teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

This article, “Philly Cream Cheese’s Spreading Appeal” (Bloomberg Businessweek, December 12, 2011) is a great example that has many classroom uses.  Sometimes I like to describe an extended case study — to help students integrate the marketing strategy planning process — this article is that type of example.  Sales of Philadephia brand cream cheese were pretty much flat (mature or decline stage of the product life cycle) for most of the last decade.  Then Kraft researchers (market research) noticed that heavy users of the product were using cream cheese as an ingredient in their cooking — not simply as a spread for bagels.  Starting in Europe back in 2008, Kraft’s brand managers tapped into social media and the Internet to gather and share recipes using Philadephia brand cream cheese, they promoted it on cooking shows and with contests (Promotion).  In the U.K. the share of customers using cream cheese as an ingredient (effective repositioning) has almost doubled to 37% — and sales are up 20% in Europe (data – it is nice to show case studies in class with real results).  All of this in a mature product category.  What a great example of how to revitalize a brand.  Check out the article for more details on the strategy.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

With the launch of the Nissan Leaf and the soon-to-be available Chevy Volt, Americans finally have access to mass produced electric cars.  But how will consumer respond to these new products?  There are many challenges facing Nissan and Chevrolet.  This article “Electrics power into mainstream” (USA Today, November 8, 2010) outlines some of these challenges.  You could have your students read this article and then ask how Nissan should deal with these challenges?  Run through the marketing strategy elements – target market and the 4 Ps.  Our students can relate to this market.  How Chevrolet, Nissan, and eventually Ford and other automakers deal with these issues will have a profound impact on how quickly electric cars are adopted — and on our environment.

We love the Nintendo DS and Wii!  It is such a great example to use for market segmentation — and we use it as a chapter opening case scenario in our segmentation and targeting chapter (chapter 4).  Nintendo found a market segment, the casual gamer, that was under-served.  They designed products for this market and soon was selling more game consoles than Sony and Microsoft which targeted hard-core gamers.  Now things are changing.  Sony and Microsoft are attacking the casual gamer market as “Nintendo Goes for the Hard Core with Its 3DS” (Bloomberg Businessweek, October 28, 2010).  Read about it here.

This shows new product development, but also how a product category is moving from growth to maturity.  Nice supplement to segmentation and targeting — and an update to chapter 4 if you are using one of our books.

A disruptive innovation “improves a product or service in ways the market does not expect, typically by being lower priced or designed for a different set of consumers” (Wikipedia – Disruptive Technology).  This Wall Street Journal article “Using the iPad to Connect” (October 13, 2010) describes such an innovation in working with special needs kids.  The iPad plus a $190 software package might replace devices costing from $2500 – $15,000.  It might be interesting to describe this — or show the video in class — and ask students how smart phones or the iPad might disrupt other markets.

The example might be useful when covering new product development or the product life cycle.  NOTE:  also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Lexmark International is one of the world’s leading makers of computer printers had a problem.  While slow to come around, the trend to the paperless office is real.  That trend significantly reduced demand for printers.  So Lexmark adapted — and offers its customers services to help them print less.  Lexmark helped Coca Cola save $11 million over five years — and sold them 3800 new mostly Lexmark printers.

This article, “After a Jam, Lexmark Turns to Services” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, August 26, 2010) provides examples for use when talking about goods and services or the product life cycle — as printers settle well into market maturity stage.  It is also interesting to think about this change in the context of personal selling — where Lexmark no doubt had to change its personal selling strategy to a consultative selling approach.

We love the LEGO story!  We use LEGO as an opening case for chapter 5 in the forthcoming edition of Basic Marketing (out October 2010).  We read dozens of articles to learn the whole story.  The LEGO turnaround (as recently as 2002 the company was losing money) was stimulated by a number of brilliant marketing moves — including creative use of social media and design.  This article focuses on design – something we discuss in the Product chapters.  See “How LEGO Revived Its Brand,” (Bloomberg Businessweek, July 23, 2010).  [NOTE:  This post is also featured at our companion blog for marketing students - "Learn the 4 Ps".]

In our books, we define a fad as “an idea that is fashionable only to certain groups who are enthusiastic about it — but those groups are so fickle that fad is even more short-lived than a regular fashion.”  Only time will tell if Silly Bandz is a fad — or has the legs to become a toy with a longer life.  But this article, “The Man Behind the Bandz” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, June 10, 2010) describes some of the history and marketing behind this fast growing “toy.”  I say some, because founder Robert Croak doesn’t want to reveal all his secrets.  But they have relied on social media and viral promotion to fuel growth. A companion article, “Wham-O CEO to Silly Bandz:  Boost Creativity” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, June 10, 2010) has a short Q&A with the CEO of the company that sells the Frisbee, SuperBall and Slip ‘n Slide among other products.

This article might be a nice example of a fad — or could be discussed with respect to the product life cycle.  The article also discusses success with using Facebook and mostly consumer generated YouTube videos featuring Silly Bandz — so it could work as a social media example, too.

Here is another Wall Street Journal video (4:36)/article combination. The article “Microsoft’s New Phones Target Youth” (April 12, 2010 if you don’t have a subscription, click here to learn about the WSJ “back door”). This would be a nice video to show in class when talking about new product development. It might be fun to show the video in class and ask students (who are the target market) if they think it will be successful.

I found this to be an interesting example of targeting influencers — because Chevy did not target “car buys” but instead targeted “tech guys”.   Jason Falls posts this on his blog, Social Media Explorer, “Targeting Influencers: A Case Study With Chevy Volt” (March 17, 2010). Jason Falls, Robert Scoble, and Guy Kawasaki are well known in the tech field.  The video is interesting in part because it includes Volt’s product manager Cristi Landi who explains the selection of these influencers.  This is a great example of one of the many experiments in social media that marketers are engaging in today. What do you think? Will this work? Is it the wave of the future?

This could be used in a variety of places in your marketing course — in consumer behavior (influencers), product life cycle (early adopters), or in Promotion (social media). Note, for some reason I was unable to embed this video but you can find it with the blog post.

Personally, I would probably consider printer/copier paper to be a commodity product.  Obviously you don’t want to think that if you are in this market.  This interview with Double A paper’s Thirawit Leetavorn explains how (Australian firm?) Double A has developed a brand with awareness, differentiation and preference through advertising.  You could follow up this video with a couple of ads — the “Girl on the Copier” doesn’t do much for differentiation, but it’s viral and buzz potential built awarness.  Another add – “No Jam” develops one of its key points of differentiation.  This video series could be used with our books chapter 2 (marketing strategy planning), chapter 4 (positioning), or with a discussion of the product life cycle (market maturity), in Promotion tied to promotion objectives or advertising to create differentiation, or even around pricing.  It’s also nice to show students some international examples.