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I am busy trying to figure out this Facebook thing.  There are so many interesting questions about social media.  I have no doubt that it will play an increasingly important role in marketing practice — and we need to be talking about it in our classes (and text books).  But it is often hard to sort through the hype.  For example, this article “Facebook User Demographics 2010” (Fast Company, March 27, 2010) is another that notes the whopping growth in Facebook users — especially in older age groups. The plus 55 age group grew 922.7% and over 35 age group is now 30% of the entire user database.

But I have yet to read anything that digs deeper into usage patterns and demographics.  I was just talking to a colleague both in that over 35 age group (o.k., I confess, I turn 50 in less than two weeks).  We both have Facebook pages and we visit them maybe once or twice a week.  We rarely make posts — but sometimes e-mail through Facebook.  On the other hand, our teenage kids (and most of my students) check Facebook all the time.  While I think Facebook has tremendous potential and is a sign of different communication patterns we have to remember who really makes up the core, active user base.  I make a lot of posts about Facebook and Twitter because these are areas that our text books (and most any text book) does not cover well — because the trend is so new — so I want to give you some current examples of ho it works.  or those target markets Facebook makes sense – but keep in mind other forms of media, too.  We should all be wary of and sort through the hype and we should help our students do the same.

Sorry, I will get off my soap box now and return to your regular programming of linked articles and videos.

Toyota developed the Scion brand to target young people.  They have been very creative with their marketing campaigns, shying away from traditional advertising.  Here is the brand’s latest effort — it involves developing a web series.  The video is part of the first episode — may be kind of long to show in class, but I might try to show the first couple minutes so students get the idea and see the production values.  Short article Video:  “Scion Targets Younger Buyers With ‘Project Runway for Cars’ Web Series” at Fast Company, March 30, 2010.  One measure of its success will clearly be the number of views (so you can track with me, because as of March 31 at 8:07 a.m. Mountain Time, there are only 1087 views of part 1 — and only 192 viewers went on to watch part 2.  You will have to click through to YouTube, double click on the video below, to get the count).

You know what they say in autos: One day you’re in, and the next day, you’re…winning a Scion? That’s the idea behind Scion’s Reinvent The Wheels, a new Web video series being billed as “Project Runway for cars.” The six-part saga, which premiered last night (just days before the New York Auto Show), follows 3 “creative thinkers” as they pimp a series of rides in an effort to win a Scion, a $30,000 cash prize, and “a one-of-a-kind opportunity to help them achieve their career goals by gaining valuable exposure and mentorship” (whatever that means).

I found this to be an interesting example of targeting influencers — because Chevy did not target “car buys” but instead targeted “tech guys”.   Jason Falls posts this on his blog, Social Media Explorer, “Targeting Influencers: A Case Study With Chevy Volt” (March 17, 2010). Jason Falls, Robert Scoble, and Guy Kawasaki are well known in the tech field.  The video is interesting in part because it includes Volt’s product manager Cristi Landi who explains the selection of these influencers.  This is a great example of one of the many experiments in social media that marketers are engaging in today. What do you think? Will this work? Is it the wave of the future?

This could be used in a variety of places in your marketing course — in consumer behavior (influencers), product life cycle (early adopters), or in Promotion (social media). Note, for some reason I was unable to embed this video but you can find it with the blog post.

The World Cup is a huge sponsorship opportunity — especially in Spain.  I spent almost a year in Spain while on sabbatical a few years ago — they love their soccer.  This short (2:17) video clips might provide an international example to use when you talk about sales promotion or sponsorship  “Spain a World Cup Favorite for Ads” (CNNMoney.com).

We don’t usually talk much in our books, nor do I talk much in class about infomercials or Home Shopping Network and related TV selling approaches.  This article “Sales tips from the new Billy Mays” (CNN, March 30, 2010) talks about the Kings of TV pitchmen Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan and includes links to nine sample pitches.  How can you not be ready to phone in for your own Jupiter Jack or Turbo Snake?

One more clip (4:26) from CNN’s Poppy Harlow’s interview with Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz.  Of the series I have posted here at Teach the 4 Ps, I like this one best.  It addresses how Starbucks is responding to its growing competition.  Our books address this in the opening scenario in chapter 1.  But the video might work best when talking about competition.  To see this in a slightly larger format click here.

This is another segment from CNN’s Poppy Harlow’s interview with Howard Shultz. This might fit in one of several marketing class sessions. Starbucks is a retailer so it might fit there. But I think it works best when talking about implementation and control of marketing strategy. Thus it might fit with our books with chapter 2 or with chapter 19 in Basic Marketing. Note: I can usually resize videos to make them fit my column, but it did not work with this one — so click here to see it larger on the CNN site.

This short (1:38) video might be nice to drop into a class session on IMC or advertising when you want to talk about social media.  There is not a lot of content or good examples, but it is an interview with Howard Shultz (CEO) and demonstrates that a big brand like Starbucks values social media.  Note:  I am usually able to change the size of the video to make it fit my column width — but it didn’t work in this case.  To see this video in a little larger format at the CNN site, click here.

In this post at her Ries’ Pieces blog (March 8, 2010), Laura Ries includes a link to an interview on Fox Business news.  Ries makes some excellent marketing points (see “Experience the Focus“). The interview may be a bit long for class – I find students get bored quickly with talking heads.  Plus, I find the video player Fox uses a hassle to work with — I hope you have better luck).  It might make a nice post to an online course to give it some life.  We use the soap market as an example of positioning in chapter 4 of our books.  This might also be a nice example to use with brand management and of course it makes a strong case for the importance of the unique selling proposition.

My previous post linked to an article that pointed out how B2B buyers are likely to Google a prospective supplier — and what turns up is your reputation.  And a single bad act can outweigh many good acts — just ask Jet Blue.  Virgin America had their reputation damaged last week.  Once again we see the role of social media in spreading word of “bad acts” far and wide.  I like that Sviokla’s post on an HBR blog, “Real-time Brand Management — Lessons from Virgin America’s Hellish Flight“  (March 18, 2010) provides a nice analysis and implications for marketing managers.  The story addresses brand management, service failure and recovery, and social media.