learnthe4ps.com - For students of marketing.

It has always been difficult for retailers to set prices. Two factors make it even more difficult today. First, customers are better informed — the internet and smartphone apps let them easily check the prices of products they see on retail store shelves. Second, consumers have been conditioned to wait for steep discounts — in department stores very few sales are made at full retail. Retail giants J.C. Penney and Macy’s are trying new strategies to try to maintain profits. Read more at “Knowing Cost, the Customer Sets the Price,” New York Times, March 27, 2012.

What do you think of J.C. Penney’s new pricing?  Will it work?  What else do you suggest J.C. Penney do to try to make sure it works?

This article at the Lifehacker blog, “Study Before Bed for Significantly Better Retention” (March 26, 2012) describes a study that found that studying more challenging material before going to sleep resulted in increased retention.  Worth a try?

Did you know that only 40% of British households own a dishwasher? That compares to 78% market penetration in the U.S., 77% in Germany, and 52% in France. Did you also know that dishwashers are more economical and use less water than washing by hand? So why aren’t the British buying more dishwashers? It appears that at least part of the problem comes from a lack of understanding about the benefits. You can read about a marketing strategy that hopes to change these numbers in “Will More Britons Buy Dishwashers?” (Bloomberg Businessweek, March 22, 2012).

Changing engrained consumer behavior can be a challenge.  It is not like appliance makers have not been trying hard to get the Brits to buy more dishwashers.  What do you think of this marketing strategy? What other ideas can you think of that might work?  What assumptions about British consumer behavior are you making with your suggestions?  If you understand your assumptions you can do market research to test those assumptions.

Millenials (or Gen Y) refers to those born between 1978 and 1994 (that is the definition we use in our text books). Right now this group is 18-34 years old and fits right at the heart of many marketers’ target markets. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons — both economic and cultural — these consumers are not spending in the same way as earlier generations. In “Young Consumers Pinch Their Pennies” (Bloomberg Businessweek, March 22, 2012), you can read a wide range of statistics from a recent Pew Research Center survey. Among the findings, 46% of 18-24s would choose Internet access over owning a car. For previous generations, cars were an important part of life. This has companies like GM looking at new strategies, “As Young Lose Interest in Cars, G.M. Turns to MTV for Help” (New York Times, March 22, 2012).

Most of our readers are millennials.  Does this observation ring true when you consider your own buying behavior and interests?  I know that going to college often limits disposable income — so think about others without such constraints.  Are they particularly careful about spending?

Last week I listened to The Startup of You, a book that describes how people should look at their careers through the eyes of an entrepreneur. For an interesting visual overview of the book, click here. One of the authors, Reid Hoffman, is a very successful entrepreneur who helped start PayPal and cofounded LinkedIn.

I highly recommend this book — especially chapters 1 – 3 — for developing your own personal marketing plan.  The book offers great advice for today’s career planner.  If you don’t read it before you write your plan this semester, pick it up and add it to your summer reading list.

What do you think it would be like to work in advertising?  Maybe you want to hear about it from someone who actually does…

Pinterest is a social media site where users can organize and share online images. The three year old social network has exploded online — growing from 50,000 unique visitors in May 2011 to 11.7 million in January 2012.

Are you familiar with Pinterest?  Any social network that explodes this quickly should be of interest to marketing managers.  To learn more about Pinterest, start with Mashable‘s “Pinterest: A Beginner’s Guide to the Hot New Social Network” (December 26, 2011). You could also check out the Wall Street Journal‘s “An Introduction to Pinterest” which uses an actual Pinterest page to describe it.  For some examples of brands using Pinterest see “7 Examples of Brands That Pop on Pinterest” (HubSpot Blog, February 2, 2012).

This is still an emerging social media trend. What do you think of its use for marketers? What ideas can you come up with for marketing managers working for a retailer like Macy’s?  How about Taco Bell, should it be there?  What types of businesses are the best candidates for investing in Pinterest?  Why?  How should these businesses utilize Pinterest?

Over the last decade Nike has significantly changed its marketing strategy – especially in product development and promotion.  The Nike+ software and iPod partnership has the firm seeking more digital products.  Nike seeks new services to enhance its offerings.

My generation (I am 51) saw Nike’s great advertising on television.  Now Nike has moved almost completely away from the big screen — moving to the small screens (cell phones and computers) where its core target market spends more time.  There the media placement costs are very low (though production costs for thos 1-3 minute “mini movies” can be high).

Fortune magazine provides an extended article describing changes at Nike – “Nike’s new marketing mojo” (February 13). To read more Learn the 4 Ps coverage of Nike, click here.

Let’s try to learn from Nike — and apply these lessons to other companies in other industries (not just Under Armour or Adidas).  This will require some thinking — because the lessons cannot be copied directly to new industries.  What can McDonald’s learn from Nike’s strategy?  How about the Mayo Clinic?  King Soopers (or other grocery store)?

Twitter’s efforts to build a viable business model have been inconsistent. Now the micro-blogging service appears to have a formula that is working. Advertisers are starting to get on board. Bloomberg BusinessWeek‘s cover story this week offers a closer look at Twitter, see “Twitter, the Startup That Wouldn’t Die” (March 1, 2012). A quick overview can be found in the video below — but read the article to get more insight.

This is a useful story for entrepreneurs as getting the right business model is not easy.  For marketers, Twitter has some real potential, though I believe they need to do more analytics so they can deliver highly targeted audiences to advertisers.  Facebook can do that now.  Do you use Twitter?  Do you think the advertising model will work?  How else could Twitter improve its model?