APRIL 2002JOURNAL OF MARKETING EDUCATION Enhancing Students’ Role Identity as Marketing Majors

An undergraduate student’s major often becomes an impor-tant part of his or her self-definition. A student’s major identi-fies him or her with respect to certain classes, places on cam-pus, behaviors, aspirations, and with certain other people. When a student selects marketing as a major, he or she is choosing not just to receive the attributes and benefits of the major but also to become something through a process of role-identity development. The more effectively this identifi-cation process takes place, the better the outcomes for the stu-dent and, potentially, for marketing educators. This article identifies and empirically demonstrates variables that mar-keting educators can influence to facilitate the role-identity development process. As marketing educators work to attract more and better undergraduate students to marketing, it may be time to pay greater attention to enhancing the identifica-tion process that links students with marketing. Have you ever noticed how marketing students often refer to themselves as “marketing majors ” when introducing them-selves to fellow students, faculty, or other people on campus? For a student to say that “I am a marketing major ” (or any major) reveals a lot about who that student is. A student’s major becomes an important part of his or her self-definition; the student’s major identifies him or her with respect to cer-tain classes, places on campus, activities, behaviors, and especially certain people (other marketing students, faculty, professional alumni, etc.), who may comprise aspirational reference groups (e.g., Hawkins, Best, and Coney 1998) for students. When a student first selects marketing for a major, he or she is choosing to become a marketing major. Ideally, a student who becomes a marketing major places relative importance on that aspect of his or her identity. Based on findings in other contexts (e.g., Arthur 1997; Burke an