• Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Our Book
  • Contact

A Sales Promotion Fail…

April 23, 2020 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

As businesses seek to remain relevant in the midst of our pandemic, some are getting creative and clever. Sometimes, perhaps too clever for their own good. Here are a couple of recent examples:

Actress Reese Witherspoon’s fashion line, Draper James’ marketers thought they had a great idea. The brand wanted to support teachers–who have been challenged with delivering education in a whole new format. So they decided to give teachers a free dress.

“On Thursday, April 2, Draper James announced the offer on its Instagram page, writing: “Dear Teachers: We want to say thank you. During quarantine, we see you working harder than ever to educate our children. To show our gratitude, Draper James would like to give teachers a free dress.” They were instructed to apply by a form, given a deadline, and told when “winners” would be notified — as well as that it was valid “while supplies last.”” [quote from New York Times article.]

At first, of course it got the brand a lot of great publicity (for example, both the “Today Show” and “Good Morning America” promoted it). Unfortunately, they only had 250 dresses and when 10s of thousands of teachers applied, it meant that many ended up disappointed. A promotion that started with the best of intentions came across as an example of “Celebrity #Covidwashing,” making the Draper James and Reese Witherspoon brands look bad. Read the whole story at “Reese Witherspoon’s Fashion Line Offered Free Dresses to Teachers. They Didn’t Mean Every Teacher.”

 

Filed Under: Chapter 15, Promotion

Advertising in a Pandemic…

April 20, 2020 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago we posted on a couple of articles discussing the question about how to advertise in a pandemic. This week, I thought I would share some favorite advertising that directly addresses the pandemic. It is amazing how quickly some brands (and their agencies) have created powerful ads in a short time.

Check out these ads (links to a YouTube video of the ad you can watch and show your students):

  • McDonald’s: Unskippable Ad is a handwashing reminder that runs pre-roll (before online video). While such ads are usually skippable after 5 seconds, this one cannot be skipped. It was part of a McDonald’s Russia campaign “We are for safety. With both hands.” The ad educates while also letting everyone know that McDonald’s is a safe option.
  • The Ohio Department of Health created “Flatten the Curve” to educate Ohioans (and others) the theory behind social distancing. A great example of how a short video can communicate a great deal. It is also a nice example of Marketing for a Better World (#M4BW). This simple video communicates a lot.
  • Nike: Play for the World, You Can’t Stop Us shows Nike athletes and everyday people who are still playing — though now indoors. Nike has long used its advertising to encourage us to “Just do it” or get out and play. This ad fits the times.
  • Dove has long been a leader (that link shows they have been doing it for more than 15 years!) in re-defining beauty. In a pandemic, they show some “beautiful” front-line healthcare workers in “Courage is Beautiful.” Great fit with its image. Authentic. But maybe uplifting for some of our students who are struggling with the current situation.

Filed Under: #M4BW, Advertising, Chapter 13, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Promotion

Marketing Communications in a Pandemic…

April 3, 2020 by Joe Cannon 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.

 

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Integrated marketing communications, Promotion

Mattress firms creating value (?) with financing deals…

October 31, 2019 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

The mattress industry is a pretty crazy (check out “The Great Mattress Conspiracy: Why Are There So Many Mattress Stores?” on Endless Thread, podcast and story). You might check out the podcast for a fun example when you cover retailing. Or ethics. You might also check out one of our previous posts, “The Gray World of Online Reviews” (Teach the 4 Ps) — tags include ethics and online reviews.

Onto our story of the day and we are back in the retail mattress industry. With the emergence of new mattress products designed for easy shipping, online mattress stores (Casper, Leesa, Tuft & Needle), this market continues to be very competitive. Retail brick-and-mortar store Mattress Firm has closed 700 stores and is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now they are competing on financing. In fact, Mattress Firm will give you six years of 0% interest on a mattress purchase of up to $3999. Financing is certainly one way to create value for customers — and the automobile industry has done it for years — but does it make sense for buyers of mattresses. We will see. Learn more reading “6-year, 0% loan for a mattress? Intense competition continues to grip mattress industry,” USA Today, October 25, 2019.

Filed Under: Chapter 12, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Ethics, Place, Price, Promotion, Retailing

IHOP Publicity Stunt

September 2, 2018 by Jon Firooz Leave a Comment

Over the summer one of the most talked about marketing campaigns was the IHOb campaign.  The International House of Pancakes announced they were changing from IHOP to IHOb and later announced that the “b” stood for “burgers”.  Shortly afterward they admitted it was all a publicity stunt to help build awareness of their line of burgers.  This campaign has potential for a couple of class discussions.  First, was it successful?  Clearly they succeeded in getting people talking about their company but whether it drove sales is more ambiguous.  This article from the USA Today suggests it did not drive a material increase in sales.  Another article from geomarketing.com indicates that there was an increase in male traffic but the net result was negative due to lower traffic by females.

Another angle to discuss is the ethicality of the campaign.  Is it ethical for a company to say “we’re changing our name” when they have no intention to do so?  Does this create a bad precedent or does it cause other companies to push the boundaries of deceptive marketing?  How far is too far when trying to gain publicity?

Filed Under: Advertising, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 19, Ethics, Promotion, Publicity, Uncategorized Tagged With: ethics, food, ihob, ihop, Restaurants

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 76
  • Next Page »

Categories

  • #M4BW
  • Advertising
  • B2B
  • Chapter 01
  • Chapter 02
  • Chapter 03
  • Chapter 04
  • Chapter 05
  • Chapter 06
  • Chapter 07
  • Chapter 08
  • Chapter 09
  • Chapter 10
  • Chapter 11
  • Chapter 12
  • Chapter 13
  • Chapter 14
  • Chapter 15
  • Chapter 16
  • Chapter 17
  • Chapter 18
  • Chapter 19
  • Competition
  • Consumer behavior
  • Cross-functional
  • Customer service
  • Demographics
  • Ethics
  • External market environment
  • Flip Exercise
  • Integrated marketing communications
  • International
  • Legal
  • Logistics
  • Market research
  • Marketing strategy planning
  • New-product development
  • Place
  • Positioning
  • Price
  • Product
  • Product life cycle
  • Promotion
  • Publicity
  • Retailing
  • Segmentation
  • Selling and Sales Mgmt
  • Service
  • Social media
  • Social responsibility
  • Strategy planning
  • Sustainability
  • Teaching Technology Tips
  • Tips for Teaching
  • Tips for Technology
  • TV Commercial
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Viral campaign
  • What's Now?
  • Word-of-mouth

Archives

  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019

Copyright © 2021 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in