“We wanted [our restaurant] to be Instagrammable”

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Most industries report a decline in the effectiveness of advertising as a means to tell customers about their product. As we note in chapter 16, customers tend to place more faith in what real people say about goods and services they might buy. Apps, including the online review site Yelp and social media site Instagram, offer customers an easy and fast way to hear about other customers’ experiences.

Restaurants have long benefited from word-of-mouth (telling a friend about that “great meal you had at the new bistro”). Today, some restaurants are looking for ways to be more “Instagrammable.” Read more at this trend in “Instagram is pushing restaurants to be kitschy, colorful, and irresistible to photographers,” The Verge, July 20, 2017.

This article could be discussed at many different points in the semester. It offers an interesting example of customer value (chapters 1, 8 and 17); for some target customers, improving the “shareability” of an experience enhances the experience. For many young people, sharing the experience is part of the experience. It also suggests how consumer behavior (chapter 5) with social media (chapter 16) can impact new product development (chapter 9). After sharing this example in class, students could be asked: why are these businesses doing this? They are likely to immediately get that it fosters word-of-mouth, but may not readily connect with other benefits.

The Consumer-Advertiser Battle Continues

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Marketing managers have to acknowledge, most consumers are looking for ways to avoid advertising. While there is more advertising these days, there are many more tools to help us block or skip advertising or pay for ad-free content (e.g., Netflix). So advertisers need to get more creative to figure out how to deliver their messages.

This article and video from the Wall Street Journal, “Advertisers Try New Tactics to Break Through to Consumers” offers some great examples. I will show this video in class to stimulate a discussion on this topic and to introduce a new chapter in Essentials of Marketing 15e, “Publicity: Promotion Using Earned Media, Owned Media, and Social Media.”

Musicians Turn to Social Media for Promotion

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crystallize-lindsey-stirling-dubstep-violin-original-song-oLast Friday we also posted on the music industry — a student favorite. Making it as a musician is tough these days. Streaming services don’t pay most musicians very much. It is essential for musicians to build a fanbase. To do that, many musicians turn to social media to build their brand and attract followers.

This USA Today article, “How young artists turn tweets into album, ticket sales” (August 26, 2016)  describes how artists like Lindsey Stirling, The 1975, and Halsey use Snapchat and YouTube to build a following. It is particularly important for these up-and-coming artists who are not the “big names” that can drop a new song or CD and instantly get airplay on the radio and buzz among friend.

The animated gif here is Lindsey Stirling — I did not know her before reading this article, but just streamed a few songs from Spotify. I like her sound.

Snap Kitchen’s Healthy and Convenient Meals Gain Foothold

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packagingSnap Kitchen is trying to find that sweet spot many consumers want — tasty, convenient and healthy food at a fair price. There is a good sized target market that wants a healthy grab-and-go meal. And if it’s tasty, they might even pay a premium for it. This is the target market that Snap Kitchen is finding. The fast-growing chain now has 44 stores and also sells through 5 Whole Foods Markets stores. You can read more in this Bloomberg Businessweek article, “Forget the Salad Bar. A $50 Million Startup Best on Healthy Grab-and-Go Meals” (August 25, 2016).

This article might be useful in a number of places in the introductory marketing class. In chapter 3 we cover social cultural trends – and more Americans are seeking healthy food choices. The article sets up a potential discussion of consumer behavior and competition. How can Snap Kitchen keep out the competition? Especially from grocery stores that seem to be trying to move into that same upscale grab-and-go food market with fresh in-store sushi and deli counters. There are also distribution questions (consider Place chapters 10 — introduction and 12 — retailing).