david dupont
BG Independent News
As a child, Greg Rich took math, history, and civics lessons at Schoolhouse Rock. Now a professor of marketing at BSGU and a singer-songwriter, Rich uses his songs to teach students the basics of marketing. The result was 4 pesos from the marketing CD.
As a singer-songwriter, Rich has occasionally incorporated songs into his lessons over the years. "It's been a long time since I had the idea to write a marketing songbook. I didn't do it until last spring."
He taught Introduction to Marketing approx. Online lessons can be "boring," he says, and watching videos gets boring after a while. So he took on the task of writing one song a week for each class. Two of them have already been written, the benefits of the brand and the basics of segmentation.
For others, he ran into a deadline to finish this week's song. “There's something vaguely exhilarating about the looming deadline,” Rich said.
In the spring, he just picked up a guitar and sang.
"It's fun and I hope the students are more interested in the content," Rich said. People learn in different ways; many find it easy to memorize the letters.
He said the students responded "very positively."
Over the summer, Rich went to Nashville to record marketing jingles. He worked with Mark Robinson, who produced the album and provided guitar, banjo, steel guitar, and other instruments. Also present were Nashville studio musicians Josh McEwan on drums and Daniel Seymour on bass.
Robinson and Rich have known each other for a long time. Robinson was Rich's first guitar teacher when they both lived in Indiana.
Around the same time, Rich began playing the guitar and writing songs. When he was a sophomore at Indiana University Bloomington, he received a guitar as a gift. His older brother inspired him to start playing the guitar. He played the saxophone in the school band.
Since then, he has been writing songs. He said, "It's just a hobby."
4 Ps of Marketing is his third group. "I love writing songs that relate to each other," says Rich. The first The Winds of Bowling Green was raising a family here. The second is a cancer survivor, and he talks about how to survive cancer.
For 15 songs, the Rich and Nashville musicians mixed colors and rhythms. According to him, his most special character is the "current damage boss". Based on the Bob Dylan song "Blood on the Tracks" for its chord progression and lyrical structure.
The song was inspired by going to the grocery store to buy an item that was way over my budget.
Other songs deal with marketing principles: product, promotion, product, and price.
One of the songs, "Protests Are Welcome," is about people struggling to sell, and "Regular Customers" explains the value of both types of people. The "promo mix" features alumnus Mike Williams on sax. While earning her MBA, Williams was a student in a course taught by Rich.
Rich will be teaching in person again this semester for the first time and plans to make a video for each song. Most of them have already been posted on his Greg Rich Music YouTube channel.
Given the importance of social media in marketing, you will involve students in the process and ask them to post TikTok videos related to these marketing principles.
Rich is part of Bowling Green's live songwriting scene. He performed at various venues around the city, including marketing jingles at this year's Black Swamp Arts Festival.
He paid tribute to Tim Koncano's efforts during the Wednesday Hump Day Revue at Stone's Throw in downtown Bowling Green to provide a meeting and performance venue for local songwriters to share their work with others. He brought firewood from home.
Rich enjoys the songwriting process. "It's always exciting when a song comes on."
