply it.
Top Favorites
Marketing + AI
Behavioral + Consumer Science
Live interactive lessons and tools from MK 201. Click any card to explore.
Duck Walk App
Build Your Duck's Life
Show So Do
Fact → Meaning → Decision
Labubu + Pop Mart
29-slide narrated lesson
Super Bowl LX
9 modules, 30 citations
Power of Storytelling
Interactive pilot built for a faculty workshop at Marin Academy
Structured Prompting
How to Talk to AI
Marketing Plan Guide
6 submissions, 1 semester
NotebookLM Lesson
AI-grounded analysis
Interactive lesson artifacts, AI-narrated presentations, the Strategy Lab, and workshop deliverables.
View Full Teaching Portfolio →Conferences, workshops, and faculty development on AI in marketing education.
Consulting on UI/UX neuroinclusive design, AI tool integration, curriculum design, and pilot programs.
Research partnerships, co-authored publications, and cross-institutional teaching projects.
Fractional CMO, go-to-market strategy, competitive intelligence, and brand positioning.