teachthe4ps.com » Product

“How LEGO Revived Its Brand”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:47:35 +0000

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 stimulate 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).

“The Man Behind the Bandz”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:06:10 +0000

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.

“Procter & Gamble’s Root-to-End Pantene Makeover”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:51:24 +0000

Another May 20, 2010 Bloomberg BusinessWeek article, “Procter & Gamble’s Root-to-End Pantene Makeover.” This one discusses P&G’s latest attempt to makeover the Pantene brand. The makeover is recent, so no results are in yet. You could assign the article and ask students if they believe the changes in marketing strategy will work — and why? This could be a short written assignment or an in-class discussion.

“At Subaru, Sharing the Love Is a Market Strategy”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:45:12 +0000

I am getting caught up on a pile of magazines — and the May 24 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek has some great marketing articles. Subaru is a powerful brand in college towns — especially in mountain states like Colorado where I live. Full disclosure, I own a ten year old Forrester. Anyway, this article describes the marketing strategy for the brand and its success even in the recent recess. See “At Subaru, Sharing the Love Is a Market Strategy” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek May 20, 2010).

Starbucks Fights Back!

Joe Cannon — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:58:34 +0000

McDonalds has had great success with its coffee sales. Introducing a pretty tasty line of java, priced below Starbucks during a recession struck a chord with many consumers. Now Starbucks has “…announced that it would sell one of the premium brands it owns — Seattle’s Best Coffee — in Burger King and Subway restaurants, at AMC movie theaters and at supermarkets and coffeehouses across the country, with 30,000 locations in all.” See “Starbucks Hits McDonald’s with Seattle’s Best” in Time (May 25, 2010).

The opening scenario in chapter one in our text books discusses Starbucks and McDonalds. This provides a nice example of competition and from a strategy perspective about the use of Seattle’s best as a “fighting brand” (not a concept we go into in our books).

“How Google Got Its New Look”

Joe Cannon — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:46:50 +0000

I find it interesting to see concepts we teach applied in unique contexts. This article (”How Google Got Its New Look,“ Bloomberg Businessweek, May 5, 2010) describes the process Google used to develop its new search results page. You can recognize some of the stages of the new product development process. Could provide a nice example to use when discussing NPD.

“Microsoft’s New Phones Target Youth”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:53:36 +0000

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.

BusinessWeek’s “50 Most Innovative Companies” issue hits newsstands and the web

Joe Cannon — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:53:04 +0000

BusinessWeek annually ranks the “50 Most Innovative Companies” and writes a whole package of stories. Well, the latest issue is online now. My link sends you to the home page, where you can link to an overview article, a Table with the innovation leaders, a slide show of “25 companies on the cutting-edge,” innovation close ups with HTC and LG, and an overview of an annual survey of executives. A really nice package. The examples probably work best for new product development.

“Targeting Influencers: A Case Study With Chevy Volt”

Joe Cannon — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:49:52 +0000

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.

Axe & Dove – Great Examples of Positioning and Unique Selling Proposition

Joe Cannon — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:45:02 +0000

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.