#M4BW

McGraw-Hill Makes Connect Free for Spring 2020 (#M4BW)

April 2, 2020 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

We’re reaching out to share some additional details around the efforts McGraw-Hill is making to help support our customers as best we can. After you review this list, please let us know if there is a type of support or resource that you need or that you hear fellow colleagues asking for that we haven’t addressed! After we work through this initial stage of just-in-time support, we will continue to think of ways we can support faculty and engage students in online environments. We are considering a Virtual Guest Lecture series; please let us know if you would be interested/willing to participate!

McGraw-Hill’s efforts at the corporate level:

Connect is now available for free to all who need it (i.e. instructors who weren’t already using Connect – print only adopters and competitive users).
The following help site went live last Thursday: https://www.mheducation.com/highered/support/connect/how-to-move-your-course-online
We hosted a DFC-led webinar on Monday on moving your course online, invites for which went out to all higher ed instructors. We had about 875 attendees, and will be following up with all of them with recordings and help as needed.
Course-build requests are being addressed and prioritized with an all-hands effort across the company to respond to the demand. So far, we have more than 2,000 such requests and are working through them. (Nicole and I are on the “overflow” team of folks helping to build these courses! 😊)
Social media messaging on MH channels to promote all of the above. Here’s an example from FB:

We are also adding a (growing list) of webinars on various topics. Here is a sampling:

Basics of Connect

Program	Bitly URL
Basics of Connect	http://bit.ly/basicsofconnect
Blackboard Integration	http://bit.ly/2X4swXD
Canvas Integration	http://bit.ly/2Yb84Rm
D2L Integration	http://bit.ly/2WZslrT
Moodle Integration	http://bit.ly/2Ya9pYx
Reports and Course Data	http://bit.ly/2Fx7xSB
Using Test Builder	http://bit.ly/2LgvoJP
SmartBook 2.0	http://bit.ly/2Ng4vZ6

At the Marketing Portfolio level, we began running DFC-led webinars this week on Engaging Students Online with Connecting Marketing: “I was a seated instructor until yesterday….” Nicole posted two brand-new podcasts on COVID-19 to our Marketing Insights podcast series:(go to bit.ly/Marketing_Insights)

We are compiling other ready-made resources (i.e. tutorials on how to assign the Mini Sims) and will continue to add additional resources and tools to support our customers during this challenging time.

Understandably, we’re seeing an effect in terms of takeaway opportunities with presentations that were scheduled having been cancelled, and messaging from hot opportunities that they now don’t have time to further vet materials or consider a change. We’ll be closely monitoring and checking in with these disrupted near-misses as things settle – and of course, for anyone who still wants to talk about changing, we are happy to have those conversations! In the meantime, we’re focused squarely on supporting our customers however we can.

Sending healthy and happy thoughts your way,

Meredith & Nicole

Marketing for a Worse World: The Case of Juul

March 26, 2020 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

As you know, the new 17th edition of Essentials of Marketing and Teach the 4 Ps have been celebrating the theme, marketing for a better world (#M4BW). We are highlighting the many positive actions firms are taking to create a better world, while also making profits. That is not to say we are so naive to believe that every firm behaves in this manner. Juul’s e-cigarettes have been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. The one getting more press is the health problems people are having. The company has also been under fire for targeting kids who are supposedly too young to use its products. This article in The Guardian, “How Juul gets kids addicted to vaping: it’s even worse than you think,” (February 14, 2020).

The example could be used with segmentation and targeting (Chapter 4), advertising (Chapter 15) or even as a counter-point to our #M4BW coverage.

Patagonia supports activist short film, “District 15” [#M4BW]

March 24, 2020 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

Patagonia lives by its strong environmentalist values. Now it has produced a new short (23 minutes) film, “that outlines the fight undertaken by the Communities for a Better Environment group as it lobbies city council and Mayor Eric Garcetti to establish a 2,500-foot distance between oil drilling operations and Wilmington’s schools, hospitals, and churches.” (Fast Company, February 27, 2020) The film differs from many of Patagonia’s typical outdoor images — as this one focuses on the challenge to a community in Los Angeles that is home to 479 oil wells. It might be interesting to watch or assign the film to your students and ask them why Patagonia does this? If you know Patagonia, and watched some of its previous promotional efforts, the answer is not immediately obvious. They really do it because they support the environment and they believe this is the right thing to do. It does burnish their brand and it is authentic, too.

He brought socially conscious change to Volvo without hurting profits, and challenges other CEOs to do the same (#M4BW)

February 24, 2020 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

Another #M4BW (Marketing for a Better World) Monday post. Out of the World Economic Forum, former Volvo CEO Pehr Gyllenhammar wrote this op-ed at CNN Business, “I brought socially conscious change to Volvo without hurting profits. Other CEOs cab do the same,” (January 22, 2020). I hope that headline alone lures you into the article and a discussion with your students.