teachthe4ps.com » Strategy planning

“Evernote CEO Phil Libin’s 3 Steps to ‘Freemium’ Success”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:23:56 +0000

We have a boxed teaching example on “freemium” in one of our pricing chapters. Freemium refers to “giving away service to users and making money when some opt to pay for additional features.” Evernote, a suite of software and services used for taking and storing notes, has used the freemium business model with great success. This Fast Company article, “Evernote CEO Phil Libin’s 3 Steps to ‘Freemium’ Success” (July 1, 2010) describes how it works with real number examples.

“Brands Bet on Indonesia as Spending Booms”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:53:23 +0000

Indonesia is a good example of a fast-growing developing economy. This Wall Street Journal article “Brands Bet on Indonesia as Spending Booms,” (April 7, 2010 – if you don’t have a subscription, click here to learn about the WSJ “back door”) provides some interesting data on buying power growth and how some Western companies are positioning themselves in the growing market. I really like that this video has some great images of Indonesia. Many of my students are not familiar with Asia and this video lets them get a better feel for the country.

News Video: “Inside Costco: Secrets of America’s Favorite Stores”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:39:27 +0000

This is the first of ABC’s Good Morning America series, “Secrets of America’s Favorite Stores.” This one takes you “Inside Costco,” (5:10, March 29, 2010). As with others in the series (see following posts), you learn some of Costco’s marketing strategy decisions.

One idea for using this video series would be to have students watch the videos (in class or outside of class), and then ask them to identify specific decisions that each retailer makes for each of the 4 P’s. In our book we categorize retailers around the strategy decisions they make. This exercise reinforces their understanding of the 4 Ps and also reminds them of the variety of strategy decisions that retailers have to make.

A special thanks to regular Teach the 4 Ps reader Stephanie Bibb (Chicago State) who brought this series to my attention.

Video: “How Starbucks found its way back”

Joe Cannon — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:19:39 +0000

This is another segment from CNN’s Poppy Harlow’s interview with Howard Shultz. This might fit in one of several marketing class sessions. Starbucks is a retailer so it might fit there. But I think it works best when talking about implementation and control of marketing strategy. Thus it might fit with our books with chapter 2 or with chapter 19 in Basic Marketing. Note: I can usually resize videos to make them fit my column, but it did not work with this one — so click here to see it larger on the CNN site.

“Electric Car Strategy: Follow the Fleet”

Joe Cannon — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:47:24 +0000

For a nice green example of segmentation and targeting, see “Electric Car Strategy: Follow the Fleet,” (The New York Times, March 1, 2010). Definitely shows how to tie characteristics of the market (technology, customers, company, and competition) to the target market.

“A Year After Program, Under 100 Hyundais Returned”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:16:04 +0000

We have posted earlier on Hyundai’s award-winning marketing program from 2009. For an update, see this NPR story “A Year After Program, Under 100 Hyundais Returned.”

“Marketers Make Most of Falling Mercury”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:14:17 +0000

This neat little article might work well as you teach chapter 2 — and need relevant examples of marketing opportunities. Many of us in the U.S. (and our students) can relate to an unusually cold winter. Some brands see this as an opportunity — and not only makers of coats, gloves, and snow shovels. In this article “Marketers Make Most of Falling Mercury” (AdAge, January 11, 2010 – sorry subscription required, so I am providing a longer post than usual to give you some ideas. If you don’t subscribe, you might be able to find the article through your library database.)

Campbell’s Soup increases radio advertising in cities with miserable weather,
Online retailer Zappo’s promotes coats and boots more often,
Snuggie reported shortages of their blankets with arms and legs — so it cut back on promotion activities,
Sales of Ugg boots and electric blankets jumped, too.

At a local level, you can read about what New Orleans businesses are doing in response to the cold spell “Cold snap creates business opportunities for some,” in the New Orleans Business News, January 8, 2010.

“P&G’s plan: 1 billion new users”

Joe Cannon — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:55:51 +0000

This 5 minute video clip is an interview with P&G’s new CEO Bob McDonald and A.G. Lafley, its recently departed CEO. They talk about P&G’s focus on developing markets as its source of growth. They mention that demographics drive this focus. The clip would have a nice tie-in with demographics as we talk about it in chapter 5. While the video clearly demonstrates the opportunity here, it might be fun to show the clip in class and ask students – “what P&G should do with its marketing strategy to appeal to this target market?” it might also provide an example of an opportunity that could be discussed with chapter 2.