Marketing Communications in a Pandemic…

by Leave a Comment

What does a brand do in a pandemic? Marketing managers all over the world are trying to figure out how to manage their brand in the pandemic that is Covid-19.

This might be an interesting discussion to have in your marketing class — it is certainly timely. Here are a couple of short articles (4 minute and 7 minute reads) recently published by Fast Company that try to explain how some brands are approaching this moment–and how they are communicating with customers.

In “Why every brand you’ve ever bought something from is sending you coronavirus emails” (March 20, 2020) you can read what some brands are writing to their customers. The article notes three types of emails. Some are helpful, letting you know how its service might be changing because of the virus. The second type is the “brand friend” that maybe tries to reach out with the “we’re all in this together” type of communication. Finally, the last type is more random and makes you wonder why it was sent out. The article goes on to discuss the right way to send emails. I think you can tie this into Chapter 13’s promotion objectives and perhaps link it to a discussion of ethical communication. You might also want to talk about how to use different media (social media, email, advertising) and what might be the advantages and disadvantages of each. With brand managers struggling with this issue, it might be an interesting exercise getting your students critically thinking about it as well.

In the second article,”‘We’re all in this together’? Why brands have so little to say in the pandemic,“(March 30, 2020), the same author as the article above provides a similar categorization of advertising. With links to some of the ads, it might make an interesting topic to discuss — and then to show some of the better (and worse) examples. Nice tie to Chapter 15.

 

Improved ad targeting at the expense of privacy

by Leave a Comment

Advertising continues to shift away from traditional media and more to digital media.  In particular, mobile advertising is the hot platform these days due to it’s ability to not just target customers with a specific profile but also take advantage of location information.  The customization and filtering enabled by digital advertising is helping marketers be more effective and more efficient with their promotional strategies.  A restaurant no longer needs to offer a generic promotion to all customers, they can push a coupon for the item most frequently ordered by each specific individual.

However, according to this article from Wired.com, researchers at the University of Washington have found that this deep degree of ad personalization may carry a price consumers aren’t aware of.  The researchers found that for just $1000 anyone can track a target’s location, learn what applications they have on their phone, routes they take to/from school or work, etc. with significant accuracy.  The article goes on to say that consumers are generally unconcerned about individual companies having location information and other limited data because they trust those institutions, their motivations, or the legal system to protect them from abuses.  However, this shows that any individual can exploit information shared across multiple apps and websites to spy on a specific individual.

The trend toward personalized, location-based advertising is likely to continue.  Do companies have any ethical issues to consider?  Should companies that conduct this level of advertising be required to educate consumers more on the consequences of opting-in to these services?

What’s Now? Chapter 13 – #ThisGirlCan integrated marketing communications campaign spurs UK women to exercise

by Leave a Comment

While UK women participate in sports to a lesser degree than men, research shows that more women want to be active. So why aren’t they? This case study, “Case study: How “This girl can’ got 1.6 million women exercising,” (campaign, May 18, 2016) details the research and subsequent integrated marketing communications campaign that helped move many more British women from the couch to the pool, or court, or track, or…

Chapter 13 discusses integrated marketing communications. Describe the different elements of this marketing communications campaign. What different promotion methods were used? Give examples of each. 

Why do people share certain online videos?

by Leave a Comment

The question in this headline is an important one for marketing managers. Many companies like the “pass-along” strategy where customers share content with other customers. Recipients of the message are more likely to pay attention when it comes from a trusted source.

Here at Teach the 4 Ps we have posted about what makes for viral content. And the just-published 15th edition of Essentials of Marketing includes a new What’s Next? box that discusses Jonah Berger’s STEPPS framework. This NPR story, “What Compels People To Share Certain Videos?” (February 1, 2016) references Berger but offers some additional ideas from Shifman

As an in-class activity, you could discuss Berger’s STEPPS framework and Shifman’s thoughts and ask the students if any of these Super Bowl ads seem to have the potential for pass-along.

 

At GE, B2B doesn’t mean “boring-to-boring”

by Leave a Comment

General Electric (GE) sells some of its goods directly to consumers — but most of its sales are to other businesses. While lots of B2B advertising and promotion is pretty boring, GE wanted to avoid that trap. According to CMO Beth Comstock “We are all emotional beings. We want context. We want relevance. We want connection.” This article at Advertising Age, “GE Tells the Secret of Making Geeky Cool,” (October 5, 2013), provides a great summary of some of the interesting promotion GE is doing right now:

  • See its Datalandia site its web series that attempts to show how big data solves problems, 
  • Inspired scientists (young and old) use the GE promoted hashtag (#sixsecondscience) and post videos of no more than six seconds on Vine (click here to see some examples), and
  • the “Brilliant Machines” campaign which deals with another emerging technological developments like what GE calls the “Industrial internet” and others sometimes call the Internet of Things (see ad below).

It might be fun to show this ad when you cover organizational buying and B2B — perhaps asking students how well each campaign communicates to GE’s business customers. What are the objectives of each campaign? These also provide good examples of integrated marketing communications in a B2B context — which is nice since most of our examples of IMC are for consumer products. We have also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps.