You may have noticed fewer “diet” soft drinks on store shelves in the last few years. Apparently “younger people just don’t like the word ‘diet'” according to the CMO at PepsiCo. Responding to this, Pepsi, Coke, and other soft drink makers have switched product names to emphasize “Zero” or “Zero Sugar.” You can read more in “‘Diet’ soda is disappearing from store shelves.”

The changes in brand names are a reaction to changes in consumer attitudes and behavior. This provides a nice example of the marketing strategy process planning model at work — context (social cultural factors) and customers lead to changes in marketing strategy. This might be a good example to add to your lecture on consumer behavior (Chapter 5) or branding and product names (Chapter 8).

Credit cards have long been an easy way for consumer to “buy now pay later.” But not everyone could qualify for a credit card and the interest rates are very high!

These days consumers are seeing an explosion of point-of-sale “buy now pay later” (BNPL) options with companies like Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm. This article at Forbes shows BNPL is expected to grow from ~$24 billion in 2020 to almost $100 billion in 2021. While BNPL can be particularly appealing to young shoppers, who may have more limited access to credit, and it is most popular with Gen Z and Millennials, Gen X and Boomers are now using it as well.

BNPL’s biggest appeal may be convenience. At the point of online purchase, consumers have the option to split that $100 pair of shoes into four $25 payments. And BNPLs don’t charge interest. The risk is borne by the BNPL provider, with the seller typically giving the BNPL service a cut (say 3%) of each sale. That nudge may close some sales and helps retailers. And it looks good to consumers who do not have to pay a premium to buy now pay later.

The growth of BNPL raises all kinds of interesting questions you might want to discuss in your marketing class. There are ethical questions about whether credit is a good idea (see this article in The Atlantic for warnings from personal financial experts).

This Wall Street Journal video “Behind Costco’s Treasure-Hunt Shopping Strategy,” describes Costco’s marketing strategy. (see also this article at Business Insider).  Surprisingly, the store makes it hard to shop there – for example, it changes the location of some products and have limited selection. You might question whether this is customer oriented. But it seems to address other customer needs – including the joy of shopping and the fun of finding bargains.

This video might be fun to show when covering consumer behavior (Chapter 5) or retailing (Chapter 12). It might also be shown after the video, “A Brief History of Retail.”