teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

A few weeks ago we posted the “Ethics of Sunscreen” – from Seth Godin – and a counterpoint as well.

My friend Stefanie Boyer (Bryant University) has pointed out some additional reading which will give you an even better background on this issue.  She pointed us to the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Sunscreen Hall of Shame.  EWG points out specific, deceptive claims being made by some brands — and also suggests better brands.  The site also includes a page with some surprising, scientifically backed claims, “Sunscreens Exposed:  9 Surprising Truths.”

I am using all this information as part of my “Is Marketing Good or Evil?” exercise in class tomorrow.  I ask students this question and then provide some examples on both sides of the debate.  Like most tools, marketing can be used for good or evil — it is really who uses it.  The question that continues to be debated is the extent to which regulation should be introduced to prevent abuse.  No answers, just useful questions for our students to consider.

Thank you Stefanie!

This infographic “The Sneaky Psychology of Advertising” (BuySellAds.com, June 20, 2011) provides some interesting examples of consumer and advertising research.  Several of the ideas originally appeared in academic outlets including the Journal of Consumer Research and Psychology Today.  You might find the results of some of the studies will make interesting examples to use when you teach consumer behavior or advertising.  Are some of these tactics unethical?  What do you think?

I also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps – I plan to take a look at student comments there before I teach advertising.  I think it will give me an idea about how students view advertising — you might like to do the same.  So come back to the student post in a few weeks to see if we have any action there.

I think this speaks for itself.  Clever.  Not sure if my students would agree — or get it — but I did post it at Learn the 4 Ps.

This is a great case study for a creative, clever, and contemporary campaign put together by the Droga5 advertising agency for Bing.  The 3 minute video tells a great story that will work well in a class on integrated marketing communications.  The case study includes details on the results — which are nice for students to see.  Of course most of your students are in the target market for the campaign and will be familiar with hip-hop artist Jay-Z. We also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps.

Marketers have always been excited about the idea of turning consumers into powerful Promotion tools for their brands — but fostering word-of-mouth isn’t easy.  Now Facebook is hoping they have a strategy that makes it easy for consumers and marketers to work together to promote brands and products we “like” (as in pressing the “Like” button on Facebook).

No one is quite sure where this is going, but many consumers are already clicking the Facebook “Like” button on their favorite brands — or maybe mentioning in a post a recent  purchase of the brand.  Now it seems that Facebook will mention this ads targeting that customer’s friends.  So for example, if I “Like” a brand like Ikea on my Facebook page, an ad could appear on my friends pages that mentions “Joe (and perhaps more of their friends) Likes Ikea.”  In theory, knowing that Joe likes Ikea may make the store more appealing to my friends. This short article at Fast Company suggest that Facebook’s sponsored stories work – see “Facebook Sponsored Stories Performing 2 Times Better Than Standard Ads” (July 15, 2011).

Why could it work?  Because Facebook users are trusting people.  There is evidence that social networks foster trust.  You can read more about it in another Fast Company article, “Digital Oxytocin:  How Trust Keeps Facebook, Twitter Humming” (July 18, 2011).

These short articles epitomize one of the original motivations for Teach the 4 Ps – how can we keep our customers up-to-date when books only publish every few years.  So many new things are happening in marketing — so the blog is designed, in part, to help you stay current.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

As consumers get better at avoiding traditional advertising, marketers keep looking for better ways to get their message in front of consumers.  Enter social gaming — games on sites like Facebook.  P&G’s Bounty brand of paper towels appears prominently in Electronic Arts’ Playfish social game “Restaurant City.”

Often times marketers will just stick their product into a game just to build awareness — even if there is no connection to the brand.  At least in this case Bounty’s appearance in the game reinforces its positioning.  Players who unlock rolls of Bounty towels are able to clean more quickly than the standard paper towels.  They can also unlock a Bounty janitor who is 30% more effective at cleaning than the regular janitor.  A tie-in with Facebook helped Bounty gain more than 500,000 new fans at its Facebook page (how can more than 1.2 million people “like” a brand of paper towlels on Facebook?).  Read more at “P&G’s Bounty Picks Up Fans From Social Gaming” (AdAge, June 30, 2011)

P&G has long been a trend-setter and leader in consumer packaged goods marketing.  They were one of the first to increase point-of-purchase (in-store) advertising and have made many bold moves on the social media front.  We have highlighted some of these in previous posts on Teach the 4 Ps (see Sit or Squat phone app and the Old Spice “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” viral video campaign).  The video below is a segment from an interview with P&G CEO Bob McDonald which includes a look at where P&G sees marketing going in the future. In the process, McDonald reveals that Old Spice is now the #1 body wash and deodorant following the “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign.

Have you ever been felt stalked on the web?  We have found it downright creepy when ads start following us all around the web.  Recently Joe went to the iRobot website to get the latest on the Roomba which we have as a chapter opening case in our books.  For the next month, he kept seeing ads for the Roomba as he surfed the web.  It can get very creepy.

A previous T4Ps post “How Advertisers Use Internet Cookies to Track You” includes a video with some background on hot it works.  A recent article at PCWorld, “Help!  A Web Ad Is Stalking Me” (June 20, 2011) offers a lot of detail and insight on how it works.

We find that our students notice the “creepy ads” and sometimes ask about them.  Now after reading this article, we have a much better idea about how to answer the question.  I am not sure I will give my students this level of detail, but it will help me understand how things work.

The whole topic of behavioral targeting raises a lot of interesting questions.  Technology offers marketers many new targeting capabilities.  But just because they can do this, does it mean they should do this?  The article might help you lead a thoughtful discussion about the ethical implications of behavioral targeting.  The article could also provide you with useful background and examples to use when you cover segmentation and targeting as well as online advertising.

How about this as an example of the AIDA model that can guide marketing promotion?  We usually think of marketing communications as having one or more of the following jobs (with link to the video)

• Getting Attention - the large billboard, with lots of people watching will certainly grab attention
• Hold Interest - you can watch, wait to play the game, or play the game
• Arouse Desire - perhaps all that game playing or watching will make you hungry
• Obtain Action -  deliver coupons to winners, one of the oldest ideas for getting customers to take action

The McDonald’s Pick n Play outdoor promotion in Stockholm, Sweden does it all.  See the whole plan below.  You might want to show this as a creative example of promotion.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

We all know how difficult it can be to change consumer behavior.  Try selling razors in India, where only half of men shave at home (the other half shave at barbers — and then not everyday).  Is this a threat or an opportunity? P&G India saw this as an opportunity — hundreds of thousands of men who were not using its product.

So last year P&G launched its “Women Against Lazy Stubble” campaign — see TV commercial below for one of the early ads. The campaign reflects subtle changes in P&G’s marketing strategy under new CEO Bob McDonald which is described in “Why Procter & Gamble Needs To Shave More Indians” (Bloomberg Businessweek, June 9, 2011).

The article and television ad (you can find more ads in the campaign by searching YouTube) could make a great example to use in a number of different class sessions.  For example, you could start a class session on consumer behavior by giving your students shaving data from the article and then ask how P&G could encourage more Indian men to shave at home.  The case might also work to show how consumer behavior differs around the world — or in international marketing or advertising and promotion.