learnthe4ps.com - For students of marketing.

Marketing managers are increasingly paying attention to the customer’s entire purchase experience. Scholars of the marketing of services have long studied queues and wait times. Smart companies are finding ways to improve the wait experience — and you can read about some examples in this Wall Street Journal article “Fun for the Whole Family: The Long Wait in Line” (August 10, 2011 – non-subscribers may need to click here).

How important do you think it is for a company to manage queues?  For what types of businesses is this most important?  What other ideas do you have — or have you seen other marketers use — to more effectively manage lines?

Once again, Seth Godin simplifies what many marketers need to do – “Three things clients and customers want” (Seth Godin’s Blog, August 16, 2011).  We will talk about customer needs and wants when we get to consumer behavior.  But what about Seth’s list.  Is the list accurate?  Exhaustive?  Can it all be boiled down to these three wants?   Can you offer some examples of companies or brands that have delivered on one of these needs?  What about delivering on more than one?  How do they do it?

Wal-Mart has long been positioned as the low-price leader. Leveraging its supply chain and logistics system, competitors couldn’t match Wal-Mart’s cost structure. Now at least some consumers perceptions are changing. In this Wall Street Journal article, “Wal-Mart Loses Edge” (August 16, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here) we read about recent consumer surveys that show the retailer losing its “lowest price” positioning. In one survey of 1500 Wal-Mart shoppers, “86% no longer thought it had the lowest prices” while in another survey the number was 60%. Whichever the number, this is a big problem for a retailer that has long enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for low prices. While Wal-Mart’s perception of value fades, stores like Dollar Tree are seeing their perception of value rise.

As you know (or will learn), consumer perceptions are what drives behavior, so if consumers no longer view Wal-Mart as the lowest price store, those looking for low prices may move on to other retailers.  We use the term positioning which we define as “how consumers think about proposed or present brands in a market.”

What should Wal-Mart do now?  Should the try to re-gain positioning as the “lowest price” store?  Or should they seek out another positioning?  What positioning do you suggest Wal-Mart pursue?  How do they get it?

The heavy equipment market is dominated by Caterpillar, Deere/Hitachi, and Komatsu, which together account for an 82% market share for excavators weighing at least eight metric tons.  A new kid is trying break in to this market.  Chinese construction equipment maker Luogong has signed up one of its first dealers in the U.S. with Syracuse, NY based Stephenson Equipment.  See “China Treads on New Turf” (Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here) to learn more.

Outline Luogong’s marketing strategy — target market, product, price, place, and promotion — as noted in the case.  Do you think they will be successful?  Can you think of other marketing strategy ideas that might help Luogong succeed in the U.S. market?

This infographic “The Sneaky Psychology of Advertising” (BuySellAds.com, June 20, 2011) provides some interesting examples of consumer and advertising research — most of which are based on scientific studies of advertising.

What do you think of these tactics?  Are any of them unethical?

Who is the target market for this Toyota Venza commercial?   What is Toyota’s objective?  Does this ring true to you?  Would it ring true to your parents?

As regular readers of L4Ps know, we like to offer tips for your own personal marketing plan. Many of you guys are marketing students who are currently — or soon will be — looking for a job.  We think that all students should consider developing a marketing plan – early in your college career if you can.  The earlier you develop it, the more likely you can address weaknesses with classes, internships, volunteer work, or student organizations.  If you talk to most career councilors, they will be quick to tell you that the best way to get a job is through networking.  You need to put yourself into new situations where you can meet potential employers or people who can introduce you to potential employers.  To make a good impression, you should know how to introduce yourself.  This is an opportunity to develop your own positioning (how an employer views you) — so don’t miss this chance.  Have a plan.

One of the many podcasts I listen to regularly is The Public Speaker – which posted “How to Introduce Yourself” (June 30, 2011) — the link will take you to a page where you can listen to the podcast or read the transcript.  Great advice.

Most students of marketing enjoy seeing examples of creative, clever and successful marketing campaigns.  Well here you go — the background, the case study and at the end, the numbers to show it worked.  Did any of you see this campaign while it unfolded — I didn’t but then I am not the target market and many of you are.

Marketers have always been excited about the idea of turning consumers into powerful Promotion tools for their brands — but fostering word-of-mouth isn’t easy. Now Facebook is hoping they have a strategy that makes it easy for consumers and marketers to work together to promote brands and products we “like” (as in pressing the “Like” button on Facebook).

No one is quite sure where this is going, but many consumers are already clicking the Facebook “Like” button on their favorite brands — or maybe mentioning in a post a recent purchase of the brand. Now it seems that Facebook will mention this ads targeting that customer’s friends. So for example, if I “Like” a brand like Ikea on my Facebook page, an ad could appear on my friends pages that mentions “Joe (and perhaps more of their friends) Likes Ikea.” In theory, knowing that Joe likes Ikea may make the store more appealing to my friends. This short article at Fast Company suggest that Facebook’s sponsored stories work – see “Facebook Sponsored Stories Performing 2 Times Better Than Standard Ads” (July 15, 2011).

What do you think?  Will you be more favorable to a brand if you know that 10 of your friends like it too?  Does it both you that your “Likes” might appear on your friends page as ads?