teachthe4ps.com » Retailing

“Create “Choosing” (Not “Shopping”) Experiences”

Joe Cannon — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:57:43 +0000

John Sviokla posted this on the Harvard Business Review Blog a couple months ago – “Create “Choosing” (Not “Shopping”) Experiences” (May 5, 2010). I like how the post offers some ideas about how much we have learned from internet retailers — and how some of this learning might be applied to brick-and-mortar stores. I try to remind my students that many of the best ideas are simply stolen from another industry and re-purposed. There are several small ideas that might be useful classroom examples.

“Panera to open more pay-what-you-wish restaurants”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:17:25 +0000

When we first reported on Panera’s plans to open a restaurant where patrons can pay what they want, we wondered if it would work. In fact, I noted we would check back on this in a year or two. Well, less than two months later, we have an update. Panera must feel the concept has potential, and they are opening more of the restaurants. For an update, see “Panera to open more pay-what-you-wish restaurants,” (USA Today, June 27, 2010).

“Rival Chains Secretly Fund Opposition to Wal-Mart”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:04:37 +0000

A lot of people don’t like Wal-Mart — especially their competitors. So how do you keep the low-price rival from your neighborhood? Why not fund groups that oppose Wal-Mart? This article “Rival Chains Secretly Fund Opposition to Wal-Mart,” (Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2010 – link takes you to a backdoor for non-subscribers) has so many different ethics angles that can be discussed. Some students will question Wal-Mart’s ethics — from putting small stores out of business to not funding health care for its employees. They might argue that the ends justify the means. When you read the article you find out that the consulting firm that runs the antidevelopment campaigns employs some pretty shady tactics. So is Saint Consulting Group acting ethically? What about the rival stores that fund the campaigns? You could ask students about which of the three parties (if any) is behaving unethically? And why?

Creative Pricing Strategy – Pay What You Can

Joe Cannon — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:58:51 +0000

What if you had a restaurant where you could take what you wanted and pay what you wanted – with a donation. As a marketing professor, I think about this as a pricing strategy. I also think about it from the perspective of non-profit marketing. Check out the article “Non-profit Panera cafe: Take what you need, pay what you can,” (USA Today, May 18, 2010) for more details. Will enough people donate enough to make this work — it will be interesting to check back in a year or two.

Video: “Starbucks CEO on China as Market”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:16:28 +0000

This short (1:43) Wall Street Journal video briefly describes Starbucks experience in China. This might work as an example when talking about retailing and international.

Video: “Wal-Mart’s green balancing-act”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:46:40 +0000

In this interview (CNN Money, April 13) Lee Scott, Chairman of Wal-Mart,states that sustainability and everyday low costs “are totally aligned.” He makes a strong case for sustainability being at Wal-Mart’s core. There is also some discussion about the Wal-Mart customer and their green values. Not sure how well this would work in class — basically two talking heads (and a 30 second commercial at the introduction). Might work as an outside assignment and in-class discussion (especially for an online course maybe with online discussion). With our books it might fit with the first chapter or the last chapter in either book.

“Wal-Mart Bets on Reduction in Prices”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:34:01 +0000

This article, “Wal-Mart Bets on Reduction in Prices” (The Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2010 – subscription required, or do a search on the article title for a back door to read it without a subscription), is an interesting story about Wal-Mart’s pricing strategy. When your positioning is “lowest prices” you have make sure you keep those prices low. This article might be discussed with retailing, pricing, or even positioning.

Wal-Mart Stores is cutting prices on thousands of products in an aggressive campaign to reinforce its reputation as a discount leader, as the company seeks to reverse months of slowing U.S. sales.

“Walgreens plans makeover in more stores”

Joe Cannon — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:15:20 +0000

Few companies have been as successful for as long as Walgreens. They were featured in Jim Collins wonderful book Good to Great because of its sustained success. The Chicago Tribune has a nice article “Walgreens plans makeover in more stores” about its new format — they call it customer-centric retailing. The company is reducing its SKUs by about 3500 per store to focus on better sellers.

News Video: “The Gap: Inside America’s Favorite Stores”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:45:09 +0000

One more in the Good Morning America series “The Secrets of America’s Favorite Stores.” This one takes us into the Gap – an iconic name hat has struggled in for the last decade or so, “The Gap: Inside America’s Favorite Stores,” (4:14. Good Morning America, March 31, 2010). You can find an article and a video with this story. More so than the others, this particular video references marketing research and consumer behavior insights that guided marketing strategy planning. The stories both describe market research the gap did to better understand consumer behavior — although it is probably not best as an assignment for market research. I recommend using it with retailing or consumer behavior.

News Video: “Inside the Container Store: Secrets of America’s Favorite Stores”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:41:04 +0000

Here is another in the Good Morning America series “Secrets of America’s Favorite Stores.” This one features the Container Store — a company frequently lauded for its customer service and as a great place to work. “Inside the Container Store: Secrets of America’s Favorite Stores” (5:11, Good Morning America, March 30, 2010). The series offers some of the stores “secrets” which are mostly marketing strategy decisions. Like the others in this series, there is a text version of the story and the video below. This one clearly fits into the retailing segment of class. You could also use it with the Basic Marketing chapter on cross-functional issues to emphasize the importance of human resources in marketing strategy planning.