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It is difficult to find good articles on market research.  This one offers an interesting take on advertising research from an experienced researcher.  It appears in Brandweek “What Do Consumers Think? Don’t Even Bother Asking” (May 3, 2010).  This could provide fodder for a discussion with students about what can market research do?  How can market research be designed to address some of the questions in the article?

It is amazing that companies come out with 2:31 versions of their ads and then have people forward them to others.  And if the ad is good enough, it works.  I think this is good enough, I hope you do as well. The ad showcases the wide variety of Honda products from motorcycles to cars to airplanes to boats to robots to…

Hmmmm.  This could be an interesting in-class discussion on a variety of levels.  There has long been a debate about the ethics of advertising to children.  Then there is the issue about the role of government.  Now the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission has developed the Admongo website (www.admongo.gov) and game to teach kids about advertising.  The article in The New York Times, “In a World of Ads, Teaching the Young How to Read Them” (April 26, 2010).  The article notes…

The initiative seeks to educate children in grades four through six — tweens, in the parlance of marketing — about how advertising works so they can make better, more informed choices when they shop or when they ask parents to shop on their behalf.

While I could review the game and site, I know that good market research should be done with the target market.  Well I happen to have a fifth grader — right at the heart of the target market for the government effort.  So I asked Mallory to play the game and offer a brief review.  I know, bad marketing research to use a sample size of one.  After about 10 minutes — she had to get ready for school — it got a tentative thumb’s up.  She said it was “pretty good.”  When I asked if she would play it again if her dad did not force her, she said “Probably, maybe it would be more fun if I got to the higher levels.”   I asked about how fun it was compared to other online games, and she said, “I guess it is almost as fun as Bush Hot Dog” – I figured that was an endorsement.  I will let you know if she really goes back for more on her own.

In our text books the last chapter evaluates marketing from a micro- and macro- perspective.  This article could be used to discuss the ethics of advertising to children and the role of government.

It’s about that time in the semester to go over advertising.  Here are “30 Funny Print Ads that’ll Make You Laugh” (Web Design Ledger blog, March 18, 2010).  For most of these ads, you can click on the ad to link through to a higher quality version.  If you right click over the high quality version, you can copy the image and move it into, and resize it for a PowerPoint presentation if you want to show it in class.

This video looks at consumer interest in “green” products and points out how the “FTC Gets Tougher on False ‘Green’ Marketing,” (3:05, WSJ Video, April 17, 2010).  The video could be shown in a number of different class sessions.  It obviously fits with legal issues in advertising as well as with ethics and corporate social responsibility.  In our books it fits with some discussion of greenwasing in the last chapter.

The ad below has created a lot of controversy — see “The Industry Reacts to Nike and Tiger,” (Adweek, April 12, 2010), “Tiger Woods’ Nike Ad Raises Eyebrows,” (ABC News video, 6:27), or “The Creepy Nike Tiger Ad:  Would Dad Approve?” (Time, April 9, 2010).  It might also be interesting to share research on the ad from MediaCurves.  There are a variety of different ways to use this in class.  Obviously it is very topical.  It might be interesting to show it during a session on advertising, then discuss the decision to run the ad.  The articles allude to potential motivations for Nike.  Then you could share the results from MediaCurves and ask the question, what should Nike do next?

Here, the name says it all, mainly  a bunch of old cigarette ads that are in bad taste — “13 Most Evil Vintage Ads in History.”

This is great stuff!  We have a wild ad for Friskies cat food (see below) — and analysis from its creator via an article by Seth Stevenson “Psychedelic Cat Food Why is the new Friskies ad so trippy?“(Slate.com, March 29, 2010). What a combination — great read, great ad, fun stuff to show and discuss in class. Works with consumer behavior, segmentation and targeting, as well as advertising. Enjoy.

Of course, not all cat owners are quite so jazzed about spooning out cat food and watching their pets munch on it. Friskies did some proprietary consumer research and found a specific segment of cat fanciers they wanted to home in on. Schlueter says the target is “owners who are very involved with their cats, and have a deep relationship with their cats. These are owners who love to get inside and experience the magical world their cats experience.” Thus the lyrics of the ad’s jingle promise that Friskies will help you “excit[e] your cat, day and night, with endless enchantment.” (At the risk of forcing some cat owners to contemplate uncomfortable notions, I will note that this pitch is not unlike that of spam e-mails guaranteeing the ability to “satisfy your partner like never before.”)

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?

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.