teachthe4ps.com - teaching the 4 ps

I enjoy listening to the podcast by The Ethicist - Randy Cohen at the New York Times.  This Q&A involves reader questions about the ethics of a particular situation and Cohen’s answer (often quite witty) follows.  We developed a similar Ethics exercise in our books — with a bit more nuance to make it a little more debatable.  But the value is Cohen’s analytical responses.  This question comes from an employee who works at a company developing iPhone apps — who is asked to post favorable reviews of all new apps from his employer – “Impersonating a Reviewer” (New York Times, The Ethicist, July 30, 2010).

You might use this as an in-class example.  To make it more interesting, assume perhaps that everyone knows that its major competitor does the same thing.  Does that make it more ethical?  [NOTE:  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps - our blog for students of marketing.]

One of the primary reasons for this blog is to keep you up to date with the latest happenings in marketing — like how marketers are using Facebook.  This short (3:57) video from the Wall Street Journal explains how the “Like” button is working.   While many firms are jumping into the fray, it is not clear if Facebook pages deliver results.  [Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.]

This post was originally at Social Media B2B back in December.  Since that time Facebook has changed so that users can now “Like” a page instead of indicating they are a “fan.”  Quick aside:  one of my colleagues who studies marketing on Facebook told me that users saw “liking” a brand as less of a commitment — and would therefore be more likely to click the like button than a “fan” button.  While most major consumer brands have some sort of Facebook presence, I think that B2B marketers are still trying to figure out if Facebook pages are a worthwhile investment. I am one of them — we have this blog to keep in touch with customers but no Facebook page directed at marketing faculty.  Anyway, looking for some examples, see “10 Examples of B2B Facebook Fan Pages,” (Social Media B2B, July 2010 Update).

Here at Teach the 4 Ps we often highlight stories on the selling power of online reviews and personal recommendations.  Last year’s Nielsen survey on trust showed that we really trust recommendations from people we know.  But how can they leverage that at Facebook.  If Facebook masters it, they will have the keys to a new direction for Promotion.  This recent Wall Street Journal article “Facebook Touts Selling Power of Friendship” (Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2010 – subscription required click here for a back door link, follow the search results).  The video is 6:52 long, but the most interesting stuff for class would be the first 3:30 or so.  It could be assigned to students or shown in class.  You could show it in class and natural discussion opportunities will follow — there are the effectiveness issues and the privacy issues as well.

We have just finished up the next edition of Basic Marketing which includes our take on this transformation and how it fits into teaching the introductory marketing class.  Look for the book in October.

This article, “Using Social Media to Sound Off About Brands” (Adweek, June 4, 2010) reports the results of a Harris Poll about consumer behavior online.  For readers of Teach the 4 Ps and other marketing literature, it is probalby not a huge surprise that consumers will use social media to rave or complain about brands — though I was surprised to see that 34% of users of these sites claim to have used the sites for this purpose.  Social media was also found to influence purchase decisions — wihtith reviews from family and friends yielding the most influence.

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.

Brandweek‘s (June 2, 2010) article “Why Do Consumers Visit CPG Web Sites?” provides a brief summary of a recent Ipsos survey “Engaging CPG Consumers in the Digital Space.”  Consumer package goods companies have been investing in websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter.  This data will tell them which of these sites customers will visit for various reasons.  I was also surprised to see how many consumers actually figured it was likely they would visit a CPG site.   This ties consumer behavior and promotion objectives with social media.  You might highlight the survey results in class and ask students what type of information they might put on a website, Facebook page, or Twitter for Coca Cola or Tide detergent.  They should see that each will require different information to best meet customer needs.

Sometimes I like to show students examples of campaigns — showing them for example a print ad, website, Facebook page, and television commercial that all work together to achieve the same or related promotion objectives.   Over at Social Media Today, Matthew Gain, provides a brief overview and critique of a Microsoft campaign to support the launch of its new phone Kin.  You can read about the campaign and link to examples at “Case Study: How Does Microsoft Do Social Media Marketing?” (May 24, 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).

We have always enjoyed the creative marketing programs from John Deere.  John Deere has done a great job showing how a company can leverage the Internet in B2B.  John Deere really understands its customers — farmers.  Recently John Deere teamed up with Chip Foose, star of TLC’s Overhaulin – which every week “junkers into dream machines.”  The created a series of webisodes that featured the conversion of a John Deere 4020 tractor into a “hot rod.”  You can see the last episode below — find “BCS Big Buck Promo” series here.  The tractor is currently touring the country, visiting John Deere dealerships, before it will be given away in a drawing.  Sign up at your local John Deere dealership.

This might be interesting to discuss in organizational buying (our books feature John Deere in our opening case in this chapter) or when discussing Promotion where it is always nice to have B2B examples to supplement the numerous B2C examples.