MKTG 310: B2B Marketing

Professor:  Karen Eutsler, Marketing

This spring, students who signed up for Karen Eutsler’s B2B Marketing class (MKTG 310) got a crash course in the topic of economic inclusion and the opportunity to visit a nearby community where model approaches to diversifying and empowering minority-owned businesses is changing the face of the neighborhood.

Early in the semester, Eutsler prepared her class with a foundational discussion on economic inclusion, including addressing systemic racism, redlining, predatory lending practices, the racial wealth gap, and black entrepreneurship.  She engaged a range of community resources including her own mentor, Howard Elliott, a Cincinnati business professional with wide-ranging experience in developing businesses for social good, Of Elliot’s early contributions to her class, Eutsler notes: 

“Howard developed a straight-forward analogy about economic inclusion that really resonated with the students.  He explained that US history is very similar to the game, Monopoly ™: people spend time traveling around the board attempting to build wealth through purchasing property, staying out of trouble (jail), and collecting money as they pass Go.  African-Americans, however, were not allowed to play for centuries.  While their white counterparts traveled around the board building wealth, they spent the first ¾ of the game not only sitting out, but functioning AS property.  This led to a significant wealth inequity in America that still persists today.” 

Eutsler leveraged the Eigel Center to organize a community immersion in Walnut Hills’ burgeoning business district that engaged a diverse group of community voices that could reflect on their own experiences with economic inclusion. During the students’ planned immersion they were provided an overview of current community development by the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation’s Executive Director, Samantha Reeves, participated in a community asset walk to better understand the history of investment and disinvestment in this diverse neighborhood, and attended tours and presentations by nonprofit and business owners including Mortar Cincinnati co-founder Allen Woods, and the co-founders of Southwest Ohio’s first black-owned brewery (Esoteric), Brian Jackson and Marvin Abrinica.  Woods shared more about Mortar’s role in investing in minority businesses, while Jackson and Abrinica shared their own entrepreneurial journey that led to a first of its kind investment in Walnut Hills. The immersive experience was capped with a powerful address from Kala Gibson, 5/3’s Chief Enterprise Corporate Responsibility Officer & Head of Business Banking, and a reflective conversation with Kathryne Gardette, President of the Walnut Hills Area Council.   

In his reflection on the immersive experience, senior Marketing major Danny Smith noted:  

 “To hear about minority communities and empathize with their everyday struggles over the news is one thing, but walking through and speaking to people in the community make the situation real. I could tell from the old signage, new storefronts next to abandoned buildings, and several restorations underway, the area has changed over time and its very apparent that it will change rapidly again. Sometimes when we are discussing politics, and more importantly economic inclusion, we forget that we are discussing human beings and their lives, not numbers and stats.”