Emotional intelligence is a marketing superpower — so why aren’t we teaching it?

Marketing is a relational discipline that depends on meaningful communication and trust-building. However, while marketing students are trained in essential areas like segmentation, branding, and analytics, they often encounter emotionally complex challenges in the workplace for which they may be less prepared for. Navigating team dynamics, responding to feedback, and managing internal and external communication requires more than just technical proficiency. Today's modern marketing environment requires emotional intelligence (EI), a skillset that includes self-awareness, empathy, emotional regulation, motivation, and social skills. In this work, the authors present activities marketing instructors can implement in existing courses to help students practice EI skills before entering the workforce. It is imperative that students are not only given the technical skills to succeed, but also the soft skills that differentiate them from their peers and technology.