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Harley-Davidson’s sales of premium motorcycles  have suffered in the recession — falling more than 40% from its 2006 peak.  Harley cut costs with more efficient manufacturing and labor cuts.  It has also carefully adapted its marketing strategy.  For one, the company is trying to broaden its target market — trying to lure women, minorities, young adults and people outside the U.S.  It must target these new markets with caution; Harley doesn’t want to dilute its carefully crafted macho image.  Harley’s marketing chief notes, “We’re not trying to be everything to everyone, we’re trying to be our thing to more people.”  So Harley has adapted its promotion and products to appeal to new segments.  This is not an easy task — and your macho image might be lost when riders look around and see a growing number of women riding Harleys.  The article provides a nice example to use with marketing strategy planning for product or promotion.  You could ask students for other ideas about how to adapt the company’s strategy for these new target markets.

You can read more about Harley’s efforts in this Wall Street Journal article, “Harley, With Macho Intact, Tries to Court More Women” (October 31, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here).  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

We have made several previous posts on the impact of the economy on consumer behavior.  This ABC News video describes both how consumers are changing their behavior — and how major marketers like Target and P&G are responding.  You can directly link to the video and a related written story, “How to Advertise During a Down Economy,” (ABC News, September 23, 2011).  The video is short at only 2:39 — though you do have a :15 ad before it starts — and could work well in class.  It might stimulate some class discussion to ask:  What companies might do well in this economic environment?  How would you respond if you were Best Buy?   Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream? or Coca-Cola?

I am going to use this when I cover the economic effects on consumer behavior, but it might also work when you look at the external market environment.  We also posted the video only — not the link to the article — at Learn the 4 Ps.

We all teach price sensitivity (some of you may prefer the economics term price elasticity) when we cover Price.  In response to our depressed economy, most consumers have become much more price sensitive in the last few years.  One market segments has been almost immune to this trend — luxury shoppers.  This article in the The New York Times, “Even Marked Up, Luxury Goods Fly Off Shelves” (August 3, 2011) offers some great examples — Mercedes-Benz just had its best July in the last five years and “Neiman Marcus has sold out in almost every size of Christian Louboutin “Bianca” platform pumps, at $775 a pair” (right click my image and copy/paste to your slides).  The article also includes a chart that shows trends in U.S. luxury spending over the last few years.

This might be fun stuff to talk about you cover consumer behavior, the external market environment (economic environment – kind of a counter-example), pricing or price sensitivity.

The depressed economy has American consumer behavior acting in a strange way.  While they (collectively) cut back on purchases — they still stand in line to buy the new iPhone and buy their $3 latte at Starbucks.  Many malls are still busy.  What is happening?  This story — the cover story in the latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, attempts to get to the better understand this schizophrenic consumer behavior.  See “The New Abnormal,” (July 29, 2010).   [NOTE:  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.]

“Why Bertolli Is Using Webisodes to Promote Frozen Dinners” (Brandweek, March 4, 2010) is the text of an interview with Gaston Vaneri, the marketing director who oversees Unilever’s U.S. frozen food business.  Vaneri provides a nice explanation of Bertolli’s rationale for this campaign — which can be viewed at www.intotheheartofitaly.com — feature some celebrities head to Italy and learn about Italian food.

What happens when Rocco DiSpirito, Marisa Tomei, and Dan Cortese travel to Italy to unlock the secrets of Italian Passion for food and life and uncover the inspiration behind Bertolli Frozen Meals? The new web series – Into The Heart of Italy!

It might be fun to show one of the webisodes and then discuss why Bertolli is doing this type of marketing.  With the insights from the article and your own thoughts, it could lead to an engaging discussion on Promotion.

Well, Advertising Age readers came to the same conclusion as Brandweek — and named Hyundai it’s Marketer of the Year (“Marketer of the Year:  Hyundai,” Adage.com November 9, 2009).  I already blogged the Brandweek article/video combination.  This article provides additional details on the campaign.

Retailers are trying many new strategies to deal with the economic downturn. Many are concerned that they are witnessing the beginning of a long-term shift in consumer behavior. This BusinessWeek combo includes an article (“’The Hard Sell,’ How retailers are fighting for the hearts and minds of the new consumer,” BusinessWeek.com, October 15, 2009 ) and video interview (“Retail’s New Normal,” BusinessWeek.com, October 15, 2009, 2:08 — see video below) with the story’s primary author. There are several related articles on specific retailers. The video is an interview with the story’s author primary Jena McGregor.

“A Clip-and-Save Renaissance,” The New York Times, September 23, 2009.  There are lots of stories about how increasingly frugal consumers are responding to the current economic downturn.  Coupon redemption has declined since its peak in 1992, but in 2008 and 2009 that trend seems to be reversing.  The article offers examples that could be used in discussions of consumer behavior, the economic environment, segmentation, and pricing.

“Brandweek’s Grand Marketer of the Year ’09: Joel Ewanick of Hyundai” Brandweek, September 14, 2009.   This is a great package of story, audio, and video content.  The article describes how Hyundai came to understand that customers weren’t buying new cars because they feared losing their jobs.  So Hyundai promised consumers that they could return the car if that happened.  Below you can see the television commercial Hyundai used on the Super Bowl to launch the program. The program resonated with consumers and spurred sales.