Some businesses smell an opportunity to really tie together their integrated marketing communications. They communicate distinct brand identity through the scents that customers smell in their stores or hotels. Read more at “The smell of success” (Baltimore Sun, January 19, 2012), watch a short Early Show news story (4:35) below, or check out ScentAir Technologies website.
Place yourself in the marketing department for ScenAir. What types of businesses would be good opportunities to pursue? Go beyond those mentioned in the article and video. How could you promote the product to your new target market?
Today’s consumers put less stock in advertising as compared to recommendations from friends. So how does a company get its customers talking about its products. According to Martin Lindstrom “Under-Promise. Over-Deliver. And Your Brand’s Fans Will Talk” (Fast Company, January 10, 2012).
What do you think? When is the cost of “over-delivering” likely to offset the costs? Are there certain product categories or types of brands where this is more beneficial?
FastCompany magazine often takes an idea and pushes the boundaries — but I find their observations are usually prescient. They point out that the business world is becoming increasingly chaotic — making career planning darn near impossible, at least in the long-term. This brave new world rewards the agile and opportunistic. This article, “This Is Generation Flux: Meet The Pioneers Of The New (And Chaotic) Frontier Of Business” (January 12, 2012) introduces you to seven people — representing a broad demographic cross-section — who are thriving in this macroenvironment. The article suggests the skills that may be needed as well. A companion article, “The Four-Year Career” describes a 28-year old woman’s early career path (FastCompany, January 12, 2012). The idea here is that our students should probably be career planning for relatively short time horizons — four years as opposed to twenty.
For another perspective on career planning, read “To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion” (HBR Blog Network, January 13, 2012) the author suggests that young people should be focused on problems they can contribute to solving. Reading the comments (189 and counting as of today) — will give you a much richer perspective.
As you develop your personal marketing plan, make sure you understand the crazy macroenvironment you are heading into. Make sure you have the attitude, expectations, and skills needed in this new world.
I guess this campaign is more than a year old now — but it is fresh and new to me. John St. is an agency based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is hard to call any agency an “ad” agency as most — like John St. — do all kinds of promotional efforts. The clever video below demonstrates a wide range of its services in a cute way. It actually fits as a B2B and B2C example at the same time — and it also demonstrates integrated marketing communications.
An emerging technology is augmented reality (AR). Wikipedia defines AR as “a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.” It won’t be long before shoppers are using AR to help them make buying decisions. I just read about AR in National Geographic, “Revealed World” (January 2012) – be sure to check out the photo montage to get an idea about how this will work. The article suggests that what you can now see on your smart phone is moving to specialized glasses and in a few years may be embedded in contact lenses. National Geographic used the technology in a shopping mall to promote its cable TV channel — see below.
For another example, see what Krystal did with a smart phone app below. I don’t think this really shows the full potential of AR, but it does show a low-cost way to generate some buzz around a brand. I applaud Krystal for dabbling in the new technology.
I think there is something to this technology — it sure seems like potentially useful information for shoppers — at least if you consider what it will be — not what it currently is. For that view, look back at the National Geographic article. What else could marketers do with this technology? Be creative and think of new applications, ideas, or brands AR might help.
Human beings are actually not very rational decision makers — there is a great deal of evidence to that effect. We are subject to predictable biases. Increased computing power and better databases are allowing companies to use analytics and make better (unbiased) decisions. This is sparking the rise of new companies that can analyze data and some new applications. You can read more in “So, What’s Your Algorithm?” (Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2011 – non-subscribers may need to click here).
Read this article and think about how other firms (beyond the Schwan’s example in the article) could use “big data” to make better marketing decisions? Also, how do you think trends like this will impact your future career — answer by referencing your career?
Choose one of the trends and evaluate its impact on your career planning. What can you do differently to better position yourself for the future — assuming the trend you pick is right? Part of the idea of this exercise is to encourage you to be forward-looking in your career planning. The world is changing rapidly, so you want to be anticipating and preparing for the future.
The title of this article from Adweek says it all “The 10 Most Watched Ads of 2011 on YouTube” (December 21, 2011). We featured several of these on Learn the 4 Ps over the last year. This might give you something entertaining to watch over break.
A couple of interesting stories about how retailers utilize high-tech analytics to better understand customer shopping behavior. I heard “The secret life of discounts” (Marketplace radio, December 16, 2011, link to listen or read the transcript) as I drove to the airport last night to pick up my daughter who was coming home from college. There are some examples about how stores use analytics to try to remain profitable with consumers conditioned to buy only at a steep discount.
In “Big Brother is Watching You Shop” (Bloomberg Businessweek, December 15, 2011), you can read about retailers using in-store video cameras and tracking your cell phone to better understand how you move through a retail store. Analyzing video from a Miami store allowed Montblanc managers to more strategically locate merchandising, signage, and salespeople. The result — a 20% bump in sales. Other retailers follow customers’ cell phone signals to track and map movement through stores. This of course is raising privacy concerns.
What else could stores learn by carefully analyzing video of consumers shopping? Does it bother you that your cell phone signal allows you to be tracked while you shop?
Marketing is most interesting when you can see many of the concepts you learn tied together. This article, “Philly Cream Cheese’s Spreading Appeal” (Bloomberg Businessweek, December 12, 2011) shows how some of the different elements you have been learning about in marketing can be tied together – with successful results.
Sales of Philadephia brand cream cheese were pretty much flat (mature or decline stage of the product life cycle) for most of the last decade. Then Kraft researchers (market research) noticed that heavy users of the product were using cream cheese (consumer behavior) as an ingredient in their cooking — not simply as a spread for bagels. Starting in Europe back in 2008, Kraft’s brand managers tapped into social media and the Internet to gather and share recipes using Philadephia brand cream cheese, they promoted it on cooking shows and with contests (Promotion). In the U.K. the share of customers using cream cheese as an ingredient (effective repositioning) has almost doubled to 37% — and sales are up 20% in Europe (results).
This is a great case study of a successful brand revitalization. Check out the article for more details on the strategy.
Some businesses smell an opportunity to really tie together their integrated marketing communications. They communicate distinct brand identity through the scents that customers smell in their stores or hotels. Read more at “The smell of success” (Baltimore Sun, January 19, 2012), watch a short Early Show news story (4:35) below, or check out ScentAir Technologies website.
