teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

For most brands, online buzz is not a very useful metric.  But for some brands – think Apple iPad, Google Android, and Sony, awareness of the buzz might help marketing managers understand their markets better.  A blog called Buzz Study reports on analytics from Social Radar — and a top 50 list of social brands (click here for the November 2009 list, the most recent as of today).

To create the Top 50 list, we used Social Radar to analyze millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter posts to aggregate a list of the words and brands mentioned most frequently on the Web during November 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during November 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions, which would be more heavily influenced by big fans who post frequently about a specific brand.

For another example of this type of online analysis, take a look at the Buzz Study post, “Apple iPad:  What Happened in Social Media” (February 3, 2010).  I found it interesting to see that they can track not only the amount of online chatter, but whether it is positive or negative as well.  This might make an interesting example of “observation” in a class session on marketing research .

This story “In Search Of The Elusive Male Shopper” was on NPR’s Weekend Edition this morning (February 13, 2010).  If you go to the site, you can read the text of the story or listen to it.  While there is an obvious Valentine’s Day tie-in, the story describes differences in how men and women shop.  A number of great examples that can be used to talk about segmentation or consumer behavior.

I just listened to an interesting report on American Public Media’s (radio) Marketplace Money show – “Warehouse clubs scream ‘bargain!‘” Click through to listen – or simply read the text of this story. It highlights how warehouse clubs understanding of consumer behavior drives their marketing strategy.  Would probably provide a good example in discussing retail or consumer behavior.

I found Gareth Kay’s post at TalentZoo.com, “The Future of Marketing,” very insightful.  While he posted this article last May, I just found it myself.  Kay identifies four trends — and I think he is on track here.  We are watching these trends as we think about revising our text books.  Of course with all the changes in technology and customer behavior, we need to be preparing our students for an evolving marketing world.  What do you think of Gareth Kay’s prognostication?

Seth Godin is great and I always enjoy following his blog.  In this blog post, “The brand, the package, the story, and the worldview,” Godin offers advice to African chocolate maker Madecasse on how putting a story on its package might help its sales.  Could be a good example, or turned into a mini case for discussion.

I am becoming more and more a believer in the power of stories.  I think they help in marketing and for teaching marketing.  If you are interested in learning more about stories, you might read Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind:  Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future” (this morning I listened to the “Story” chapter on my way in to work) or the Heath brothers “Made to Stick.“  I know we all use stories (extended examples) to supplement our teaching, but what I am reading has me thinking about how I can develop better stories.

Many of us are familiar with the old “Man in the Chair” ad (if not, link to the blog post first).  It does a nice job of demonstrating integrated marketing communications and how in business markets, advertising works in combination with personal selling.  I saw this post at Mac Macintosh’s Sales Lead Insights blog that brought this point back home to me (click on the ad in the blog to see if full size).   One of the comments on the blog post pointed me to this great presentation (see below) by Ralph Oliva at a Business Marketing Association event.  It is a bit long (5:41), but might make a nice video to show when discussing organizational buying — or for an example of IMC in the B2B context.  It updates the “Man in the Chair” ad — but also shows how the core marketing concepts have not changed.  To fully appreciate this, I suggest you check out the blog post first and click on the ad to see if full size.  Then watch the video below.

In our text books we discuss the external market environment, including the economic and social and cultural environments in chapter 2.   This Wall Street Journal article (subscription required — or search the web using the article title and you will get “back door” access), “As Sales Drop, Burger King Draws Critics for Courting ‘Super Fans,’” (February 1, 2010) describes how two external trends are having a negative impact on sales for the fast food giant.

Thanks to high unemployment and healthier eating habits, those super fans haven’t been so super lately. Burger King has felt the impact more acutely than its main rival, McDonald’s Corp., whose sales are growing.

This might provide a good example to use when discussing chapter 2.  The article also questions Burger King’s targeting strategy.  The chain has focused on its “super fans,” those 18-34 year old, mostly male customers who account for half of all visits to Burger King.

Kellogg Professor Derek Rucker and his MBA students evaluated ads based on their ability to achieve strategic objectives — sure beats the popularity contests we usually have.  You can hear what Derek has to say in this BusinessWeek video

The day after the Super Bowl there are plenty of pundits ready to crown the best and worst ads shown during yesterday’s game.  Plus, there are plenty of sites dedicated to crowning fan favorites — see “Super Bowl Ads 2010” at the Wall Street Journal (I don’t think you need a subscription here), which as of this writing ranks the Audi “Green Car” as tops based on the votes of WSJ readers.   Probably the grand daddy of Super Bowl ratings, the USA Today Ad Meter (which uses a panel of 250 adult volunteers) had the Mars’ Snickers with Betty White at the top (we embedded that ad below).  Here at “Teach the 4 Ps”  used the Media Curves widget (see post below) — it’s online voters ranked the Budweiser Bull #1.   All these sites include links to all the ads.  Among pundits, you might enjoy reading reviews of the ads from Seth Stevenson at Slate.com, Stuart Elliott at the New York Times, or Bob Garfield over at Advertising Age (subscription may be required for this last one).

By the way, I would love to hear how you use these ads in class.  I usually show a couple of the AdMeter’s top rated ads and one of the lower ads.  I explain the research methodology used by USA Today.  Then I ask students why the top ones are “better.”  Eventually, I ask how we should judge these ads — and use it to bring us back to Promotion objectives.  If the objective is “likeable among a large cross-section of Americans” then these ads score well — but maybe the goals are to drive purchase, build awareness, or inform a particular target market.  This points out that these “popularity contests” may not be the best metric for judging the success of these commercials.

I will try to send you a variety of post Super Bowl advertising links on Monday.  But if you are looking for something real-time, check this out.  If you click on the “Learn More” link in the widget, you can read about the research methodology that Media Curves employs.  It might be interesting in class to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the approach in a market research class.

Media Curves is conducting a study with thousands of Americans on the 2010 Super Bowl commercials. Participants of the study will evaluate the ads shortly after they air during the game. As the preliminary results come in, an online widget (see right) will be updated with the ads’ scores and overlaying “curves” to represent real-time interest levels.

The top 20 commercials from the previous year’s study are displayed until the first commercial from the 2010 Super Bowl is ready. After the study has concluded, the widget will be updated with the final results.