learnthe4ps.com - For students of marketing.

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?

The battle of the brands is the “competition between dealer brands and manufacturer brand” (from our text books) over which will be more popular.  Dealer brands, sometimes called private labels, are brands created by store chains (for example Safeway’s O Organics line of organic foods) and manufacturer brands are created by a producer (General Mills Cheerios).  Dealer brands have been gaining share — boosted recently by economic downturn induced consumer price sensitivity.

This Bloomberg Businessweek article “Why Grocers Are Boosting Private Labels,” gives an update and some great examples.  Dealer brands used to differentiate on price and then more recently offered comparable and sometimes higher quality.  Now many retailers are adding brand managers and investing in more aggressive promotion.  Surprising fact:  in 2009, 8.7% of food and nonalcoholic drink new products were private label – by 2011 the number more than tripled to 31.4%.

What do you think of this trend?  Will it continue?  Have you noticed more aggressive promotion from dealer brands?

Mercedes Benz has struggled in recent years in its battle with other Germany luxury carmakers — with BMW and Audi both passing the fabled brand.  In “A Mini Mercedes with Big Ambitions” (BusinessWeek, September 22, 2011), you can read about a new Mercedes Benz the B-Class. This smaller and more affordable Mercedes targets a “younger, hipper clientele” than the traditional Mercedes target market.

The move is an example of expanding a product line downmarket — which has implications for Mercedes positioning and brand equity.  What do you think about Mercedes risk to its classic positioning?  What could Mercedes have done — or could they still do — to minimize such concerns?  What other promotion ideas do you have to help Mercedes as it aims at a new target market?

I have been looking for a Dilbert to finish out the semester. Why it pays for brand managers to have some understanding of the technology behind a product.  Recall that branding and naming products are Product decisions.

This article is old but not dated.  In fact in a Facebook, YouTube world, you may find the concept even more relevant.  So read this article “The Brand Called You” (Fast Company, August 31, 1997) and take its advice to mind as you develop your own personal brand and marketing plan.