teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

Over at his Effective Marketer blog, Daniel Kuperman offers a nice summary overview of “Unleashing the Power of Marketing” (an HBR article from last October).  His post, titled “Reinventing Marketing at GE” (July 7, 2011) provides a nice case study example that could be used at one of a couple different areas in the introductory marketing course — with strategy planning, business marketing, or implementation.  In chapter 3 in both Basic Marketing and Essentials of Marketing we use the GE ecomagination campaign as an extended example of sustainability.  I also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps – as Daniel neatly summarizes key marketing roles, some of which our students need to recognize and master to be successful in the long-run.

This article, “The Benefits of a U.S.-Colombia Free-Trade Deal” (Bloomberg Businessweek, April 14, 2011) addresses a few areas where the content here at T4Ps is kind of light — B2B and the legal environment.  The article describes how Caterpillar spotted an opportunity in Columbia and began lobbying to move forward a stalled trade agreement designed to cut back on tariffs on their sales into Columbia, South Korea, and Panama.

Here at T4Ps, we are always looking for interesting B2B cases.  Unfortunately, they are much less common than B2C.   But here is a good article “Deere Enhances Focus on Russia” (Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2011 — non-subscribers click here) featuring one of our favorite companies Deere.  We feature Deere in the opening case scenario in our chapter on Business and Organizational Customers in our text books.  Deere’s stretch goal of doubling sales in the next 8 years will not happen in the slow growth construction and farm equipment markets in North America.  So Deere needs to look at international opportunities.  This is not unlike the situation many of our students will likely be facing in the coming years.  It provides a nice opportunity to discuss the challenges and opportunities in international markets.

The article is light on details related to the competition in Russia — or the needs of the Russian customer.  Russia is also a risky market.  So you could ask students what kind of marketing research they might want to have before developing a marketing strategy.  Combining this article with some student research at Michigan State’s great globalEDGE website might be a nice assignment.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Somehow this article slipped by me – and it is now more than a month old, see “The Future of Selling:  It’s Social” (Forbes, December 3, 2011)   But it is chock full of great information and ideas from Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO of OglivyOne Worldwide, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies.  He provides some brief highlights of research OglivyOne conducted on sales professionals in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, and China.  The results show quite a variance in the role of social media in personal selling across different countries.  The article also suggests some strategies for companies and salespeople.  While there has been a lot of talk about social media in consumer markets, this suggests opportunity in B2B as well.  File under international, social media and personal selling.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

I find it nice to have short little case study examples for students.  They work particularly well when they describe the success of an entrepreneur.  This is a very interesting story about how a small company got its sweetener on the shelves of Wal-Mart.  You can read about how the company got its name, packaging colors, and used a collaborator with a guerilla marketing campaign to win over Wal-Mart.  Check out the article, “Skoopz:  Sweet-Talking Wal-Mart” in Bloomberg Businessweek (October 21, 2010) or the Skoopz website.

This might work well as an example for B2B selling, entrepreneurship, or marketing strategy planning.

Many of us are covering pricing soon in our Principles classes.  So it is nice to see a couple of recent Wall Street Journal articles that address timely pricing challenges.  In “Dilemma Over Pricing,” (WSJ, October 21, 2010) rising commodity prices are pressuring profit margins at companies ranging from General Mills to Domino’s and Harley Davidson.  Of course the economy has many cautious, price sensitive customers — so firms are treading carefully.  In “Raising Prices Pays Off for Some,”  (WSJ, October 27, 2010), you can read how a few small companies have raised prices in the current environment.

A recent post described the difficulties that B2B firms had with social media, see “For ‘B-to-B’ Companies, Finding Facebook ‘Friends’ Can Be a Struggle” (Teach the 4 Ps, October 24, 2010).  Now I see a few more success stories reported in B2B Online.  In “Facebook:  The latest b2b frontier” (October 11, 2010) you can read how SteelMaster Building, which makes steel buildings, generated 6500 “likes’ at Facebook.  And while I wish this article had some more specific examples, “How Rockwell integrated direct marketing with social” (BtoB Online, October 25, 2010), emphasizes the importance of a well coordinated integrated marketing communications program.

Think about using these examples when you cover Promotion for some B2B examples or business buying.

Duh!  Not sure I find this very surprising – “For ‘B-to-B’ Companies, Finding Facebook ‘Friends’ Can Be a Struggle,” (Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2010 – non-subscribers link here and click on article).  While I believe there are some opportunities for B2B communication via Twitter and Facebook — and this article offers a few success stories — I think there are other social media vehicles that work better.  At this point most people use Facebook for personal connections and possibly to keep up on brands they enjoy as consumers — not as business buyers.  That may change.  What do you think?  Where are the opportunities for social media with B2B?  Some discussion of this might fit in when you cover social media in a class on Promotion — when offering for B2B examples.  Note:  also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

UPS is leaving its “What can Brown do for you?” campaign behind.  The new campaign – “That’s Logistics” – targets small and medium size businesses that “love” logistics.  See this article, “UPS Leaves ‘Brown’ for New Love (Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010 or click here if the link to the article doesn’t work) for more details.

Package-delivery giant United Parcel Service Inc. is launching a global ad campaign to promote its expanding logistics business to small and medium-sized businesses that want to sell their wares globally.

Of course I love logistics — but most of my students find it kind of boring.  This ad might be used when you discuss logistics, organizational buying, or segmentation and targeting.  It is always nice to have a few B2B examples.

OK, here you go fell B2Bers – two B2B examples in a row.  This is an interesting interview with Intel’s global search manager who explains how Intel uses search as a marketing tool.  The article is probably a bit technical for the intro course, but it helps explain some of the growth trends in online spending.  Check out “Intel Corp.’s Carrillo on search marketing success” (BtoBOnline, July 28, 2010).