teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

I really like this Toyota commercial. It is entertaining but also makes a clear point about Toyota’s hybrid engines. The ad simplifies and demonstrates benefits for a pretty complex topic. It would make a great complement to the very popular video case on the Toyota Prius (in our books’ video package). The video goes well in the Product chapters.  After showing the video, which describes new product development for the Prius, a professor might ask how this product could be advertised.  After some discussion, the ad below might be shown.

These videos are hilarious — maybe more so for married men and women than for most of our students.  So maybe it will work better for those of you with nontraditional students.  The original “Beware of the Doghouse” viral video was popular last holiday season and so JC Penney created a new version “Back to the Doghouse” with new twists (see “JC Penney’s ‘Doghouse’ Lives to Bark Another Season,” Brandweek, November 20, 2009).

More and more companies are using the courts to challenge competitors advertising claims.  This three minute video (link only – the NYT doesn’t let you embed videos in blogs) would be great to include in a discussion of comparative advertising or legal issues for advertising.  Some good examples and an informative discussion are included as well.  There is a related article, “Best Soup Ever?  Suits Over Ads Demand Proof” (New York Times, November 21, 2009) for more background.

This is another segment from Fortune’s interview with new P&G CEO Bob McDonald and his immediate predecessor A.G. Lafley. These leaders talk about the development of a product line (including some lower price products) and how they try to compete with private label brands. They also talk briefly about some of the qualitative marketing research that P&G has conducted. The clip might also be interesting to show when discussing value pricing — which we cover in the first of our two pricing chapters.

This 5 minute video clip is an interview with P&G’s new CEO Bob McDonald and A.G. Lafley, its recently departed CEO. They talk about P&G’s focus on developing markets as its source of growth. They mention that demographics drive this focus. The clip would have a nice tie-in with demographics as we talk about it in chapter 5. While the video clearly demonstrates the opportunity here, it might be fun to show the clip in class and ask students – “what P&G should do with its marketing strategy to appeal to this target market?” it might also provide an example of an opportunity that could be discussed with chapter 2.

Well, Advertising Age readers came to the same conclusion as Brandweek — and named Hyundai it’s Marketer of the Year (“Marketer of the Year:  Hyundai,” Adage.com November 9, 2009).  I already blogged the Brandweek article/video combination.  This article provides additional details on the campaign.

This New York Times article, (“How to Market Your Business With Facebook,” November 12, 2009) probably has more detail than you might want to get into in an introductory marketing class.  Still, I included it because marketing instructors might find it helpful to have this greater insight into Facebook (something our students no doubt know about much better than us) and how it can be used in marketing.   There are also some interesting examples that could be used in class.

This is a neat little article that reports on some research on the shopping behavior of millenial (age 20-30) women.  This short article (“Why ‘Millenials’ Are Impulse Shoppers” Brandweek, November 12, 2009) describes how this market segment differs from others. If it were assigned reading, students could be asked how it would effect the marketing strategy for a packaged goods firm or retailer.  Moving beyond some of the examples in the article, this could lead to an interesting in-class discussion.

This post on the ReadWriteWeb blog (“40% of People on Facebook ‘Friend’ Brands“) descibes a survey with the above claim — among others.  The sample of “1000 connected consumers” suggests we are dealing with a particularly digital segment of the market.  Still, the results suggest that consumers may be willing to interact with brands on social media.

In a previous post “No Wall Street Journal Subscription, No Problem,” I explained how a “back door” for non-subscribers to gain access to online Wall Street Journal articles. This post at TechCrunch suggests the Journal may not continue to leave this back door open — allowing non-subscribers access to WSJ content.