Instructional design meets marketing

The topic of marketing and ID has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks, and I just can't ignore it any more.

Alas, I have found what may inspire me to see a different perspective of how these two worlds merge into one.

Ron Zamir from Training Industry, wrote "A New Role for Instructional Design" where he states that shifts are happening in the marketing industry where consumers are no longer falling for the ads and gimmicks.

It's also common knowledge that the "millennials" are the most educated generation, and Zamir states that marketers aren't taking advantage of the consumer education opportunity. Zamir gives a great example in his article.

Here's where designers come in... we know how to scaffold meaningful learning.  

So how can these two worlds collaborate?

For starters, use marketing tools (that the company already has) to educate consumers on products offered such as How-to tutorials.

Second, use tools and designs that can easily be manipulated to keep up with the ever changing trends and products.

Finally, measure and track the results to identify if the strategies are working or how they could be made better.

It comes down to a term I here quite often: user experience.

These two worlds that could be viewed as vastly different, but could collaborate due to the skills that marketers have with brand management and the educational skills instructional designers have to close gaps in product knowledge.


Now I ask you... what examples could you see marketing and ID coming together to produce a deliverable?