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.
Millennials (or Gen Y) refers to those born between 1978 and 1994 (that is the definition we use in our text books). Right now this group is 18-34 years old and fits right at the heart of many marketers’ target markets. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons — both economic and cultural — these consumers are not spending in the same way as earlier generations. In “Young Consumers Pinch Their Pennies” (Bloomberg Businessweek, March 22, 2012), you can read a wide range of statistics from a recent Pew Research Center survey. Among the findings, 46% of 18-24s would choose Internet access over owning a car. For previous generations, cars were an important part of life. This has companies like GM looking at new strategies, “As Young Lose Interest in Cars, G.M. Turns to MTV for Help” (New York Times, March 22, 2012). Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.
Are you looking for an interesting example to use when you are teaching Place? I like to start my students with with straightforward examples like breakfast cereals where channels might include a manufacturer’s warehouse, a food broker, and a grocery store. I suggest that the same cereal maker might also have a restaurant supply house followed by a restaurant chain.
You might find the concept resonates when you also provide a a “non-traditional” example. Service and high tech firms also have to make channel decisions. So why not show them an example that many can relate to — in the gaming arena. That is why I point out this article on Zynga, which has distributed many of its popular games (Farmville is one of the best known) over Facebook and via smart phones. Now the company is “going direct” with its own website. Read more at “Game Changer for Zynga: No Facebook” (Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2012, non-subscribers may need to click here).
As regular readers know, my introductory marketing students write a personal marketing plan. I often post articles and links — here and at Learn the 4 Ps — with information to help students better create their own personal marketing plan. Last week I listened to The Startup of You, a book that describes how people should look at their careers through the eyes of an entrepreneur. For an interesting visual overview of the book, click here. One of the authors, Reid Hoffman, is a very successful entrepreneur who helped start PayPal and cofounded LinkedIn. While the book sometimes gives a bit too much explanation of how to use LinkedIn (chapter 4) most of the book is very relevant to students looking at making career decisions (see particularly chapters 1 – 3).
The book has great advice for the rest of us, too. The “security” of tenure doesn’t quite feel the same when you wonder if higher education is the next major industry to be disrupted by a technological breakthrough. The more prepared we are for a rapidly changing working world, the better we will be in teaching and advising our students (and children). Also posted at at Learn the 4 Ps.
Did you know that only 40% of British households own a dishwasher? That compares to 78% market penetration in the U.S., 77% in Germany, and 52% in France. Did you also know that dishwashers are more economical and use less water than washing by hand? So why aren’t the British buying more dishwashers? It appears that at least part of the problem comes from a lack of understanding about the benefits. You can read about a marketing strategy that hopes to change these numbers in “Will More Britons Buy Dishwashers?” (Bloomberg Businessweek, March 22, 2012). It might be fun to ask your students (as I do at Learn the 4 Ps) if they think the plan will work — and what other ideas they might have to promote dishwasher usage. It is not like appliance makers have not been trying. Changing ingrained consumer behavior can be a challenge.
This article might be interesting to use when you discuss promotion or consumer behavior.
You might find this graphic fun to show in class when you cover advertising. As with most good jokes, there is a ring of truth to it — and I think that many of my students believe the “friends” panel. Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.
Who better to tell us about the keys to getting videos to go viral than YouTube’s own trends manager — Kevin Allocca. While Allocca’s doesn’t specifically reference advertising videos, his three lessons would certainly have application. You might show this in class and ask students how marketing managers can use Alloca’s lessons to enhance the spread of viral promotions.
This short “film” — it is so beautiful and elaborately portrayed that “video” doesn’t seem to be the correct term — brilliantly conveys Cartier’s positioning and branding. The French jeweler and watchmaker’s heritage is on display. Worth a showing when you cover positioning, retailing, branding, or promotion.
I love this two minute video ad for the Guardian — one of Britain’s tabloid newspapers. Britain’s tabloids are known for their dogged pursuit of lurid stories. Here they turn a familiar fairy tale on its head. It does all this while subtly demonstrating all that is great about the Guardian — online video reporting, the latest news stories, comments from readers, and more.
Pinterest is a social media site where users can organize and share online images. The three year old social network has exploded online — growing from 50,000 unique visitors in May 2011 to 11.7 million in January 2012. The site’s demographics skew female; women currently account for about 68% of users and 85% of content. I first heard about the site from my 20 year old daughter back in December when she told me she loved the site and so did her friends. I asked her today and she said she hasn’t been there in a month. This makes me wonder if Pinterest has legs — on the other hand, don’t make decisions on a sample size of one. We here at Teach the 4 Ps have started our own Pinterest site, where we have pinned visual content that might be of interest to marketing instructors and students. If you are already on Pinterest, start following us.
Many marketers are jumping into Pinterest. Marketing managers need to follow the eyeballs and attention — and when people visit Pinterest they spend a lot of time there. The ROI might be greatest for online retailers, craft sites like Etsy, or travel firms. Where does it fit in the marketing mix? It looks like a Promotion tool to me.
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.
