World Changing Ideas – New Product Development at Its Finest (#M4BW)

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I always enjoy Fast Company‘s innovation issues. This year’s “World Changing Idea Awards honor the businesses and organizations driving change in the world.” There is always an emphasis on new products and services that make the world a better place — a natural connection to our Marketing for a Better World (#M4BW) theme in the most recent edition of Essentials of Marketing. Winners included:

  • Abbott Labs which made a tiny implant that keeps babies’ hearts healthy (see video below)
  • Carbon Lighthouse which uses AI which adjusts businesses energy consumption by up to 30%.
  • Invest Your Values (I love when the brand name tells you what the product is) is a digital tool that helps employees invest their retirement money in companies that share their values.

These examples can be used across a number of chapters — but may relate most closely to Chapter 8 (goods and services) and Chapter 9 (new product development). The video below (first 2:20) features a few of these companies and might be shown in class.

 

Critical Thinking for Students – What businesses are harmed (helped) by the pandemic?

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OK, life gives you lemons (or worse, far worse, a pandemic), how do you make lemonade. Because the pandemic is everywhere these days, we might use this current event to get students to think about the impact on various types of business. You might ask your students questions like…

  • What types of products (or companies) are likely to do particularly well (or poorly) in the pandemic? And more importantly why?

Many of their answers can be tied back to consumer behavior changing. This gives them the opportunity to see how understanding customers influences business. For more interesting examples you might share with your students, consider these articles: “Puzzles, hair dye, yeast: Companies thriving during COVID-19,” and “Early department stores were incredibly innovative. What happened?” to find less obvious examples.

  • How should companies engage in promotion during the pandemic? Why? 

Again, more examples from successful and less successful companies. See these articles about advertising “We have hit peak pandemic advertising, and now they’re just annoying,” and “Brands With Strong Twitter Personalities Stay the Course During Covid-19” (you may need to sign up to access that last one — you can get three free articles a month after signing up).

Do B-Corps react better to adversity? (#M4BW)

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A new key term in 17th edition of Essentials of Marketing, is B-Corporation (B-Corp) certification “a private certification that meets a high standard for social and environmental performance. An independent company, B Lab, conducts this certification process. Some B Corps are subsidiaries of publicly traded companies. There are more than 2,500 certified B Corps in more than 50 countries, a list that includes small companies and well-known names like Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia, and Method.” (Chapter 17).

This article, “How businesses emerge better after COVID-19, according to B Lab” (Fast Company, March 31, 2020) describes how the challenges of this pandemic may get companies thinking differently. I think many consumers will emerge from the pandemic differently as well. It might be interesting to get your students thinking and talking about how the pandemic will influence consumer and company behavior.

Dutch Florist Gives People a Choice About What to Pay…(#M4BW)

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Occasionally brands allow customers to pay what they can or what they think is appropriate. You can learn more about the psychology of “pay what you want” pricing here. The florists at BOLT Amsterdam are now offering a bundle of 200 tulips for three different prices–one they acknowledge makes it a loss leader (35.95 euros), one price where the florist breaks even (39.95), and at one price (45.95), the florist makes a profit. The idea here is to help tulip growers and the florist, both of which who are faced with falling demand in the face of the Coronavirus. An interesting approach for dealing with falling demand for a perishable product. The example might stimulate useful discussion in class about how, when, and why to use pay what you want pricing. The linked article may provide you with some interesting closing thoughts.

Steak-Umm Tweets Get the Brand Positive Press… (#M4BW)

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Who would have thought that Steak-umm, the brand of frozen processed meats, would become a “voice of reason in the pandemic” (Fast Company). The article highlights some of the Steak-umm brand  posts that encourage media literacy and for people to pay attention to the science behind the pandemic. The brand’s simple, honest posts got it positive press. Not sure  how it fits with the brand, but perhaps “all press is good press.”