teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

Augie Ray provides a very thought-provoking post over at the Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing Professionals titled, “2010:  The Year Marketing Dies…”  He does add the subtitle, “Or at Least Marketing as We Know It!”  The post might have been better titled “The Year Advertising Dies” because it really primarily addresses the rapidly changing world of media.  He eventually gets to this point — the title was mostly to be provocative.  As consumers learn about products from a wide variety of sources outside the direct control of marketing managers — what does this mean for those of us teaching marketing?

I think that much of what we do stays the same.  Many of our core concepts don’t change.  If organizations make products that satisfy customers, price them so that customers see value in the purchase and make the available where customers want them, then there will be good word-of-mouth and brands will benefit from the buzz.  Marketing managers will have to dig in deeper to better understand, customers, competitors, and their own company’s resources.  They will have to segment markets better, position and differentiate their offerings — and will have to produce marketing mixes that appeal to target customers.  Tomorrow’s (our students) marketers will need to understand these different media and work with them.

What do you think of Augie Ray’s post?  What will it mean for those of us teaching marketing?

One of the primary objectives for “Teach the 4 Ps” is to give you ready access to examples you can use in your marketing classes.  Most of us teaching marketing know the value of well-chosen examples.  If you visit our blog to get ideas for examples, you might appreciate this post from The Teaching Professor on the “Power of Examples” (December 2, 2009).

“Examples are instructional workhorses: they carry a great deal of the burden of teaching and learning. They help us dig into ideas and plow the land of the abstract. They help us transport information and ideas from one person to another and from one context to another. One way to improve teaching and learning is to improve the examples we use so that they more effectively communicate difficult concepts.” (Deyck, 1994, p. 40)

I just like this television commercial.  It does not try to do too much — the focus is on a single key benefit, Delta’s hands free on/off feature.  Of course the beauty of the faucet is also showcased.

The Wal-Mart vs. Amazon battle continues to become increasingly intense (see “Price War Brews Between Amazon and Wal-Mart,” New York Times, November 23, 2009). These two competitors have already engaged in price wars over toys, books, and DVDs this holiday season.  Now Wal-Mart is cleverly using one of their strengths relative to Amazon — their physical stores — to their advantage.  This a nice example of competitive advantage, SWOT, and logistics.  Check out “Wal-Mart Uses Its Stores To Get an Edge Online” (see The Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2009 – subscription required, or search the net using the article title).

With the holiday season here, there is more talk about Best Buy — which is also the focus of the chapter opening scenario we use for our retailing and wholesaling chapter.  A BusinessWeek article “Why Tech Bows to Best Buy” (December 10, 2009) the company’s strategy now that its direct competitors have largely gone out of business (see Circuit City) and new competitors Amazon and Wal-Mart are emerging.  Consequently Best Buy has changed its strategy. The article supplements discussions of competition (chapter 3), strategy planning (chapter 4) and retailing.

You can also watch a Wall Street Journal video below, “Best Buy’s Battle Between Sales and Margins” (December 15, 2009) includes an interview ith an analyst who discusses how competition and the need to lower prices has eroded Best Buy’s margins.  A bit more finance oriented, this video might complement a classroom discussion of pricing.

Do you sometimes have trouble keeping those non-marketing majors awake in the intro class?  One of the challenges of the introductory marketing class is motivating non-marketing majors (typically 75% or more of the class).  While this class is even more important for them — it will likely be their only marketing class — they are usually not intrinsically motivated by marketing.  My friend Tom Boyd (Cal State Fullerton) told me that early in the semester he brings in non-marketing businesspeople as guest speakers.  I tried that this semester, and taught the cross-functional chapter in Basic Marketing (chapter 20) in the second week of class.  It worked and my non-marketing majors were more motivated all semester.  A blog post from Vivek Wadhwa on the TechCrunch blog describes why IT managers need selling skills – “It’s All About Selling for Survival.” While this post targets IT people, it really fits with anyone who will eventually be in management in any functional area.  I am going to assign this reading next time I teach the class.

This short Wall Street Journal video clip (2:41) interviews the founder of B.R. Guest Restaurant.  He talks about building buzz and creating value as the keys to his restaurants success.

I like to show my students that B2B firms can be clever with their marketing as well.   So I was intrigued by this example of a successful viral campaign put together by a pipe company.  The viral video is shown below and you can link to an article with more information “Charlotte Pipe Goes to the Dogs,” (BtoB, September 14, 2009).

The campaign, created by Eric Mower & Associates, Syracuse, N.Y., includes print and online. It is aimed at engineers and building contractors that use cast iron pipes in drain, waste and ventilation systems. “Charlotte Pipe and Foundry is a conservative company. We have been in business for 108 years, and it is safe to say that the company has never produced an ad that even comes close to the concept behind “Rosco’,” said Brad Muller, VP-marketing at the Charlotte, N.C.-based manufacturer.

For several editions of our books we have been paying increased attention to the role of search in organizational buying and promotion strategy for B2B.  This December 4, 2009 post “5 Must-Read Tips for B2B Search Marketing” on the Online Marketing blog by Michelle Bowles builds on that trend and highlights some strategy