When play becomes pedagogy: The Chocolate Sweater Experiment

Last week, during the week before Thanksgiving, when every student in my Principles of Marketing class would have preferred to be anywhere but in a classroom, I did something unconventional. I bought chocolate sweaters, yes, actual edible chocolate shaped and decorated to look like ugly Christmas sweaters, and gave them to my students with a simple challenge: Work in teams. Design. Market. Sell.

Over two class periods, something remarkable happened.

One team decided their chocolate sweaters represented military support. "Buy one, give one" to soldiers. Suddenly, they weren't selling chocolate; they were selling purpose. Their target market became military families. Their price point reflected that mission.

Another team went the opposite direction. They rebranded the chocolate sweater as high fashion irony. Deliberately ugly became deliberately cool. Their price point went up. Their promotional strategy involved Instagram and influencer partnerships.

The Marketing Mix stopped being an abstract theory.

Instead of reviewing the 4 Ps, my students were living it:

• Product: What are we actually selling? (Chocolate? A mission? A statement?)

• Price: Who's our customer, and what will they pay?

• Place: Where would our customer shop?

• Promotion: How do we reach them?

Every decision they made forced them to answer the same question: Who are we talking to, and why should they care?

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When students are engaged in something playful, their brains are more open to complexity. They're willing to think through problems they might otherwise find tedious. They're willing to collaborate. They're willing to fail safely and learn from it.

Over two class periods, my students debated their target markets. They refined their messaging. They experienced the Marketing Mix rather than memorizing it.

Here's what my students don't yet realize: They didn't just learn marketing. They learned that play is a legitimate tool for solving real problems.

In a world that demands creativity, adaptability, and collaborative problem-solving, the ability to approach challenges playfully, to experiment, iterate, and fail safely, is more valuable than any single piece of information they could memorize.

They learned that the most powerful education happens at the intersection of joy and purpose.

What experiments are you running in your classroom? Share your stories of learning through play.

Using chocolate ugly sweater decorations as an engaging method to demonstrate the Marketing Mix in action.