teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

Target stores is launching a new concept — specialty shops they call “Shops at Target”.  This short article “Would You Pay More For Fancy Versions of Target Products?” (Fast Company, April 16, 2012).  provides examples of the efforts to sell upscale and considerably higher priced products just a few aisles from Target’s usual discount fare.  The article is short, but it might be interesting to use this as a small case study to get your students thinking in class.  You could show some of the examples and ask them if they think it would work?  Will Target’s usual customers buy these products?  (I believe the Target shopper tends to be more upscale than the Walmart shopper).  You might ask students if this is consistent with Target’s positioning?  (I think an argument can be made either way here — as Target has this “cheap chic” image.)  You could also ask them what other products might be sold in the Shops at Target.  We have asked all these questions in our post at Learn the 4 Ps.

This example might be used when you discuss consumer behavior or retailing.

Showrooming is the practice of shopping in a physical store and then purchasing the product online from home.  Online retailers often have cost advantages over their brick-and-mortar competitors; online retailers don’t build stores in high-traffic, high-cost locations, and they don’t need to employ a large, knowledgeable sales staff, many do not have to charge sales tax.  Brick-and-mortar retailers do have those costs – and increasingly, customers are going to those physical stores to view products and talk to sales staff before buying online.  These advantages, and some great marketing and technology, have fueled Amazon’s rapid growth.  This article from the Wall Street Journal, “Can Retailers Halt ‘Showrooming’?” (April 11, 2012, non-subscribers may need to click here) discusses how retailers like Target and Walmart are fighting back. The 3:54 video (an interview with kind of weak sound quality) might be shown in class to stimulate discussion.  Also at Learn the 4 Ps.

The article provides great examples to use when you cover competition, consumer behavior, retailing, or discuss the impact of the Internet or technology.

Setting retail prices has always been a challenge for marketing managers.  Two factors make it even more difficult today.  First, customers are better informed — the internet and smartphone apps let them easily check the prices of products they see on retail store shelves.  Second, consumers have been conditioned to wait for steep discounts — in department stores very few sales are made at full retail.  Retail giants J.C. Penney and Macy’s are trying new strategies to try to maintain profits.  Read more at “Knowing Cost, the Customer Sets the Price,” New York Times, March 27, 2012.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

This article would be good to read for examples relevant when you cover price setting — but could also be used to talk about consumer behavior and retailing.

Many Western firms have struggled in China — see Home Depot, Dunkin Donuts, and Best Buy as recent examples.  Success, not surprisingly, revolves around effectively adapting a marketing mix for the Chinese consumer.  Today I am offering two case studies that highlight how firms can succeed in China:  the Oreo cookie (see “Rethinking The Oreo For Chinese Consumers“, Planet Money, January 27, 2012) and Starbucks (“Why Starbucks succeeds in China and others haven’t,” USA Today, February 10, 2012).  The Oreo story highlights how the brand has changed consumer habits in China — teaching them how to open the cookie and as well as the practice of dunking cookies in milk (previously unknown in China).  Advertising like the one below, featuring Yao Ming (former NBA star), was key to the campaign.  Both articles share sales data that helps attest to the success of the campaigns.

These examples will play well when you cover international consumer behavior, product adaptation, and retailing.

The growth in online retailing presents a very real threat to traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Traditional stores have some clear advantages including a physical presence that allows customers to touch/hold/see/try on something before they buy or to be able to get what they buy now. Multichannel retailers offer multiple ways for consumer to shop — for example a physical store and an online store. Unfortunately, most retailers that offer multichannel options do a poor job integrating those experiences. Mitch Joel’s post, “Endless Aisles” (Six Pixels of Separation – The Blog, February 9, 2012) and an article in USA Today “Touch-screens create online shopping experiences at stores,” (February 7, 2012) offer a starting point. The image at the right shows a Kohl’s in-store kiosk which connects to Kohls.com.  It might be fun to share these ideas in class and ask students how ideas like this might benefit brick-and-mortar stores.  You might ask them to suggest other multichannel opportunities.  We also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps.

Internet entrepreneurs in Vietnam are figuring out how to overcome challenges posed by the country’s infrastructure.  Among Vietnam’s 88 million people, there is growing interest in the convenience of online shopping.  There are now more than two dozen Vietnamese sites copying Groupon’s “deal-of-the-day” concept.  These companies adapted the strategy used in more developed countries.  So for example, few Vietnamese consumers have credit cards or PayPal style accounts.  To over come this, at least one of the Groupon copycats NhomMua, relies on a team of more than 100 moped-driving couriers that deliver vouchers directly to consumers and then collect cash.  Read more in this Bloomberg Businessweek article, “Vietnam’s Dot-Com Boom” (January 19, 2012).  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

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.

Some businesses smell an opportunity to really tie together their integrated marketing communications.  They communicate distinct brand identity through the scents that customers smell in their stores or hotels.  Read more at “The smell of success” (Baltimore Sun, January 19, 2012), watch a short Early Show news story (4:35) below, or check out ScentAir Technologies website.  This has also been posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Retailers and packaged goods makers are responding to a shift in consumer shopping behavior.  According to a study by ESPN (yes the sports channel, which may have a vested interest here), 31% of men nationwide are the primary grocery shopper — up from just 14% in 1985.  So how have retailers better appeal to this new grocery shopping man?  Some are creating “man aisles” that put all that “man stuff” in one aisle instead of having is spread across several aisles.  Read more examples and details in ”More men taking reins of the cart” (Chicago Tribune, December 27, 2011).

Wow, I guess this is suddenly the hot topic.  Yesterday I posted a couple of stories on retail analytics.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell you about a third, but Holly Finn’s story, “Spying on Your Buying” (Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here and click “view original” in upper right corner if a white screen shows up) and interview in the Wall Street Journal, but she provides a more optimistic view of these analytics with much less fear of the privacy implications.  Plus the video might add some visual effects that might help in the classroom.

A couple of interesting stories about how retailers utilize high-tech analytics to better understand customer shopping behavior.  I heard “The secret life of discounts” (Marketplace radio, December 16, 2011, link to listen or read the transcript) as I drove to the airport last night to pick up my daughter who was coming home from college.  There are some examples about how stores use analytics to try to remain profitable with consumers conditioned to buy only at a steep discount.

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.