teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

Marketing managers at ConAgra Foods thought they had a great take on the old “hidden camera” ad.  They invited food bloggers and mommy bloggers to dinner in New York City where they would hear a talk by a well-known food expert hosted by a famous chef.  They would also enjoy a four course Italian meal.  Who could refuse?  Of course the guests didn’t know that the lasagna they were being served was Marie Callendar’s Three Meat and Four Cheese, a frozen line from ConAgra foods.  ConAgra managers hoped that guests, being filmed on hidden camera, would rave about the meal and appreciate finding out they were tricked and eating a frozen lasagna.  Many did not appreciate being duped — and blogged (and not too kindly) about it.  The whole thing turned into a nightmare for ConAgra. You can read about the whole thing here at “Bloggers Don’t Follow the Script, to ConAgra’s Chagrin” (New York Times, September 6, 2011).

Sometimes students like to hear about marketing mistakes — and this one works.  It might be interesting to tell students about the idea — and ask if they like the plan and would have any suggestions to improve it.  Then lay out the “what happened.”

I like to encourage my students to think creatively.  So I like to help them see the value of creativity, examples of creative thinking, and known creatives from across a variety of fields.

Marketers need to be creative to be successful these days. Start by reading Seth Godin’s blog post “Underextended” (May 23) where he points out that overextending ourselves as we strive to be creative is a good thing.

Your students might enjoy picking up some tips from from Conan O’Brien who was just named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.” Fast Company’s interview with Conan results in a short article, “Conan O’Brien’s Guide to Creativity,” (May 20, 2011). While the interview focuses mostly on Conan’s work — comedy — students should be encouraged to think about how some of his ideas could apply to their future careers.  You might suggest they check out a few people from the full list of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” for more inspiration!  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Few people will buy a new car unless they have a test drive.  So obviously an important marketing objective for an auto retailer is to get customers inside their cars for a drive.  Let’ say you have a newly designed vehicle — but most of the new design went on the inside and not on the outside.

Such was the case for the Nissan Patrol — a large SUV model sold in the middle east.  When potential customers see the Patrol driving down the road, attention and interest are not peaked.  There is no “Wow, that SUV looks sharp, I am going to have to check it out.”  That was the problem facing Arabian Automobiles – the exclusive Nissan distributor in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  Arabian liked what Nissan had done with the Patrol — there were a lot of upgrades on the inside.  So how can they get people to get into and test drive the new SUV?  Who do you target?

Check out the clever campaign.  It might be fun to put together a slide that outlines the basic issues facing Arabian Motors.  You could ask students how the path to purchase worked – making sure they realized the importance of the test drive.  Then talk about the new Nissan Patrol — a Google image search will quickly find you a photo to add to your slides.  Ask students how you move customers along the path to purchase.  Then show the video.  Great to use with consumer behavior or promotion.

Good marketing starts with good ideas.  So “Where do ideas come from?“  (Seth Godin’s Blog, November 24, 2010) As usual, Seth Godin has some interesting thoughts on the subject.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Not too long ago, it was feared that 3M had lost its innovation mojo.  Too much emphasis on efficiency and six sigma quality and cost-cutting had taken away its traditional competitive advantage (see “”At 3M a Struggle Between Efficiency and Creativity,” BusinessWeek, June 11, 2007).

Now we can read about “3M’s Innovation Revival,” (Fortune, September 24, 2010).  A nice fit with a discussion about new product development.

I have become very intrigued by the creative process.  A class I teach at CSU, “Marketing Decision Making,” which includes a four week module on “Creativity and Innovation.”  This is such an important skill for marketing students (heck all students and instructors as well) to learn.  This excerpt of a presentation by John Cleese at the Creativity World Forum encapsulates so many useful ideas in just under 11 minutes.  If you were not an adolescent boy in the mid-1970s — as I was — you may not know the fabulous offbeat comedy that was Monty Python’s Flying Circus – on public TV in the U.S. and later in movies including Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life among others.  Perhaps you may know him from A Fish Called Wanda or some of his other films.  Anyway, the man is brilliant and offers us some great food for thought on creativity.

The video could come anywhere in a marketing class.  I think it works best early on , when talking about marketing strategy planning.  We have too often thought about creativity only in relation to advertising or promotion — but it has great value across the marketing strategy planning process.  I have also posted this at our sister blog for students of marketing, Learn the 4 Ps.

I have to agree with Paul Williams over at MarketingProfs this “Mini Cooper Ad Fires on All Cylinders.“  It certainly grabs people’s attention and generates interest.  The ad also achieves the objective of developing the brand’s positioning.  Just another great example of the fine advertising and promotion work we are used to seeing from Mini Cooper.  Note, if you wanted to show this in class, you could right click on the image, copy it, then paste it into a PowerPoint.