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If you overlook the annoying background music (and the dry narrator voice), this video (4:02 long) provides a pretty good example of integrated marketing communications — with an emphasis on social media.  Skin care and acne medication Clearasil targets teens.  And where are you likely to find them – online of course.  So Clearasil’s ad agency developed a group page at the popular Russian social media site Vkontakte.ru (think Facebook clone – even looks like Facebook).  Users uploaded and shared photos, videos, and stories — motivated by a contest.  They also designed branded apps — like one that used a marker that looked like a tube of Clearasil which allowed teens to remove pimples from photos.  The site was also supported by traditional media — often designed to push people toward the website.

Plenty of good results reported as well — in one year:  1) users uploaded more than 13,000 photos, 2) posted more than 120,000 comments, 3) more than 500,000 people participated in the group or used the app at the social network, and 4) sales grew 30% over the year.

Great example of social media, integrated marketing communications, in an international market.

Clearasil: 4cab36b21ac140.39603595 from BeesAwards on Vimeo.

This article in Fast Company, “Consumers in Emerging Markets Are Even More Cause-Centric Than Western Counterparts” (November 4, 2010) describes some interesting findings from a recent survey of over 7000 people worldwide  – Edelman’s 2010 GoodPurpose Report.  While we are not ready to suggest that purpose is the “5th ‘P’ of marketing” we do find the results interesting. It looks like cause-related marketing programs might work quite well in developing countries like India, Mexico, Brazil, and China — but we would like to see more research before making that leap.

More companies are looking at Africa as their next growth opportunity.  The new edition of Basic Marketing describes the continent’s income and population growth — as well as the increased access to the internet and cellular phones.  Here are a couple of articles that highlight the opportunities that big companies like Coca Cola and Walmart see in Africa:  “Africa:  Coke’s Last Frontier” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, October 29, 2010) and “Can Walmart and Coca-Cola make profits in Africa” (GlobalPost, November 8, 2010).  The GlobalPost story notes that “…59 million African households earn at least $5000 per year and that number is forecast to reach 106 million by 2014.”  Both stories provide some goodexamples of these two companies efforts.

This could help you bring an international dimension when discussing opportunity analysis, retailing, channels of distribution, and logistics.

Gillette may own the world market for razors and blades (70% market share) – but not the market in India.  Gillette’s razors are high end and expensive.  So the company designed a low price razor (15 rupees or 24 cents) with cheap replacement blades (5 rupees or 11 cents) for the Indian market — you won’t find it in the United States.  Read more about the new product — the Gillette Guard in this article “Gillette’s Latest Innovation in Razors: the 11-Cent Blade” (Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2010).

Great example to use when discussing developing economies or new product development.

The power of marketing in action.  A recent story on National Public Radio highlights an important environmental problem — indoor air pollution from unsafe cooking in many developing countries.  We have written a case about this problem, a quote provides you with a bit more background:

“Every day, over 2.4 billion people — more than one third of the world’s population — burn solid biomass fuel (wood, charcoal, dung and cola) for cooking and heating.  These fuels are usually burned indoors in open pits or traditional cook stoves.  About two-thirds of the people using this fuel have no electricity, so the open fires often burn into the night to provide light….  It is estimated that htis source of pollution contributes each year to the death of 1 million children under the age of 5, and it is a leading cause of miscarriage and women’s health problems.”  (quote from the case Bright Light Innovations:  The Starlight Stove, Essentials of Marketing and Basic Marketing — our text books).

The case was written a few years ago and focuses on Nepal, but this NPR story provides an update from India.  It describes how Envirofit (the company we base our case on) has designed a successful marketing mix that is now making inroads in India.  A great listen (or read – the text of the story is on the same page) – “Smoke Clears On Safer Cookstoves For World’s Poor” (National Public Radio, September 21, 2010).

The story is of great personal interest.  The Envirofit Cookstove was a project that came out of the Engine’s and Energy Conversion Lab at Colorado State University.  I (Joe) have watched the lab develop creative energy solutions that benefit mankind.  I wrote the Bright Light Innovations case in our text book and still enjoy teaching it in class.

I am not yet convinced about mobile commerce.  But we are seeing increasing experiments in this area – particularly in Asia and Europe.  Toys “R” Us, which apparently does pretty well in Hong Kong , has launched a new multimedia campaign that utilizes QR codes, vidoes, and rewards.  The toy retailer has 18,000 Faceboook members in Hong Kong and its YouTube channel (HKTOYSRUS) is one of the 10 most viewed in Hong Kong, and there are more than 700,000 Hong Kong members of its Star Card Loyalty Program.

The article, “Toys “R” Us unveils multichannel mobile CRM tactics” (Mobile Commerce Daily, September 9, 2010) offers a good example of integrated marketing communications that utilizes a variety of new media in a foreign country.  One element of the campaign is an iPhone app — the video below shows how that works.

Here is the latest take on the ethics of marketing to disadvantaged consumers.  Nestle has begun sailing a “supermarket barge” down the Amazon River and its tributaries.  The company has adapted some of its products with cheaper ingredients and smaller packages — to offer them at prices low-income shoppers can afford.  Sounds like good marketing — adapting the marketing mix to fit the needs of a target market.

Not so fast.  The program has drawn criticism from many corners — showing the power of a few prominent voices on the internet to influence public opinion.  This article in the Atlantic “Nestle Barge to Ply the Amazon, Bringing Ice Cream and Rage,” (June 21, 2010).  The debate raises interesting ethical and social responsibility questions.  It also raises questions about Nestle’s strategy and implementation of this project.

This issue might be discussed one one of the first few days of school around issues of micro- and macro-marketing (we cover these in chapter one of our books — along with social responsibility).  It also provides a nice ethical debate to have in the segmentation and targeting chapter.

This short Wall Street Journal article, “P&G Makes Push in India” describes P&G’s efforts to make inroads in India (June 22 – note that this requires a subscription, my link takes you to a search result which provides a backdoor to the article).  India is the world’s second largest (by population) consumer market — and it is growing at 12% a year.  Yet P&G faces tough competition from well established Hindustan Lever.

It is always nice to have international examples for class.  This articles notes that “Online Advertising Spending Surges in the Middle East” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, June 3, 2010).  The article notes that a major challenge in the Middle East is the relatively low penetration of broadband Internet.  The forthcoming edition of Basic Marketing (18th edition, publishing in November) include s a lot of statistics about technology penetration across the globe.  Of course on a small base, it is easier to observe high growth.

CNN is on a roll with the global green consumer.  Earlier today I posted an article and video clip about a store in London.  Now we have an interesting story from China, “Would Chinese consumers ‘go green’ — if given the choice?” (CNN.com, May 4, 2010) including, to my surprise, the following revelation:

Landor recently conducted a brand survey that shows consumers in China are actually more concerned about green issues than consumers in the United States or Europe. For example, 45 percent of those surveyed in China said they consider it very important that a company is green when thinking about which brands to purchase, compared to 23 percent in the United States.

This video clip could be shown along with the earlier one to try to get a better handle on how green affects consumers.  I have seen other studies which suggest Chinese consumers can be very price conscious — one study we cite in our text books indicated a willingness to pay a premium of only 2% for branded products they purchase regularly (as opposed to unbranded products).  In the U.S. and many other developed countries the premium is typically 20% or more.  There can be many reasons for that of course.

The aricle and video clip raise interesting issues around sustainability, consumer behavior across cultures, and international marketing.