The value of creativity has become more pronounced than ever in every field of our lives. Particularly within the realm of education, the significance of fostering creativity is being increasingly recognized. Schools and universities are stepping away from rote memorization and rigid curriculum models, instead fostering environments that encourage imaginative thinking, problem-solving, and originality. This shift is driven not only by changing curriculum but also by the changing demands of the job market. Creativity, a once underrated trait, has become a critical skill, particularly in fields like marketing that rely heavily on novel and compelling strategies to capture audience attention.
The ability to think creatively is no longer just an innate talent possessed by a lucky few but a crucial skill that needs to be nurtured and developed in all students. The interplay of creativity in modern education goes beyond generating an idea or a solution. It encourages lateral thinking, promotes empathy through imaginative problem-solving, and pushes the boundaries of traditional norms. By allowing students to take ownership of their learning process and encouraging them to think outside the box, educators can foster a sense of creativity that extends beyond the classroom.
Unfortunately, the urgent need to prepare students for the competitive professional world often overshadows the inherent value of fostering creativity. This poses a significant problem, particularly when considering the demands of the modern marketing industry. Good marketers are not made through rote learning of theories but rather through cultivating a creative mindset that allows them to navigate the evolving landscape of consumer demands. If our education system fails to promote creativity, we risk creating a generation of professionals who are ill-equipped to innovate and meet the challenges of their respective fields. Hence, we must confront this issue and explore ways in which creativity can be effectively interwoven into the educational fabric to foster marketers of the future.
Is It Really So Important?
Creativity is one of the crucial yet often overlooked life skills. It enables us to view problems more openly and find innovative solutions. And it can really be used in all spheres of life. This includes work. Especially when we talk about professions like marketing that require thinking outside the box.
Despite the importance of this ability, many people seem to neglect it a lot, especially in their young years. Students rarely have enough time to challenge themselves creatively. Of course, they can always say, “Can I pay someone to write my research paper?” and delegate their tasks. This way, they can engage in creative activities while professionals take care of their boring daily tasks. And they won’t even let their academic performance drop.
The Role of Creativity in Marketing
According to the founder and CEO of Ceros, Simon Berg, creativity and marketing are closely linked. Together, they can elevate any business. In particular, an innovative approach to marketing can help:
- Find unique ways to capture the attention of customers, prospects, employees, and investors.
- Affect people on an emotional level.
- Discover better ways of doing things.
- Turn adversity and constraints into new, valuable opportunities.
- Create a more challenging yet happier workplace. While also delivering an outstanding return on investment.
Due to all these reasons, modern employers value creativity more than many other abilities. In fact, experts predict that it will become the most in-demand transferable skill by 2030. After all, today, the most competitive companies achieve triple growth. They achieve it by bringing together creativity, analytics, and purpose. So, if you’ve had any doubts about the value of this ability in marking (or, in fact, any other field), you must have no doubts anymore.
The Importance of Fostering Creativity in Modern Education
So, you already see the true value of thinking outside the box in marketing and other professional fields. But how can one develop and hone this skill?
The answer might surprise you. But there is no need to develop it.
According to NASA scientists, we all are born creative geniuses. That is, we have this skill by default. But what happens next is that the standardized education system dumbs us down.
Experts claim that people tend to lose this vital skill as they grow older. To be more specific, studies tested people from different age groups on creative genius. They revealed the following:
- 5-year-olds scored an average of 98%;
- 10-year-olds scored 30%;
- 15-year-olds scored 12%;
- 31-year-olds scored only 2%.
This is a significant decrease that leads to the complete inability of individuals to think outside the box and embrace innovation. This happens when we close the door to creativity in the classroom.
The standardized academic system does this in many ways. Namely, educational facilities diminish inventiveness in learners by applying a unified teaching approach to all students, whereas each of them is unique and requires a diversity of teaching styles. Also, schools often focus on tasks that require structured right or wrong answers. Such assignments aren’t just boring but also restrict learners from finding new, unique solutions. Not to mention that teachers rarely embrace mistakes in the classroom, although they are the key to progress.
On top of this, the traditional academic syllabus doesn’t emphasize classes like art or music that stimulate creative development. In most cases, these classes aren’t considered core subjects and are taught on an elective basis.
All these features of education are deeply rooted in the system. However, these days, more and more schools are striving to foster outside-the-box thinking. And they seem to help their students achieve incredible results.
How Students Become Great Marketers With the Help of Creativity
By giving marketing students more freedom to express themselves creatively, academic facilities let them create solid skill sets valued in the modern business landscape. Such an approach to education facilitates the top six crucial abilities for future marketers:
- Critical thinking and problem-solving: Thinking outside the box encourages students to view and assess information critically. As a result, they become capable of solving complex challenges that require innovation.
- Ideas generation: Being able to generate original ideas is the basis of creativity. Thus, by helping learners develop this skill, we teach them how to come up with bright and new ideas that can fuel their careers.
- Effective communication: Typically, people who are more inventive are also better at communicating with others. They can use different tools to convey their messages effectively, and they know how to capture attention.
- Flexibility: Inventiveness encourages people to embrace change and get more adaptive to it. This helps them be more flexible in school, at work, and in life, in general, and quickly adjust to rapidly evolving trends. This way, they can always stay ahead of the curve.
- Emotional intelligence: As was mentioned earlier, more inventive professionals know how to engage their audiences on an emotional level. By promoting creativity among students, we can help them gain emotional intelligence and operate emotions to achieve set goals in work and life.
- Experimentation: Finally, inventiveness promotes a mindset that embraces experimentation. Learners who retain and unleash their imagination tend to strive for new knowledge, explore trends, and experiment a lot to find innovative approaches in everything they do.
All these abilities are crucial for professionals who work in promotion and advertising. So that’s what can turn students into brilliant marketers. All these abilities are acquired through exploring and fostering creativity, which is why it should always remain an integral part of education.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, the benefits of inventiveness in the field of marketing are huge, and it’s the task of the educational system to help learners gain them all.
Also read: 6 Content Marketing Hacks That You Must Know About
There are many ways to promote creativity in marketing students. Sometimes, it means allowing them to make mistakes, use the best paper writing services to delegate boring tasks, or spend time on personal projects they are interested in. In any case, this will help them learn better and grow into in-demand professionals in the future.
