The examples here might work well when you cover Place, retail, Price, or Promotion and want to provide an example of how a concept is adapted in international markets.

In “Big Brother is Watching You Shop” (Bloomberg Businessweek, December 15, 2011), you can read about retailers using in-store video cameras and tracking your cell phone to better understand how you move through a retail store.  Analyzing video from a Miami store allowed Montblanc managers to more strategically locate merchandising, signage, and salespeople.  The result — a 20% bump in sales.  Other retailers follow customers’ cell phone signals to track and map movement through stores.  This of course is raising privacy concerns.

These two stories can be useful examples for marketing research (where we cover dashboards and marketing models), retailing, and in discussions of privacy.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

The video below provides a short (3:20) overview and demonstration of Kiva’s robots in action.  Sorry about the :30 commercial up-front.  An accompanying article “Robot workers take over warehouses,” (CNN Money, November 9, 2011) addresses Kiva’s roots and start-up challenges.  The article might be more useful background material or it could be assigned if you emphasize entrepreneurship in your marketing instruction.  The video is a good fit when you cover physical distribution.

This provides examples of entrepreneurship, franchising, sustainability, and international (developing) markets.

This article provides examples you might find useful when you cover price, competition, marketing strategy planning, new product development or retailing.
 

This example suggests some interesting ideas to bring up in class.  For example, the customer market continues to fragment for retailers, many now aim (at least) two segments of online shoppers — PC users and tablet users.  And retailers are adapting their marketing strategies to each target market.  The article provides some good examples of the types of online retailers are using to better address tablet customers.  While many retailers initially invested in apps specifically for their store, research shows that most tablet shoppers still prefer the browser interface.

The video below (direct link to video:  “Grocery Stores Using Subliminal Marketing,” ABC News, September 23, 2011) addresses how supermarkets merchandise and display products to influence consumer choice.  People are typically conscious of these stimuli — but may not recognize the role of each in getting us to open our wallet or pocketbook a bit wider. I used this video today as an example of psychological variables that affect  consumer behavior.  The video will also work for retailing or promotion for point-of-purchase.. The video is only 2:08, but you do have to put up with a :15 advertisement at the start, so you might want to cue it up before class.

First, an article in the Wall Street Journal that describes how retailers create 13 (or more) shopping seasons as a way to encourage more impulse shopping.  There are a lot of great examples of retail promotions in “A Season (or 13) for Shopping” (August 17, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here).

My second article on seasonal promotions taps into the recently ended Islamic holy month of Ramadan.  International examples are always nice to add as class examples — and I don’t see many examples from the Middle East.  This article in BusinessWeek is short and offers taglines and explanations for campaigns from McDonalds and Tang among others.  See “Islam’s Holy Month:  A Time for Self Promotion” (August 25, 2011).