Reporting by Ivana Staples
Dr. Miranda Yin, the Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Orfalea College of Business, sat down to share her experiences doing marketing research, insights into the marketing concentration at Cal Poly, and advice for aspiring students.
“Cal Poly is a more prestigious university compared to my first job. Of course, it has the location and the great weather, but the research support here is very encouraging,” Yin told the Wire.
Before Dr. Yin took the position as the Assistant Professor of Marketing everyone told her, “It’s a little paradise.” Dr. Yin agrees, adding that she views Cal Poly as the “crown jewel of all the CSU schools.”
Dr. Yin teaches Principles of Marketing, Cal Poly’s introductory marketing class, and Consumer Insights. She believes strongly in applying Cal Poly’s “learn by doing” philosophy for her students.
“I have hands-on group projects,” she said. “Students can apply what they learn every week into a draft, so they get to practice.”
In Dr. Yin’s Principles of Marketing Class, students learn the different steps of the marketing plan, including branding and promotion strategies. They get hands-on experience implementing these lessons by repositioning a product throughout the quarter, culminating in a final presentation. Yin encourages her students to add their projects to their professional portfolios, and to take pride in their creations.
The marketing concentration overall can be ambiguous. For Dr. Yin, that’s one of the best things about it. Marketing students can accomplish a wide variety of things with their degrees.
“A lot of students have a slight misunderstanding that marketing equals sales. It is a huge and exciting part, but marketing can offer a lot of different career paths. You can be a social media expert, you can examine marketing analytics, or you can be a marketing researcher.”
Dr. Yin is passionate about her research. In her Consumer Insights class, she shares her findings with her students, but she also encourages them to question her findings and uncover the rationale behind her discoveries.
“I do prosocial consumer behavior research. Specifically, most of my research is involved in helping charities come up with better strategies to effectively solicit donations. For example, donor characteristics, the type of incentives that they can use, or the relationships they can attempt to build with their potential donors.”
The most recent field experiment Dr. Yin conducted was a direct mail campaign with the Slo Food Bank. She worked closely with the Director of Development and explained how they “sent out 6000 donation request letters to potential donors, people who had never donated to Slo Food Bank before.” They had offered ways of submitting donations via a QR code, an online donation site, or a send-by-mail option as part of the experiment. Dr. Yin was able to learn what should be featured on a charity appeal to best enhance donations. Dr. Yin has also done research with the Salvation Army, where she studied the impact of color on donations.
“I studied color and charity appeal valence. How does the background color interact with the charity appeal valence to enhance donations? It was a direct email donation campaign.” The ‘charity appeal valence’ referenced by Dr. Yin refers to the emotional tone, positive or negative, conveyed by a donation request, and it can greatly impact effectiveness in eliciting donations. A positive valence charity appeal often highlights positive outcomes and the impact of donations on improving lives. These findings, and others, are highlighted in Dr. Yin’s teaching.
When asked what qualities successful marketing students tend to have Dr. Yin said: “A lot of my students have musical talents. They are rappers. And they have graphic design talents. They can create detailed graphics and TikTok videos. My students are so creative. There are a lot of goofy ideas, which are encouraged but also shaped.”
Dr. Yin is grateful she pursued a career in marketing, saying, “For me, marketing is so exciting! That is one thing that I’ve never regretted. Every day there are different challenges, you will never face the same one. You will keep growing and being creative. Marketing serves as a platform that can expand your career path. Later on, you could be in public relations or you could pursue an MBA with marketing as a platform you can stand on and move forward with.”
Dr. Yin encourages students to get to know their professors, try new things, and plan ahead during their time at Cal Poly and during their careers. She also emphasizes the importance of growing from discouragement. She emphasizes that all the rejections and failures are what have helped her to grow and refine her research skills. Therefore, she encourages Cal Poly students to welcome the challenges in life. The adversities will grow their strength and character. The more opposition students tackle, the better at overcoming adversity they will be.