Seattle’s Zero-Emissions Last-Mile Delivery Hub

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Earlier this month, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its latest report on the climate. It was not encouraging and clearly points to the need for the world to limit carbon emissions. Many cities and businesses are stepping already trying to do just that.

One opportunity for lowering emissions is the so-called “last mile” for online retail. This is the delivery to customers’ homes and businesses. This is seen as lower hanging fruit. So the city of Seattle is experimenting with some low-cost options, including cargo bikes, electric vehicles and pallets, and food trucks. This opportunity is leading to some innovation around delivery.

This Fast Company article describes “Seattle’s new zero-emissions delivery hub is an experiment in slashing e-commerce emissions.” This video (also shown below) describes some of that innovation. In Essentials of Marketing, we discuss innovation as a benefit of marketing (Chapter 1) and as part of new product development (Chapter 9). And of course this topic is relevant to distribution (see chapters 10, 11, and 12) Our textbook also covers sustainability in chapters 1 and 19.

“8 Best Brand Moments from 2019” (including some good #M4BW examples)

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It’s that time of year when “best of” lists come around. I enjoy these lists because an expert (hopefully) pulls together some great marketing examples from the last year. The result is “brand storytelling [examples]… from the deadly serious to the seriously silly.” The list includes a bunch of examples that slipped past me–maybe I am not the target market, but it looks like our students often were. So check out “8 Best Brand Moments from 2019” (CMO by Adobe), where you can learn more about fascinating campaigns from Gillette, Taco Bell, Volvo, Nike, IKEA, P&G, Adobe, and Wendy’s — most of which have pretty cool videos you could show in class to stimulate laughter and/or discussion.

To whet your appetite, I am posting the Volvo video, “The EVA Initiative: Equal Vehicles for All” (#M4BW) below:

Apple Advertising Over 40 Years

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Many of our students love Apple products and the brand in general. It usually ranks in the top 2-3 most frequently mentioned when I survey my students to share their favorite brands. Our textbooks use an Apple case study to open chapter 5 (Consumer Behavior). Over the last 40 years, Apple has produced some truly memorable advertising. Some have called the Apple 1984 Super Bowl commercial the greatest ad ever. I personally like the “Think Different” campaign and enjoy using it to demonstrate differentiation and positioning. Over at The Next Web you can find “The 40-year evolution of Apple ads” (April 5, 2016). It offers some commentary sprinkled between 12 ads from over the years. Most of the ads are from the last decade.

These ads could be shown to demonstrate how Apple’s strategy has evolved over the years — or a few could be shown to introduce chapter 5 and foster a discussion of this chapter opener. The ads could also be used to show how the personal computer market evolved (product life cycle) or as examples of advertising when that is covered in class. The video below provides a look at Apple’s history in 40 seconds.

 

 

Mercedes Benz’s driverless car prototype

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The driverless car is a reality. This video might be fun to drop into a lecture on the external market environment — to stimulate a discussion of technology. What markets will the driverless car influence? How will it change law enforcement? What about bars and restaurants — which may have more demand as people can stay out and drink without having to drive home? There are predictions that driverless cars will have many fewer accidents? What are the implications for the automobile insurance industry? What about demand in hospital emergency rooms?

These discussions will help students see the need to monitor technological changes that may not immediately appear to impact their business. The emergence of the driverless car (which now seems inevitable) will impact many different product-markets. There might also be a discussion of consumer behavior (some consumers may love this idea, it may be a challenge for others) or the product life cycle (how do you introduce this product to the market) or new product development (the role of prototypes).

The video shows Mercedes Benz’s driverless car prototype.

Caterpillar Uses Viral Video in “Built for It” Campaign

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Many of the most creative campaigns are for consumer brands — so I really enjoy seeing a B2B brand do something creative. Caterpillar (the high quality, premium priced tractor and heavy equipment maker) has been running a campaign for about a year now: “When you choose Cat®, you get what you pay for — durable and reliable equipment, and long-lasting relationships. Discover what we’re built for…” They have released a series of five (so far) clever videos that demonstrate their products in action. The videos are great two minute stories. Any one of the videos could be used to motivate topics as diverse as B2B, product quality, premium pricing, promotion — even international. One of my favorites is this play on the old game of Jenga but using 27 blocks that weight 600 pounds each:


We have also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps.