Marketing the classroom: co-creating value, trust, and engagement in higher education

This reflective paper examines the pedagogical transformation of marketing education from conventional content-focused instruction to a collaborative, relational learning model grounded in value co-creation. Moving beyond traditional frameworks such as the 4Ps, segmentation, and consumer decision-making models, the author reconciles marketing principles with classroom practice by applying Vargo and Lusch's service-dominant logic alongside Bruner's constructivist learning theory. By viewing students not as passive recipients of knowledge but as active co-creators of learning, conventional lectures were redesigned into open debate sessions, textbook case studies were transformed into platforms for critical opinion exchange, and group tasks evolved into negotiated problem-solving processes. The findings indicate that fostering intellectual ownership significantly deepens student engagement and critical inquiry, converting the conventional lecture hall into an interactive laboratory of ideas.