teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

It sure sounded like a great idea.  The idea, draw attention to global warming and the plight of polar bears.  The bears have been a Coca Cola holiday symbol for almost 100 years — so the actions also fit with the brand’s heritage.  Coke did this by changing the iconic red cans to white for the holidays.  It sure sounded like a good idea.  Unfortunately, the new cans confused consumers — especially Diet Coke drinkers who confused the white can with their familiar silver Diet Coke cans.  This article, “Bad News, Bears:  Coke Pulls Back on White Cans in Holiday Campaign to Save Polar Bears” (brandchannel, December 1, 2011) describes many interesting elements to the story.  For example, by monitoring social media, Coca Cola marketing managers heard complaints early.  This case is also a demonstration of a low involvement product that consumers buy out of habit.   In the end, it probably marks a mis-step by the soft drink giant.  But I would say, if you take chance, you will make mistakes sometimes.  And this whole outcome, like the New Coke introduction 25 years ago, may yet generate positive publicity for the brand.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

This article has examples that can be used in teaching consumer behavior, market research, brand management, packaging, and advertising & promotion.

This Wall Street Journal article/video combination is really two stories.  One is the remarkable success of Doug, Ford’s spokespuppet.  Doug’s YouTube channel has more than 3 million upload views.

On the other hand, focus of the article, “Big Brands Like Facebook, But They Don’t Like Paying,” (November 2, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here) describes a business model challenge for Facebook.  The company’s $70 billion market value is based on the idea that the social network giant will produce revenues and profits — largely from selling targeted ads on the site.  Big brands love the eyeballs their Facebook fan pages attract, but those pages cost little to produce and generate no revenue for Facebook.  And many firms, like Ford, are spending for other media — in part to drive customers to Facebook.  While Americans spend 15% of their online time on Facebook, the social network giant only attracts 6.4% of all online advertising.  The video below interviews with the author of the WSJ article.

The article has insights for teaching about advertising, media selection, and social media.

In “A Dinner with Drug Reps” (November 1, 2011) Dan Ariely describes a dinner with some former pharmaceutical and medical device salespeople.  After plying them with a few drinks, he and a colleague elicited some pretty interesting stories of personal selling to medical doctors. To be successful in the industry do you need to:

• Go to a dance class with a physician?
• Bring elaborate meals to doctor’s offices?
• Sell medical devices in the operating room?
• Hire doctors to speak about the pharmaceutical firm’s drugs at medical conferences?
• Switch on and off various accents, personalities, etc.?

It might be fun to describe each of these actions — and ask if students thought each was an ethical practice — and why.  It is easy to say they are not ethical, but then how would sales reps get their information to doctors?  And how do they compete with other drug makers that may be utilizing these practices?  Users of our text books might find it useful to contrast this description with the video we have that shows a sales call for a Johnson & Johnson sales rep and a doctor.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Harley-Davidson’s sales of premium motorcycles  have suffered in the recession — falling more than 40% from its 2006 peak.  Harley cut costs with more efficient manufacturing and labor cuts.  It has also carefully adapted its marketing strategy.  For one, the company is trying to broaden its target market — trying to lure women, minorities, young adults and people outside the U.S.  It must target these new markets with caution; Harley doesn’t want to dilute its carefully crafted macho image.  Harley’s marketing chief notes, “We’re not trying to be everything to everyone, we’re trying to be our thing to more people.”  So Harley has adapted its promotion and products to appeal to new segments.  This is not an easy task — and your macho image might be lost when riders look around and see a growing number of women riding Harleys.  The article provides a nice example to use with marketing strategy planning for product or promotion.  You could ask students for other ideas about how to adapt the company’s strategy for these new target markets.

You can read more about Harley’s efforts in this Wall Street Journal article, “Harley, With Macho Intact, Tries to Court More Women” (October 31, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here).  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

I am careful about showing promotion examples from the alcohol industry in my classroom.  I definitely avoid those that promote excessive drinking.  But this viral video (1:39) by Danish beer Carlsberg, takes place at a movie theater in Belgium, is funny.  The ad provides a good example of viral promotion.  The viral video is part of a campaign “That calls for a Carlsberg” that includes scaling Mount Everest (to watch a soccer match — see the ad) and the first man landing on the moon.  See the ads at the Carlsberg website (you have to enter birth date and click through to commercials).

It is nice to have examples from around the world — especially when they are good examples.  This short video describes a campaign by Russian window maker Rehau.  The advertising told Russians how their poor quality windows let heat escape — it was like throwing money out the window.  The ads show money flying out the window, but Rehau then literally threw money out the window, which generated lots of publicity and media coverage.  This video describes the program.  Just in time for winter weather, this could be a ice example to use for publicity, promotion, or international marketing.

VW’s new side assist technology is a nice safety feature — though a bit complicated to explain to your target market.  To get the point across, VW created a website that demonstrates the “idea” in an office environment.  This one is easier to show than tell — so take a look.

This video clip might be useful when you cover marketing communications.  You could set this up by saying that VW has developed this new technology.  You could explain the technology — but then ask how you could make this point in a concise manner.  Suggest that the class consider the promotion objective be to communicate the value of the new side assist technology.  Then show them what VW did — and ask if it worked.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

I have posted before on the daily deal site (see “Get to Know Groupon,” March 28, 2011).  If you are not up to speed on LivingSocial, Groupon, or other sites, check out that post. As a consumer, I love these promotions — getting half off at a favorite restaurant is hard to pass up.

I have even written a case that I plan to put in the next edition of our books — since it looks like daily deal promotion is here to stay.  I still question the strategy — which is why it makes for a great case — there is room to debate both sides.  The case made for fun discussion on the first day of class and one of my students tells me she works at a local restaurant that swears by LivingSocial coupons. I have previously questioned if a small business really wants these deal-prone consumers — because the deep discounts almost require them to spend more than the coupon or come back again for it to be a profitable promotion.

A second issue relates to the profitability of Groupon and LivingSocial — the two leaders in this space.  There is already a shakeout occurring among daily deal sites.  With such low barriers to entry, I have often wondered if anyone would really make much profit in this space.  One key is differentiation — and LivingSocial, which copied Groupon in the first place, is working at it (see: “LivingSocial Aims to Be Different from Groupon,“ BusinessWeek, September 22, 2011).  Groupon announced its own new product ideas back in March (“Are Four Words Worth $25 Billion for Groupon?” BusinessWeek, March 17, 2011), but I have not heard if these are working.  For a variety of reasons, Groupon’s IPO has been delayed.

STA Travel is a discount travel agency for students.  This is a fun ad that targets our student market.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

At least in Germany, Mercedes Benz offers windshield repair services.  Mercedes wants customers to know that its dealers can fix a cracked windshield “fast and easy” — and this direct mail piece gets that message across in a clever way.  I like to show my students a variety of different media — though I confess that most examples are TV and print ads.  So this makes for something different when you cover promotion and direct marketing.  I used it as an example of customer needs and wants in our consumer behavior chapter.  The customer needs a new windshield, but they want a fast and easy way to replace it.