I thought I understood how much my privacy was being compromised as I surfed the web — well I didn’t know the half of it. The future is now. Recently the NPR Fresh Air show titled “How Companies are ‘Defining Your Worth” Online” (February 22, 2012, the link will take you to the 39 minute interview as well as a shorter written set of highlights) included an interview with Joseph Turow (Professor at the Annnenberg School for Communication at University of Pennsylvania) about his new book The Daily You . Marketers are increasingly connecting data from our credit cards, web-surfing and search, Facebook, etc. to create fairly specific profiles of many individual consumers. Marketing managers can go to catalogs from companies like Acxiom and purchase e-mail or street addresses of target customers: a) likely to have diabetes, b) likely to vacation in an RV, c) who are overweight, and much more.
The interview raises a lot of questions about consumer privacy and ethics. On the one hand, receiving ads and perhaps coupons for new skis when we are in the market for new skis might be a good thing. I tell my students that it is only junk mail or spam when we don’t want it.
But what if we prefer our privacy? What if we are diabetic and there are new products to help make my life easier — do I want to know? Or if I am overweight — do I want to receive promotional materials from health clubs and diet programs? What if potential employers can also pull this information — and don’t want to hire me because my health problems might lead to higher health insurance costs down the line?
This whole issue is complex and in a state of flux. This interview and book might help get you up to speed. The topic can be used to stimulate a discussion of marketing practices and related legal and ethical issues.
Every semester I survey my students by asking them to list their three favorite brands on the 4 x 6 card they fill out with personal information. Every year Nike is the most popular brand — typically mentioned 2–3 times more than the second place brand. Can you guess Nike’s prime target market? You got it college age kids.
Over the last five years Nike has significantly changed its marketing strategy – especially in product development and promotion. Following the phenomenal success of Nike+ with its all important (for Nike) target market of runners, the firm has invested in developing more digital products. While many of my generation (I am 51) recall Nike’s great television advertising, the company has moved almost completely away from the big screen, replacing it with small screen options with YouTube virally distributing longer (1 – 3 minute) ads and Facebook building relationships with loyal users. Fortune magazine provides an extended article describing changes at Nike - ”Nike’s new marketing mojo” (February 13). To read more Teach the 4 Ps coverage of Nike, click here. Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.
This article might be useful to use when you cover new-product development or advertising and integrated marketing communications. For those of you using one of our books, you know that we use Under Armour (major Nike competitor) as an opener to our Product chapter. It might provide a nice contrast to discuss how Nike’s is creating new products that go beyond the shoe.
I somehow missed this article from Adweek last spring “This is the future of online customer service” (April 6, 2011). Recently Adweek named B-Reel (the creator of this system) its Producer of the Year, so I checked it out. I am glad I did. The ultimate combination of high tech and high touch. This appears to have the ability to dramatically alter online personal selling and customer service. I wish the video demonstrated the salesperson-customer interaction a bit better, but you get the idea.
Twitter’s efforts to build a viable business model have been inconsistent. Now the micro-blogging service appears to have a formula that is working. Advertisers are starting to get on board. Bloomberg BusinessWeek‘s cover story this week offers a closer look at Twitter, see “Twitter, the Startup That Wouldn’t Die” (March 1, 2012). It seems to me that Twitter needs to figure out how to deliver a more highly targeted audience to advertisers. The company certainly has access to tons of data on who each user follows and where they click. I would bet that many of the new employees they are hiring are figuring out how to turn all that data into targeting gold. A quick overview can be found in the video below. Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.
One of the most successful marketers of all time is P&G. The company does its research and testing before deciding whether to launch a new product — and when it does launch, it goes all out. That doesn’t mean every new product P&G rolls out succeeds. Eight years ago a prepackaged single-dose laundry detergent tablet, Tide Tabs failed miserably. Now the powerful Tide brand is trying again with Tide Pods, small dissolvable packages of detergent. Tide is looking for a premium product in a market where customers are price sensitive. Tide Pods will cost consumers about 25% more per load of laundry. Will consumers pay for this new convenience? This Wall Street Journal article “Tide Rides Convenience Wave” (February 23, 2012, non-subscribers may need to click here) tells the whole story. In spite of an expert marketer and a big budget, success is no sure thing. So it could be an interesting class discussion.
This article could be assigned — or the highlights could be covered with a quick in-class overview — and then discussed in class. You might ask students to discuss the value proposition Tide Pods offer. Will consumers value convenience enough to pay the higher price? Who should Tide Pods target? What could they do for promotion? The image in this post is from the print advertising campaign — and the video below is a TV ad.
Scott Anthony’s new book, The Little Black Book of Innovation: How it Works, How to Do It has received great early reviews at Amazon.com (don’t you wonder if those few early reviews are just friends and family?) Those reviews and his post at the Fast Company Co.Design blog, “3 Ways to Predict What Consumers Want Before They Know It” have moved the book to my Audible.com library (so maybe you can wait for my review). The blog post has some great examples which will help you when teaching marketing research or new product development. The photo accompanying this blog post is of the ChotuKool portable refrigerator a disruptive innovation that targets India’s poorest households — I learned about it in the blog post. Anticipating customer needs takes a certain mindset, and besides the examples, I like that Anthony offers some practical “how to” ideas. Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.
You might find this article provides good examples when you teach market research and new-product development — with at least one international example.
This 4 minute video is from Google UK’s head of Business Marketing. But don’t worry, it isn’t a pitch for Google — at least not directly. It summarizes many of the changes going on in organizational buying and complements what we talk about in the organizational buying chapters in our text books. Bottom line, more and more business buyers are turning to the Internet early and often in the buying process. The video talks about promotion to business buyers — so you might find it helpful to show to your students when you cover organizational buying, B2B, or promotion.
Imagine walking along a city street and seeing your own face in ad for a shirt you are checking out. Or perhaps a friend’s face in an ad inviting you into a restaurant. Technology may not be too far from making this a possibility. How creepy would that be? Or perhaps it wouldn’t be creepy at all. Would we get used to it? This Slate article, “How’d My Avatar Get Into That Sneaker Ad?” (January 4, 2012) lays out this type of scenario as a thought experiment.
There are already examples of parts of this technology. My Virtual Model allows you to build an avatar with your body type and face can be placed on a “virtual model” — allowing you to virtually try on clothing. Lands’ End has used this technology for several years now. What is to prevent Facebook ads from using the photos you post to put you in a Facebook ad? The natural next step, suggested by the article, is that you may walk by a billboard or store and see yourself in an ad. Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.
It might be fun to engage your students in the same thought experiment described in the article as a way to open a discussion into technology, privacy, and ethics.
Sustainability as it relates to marketing is an important issue for students (and managers) to wrestle with. The subject of sustainability can get complicated. This video offers a quick and simple overview that might lead to some in-class discussion. I have also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps.
I thought I understood how much my privacy was being compromised as I surfed the web — well I didn’t know the half of it. The future is now. Recently the NPR Fresh Air show titled “How Companies are ‘Defining Your Worth” Online” (February 22, 2012, the link will take you to the 39 minute interview as well as a shorter written set of highlights) included an interview with Joseph Turow (Professor at the Annnenberg School for Communication at University of Pennsylvania) about his new book The Daily You . Marketers are increasingly connecting data from our credit cards, web-surfing and search, Facebook, etc. to create fairly specific profiles of many individual consumers. Marketing managers can go to catalogs from companies like Acxiom and purchase e-mail or street addresses of target customers: a) likely to have diabetes, b) likely to vacation in an RV, c) who are overweight, and much more.
