As Marketing instructors, the 2 Guyz On Marketing know we need to teach the basics, but it’s the hot topics that usually spur on the best class discussions. They knew, everyone gets to learn, and they are happening right in front of our eyes.
Teachers know that fall is a more enjoyable semester, for a variety of reasons, starting with it’s the start of the school year and summer has almost gone by. So, what will marketing students be studying this fall in “M” school? Here’s our picks for the top 10 topics.
Influencer Marketing – While it’s been around for a while, we’re really just learning what works and what doesn’t. Look for meaty discussions in the areas of disclosure and micro influencers.
Privacy and Personalization – On the one hand, ads now follow us around the Internet, trying to sell us stuff we looked at moments before. At the same time, look for increased privacy issues, breaches of security, and ethics discussions. Can be boring but highly relevant now and in the future. Europe has had an impact on U.S. companies, such as Facebook and Google. Seems like breaches are in the news all of the time.
Social Media Advertising – Facebook’s financial and bad publicity woes may shake up ad spending in the social arena. Look for emerging trends as more money flows into Instagram, Snap Chat, and LinkedIn.
Truth (of Lack of) In Advertising – With November elections just around the corner and an era of dishonesty overshadowing politics, look for some crazy political marketing and advertising to hit the media.
Gen Z – They’re here! This year’s freshman class of college will be helping shape the way we perceive this newest age of demographics and psychographics.
Millennials – And they’re not gone…anything but! Millennials are changing as we watch, hitting middle management, starting their families, and maybe “settling down. Many product and service categories are affected by their numbers and buying influences. And remember, they’re set to inherit a lot of wealth from the Baby Boom generation.
Big Data, Little Data, Analytics and Metrics – While many students choose marketing, advertising and PR as a way of getting away from math, numbers, and analysis, they’re mistaken. Marketing decisions are increasingly driven by number crunching and predictive analytics.
Content Marketing – Content marketing has been around, but is really coming of age. We are beginning to understand how to better leverage our ability to communicate, engage, and eventually sell through messaging other than just paid advertising.
Technology Meets Experience – Experiential Marketing continues to progress at a feverish pace. Trying clothes or glasses on, building your dream car, visiting a foreign land, it can all be done “virtually.” Look for new technologies to leave the realm of simply “possible” and become the new “practice.”
We will guaranteed another eyes-wide open semester.
]]>“WENDY’S!!!” (@Wendys on Twitter). (Thanks COM 490!).
While Taco Bell seemed to hold the crown a year or two ago, Wendy’s has developed a following of over 2.4 million people.
Brand and Marketing researchers know there is a correlation between social media engagement and brands, but there is debate whether people like a brand and then follow, or follow a brand and then like it.
Either way, getting millions of followers to engage with your posts, liking, sharing, and commenting, is basically a social media home run.
BoredPanda.com, a website dedicated to “showcasing the world’s most creative artworks, offbeat products and everything that’s really weird or wonderful”, recently highlighted they Twitter genius of Wendy’s.
Research does indicated witty brands can be more memorable. But it can be a delicate balance.
The 2 Guys On Marketing teach that funny is good when it is memorable, relates to the brand or product, and is within the brand character. Londre and Hemsworth also know what makes the cash register ring is most important. It’s about sales and their generation.
The Wendy’s tweets walk a fine line, but they appear to be witty and hitting the funny bone of millennials. The result is that Wendy’s is seen as cooler, hipper than places like McDonalds or Burger King.
Wendy’s is also on a steep upward growth track, planning to add 1000 stores globally in the next two years. (Source: http://www.nrn.com/operations/wendy-s-plans-add-1000-units-2020).
How long will the Twitter halo last? Will it continue to generate sales?
What the 2 Guyz really know about fast food is that new product development is key to future success, too, but that’s a future topic!
We’ll keep you posted!
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In accounting, 2+2 is always 4. Engineering follows the laws of Science. Medicine works on measured outcomes.
But marketing is, well, less constant.
Therefore, what’s taught, and what is learned, changes.
There is also an unmeasurable factor in marketing. It’s the hunch, the gut feel. Malcom Gladwell would suggest a marketer achieves a high state of ability at somewhere around 10,000 hours of experience, and the 2 Guyz agree with that.
Hunches, gut feel, marketing and promotional intuition are hard to teach, which is why they don’t usually end up in marketing textbooks. And the textbooks get even more outdated. But it doesn’t mean they are any less important.
Here are three things we, as the 2 Guyz On Marketing, have learned over time that no one textbooks ever taught us.
1) “Not Marketing” is NEVER a good long term strategy. Marketing means a lot of different strategies and tactics, but not promoting is never good. Not doing research on what is driving your customers to you is never a good tactic.
“We don’t do marketing, clients and customers come to us.” Work in marketing for a short time and you begin to hear this. It’s something that maybe once was true, but not anymore. Business moves too fast. Customers have too much buying power, information, and voice.
Back in 2010, digging out of the great recession, an executive said to us, “We never gave marketing much thought. Business came to us. But never again will I make that mistake. Thank goodness our line of credit got us through this drought of business. From here on out, we will actively market.”
Sure, there are times to pull back. There are times to regroup, restrategize, and reorganize. But just like falling off a bicycle, you need to get back on and start pedaling. Don’t mistake momentary pause with lack of effort.
A wise man once said in business, “If you’re not going forward, you are going backward.”
2) Customers have wants and needs. Wants are almost always more powerful than needs.
Natural marketers learn this early. Needs are about necessity, specification, and features. Wants are about desires, emotion, and benefits.
Advertising and marketing communications that appeal to emotion is almost always more powerful (and successful) than appealing to needs. Appeals at the right time delivers sales. Makes the cash register ring.
We teach that features about a product of service offering, whereas benefits are about what the product or service offering does for the customer.
Kids in school need tennis shoes for gym class. They WANT $200 Nikes. Women need a purse, but they might want the $1100 Louis Vuitton. Men might need a car, but many of them want a big truck, a BMW, or a Porsche.
3) Sex sells.
We don’t love this, but we have to admit it works quite often.
Car marketing uses it. Beer and alcohol producers use it. Fashion uses it. Heck, just about every category uses it. GoDaddy created a brand by blatantly using sex in advertising.
But it is not without baggage.
Sex in marketing can be short-term in success. Brands often find backlash with customer groups, media, and partners. GoDaddy has moved away from it. Way away.
In most cases, it’s “borrowed interest”, a form of bait and switch communication. It’s using something else to get attention, not your product itself.
These are just three of the many things marketers pick up on the “street”. It’s also part of what makes marketing so interesting!
]]>In Super Bowl LII TV viewers saw Doritos chips and Avocados From Mexico as two of the advertisers. Makes sense since most football parties have both.
Each advertiser paid $5+ million per spot to advertise in the Super Bowl. And those spots are designed to make watering mouths in the 103 million estimated viewers of this year’s game. As media planners, we would calculate that to be a CPM of about $45. In our classes we teach that that means Doritos and Avocados From Mexico paid about $45 to reach every 1000 viewers.
CNBC has reported that Avocados From Mexico was one of the most talked spots after the Superbowl on social media. Time will tell if that translates into more avocado sales.
What about Doritios? They had the 4th highest rated ad, according to USA Today Ad Meter.
Just how big is Doritos? How much sales do Doritos represent to parent company PepsiCo? Doritos was the top ranked tostada chip brand of the United States with about $1.48 billion, in 2017. That’s a lot of chips.
So here’s an interesting take on some PR announced by PepsiCo. It’s about chips.
This week PepsiCo with its snacks Doritos, Cheetos and Lays chips may be announcing snacks aimed at women. An important characteristic under demographics.
Their research says that women prefer chips that “don’t make too much noise” when eaten or don’t leave their fingers sticky. Is that really an important differential?
As we are writing this post, Doritos chips are making a lot of noise…on the Internet! Seems social media is NOT in support, and think it’s in bad taste…figuratively, that is. The New York Times is watching this closely.
It does bring up the topic of segmentation, though. The 2 Guyz On Marketing teach and present five ways to segment a market. Segmentation is the breaking a market of varied potential purchasers into subgroups of specific purchasers with similar needs, desired product benefits and purchase behaviors. We teach demographics, geographics, psychographics, behavior characteristics and technographics.
Segmentation:
Breaking a market of varied potential purchasers into subgroups of specific purchasers with similar needs, desired product benefits and purchase behaviors.
Demographic Segmentation:
Age, sex, family size, family life cycle, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, race, generation, nationality, social class (is also sometimes put under psychographics.)
Geographic Segmentation:
By region, city, metro size, density, climate; plus by countries and territories.
Psychological Segmentation:
Social class–Lower lowers to Upper uppers. Social class is also under demographics.
Lifestyle— achievers, strivers, and strugglers
Personality— Compulsive, gregarious, authoritarian, and ambitious
Lifestyles/Attitudes/Interests and Opinions
Behavioral Segmentation:
Occasions (regular occasions, special occasions, holidays, vacations). Orange juice for breakfast, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day.
Benefits (quality, service, economy, convenience, speed—Quality, Time, Money)
User status (nonuser, ex-user, potential user, first-time user, regular user)
Usage rate (light, medium, heavy user)
Loyalty status (none, medium, strong, absolute)
Readiness attitude toward product (aware, interest, desire, intending to buy),
Attitude toward product (enthusiastic, positive, indifferent, negative, hostile[1]).
Technographical Segmentation
Another way to segment has been added to marketing’s segmentation, targeting and positioning. It is called “Technographics.” In our research, we have studied what technologies different segments or groups of people use and how they use them. What are your “people” using?
We’ll see what they will be launching in the near future, obviously after huge sales of chips for those parties last weekend.
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There are videos promoting this really harmful idea.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers, Proctor and Gamble (P&G), and heath care professionals call it “dangerous”. Many have been making warnings about the increase in the number of teenagers eating the detergent pods, which can cause seizures, respiratory arrests and even deaths.
During the first two weeks of 2018, poison control centers have handled at least 39 cases of intentional misuse among 13 to 19 year olds.
Procter & Gamble or P&G is trying to get teens not to consume Tide pods, fueled by social media.
Is this a marketing and promotional tactic by P&G?
They definitely want to get this heath message out and to inform teenagers not to bite into a Tide Pod. This looks like a case of “demarkting”.
But what is “demarketing?”
To explain “demarketing,” the 2 Guyz need to reference “price” or pricing, “products” and “place,” under the nine P’s of Marketing
Demarketing is any Marketing effort, strategy and tactic aimed at discouraging and/or decreasing demand for a product 1) which a company or entity cannot supply in large-enough quantities, 2) it does not want to supply in a certain geographical region where the high costs of distribution (Place), 3) where costs of Promotion allow too little profit or profit margin, or 4) simply want to stop or slow demand for good reason. It’s not about eating, it’s about use.
We teach that common “demarketing” strategies typically include higher “prices” (another of the 9P’s), scaled-down “Promotion” and promotional message changes and product redesign.
Some owners, brand managers and marketing managers seek fewer customers and decrease demand for their product or service.
National parks such as Yosemite want fewer visitors during their summer months. Utilities tell us to use less energy during peak usage months. We’re reminded of the tampered Tylenol bottles, the recent recall of romaine lettuce in many states as a result of e-coli, and many other instances of reducing demand.
In integrated marketing communications this is where advertising must be in sync with public relations and publicity efforts. And while Tide isn’t responsible for getting teens to eat pods, demarketing the behavior might be critical for the immediate future and profitability of the brand.
]]>Most of the time marketers can’t create customer value and build customer relationships by themselves. They need to work closely with partners and alliances outside the firm, as well as with different departments within their own company (which we call inside partners).
One of the most important of the nine P’s of Marketing created by Londre, one of the 2 Guyz on Marketing, is Partners or Alliances.
For our post, we found a doozy of an example. What combines Amazon, Toyota, Pizza Hut, Mazda and Didi, together?
Announced today at CES in Las Vegas, Toyota introduced its e-Palette, a self-driving concept vehicle with partner Pizza Hut. A self driving vehicle delivering pizzas.
Simply a strategic partnership and a vehicle to deliver pizza.
Pizza Hut is also part of another alliance (mobility services business alliance) that includes Amazon, Mazda, Uber and Didi (Uber’s Chinese rival).
From Artie Starrs, USA Pizza Hut president, “… to own and define the modern pizza experience, we (at Pizza Hut) are focused on technology-based solutions that enable our team members and drivers to deliver even better customer experiences.. With Toyota, we are partnering with an undisputed leader in human mobility with a reputation for innovation, reliability and efficiency, as we define the pizza delivery experience of the future.”
The 2 Guyz teach about joint partnerships, which are joint relationships. That relationship existing between two parties: it a relationship resembling a legal partnership and usually involving close cooperation between parties having specific and joint rights and responsibilities as a common enterprise.
Some lessons to learn from:
2 Guyz Brian adds that partnerships require constant communication, trust, and lots of shared effort. In addition to planning for all the good (profits, asset accumulation, etc.), partnerships need to be very clear about planning for the bad. Sooner or later, partnerships will end. Partners and alliances need to be clean how that will work, as well,
Changes are always occurring in how marketers connect with their customers, suppliers, channel partners and others. Partnerships have always been important, but never more than in today’s fast-paced, global business environment.
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“People,” one of the nine elements or components of marketing, is another addition to E. Jerome McCarthy’s original 4 P’s of the Marketing Mix. Let’s look at it more closely.
A couple of examples:
The 2 Guyz on Marketing say, “Be sure to look at competing FOR the customer more than AGAINST your competition.” The more you discover, learn, know, and understand about the people who are buying (or would potentially buy) your product, the more successful in marketing you will be!
For more Marketing insights, ideas, concepts and Marketing solutions: Go to Londremarketing.com and look under “Articles and Resources” and the 9P’s/Nine P’s ©2007. Specifically you will find them detailed at 9P’s/Nine P’s or Nine P’s/9P’s of Marketing.
*Created by Larry Steven Londre. Copyright 2007.
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But just as marketing doesn’t stand still, neither does the framework. After decades of working in, consulting in, and teach marketing, our own Larry Steven Londre developed his own 9 P’s of Marketing. Others have tried to make gimmicky “P’s” of varying amounts, but as 2 Guyz Brian Hemsworth says, “Londre’s 9 P’s is the best model for teaching and understanding today’s marketing environment.”
This begins a very special 9-part series from Larry where we look at each of the 9 P’s of Marketing. This is highly recommended reading for marketing students, entrepreneurs, company presidents and CEOs, and yes, even marketing professionals.
The nine P’s of Marketing contain several valuable concepts, elements, terms and useful definitions to help explain, find problems and aid in the understanding of Marketing and related activities, including Marketing objectives, strategies and tactics.
Can your customers, clients or users tell the difference between you and your competition? The Nine P’s/9P’s of Marketing can be used successfully by product companies, service firms, for profits entities and nonprofits “selling” directly or indirectly to consumers (B2C), to marketing intermediaries (such as industrial, consumer, retail, wholesale and professional channels of distribution), and to other businesses (B2B).
The 9 P’s include:
Let’s start at the beginning with “planning,” one of the nine elements or components:
To develop and transform marketing objectives to marketing strategies to tactics, marketing management must make basic decisions on marketing targets “People”), marketing mix, marketing budgets/expenditures and marketing allocations. It’s dividing the total marketing budget among the various tools in the marketing mix and for the various products, channels, promotion, media and sales areas.
Using research applies to each component and part in the nine/9P’s of Marketing.
It’s good to note that Albert Einstein said: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”
Planning includes observing what to do and what not to do in the marketplace. It includes research and developing a vision for each of the remaining nine P’s.
Critical thinking thoughts from the 2 Guyz on Marketing are based on a quote by Leonardo da Vinci: “Principles for the development of a complete mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses, especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
[1] https://www.ama.org/AboutAMA/Pages/Definition-of-Marketing.aspx
For more Marketing insights, ideas, concepts and Marketing solutions: Go to Londremarketing.com and look under “Articles and Resources” and the 9P’s/Nine P’s ©2007. Specifically you will find them detailed at 9P’s/Nine P’s or Nine P’s/9P’s of Marketing.
*Created by Larry Steven Londre. Copyright 2007.
]]>These terms can be a bit confusing, so the 2 Guyz taken on the task of using the terms in sentences correctly.
]]>Promotion is one of the key concepts shared with luminary E. Jerome McCarthy’s original 4 P’s of the Marketing Mix. It’s where all the heavy lifting of marketing communications is.
Under promotion, there are eight (8) major, strategic components. These communication
elements include personal and non-personal communication activities.
The activities that communicate the merits of the overall product include:
• Personal Selling/Sales Force (Sales people)
• Advertising
• Sales Promotion
• Collateral Materials
• Direct Marketing (also referred to as Direct Action or Direct Response Advertising)
• Interactive/Internet/Web, Digital Media, Social Media:
• Events and Experiences
• Public Relations/PR
So to see promotion in action, let’s look at an example. With an improved economy, business people, families, students, grandparents, and others are traveling more. Hotels are showing higher occupancy rates. Hotels are increasing their promotion and upping their pricing.
Simply put more people are staying at hotels, For example, a 100-room hotel with 90
rooms occupied would have a 90% occupancy rate.
Remember how in the 90’s hotels differentiated, sold and promoted themselves with
free breakfasts, local calling and a free newspaper? Some Holiday Inns had signs on the road saying “Free HBO.” That’s a start, but there is so much more to Marketing than a sign.
What are people looking for in a hotel? It’s more than the “core feature;” of a place to stay. But features are most powerful when they are turned into problem-solving benefits. In this case, they might be Rest/Sleep/Pool/Clean Room and Towels/Location to start.
Sometimes it’s more that that, or other, more specific benefits. Hotel people will tell you it’s about location, but even that is just a start. Just because a hotel is in Las Vegas doesn’t get it lots of bookings. (There are more than 150,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas, so location is only the beginning.)
They are looking for so much more than location, location, location.
But look at airport hotels which have easy access to the airport or special conference
rooms for company employees flying in from all over. Look at amenities at all hotels, with Internet or wi-fi access, hotel name and their, reward programs (points added to their accounts for example. Think Hilton HHonors, or the Advantage program for American Airlines).
Can you believe but an ironing board is important for some. What about a pool, the brand’s reputation, TV with a good, working remote, Price (one of the Nine P’s), special offers, value; quality, style; ratings of hotels from previous guests.
Brian Hemsworth, one of the 2 Guyz, realized that he had, over his lifetime, chosen a hotel for almost every one of the reasons in this post. Not all were the deciding factor, but most have contributed at one tie or another. Promotion is way we learn of offerings, specials, and opportunities.
With Promotion, hotels fight or battle over the claims of which ones have the best beds, sheets, etc.), fitness center, food, restaurants, Starbucks coffee, special promotional offers, convention services; room service, pillow menu selection, white noise machine, candy, apples or cookie at check-in, and turn-down service.
Examples also include: hotel parking, where the fees can be expensive; resort fees; fee for a room key (just kidding); but computer fee at the business center isn’t; availability and the poor working order of the fitness center equipment; the printing out of an airline boarding pass can cost up to $7.50; refrigerator; surcharges for phone calls; wireless access; roll away beds, up to $60; mini bar stocking (hate that one); receiving faxes or packages; room service: (surcharge, delivery fee and mandatory gratuity, yikes; check out too early or too late fee; storing bags and wake up call.
I found it interesting that the Benjamin Hotel in Manhattan is offering work-down calls.
It’s the opposite of a “wake-up call.” Really. Yes, it is true. The guest arranges to have the concierge call at a specific time or times to remind the guest to go to bed and sleep.
By the way the Benjamin’s rates for New Year’s start at $400.
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