teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

Showrooming is the practice of shopping in a physical store and then purchasing the product online from home.  Online retailers often have cost advantages over their brick-and-mortar competitors; online retailers don’t build stores in high-traffic, high-cost locations, and they don’t need to employ a large, knowledgeable sales staff, many do not have to charge sales tax.  Brick-and-mortar retailers do have those costs – and increasingly, customers are going to those physical stores to view products and talk to sales staff before buying online.  These advantages, and some great marketing and technology, have fueled Amazon’s rapid growth.  This article from the Wall Street Journal, “Can Retailers Halt ‘Showrooming’?” (April 11, 2012, non-subscribers may need to click here) discusses how retailers like Target and Walmart are fighting back. The 3:54 video (an interview with kind of weak sound quality) might be shown in class to stimulate discussion.  Also at Learn the 4 Ps.

The article provides great examples to use when you cover competition, consumer behavior, retailing, or discuss the impact of the Internet or technology.

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.

“3 Live Shop” from B-Reel & B-Reel Films on Vimeo.

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.

Young people represent an important demographic group to many marketers.  Many young people don’t have strong brand attachment, so many consumer product companies target this group.  In our books we define this group as having been born between 1978- 1994 and the actual range varies according to the source — which differs from the 13-24 year old age range cited in this blog post.  Keep that in mind if you present the data in class.  The blog post “Number Crunching:  The Top 51 stats for Generation Y marketers” (TNW Social Media) offers a lot of useful data about social media engagement with brands, gadget ownership, technology usage, and mobile phone usage.  Some my favorite stats (see the blog post for the original sources):

• 65% report researching the next model for their current product, immediately after making a purchase,
• 62.7% of US undergraduates surveyed had an internet-capable handheld device,
• 59% visit Facebook during class, and
• 62% of youth brand and technology decisions are influenced by friends and family.

This data will present well when you cover consumer behavior and demographics.  For users of our books, you can find extensive coverage of technology usage in Basic Marketing (chapter 5) and Essentials of Marketing (chapter 3) — but this post offers an update.

One of the many challenges to selling in developing countries is getting customers to buy products that cost more up-front but save in the long-term.  Consider solar power in Kenya.   Even a price of $80 for a small portable solar power generator and light bulbs is out of reach for many poor Kenyans used to paying for electricity with monthly bills in smaller increments.  Many use kerosene to light their homes — which is more expensive and more taxing on the environment.

Now a company called eight19 has a new business model that is bringing lower cost solar power into the homes of many of Kenya’s poor.  They use a system where consumers pay a $10 deposit for a portable solar power unit, two LED bulbs, and an adapter to charge cell phones.  Consumers then buy scratch cards which allow them to use the unit – paying for energy as they go, but also paying off the unit over time.  After 18 months they own it, and they can continue to receive electricity for free or they could buy another unit and add more power.  See also “Starting from scratch” (The Economist, January 24, 2012).

An emerging technology is augmented reality (AR).  Wikipedia defines AR as “a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.”  It won’t be long before shoppers are using AR to help them make buying decisions.  I just read about AR in National Geographic, “Revealed World” (January 2012) – be sure to check out the photo montage to get an idea about how this will work.  The article suggests that what you can now see on your smart phone is moving to specialized glasses and in a few years may be embedded in contact lenses. National Geographic used the technology in a shopping mall to promote its cable TV channel — see below.

For another example, see what Krystal did with a smart phone app below.  I don’t think this really shows the full potential of AR, but it does show a low-cost way to generate some buzz around a brand.  I applaud Krystal for dabbling in the new technology.

I think there is something to this technology — it sure seems like potentially useful information for shoppers — at least if you consider what it will be — not what it currently is.  For that view, look back at the National Geographic article.  It might be interesting to have students read that article or view some examples and ask them, “What could marketers do with this technology?”  I do ask those questions in the post for students at Learn the 4 Ps.

The impact of technology on B2B selling has probably been less dramatic than what we have seen in B2C markets.  That may be because B2B has traditionally relied more on personal selling than B2C.  But B2B marketers are looking for ways to sell more efficiently.  This article at Mashable “8 Ways Digital Will Improve B2B Sales in 2012” (December 30, 2012) offers some ideas about specific trends.

I have been reading a lot of articles this week about the new line of Amazon Kindles.  The most intriguing of these is the Kindle Fire which appears to provide a worthy competitor to the Apple iPad.  While more limited, the Fire is also less than half the price.  The best article I have found on the new Kindles is from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, “Amazon, the Company That Ate the World” (September 28, 2011).  This article, while long, really digs into the marketing strategy angle from Amazon’s perspective.  It also provides a nice compare and contrast of the marketing strategies of Amazon and Apple — two companies that are bound to have a big impact on American business for many years to come.  The article is also very relevant given our recent post titled “Tablets Drive Online Shopping” (September 30). The article also provides an update to the case scenario on Amazon that opens chapter 3 in each of our books.  We have also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps.

This article provides examples you might find useful when you cover price, competition, marketing strategy planning, new product development or retailing.
 

Recent research finds that consumers enjoy online shopping on tablets (like the iPad) more than they do on their standard PCs.  All kinds of measures — from conversion rate (orders divided by visits) to order size — are showing this trend.  This knowledge is driving online retailers to invest in optimizing the online experience for the tablet shopper.  This Wall Street Journal article, “Tablets:  Ultimate Buying Machines” (September 28, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here).  We also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps.

This example suggests some interesting ideas to bring up in class.  For example, the customer market continues to fragment for retailers, many now aim (at least) two segments of online shoppers — PC users and tablet users.  And retailers are adapting their marketing strategies to each target market.  The article provides some good examples of the types of online retailers are using to better address tablet customers.  While many retailers initially invested in apps specifically for their store, research shows that most tablet shoppers still prefer the browser interface.

This article “Check Out the Future of Shopping” (Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2011 – non-subscribers click here) and its companion video (3:33) below describe a variety of different technology solutions retailers are employing to make shopping more convenient.  The article provides an excellent example of the influence of the external market environment (for retailers) or when discussing retailing.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.