teachthe4ps.com - teaching the 4 ps

As we all know, Toyota has had a pretty rough year. A long-term problem for automakers — how do you make a minivan cool? As a Sienna owner, I must admit I make my wife drive it. This campaign has ben running on TV since February but the long version recently worked its way to the top of the AdAge Viral video chart — with over 1.4 million views per week. This could be fun to show to class — starting with the question, “How do you make a minivan cool?” and ending with, “Do you think this does it?”

I find that students enjoy hearing about “non-traditional” marketing examples.  I just listened to a story on NPR’s Morning Edition that describes the use of a “speed dating” format to connect doctors with patients – “Hospital Attracts Patients with Doctor ‘Speed Dating,’” (May 18, 2010).  A follow-on story was critical of the use of advertising by hospitals, “Tip:  Hospitals Try PSAs Before Spending on Ads,” (May 18, 2010).

One of our goals here at Teachthe4P’s is to keep marketing faculty up-to-date with the latest trends in marketing.  Location based marketing is one area with huge potential.  The last few years have been predicted to be “the year of mobile,” so I am not sure if Foursquare is the breakthrough application.  If you want to know more about this new social media platform, check out “Social Media’s New Mantra: Location, Location, Location,” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, May 6, 2010).

WARNING:  Some of these ads are very disturbing set of public service announcements.  I debated whether to even post it for you guys.  So if you have a weak stomach, do NOT click through.  You have been warned.  These are “30 Terrifying PSAs” (Trendhunter, May 2010) and includes video ads and print ads.  I think the research is mixed on whether these types of “scared straight” programs even work.  You can decide if this is useful for your classes.

It is amazing that companies come out with 2:31 versions of their ads and then have people forward them to others.  And if the ad is good enough, it works.  I think this is good enough, I hope you do as well. The ad showcases the wide variety of Honda products from motorcycles to cars to airplanes to boats to robots to…

Hmmmm.  This could be an interesting in-class discussion on a variety of levels.  There has long been a debate about the ethics of advertising to children.  Then there is the issue about the role of government.  Now the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission has developed the Admongo website (www.admongo.gov) and game to teach kids about advertising.  The article in The New York Times, “In a World of Ads, Teaching the Young How to Read Them” (April 26, 2010).  The article notes…

The initiative seeks to educate children in grades four through six — tweens, in the parlance of marketing — about how advertising works so they can make better, more informed choices when they shop or when they ask parents to shop on their behalf.

While I could review the game and site, I know that good market research should be done with the target market.  Well I happen to have a fifth grader — right at the heart of the target market for the government effort.  So I asked Mallory to play the game and offer a brief review.  I know, bad marketing research to use a sample size of one.  After about 10 minutes — she had to get ready for school — it got a tentative thumb’s up.  She said it was “pretty good.”  When I asked if she would play it again if her dad did not force her, she said “Probably, maybe it would be more fun if I got to the higher levels.”   I asked about how fun it was compared to other online games, and she said, “I guess it is almost as fun as Bush Hot Dog” – I figured that was an endorsement.  I will let you know if she really goes back for more on her own.

In our text books the last chapter evaluates marketing from a micro- and macro- perspective.  This article could be used to discuss the ethics of advertising to children and the role of government.

As regular readers know, one of our goals with “Teach the 4 Ps” is to keep you up-to-date with some of the latest thinking around social media.  Academics and practitioners are still trying to figure out Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.  Clearly customers — particularly some target markets — are spending a great deal of time on this medea and not in front of the TV.

To further that cause, I encourage you to take a look a this very interesting short article from the May issue of Fast Company, “Five Steps for Consumer Brands to Earn Social Currency” (May 1, 2010 — how about that, I connect you before it’s publication date ; ) ) .  The article reports on some research from Vivaldi Partners where the managing director is  Erich Joachmisthaler.  Erich is a former professor at Harvard, Virginia, and IESE  who published some excellent scholarly research.  I am confident in the quality of the research and I think that the study takes us to a deeper understanding of social media.

It’s about that time in the semester to go over advertising.  Here are “30 Funny Print Ads that’ll Make You Laugh” (Web Design Ledger blog, March 18, 2010).  For most of these ads, you can click on the ad to link through to a higher quality version.  If you right click over the high quality version, you can copy the image and move it into, and resize it for a PowerPoint presentation if you want to show it in class.

This video looks at consumer interest in “green” products and points out how the “FTC Gets Tougher on False ‘Green’ Marketing,” (3:05, WSJ Video, April 17, 2010).  The video could be shown in a number of different class sessions.  It obviously fits with legal issues in advertising as well as with ethics and corporate social responsibility.  In our books it fits with some discussion of greenwasing in the last chapter.

This is a great little viral video you might enjoy showing in class.  Our students love rap — and I find that Nike is a favorite brand.  Teh video was made by Wieden + Kennedy’s (ad agency) Tokyo office.  I predict viral success.  The video was just posted to YouTube today.  As of this afternoon there are less than 750 views.  That will not last long.  It might be fun to ask students, “What does Nike get out of efforts like this?”  I believe that it helps position the brand as hip to today’s youth — a good space to be in.