With our second midterm tomorrow, I’m sure I won’t be the only student missing The Bachelor to learn about supply chains and branding. But missing out on finding out who Brad chooses to marry isn’t so bad when McGraw-Hill Irwin has taken into consideration how students feel about studying versus leisure activities. As a firm, they noticed that students often didn’t value sitting down with a textbook and notepad, but voluntarily spent hours curled up on the couch with the latest issue of People Magazine or a good novel.
The publishers of Marketing, Second Edition took note of this and impressed students and educators alike when they introduced the latest publication of their textbook targeted towards 2nd and 3rd year business students. Unlike previous textbooks, this new edition appealed to students by replacing the traditional hardcover textbook with a lightweight paperback cover.
With its modern design and colour scheme of red against black and white, the second edition resembles a magazine. To maintain the magazine semblance of the textbook, McGraw-Hill even used glossy magazine paper and included a few pictures per page. Information fills different colourful shapes, and diagrams are carefully placed on the pages to ensure that students note them. The publisher did a remarkable job by revamping their gray, hard textbook which looked like a block of concrete. Pre-reading for a class isn’t as much of a chore when I can sit somewhere comfortable, read up on a subject that I find interesting and still be able to say I studied. It’s a great change from other textbooks and really stands out on the shelf; moreover, the fact that I can just toss it in my bag and pull it out between breaks to skim through it really contributes to my learning experience, and makes the course more enjoyable overall. Countless students have responded positively to the new edition and have been further encouraged to pursue their studies in marketing, partially thanks to the student friendly textbook. So save your complaints for other exams, find yourself somewhere relaxing to study and for once enjoy reading for a midterm (you don’t have to admit you did!).
