Teaching Circularity in Marketing: What Educators Are Doing

If you teach marketing or train executives, you’ve probably noticed it: circularity has become a core strategy question, not just a CSR talking point.

In our recent Teaching Circularity in Marketing panel discussion, three leading educators shared how they make this shift real for their learners, using hands-on simulations that turn sustainability into practical decisions, trade-offs, and measurable results.

• Laurence Nahmias, SKEMA Business School
• Sandrine Macé, ESCP Business School
• Wolfgang Ulaga, INSEAD

The tools they use:

• Circular Markstrat, a deep strategy simulation with 12 to 25 hours of decision-making
• CircularPRO, a compact version for shorter workshops or executive programs lasting around 3 hours

StratX Simulations are used by more than 500 business schools and 40 Fortune 500 companies in over 80 countries.

Why experiential learning makes circularity click

Simulations make sustainability tangible. They place learners in realistic, data-driven markets where every choice affects brand performance, costs, and reputation. This allows participants to feel the impact of their decisions and understand how to balance growth with responsibility. For educators, it turns circularity from an abstract concept into a business strategy challenge.

What professors are seeing in the classroom

From concept to mindset shift

At SKEMA Business School, Lecturer Laurence Nahmias uses Circular Markstrat during the induction week for Master’s students: over 120 future marketers, all diving into their first team-based strategic challenge. The goal isn’t just to teach marketing frameworks, but to help students understand how sustainability and business growth work hand in hand.

“Markstrat was already the perfect team-building exercise and a marketing refresher. In Circular Markstrat, it becomes even more powerful as it fosters self-reflection and a real shift in mindset.” — Laurence Nahmias

Her course design reflects SKEMA’s broader mission to prepare global, adaptable, and responsible leaders. Through the simulation, students experience the same pressure and complexity they’ll face in real organizations, developing not just analytical skills, but also resilience, collaboration, and systems thinking.

What works for Laurence:

• Run it as a seminar sprint to sustain focus and energy.
• Keep lectures short and move quickly to practice.
• Allow teams to replay the first round so they can focus on strategy.
• Add creative challenges to strengthen teamwork.
• End with a short written reflection on what circularity means for business growth.

Student reactions:

“Everything felt so real. We were making decisions as if it were truly our company.”
“The business game was very educational, especially with the circular dimension.”

In this clip, Laurence shares student reactions including how the simulation creates an “aha moment” when students realize that sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand.

ESCP: Turning regulation and innovation into strategy

Marketing Professor Sandrine Macé brings Circular Markstrat to Master’s and Executive programs across Europe, Lebanon, and Vietnam at ESCP Business School. Her students experience firsthand how circularity influences business outcomes, forcing them to navigate evolving regulations and rethink innovation.

🎥 Watch: 00:20:45 – 00:22:05
Here, Sandrine tells a compelling story about a student team blindsided by an unexpected eco-tax and how that moment became a lasting lesson about innovation, adaptability, and anticipating regulation.

Three powerful classroom lessons

1. Authenticity beats greenwashing.
   Teams learned that communication must match real innovation. When circular claims didn’t align with product features, their marketing spend failed to pay off.

“Authenticity must come from real product innovation.” — Student quote shared by Sandrine Macé

2. Regulation is a moving target.
   One team ignored a government message about carbon footprint limits and was hit with a large eco-tax.

“Eco-tax hits us faster than our next R&D.” — Student team, ESCP Vietnam

3. Some brands earn their place through impact, not profit.
   A low-margin product improved the company’s overall eco-score and unlocked a $7.8 million eco-bonus, showing how sustainability can enhance brand value.

What works for Sandrine:

• Start with one market so students can absorb data relationships.
• Leave time for teams to analyze metrics and trends.
• Have learners monitor government messages to anticipate policy shifts.
• Encourage storytelling and reflection during the debrief.

 Here, Sandrine tells a compelling story about a student team blindsided by an unexpected penalty for one of their products and how that moment became a lasting lesson about greenwashing.

INSEAD: Circularity for executive decision-makers

At INSEAD, Professor Wolfgang Ulaga integrates CircularPRO into the Transition to General Management program, a two-week executive “mini-MBA.” The simulation runs over two rounds and mirrors the fast-paced, high-stakes environment executives face in their own organizations. It helps senior leaders from diverse professional backgounds and countries connect profitability, marketing, and sustainability in a practical, data-driven way.

At the start of each session, many executives arrive a bit skeptical. Marketing, to them, can seem abstract compared to finance or operations. To overcome this, Wolfgang begins with what he calls a “starting challenge” — asking teams to assess their market, articulate a positioning strategy, and decide where they’ll focus their first product improvements.

This exercise immediately brings energy into the room. It shows participants that marketing is not about intuition but about making confident, evidence-based choices under pressure.

“Some think marketing is fluffy. The simulation lets us make fact-based, data-based decisions.” — Wolfgang Ulaga

“When the results come out, you can feel the excitement in the room. They debate, they challenge, they realize that marketing decisions are not soft at all — they’re data-driven.” — Wolfgang Ulaga

He also notes how the experience fosters leadership alignment across functions:

“It’s fascinating to see how different functional leaders approach decisions. The marketing head, the CFO, the operations lead — they all have to align on what ‘value’ means in a circular economy. That’s where the leadership learning happens.” — Wolfgang Ulaga

“We really got hooked. We’d love to do another run.” — Executive participant

What works for Wolfgang:

• Begin with a starting challenge to push teams to make quick, confident decisions.

• Share a short tutorial video before class to maximize discussion time.

• Challenge teams early to define their market strategy and priorities.

• Use the one-product-change rule to teach focus and sequencing.

• Conduct deep debriefs to link outcomes to segmentation, pricing, and sustainability.

• Encourage reflection on how short-term choices affect long-term business value.

• Foster leadership growth by linking marketing decisions to cross-functional alignment.

The debrief is often the most animated moment of the program, as executives connect their decisions to real business outcomes and leave with a new appreciation for how sustainable strategy drives measurable growth.

In this clip, Wolfgang shares what happens when teams see their results for the first time: the moment when skepticism turns into engagement. The atmosphere shifts as participants get immersed into the decisions. 

Key takeaways for marketing educators

• Make it real. Students and executives learn best when they experience the trade-offs themselves.
• Teach adaptability. Market conditions, regulations, and sustainability expectations evolve constantly.
• Redefine success. Encourage learners to value both performance and impact.
• Pick the right fit. Circular Markstrat suits in-depth academic courses, while CircularPRO fits fast-paced executive or corporate programs.

Ready to bring circularity to life in your classroom?

💬 Book a 20-minute demo of Circular Markstrat or CircularPRO to see how experiential learning can transform the way you teach circularity