teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

Oh Fortune magazine, why do you tease me so?  I saw this article in my print edition of Fortune a couple weeks ago — but they always wait a bit before making it available online.  Well, the wait is over and it is worth it — they even added a nice short video you could show in class.  In-depth pieces on P&G often provide great classroom examples because P&G brand managers are known for conducting consumer research before developing new products.  This article “Can P&G make money in places where people earn $2 a day?” (Fortune, January 6, 2011) and the short 2:45 video below describe P&G’s research efforts to learn more about the needs of rural Chinese consumers.

This offers some good examples of new product development, international marketing, and market research.

Another example from China — this one looks at retailing there.  Just published in BusinessWeek, “China: Where Retail Dinosaurs Are Thriving” (January 21, 2010).   This might be useful when talking about consumer behavior in other countries, in retail, or international.

Looking for a nice example of differences in consumer behavior across cultures?  I learned something today about consumer behavior in China.  Apparently many Chinese consumers value the bargain — maybe not so culturally unique.  But they go about it in an interesting way.  Many Chinese shoppers go on a group bargain hunt — realizing that they might get a volume discount.  I heard about this on the American Public Radio show, Marketplace (January 22, 2010) “China’s next export:  group shopping?“  Click through to read or listen to the story — I have embedded a video of group shopping below. [Note:  click through to the story to see the video, at first my embedding the video worked, but now it does not.]  I know we have at least a few Chinese readers. Can you add a comment with more insight on this practice?

“PC Makers Cultivate Buyers in Rural China,” The Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2009 [subscription required or google the article title].  This short article describes how PC makers have adapted their marketing mixes to better meet the needs of relatively low income rural Chinese.