P&G Targets the "Family Man"

A recent New York Times article, Procter & Gamble Advice Site Is Aimed at Men, takes a look at a new marketing effort by Procter & Gamble. The maker of such products as Pampers diapers and Charmin toilet paper has started a website called Man of the House targeted at the “family man”. According to P&G, research found that men were increasingly turning to websites typically aimed at women for advice on everything from sex to recipes to getting a stain out of a shirt. While men are searching the site, P&G is advertising Gillette razors.

P&G is not a stranger to unusual marketing endeavors. They created the soap opera "As the World Turns" as a marketing device. And ManoftheHouse.com is not the only such website maintained by P&G. The company also targets teenagers with Being Girl and women with Home Made Simple.

A site could backfire if readers feel that products are being pushed on them. Jeremiah Owyang, a consultant with the digital strategy firm Altimeter Group, points out that many of the discussions posted on P&G's site are already happening at home or on Facebook, so a company-created lifestyle site could work.

From a marketing perspective, I think this article raises some of interesting question.

- Do you think that P&G has found an untapped segment to market to or do you feel like they are stepping outside of their core segment?

- Would you trust the advice given to you buy such a large corporation or would you tend to avoid a site like this that is run by a large company?

- Do you think that the inclusion of sex advice on this site could hurt P&G’s typically wholesome image?

Does Walmart have pure motives…become a healthier society or increase their bottom line?

Walmart announced a five year plan recently that will make fruits and vegetables more affordable. They will also reduce salts, fats and sugars from its packaged foods. The decision is backed by Michelle Obama. Is this a marketing plan or does Walmart really care about my jean size?

Are Walmart’s motives pure? Two opinions:
• Yes, “this action will undoubtedly help American families eat more healthily” (Joshua David Stein at Eater)
• No, Walmart is performing a “massive bait and switch” to engorge Walmart’s bottom line (Neighborhood Retail Alliance blog)

One of the things I find most interesting in this announcement is the timing of New Year’s resolutions and the launch of their convenience-store strategy. They currently have 200 Neighborhood Markets but plan to focus on a new urban store, Marketside. To be successful they will need to focus on fresh food. Both Andrew Price, Good’s and Ben Popken, The Consumerist said in September to be successful they need to focus on fresh produce and other healthy fare. Did Walmart listen to their advice and change their message to generate new interest and get attention for their new stores? Will this marketing strategy bring new consumers to Walmart? The message….Walmart wants you to be healthy!

1. What do you think? What motivated Walmart to make this decision? Are their motives pure?
2. Is the test markets the right way to do market research on their new Marketside stores?

Which brands have burned you?

This article poses an interesting concept: that a consumer's relationship with a brand is like a personal relationship and they can fall in and out of love with brands in a similar way they do with personal relationships. One aspect of our course deals with brand perception and how to strengthen it but if a company doesn't protect their image all of that effort can be lost.

Consumers expect brands to convey attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs about a product and companies rely on brand imaging to help strengthen consumer confidence. However, when a corporation cannot meet those expectations consumer reaction can be incredibly negative. Negative press, boycotts, and even protests are examples of such reactions. The article even indicates that people can experience grief or sadness after such a reaction.

Toyota's recall troubles are one example of such incident. Which other brands can you think of that have faced negative reactions in recent history? Were these reactions warranted?

Have you ever had a 'consumer breakup'? How were you let down? Did you experience any grief with the experience?

The Marketing Relevance Imperative

This article touches on multiple topics that we have covered thus far in PIM 862. The main theme is how advertisers have responded to consumers that would rather not be faced with ads, which is mostly in the wrong manner, even though there is opportunity to reach consumers with the right combination of message, time and place for the appropriate ads. Many marketers have not responded to changing consumer tastes, new marketing channels, and the ability to personalize ads and marketing messages, especially in online environments.

Also mentioned in this article is the difficulty of measuring the value and impact of marketing activities in an ever-changing marketing landscape. This has always been a challenge, but has become an even greater one as the advertising world, and consumers, have evolved.

The article mentions Google and Amazon as two companies that have given "relevance" to their marketing activities, and provides some interesting reasons as to why Google gets value out of its efforts.

1. What marketing and advertising activities are you most likely to pay attention to, that is which are most likely to catch your attention?

2. How can companies whose principal products are tangible items and who do not have a strong online presence make their activities as relevant as a company like Google? Consider the "insider information" that Google naturally has access to through its services.

3. With all of the different marketing channels available to companies, which are the most relevant and why? How does this differ among different industries, companies, and customer segments?

Women Should Not Buy From Nike!

I'm really just kidding with this title. But I am trying to make a point; just not necessarily the point made in the linked article. I'm not suggesting that I think women should hate Nike for their philanthropic efforts and I'm not trying to take a stance on the rightness or wrongness of Nike's "the girl effect" campaign.

But while we're on the topic of philanthropic efforts by businesses.......

My purpose with presenting this article is not really to talk about the article itself, but rather to show an example of a negative consumer reaction to a supposed positive marketing effort by Nike. So my goal is to start a discussion on brand equity and consumer activism. And what better company than Nike (other than maybe Walmart) to discuss brand value and consumer activism. Since the early 1990's Nike has fielded a lot of criticism for its manufacturing practices (child labor, poverty exploitation, environmental disregard) and it has made a lot of effort to try and reverse those perceptions. Initiatives taken up like "The Nike Foundation" and "Nike Grind" are efforts to show they are good global citizens.

My questions to everyone reading this are:

1) Does social/political/environmental activism by companies usually increase their brand equity or decrease it?

2) Does the answer to the first question depend on whether a company has done something to damage their image prior to their activism?

Do you scream for ice cream in the winter?

Article Summary
How do smaller independent ice cream stores stay in business through the colder winter season? Obviously, everyone does not want to eat ice cream when it is cold outside. Many independent ice cream parlors have found that developing a wholesale side of their business by catering and selling to grocery stores, restaurants and clubs has been a profitable revenue stream to help with the freeze out. Additionally, these stores focus on seasonal flavors such as, candy cane, gingerbread, and even fruit cake to name a few. While children are more likely to eat ice cream year round, the parlors have added coffee and hot drinks to the offering hoping to entice the parents to bring the kids into the store since the parents are the decision makers. It seems that you need something other than ice cream to bring the customers in. Malcom Stogo, president of Ice Cream University says, “"If they don't have a wholesale business in wintertime or another product to sell, they will be in trouble.”

Some ice cream parlors rely on birthday parties and other events for continued revenue stream. Marketing the seasonal flavors, diversified menu offering, etc is key to ensure success. The article states “they also used the online discount service Groupon, hoping it would drive new business, but found many of those who purchased were already neighborhood customers, though not regulars.” The stores and parlors are trying all different avenues to increase traffic and continue a profitable business.

The success of the independent businesses is dependent upon successful marketing in order to ensure the customers know what they have to offer at a time when the demand is less than ideal. The stores are trying different avenues of marketing by using the discount service Groupon but are also tracking the responses in order to research its overall effectiveness. By diversifying the business through catering, seasonal flavors, and wholesale, the parlors are able to forecast demand more consistently and employ the talent necessary year round.

Questions
1. Do seasonal flavors make you more or less likely to eat or buy ice cream?
2. Do you use Groupon? If so, do you use it and try new places/things or better deals on what you know?
3. What are other possibilities for additional revenue streams?

Can Apple Survive Without Its "Core"?

Conveniently, Apple is back in the headlines to add to our discussion from our previous class session.  Steve Jobs is preparing to take a medical leave of absence, again.  The sustainability of Apple's current level of success without Jobs at the helm is being questioned by some within the industry.  There is no question that Apple has created a brand with unquestioned customer loyalty, mostly due to the direction of Mr. Jobs.  As we read in our case study, Apple faltered during Jobs' absence during the 80's and early 90's.  Could this happen again?  The direct "hands-on" involvement provided by Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple is unique among multi-billion dollar corporations.  Products launched under his watch have redefined segments within the computer, electronics, and entertainment industries.  The iPod has become synonymous with MP3 players, the iPhone redefined the smartphone market, and the iPad has made the tablet PC market viable.  According to the attached article (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2011/tc20110118_348390.htm), Jobs' direct involvement with product development has not always allowed for open communication, especially in circumstances where he was clearly in the wrong.  Has his direct involvement and title stifled the opportunity for Apple to provide value proposition in segments outside of their current involvement (i.e. 7" iPad)?  Does the direct involvement of senior level management in product and market development help or hinder progress?  Does the involvement of senior level management in SWOT analysis taint the outcome of the process?  Are strengths overstated and weaknesses not admitted?  The management team charged with leading Apple in Jobs' absence has their work cut out for them.  What will the future hold?

Kraft Store Kiosk Scans Your Face Then Knows What to Feed It

When Microsoft first came out with Kinect for the Xbox, I was reading a comment from Dennis Durkin, Microsoft’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer who noted the Kinect's capabilities went beyond gaming and included the possibility of targeted advertising based upon who was in the room at the time (and presumably what they are wearing, how old they are, etc.).

For the purpose of full disclosure, I think the last video game I played was the classic FPS, Golden Eye 007 on Nintendo 64 (when I was in 7th grade). I've never actually used an Xbox before. But nevertheless, when I heard that Microsoft was capable of literally seeing its customers in their most comfortable place (home), I thought it was really invasive and brilliant at the same time.

So then this morning I came across this article: Kraft Store Kiosk Scans Your Face Then Knows What to Feed It in Fast Company (the article is pretty short, and it's quite funny, definitely worth the read). Basically, when you walk into the grocery store (not just at 5pm, but at anytime of the day) the "Meal Planning Solution" is a pseudo-kiosk that will tell you what you should eat based upon what you look like. This joint venture between Kraft and Intel takes marketing to the next level; leveraging video analytics and demographic data, it will encourage you to purchase Mac and Cheese if you look like a mom with young kids.

So here are my questions:

1) In the article, Kraft's VP of retail experience, Don King, says that the average person has 10 recipes in his or her average meal-time rotation and 70% of them enter the store without a clue as to what to serve that night for dinner. How many recipes are in your average meal-time rotation? When you go to the grocery store, do you know what you want?

2) Do you think that this type of technology infringes upon privacy and takes marketing too far, or do you think that the next step should be that Microsoft partner up with bathroom mirror manufacturers and embed video analytics to market the newest brand of Crest to you?

3) If you have a Microsoft Kinect, have you experienced any "adjustments" in what is advertised to you via games or other media streams, which you can attribute to the video analytic capabilities of the Kinect?

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

NFL and Superbowl: marketing the experience

My husband is a huge Patriots fan. This weekend was hugely disappointing to him. It got me wondering why the superbowl is so big, and all the events leading up to it are so important to so many people.
Think about it, it's one football game. It's played every year. However about 100k people manage to attend the game and millions watch on TV with the most expensive commercial time slots on the market.
The marketing on the NFL is huge. They've managed a bigger brand in the US than almost any other sport major, minor, or college.
The article I've atttached is explaining how they are now going to sell people tickets to stand outside the stadium. Tickets that will allow fans who can't afford the $2k for a seat just to be close to the action.
The league spokesman says: “It’s to provide people with more opportunities to experience Super Bowl Sunday.”
And that's what NFL is all about. Not football. But bringing millions of fans together into one rabid experience. Their website http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/45 is a mix of information, nostalgia, hype and has it's own countdown clock that reminds me of New Years.
I don't know if they can sustain their number one spot (highest attendance record was in the 80's and Ping-Pong is the number 5 fastest growing sport in the US above football), but I think NFL has got the Customer Lifetime Value idea down pat.
Does anyone here have Superbowl tickets? Season Passes for their favorite team?
Would anyone consider buying a Standing Room only ticket to experience the Superbowl live?
Do you feel the NFL has done a good job analyzing its customer base?

What's Behind H&R Block's Free Tax Service?

H&R Block is offering free tax-filing services through February 15, 2011. This is in response to increased competition and unattractive customer promotions, both of which have lead to decreased revenues over the past few years. The promotion will only apply to customers filing a 1040EZ, an estimated 16% of H&R Block’s customers.

H&R Block expects the promotion to bring in new customers, many of whom may require more extensive (and expensive) services than they anticipated, and attract young taxpayers. Although these customers may be able to file the 1040EZ for free in 2011, H&R Block hopes to convert them into loyal customers. The company conducted market research, offering the service in 2010 in Miami, New Orleans and Atlanta, and found the promotion was received well by customers.

The promotion now replaces H&R Block’s previous “Instant Money” refund, a refund application loan that many tax preparers offered. The model has come under government scrutiny as it targets low-income customers willing to pay money to receive their refund early. H&R Block discontinued this promotion but competitors still offer “Instant Money” refunds. In part, H&R Block has introduced the free 1040EZ promotion to mitigate customer attrition.

Despite this promotion, analysts expect H&R Block to continue losing customers and revenues due to environmental factors. H&R Block and other tax preparers have not yet addressed the underlying issues such as DIY-tax preparing customers and computerized tax filing options. Understanding and embracing these threats should provide the industry with growth opportunities.

Questions

• Is the Free 1040EZ filing promotion enough to bring in new customers? Are these the most valuable customers for H&R Block in the long-term?
• How does H&R Block, a seasonal services-provider for the customer segment targeted in the free filing promotion, maintain customer mind-share throughout the year to build brand loyalty?
• H&R Block has admittedly offered unattractive incentives and promotions over the past few years. If the company were to develop a new promotion for the 2012 tax season, what would be the best market research strategy for them to undertake to ensure greater success?

The Future of Marketing: Ads Get Physical, Digital

Article Summary
As we begin to shift into a highly digital era, so too does the world of marketing. The once largest advertising tool, Super Bowl Sunday TV commercial, is no longer a match for the up and coming digital advertising. Rather, it is just a jump start to further exposure via electronic interactions like Facebook status updates, Twitter comments or mobile phone communications. Additionally, digital advertisements allow a major benefit that TV commercials can’t – customer interactions. For example, Mitsubishi has developed a virtual interface where users can go online and test drives a car around a track while sitting at home. This interface between the digital and physical worlds is the start of the new advertising revolution where companies can tailor a single item to multiple platforms in a variety of ways that most meet the customer’s eye creating the largest return on investment. The sky is the limit in regards to digital advertising. As we continue down the digital path, we will begin to see increased creativity and talent for the advertising industry...a forever change in how we view advertising today.

Questions

1) We currently see advertisements on iPhone apps, Facebook, e-mail engines, etc., how do you measure the effectiveness of this type of approach? In other words, how often do you acknowledge these ads?

2) Do you think the new “digital era” will change the return on investment when using engines such as iPhone, e-mail and Facebook? What do you see as some of the pros and cons to digital marketing?

3) How do you think the digital marketing will affect the way companies currently conduct market research? Will there be a greater use of internet data collection verse others?

The Future Of Marketing: Ads Get Physical, Digital

It's fascinating to see the transformation of the face of advertising.
We are noticing the long term impact of the new technologies in a world of social networking where the power of Facebook, Twitter, mobile phone and YouTube is undeniable.
Brands are getting recognition more on a cultural and social basis rather than commercial propositions.
The marketers are for sure using personal interaction and internet buzz, as active brands ambassadors.
With the upcoming Super Bowl, I found the attached article interesting in two ways:
- First of all, everybody not long ago was desperate to watch all the commercials during the game as it was one of the most talk subjects the day after, while today we just need to go to YouTube.
- Secondly, it's clear that digital marketing is totally embedded in our culture.

Having said that, one question comes to my mind:
Do you think that the marketers have us exactly where they want us to be and without noticing we get product push towards us?

Bargain Hunting in China

Bargain Hunting in China

Article Summary

This article discusses the drastic shift of consumer power and behavior in the world’s second largest economy - China. Satisfaction and value for the consumer in this market is primarily obtained through bargain shopping and coupon hunting. Goldman Sachs has predicted that China will pass the U.S. as the world’s largest consumer market by 2020.  The coupon generation has become a way of life for the “350 million Chinese aged 18 to 35” and is shifting the way marketers can reach their customers. Coupon machines in busy marketplaces allow consumers to scan all of the possible coupons through websites and print out any they might use. They print out coupons for everything they purchase from breakfast coupons to electronic discounts. Often times, consumers are purchasing products because they found a good deal rather than something they actually need. An interviewee in the article even noted that some items are purchased simply because it’s a good deal rather than something that is useful for the consumer. The marketer is satisfying a need in this market that is built on the societal trend which is hunting for that one good deal; it is not necessarily the best quality or best brand.

This change occurred as a direct result of a major societal force which occurred when the country changed from central planning to capitalism. As a result, consumerism has drastically increased but with a different underlying cultural difference than that of the United States. In the United States, coupons and bargain hunting is typically associated with a lower class or less elite society. However, in China - the cultural behavior encourages bargain hunting regardless of their financial status. Frugality is a highly regarded characteristic in the society. Companies realize that if they want to compete with the multitude of brands that exist in China as well as the coupon frenzy – they must incentivize their customers through offering coupons, discounts or rebates. The only way for a marketer to reach the consumer in this new market with any real success is through the communication channels of the coupon street machines and online coupon websites.

Questions

1.      Will the behavior shift of bargain hunting and the “coupon generation” ever become a cultural norm in the United States?

2.      Without drastically reducing the price and slashing profits – how can a company compete in this market? Is there a way to compete on a level other than price?

3.      Do you think the “coupon generation” will be a major factor in the prediction by Goldman Sachs that China will pass the U.S. as the world’s largest consumer market by 2020?    

The Groupon Model

With multi-national companies dominating many industries thru economies of scale, many small businesses struggle to gain enough exposure to make it past the first year. Advertising is often foresaken as day to day operating costs often eat up all sales revenue. So how does a local small business leverage the internet and web 2.0 to its advantage? Enter social buying thru websites like Groupon and Living Social, where members can buy coupons to local small businesses at deep discounts of up to 50%-70% off on a product or service. After splitting the coupon proceeds with the online discount site, the retailer often ends up with only 20-25% of full retail value.

Having said that, the article goes thru a calculation scenario to determine whether using Groupon is worth it for a small business. One advantage is that the business spends no money up front and the coupons undoubtedly bring people in the door. Instead of an up front cost, however, businesses absorb a tremendous hit to the bottom line. To the class I pose the following questions:

1) Is the "Groupon model" for advertising sustainable for a small business?

2) Will the use of deep discounts train customers to only buy when your item are on sale? Related to this, will your small business "brand" be irrevocably damaged by the discounts?

3) What marketing tactics would you use to cross sell "other" items to customers at full price once they come in the door?

4) What marketing plan would you use to gain repeat customers and how would you measure the plan's effectiveness?

5) From a different perspective, do you view sites like Groupon and Living Social as part of the Internet 2.0 bubble?

Thanks for reading and I look forward to everyone's comments.

Apple's Succession Challenge

Following our class discussion on Apple Inc.'s future last week, the company's succession challenges became even more relevant with Steve Job's decision to take his third medical leave. Tim Cook, Apple's COO, will take over most of Jobs' duties but will he be able to replace such a strong public figure over the long run? The article discusses the strengths of Jobs' executive team as well as his unique and irreplaceable role in leading negotiations which has granted the company so many strategically important collaborations.

In light of this new development, how should Apple sustain its competitive advantage in smartphone and tablet PC markets? More importantly, how can they prevent the Apple brand from eroding if Steve Jobs decides to step out of the picture permanently?

Starbucks drops its name from logo

Article Summary.

This article regarding an Image change on Starbucks was selected by me because it fits into the curriculum of our Marketing Class PIM 862. In a recent announcement by Starbucks Coffee CEO, Howard Schultz, the worlds largest coffee company announced that it will be dropping the words that encircle its iconic logo and going only with the logo without the company name. This change will be brought to stores in March to coincide with its 40th anniversary. This logo change marks the 4th since its inception in Seattle in 1971. Today, Starbucks is on a record recovery since suffering from its own success. Growing too fast, and an image that it self-portrayed as being the "Wal-Mart of Coffee". Starbucks continued to sink fast and furious as the recession hit and consumers turned to drinking more coffee at home or going to less pricey brands such as McDonald's. After suffering record years of revenue loss, in 2008 Starbucks brought back current CEO Howard Schultz to revamp and revitalize the coffee company. Today, Starbucks is sitting with record revenue and record profit with its stock price at a five-year all time high. Starbucks looked to companies such as Nike and Apple, Inc., both which earned clout with consumers after dropping their names from their logo. Starbucks also ventured into international sales, today sitting on over 400 stores alone in China with the intent to over more. Starbucks expanded with the introduction of its first instant coffee, "Via". It focused on its beans, ice cream, and other packaged goods sold in stores. Today, Starbucks is strongly considering expanding in areas of offering customers the ability to order and pay for coffee over their mobile devices; rewards card holders earning points when they purchase Starbucks products in grocers and other stores; as well as, offering beer and wine at night in select stores.

Questions to consider regarding changes to Starbucks.

1. Should Starbucks be concerned about dropping their name from the logo or should they continue to focus on really what's been working for them since bringing back current CEO Howard Schultz? Is the absent of a logo really going to continue or boost their continue growth and record sales?

2. Should Starbucks consider what's really important to them regarding their image and what their all about vs. making changes like adding beer and wine to their menu?

3. How much expansion should Starbucks really make to their products or should they continue to focus on national and international growth while reviewing internal efficiency?

The Future of Market Intelligence

Having a corporate market intelligence program in place is becoming increasingly standard in most companies specifically with companies doing business overseas.

Market Intelligence(MI) is about looking into the future and providing actionable insights. MI not only analyze facts of the pasts but looks into future and serves different corporate functions according to each one's specific intelligence requirements.
A Complete MI program should be built around four pillars:

• Environment Intelligence (Economic predictions, market characteristics, social sustainability)
• Customer Intelligence (Customer's buying behavior, segmentation, profiling, demographics, up-selling and cross-selling opportunities, customer satisfaction and loyalty)
• Competitive Intelligence (competitive landscape and power lines, strategies, presence in different markets)
• Channel Intelligence (channel landscape and dynamics)

Fundamental questions to address if your company is in the global market place :

1. how to draw the scope of MI, what are the target groups within the organization that this one will serve
2. what kind of intelligence information and deliverables be drawn to user groups
3. what kind of topics does the user groups need information and how to prioritize for short-wins as well as long term impact.
4. Bottomline does your company have any kind of market intelligence - collecting, designing, formulating, reporting information of sales/trends/customer activity, vendor performance.
   

- Thrivikram Rajeswararao

The Marketing and Math Mashup

This article discusses the struggle marketers encounter with trying to attach solid business metrics to digital marketing and whether they should even attempt to. Basically, there are two different ways that marketers can look at digital marketing:

(1) “One view of digital is that it is an extension of direct marketing, and that it can deliver significant measurable ROI through precise targeting, data mining, and by statistically examining the outcomes of the us of various combinations of media, target audiences, creative presentation, commercial offers and response mechanisms.”

(2) “Another view is that digital media is essentially social, and so online marketing is about how to initiate and strengthen relationships, engage communities and build brand relevance and affinity”

Taking the first view stated there should be a way to choose mathematical and statistical metrics that can reliably track digital marketing’s impact on top line performance. The second view is that it is impossible to reliably track the impact digital media has on business performance since it is difficult to immediately measure a marketing campaign’s impact on brand and relationship strengthening. In summary, the author’s view is that choosing and interpreting measurements/data correctly and logically is vital: “You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment.”

In my opinion, the value of using metrics really depends on what your digital marketing campaign is trying to achieve. Are you simply attempting to bring more visibility to your product or service? If this is the case then data can likely be a very good measure of your campaign's effectiveness. On the other hand, developing brand and relationship strengthening is something achieved over time and would likely only show a top line impact in future years. This would mean that the data collected today is more relevant to product or service performance at some time in the future, thus making it difficult to immediately justify a campaign's effectiveness.


Questions:
1. What are examples of some metrics that could be used in digital marketing which would provide useful information for decision making?

2. Is it more important for a marketing manager to make decisions strictly on data or to use their own experience and ‘gut’ feel?

3. Assuming your company chooses to outsource digital media data measurement to an agency, should it be the responsibility of the agency or your company to separate and organize data according to its relevance and usefulness?

"Pay what you want" fast food restaurants - Act of corporate social responsibility or cleaver marketing?

Over last few days there has been a lot of talk about fast food restaurants that allow customers to “donate” what they want for the food that they ordered. Most recently Panera Bread opened its third “pay what you want” location in Portland, OR. Of course, pay what you want schemes have been tried in the past in a variety of industries. Most notably, the group Radiohead let fans name their own price for purchasing their album “In Rainbows. But this scheme seems to work really well in restaurant/food industry. Even high end restaurants like “Rogue Kitchen and Wet Bar” in Vancouver, started this scheme on a few specials on their menus. The move by Panera Bread marks an entry by a fast food corporation in this arena, and makes me wonder if this is big corporations showing social responsibility or just cleaver marketing?

For a big corporation, this seems like a no brainer if non-profit locations such as the Panera Bread in Portland start projecting a socially responsible image of the corporation. Digging down a little deeper, Can these restaurants sustain themselves, just on this business model? Well To begin with Fast food business is a high margins business based on large volume. So odds are if customers pay a price around the suggested price of the product, the location can do pretty good. In addition to this customers will pay high in some cases and low in others, cross subsidizing the different food products. This might also attract more customers based on the novelty value of the location.

The main drawback of this system is that patrons will try to game the system by paying very low prices, putting these locations out of business.But research has proven that if you advertize that a part of the proceeds will go to a charity, people might pay without abusing the system. For a large corporation like Panera Bread the goodwill generated by such corporation is tremendous and in the era of high social responsibility –priceless.

I want to discuss the following questions with my Classmates

1. How good of a marketing idea is this non-profit pay what you want scheme?
2. In what other industries can this scheme work?
3. How can the corporations evaluate the returns in terms of marketing?

-Amarendra Joshi (Student id : A44807912)

A New Day for Survey Research: 7 Trends

Survey is one of the popular market research approaches and following information coming from “Survey Magazine” (Nov. 2010) is pretty interesting and I thought very relevant to our upcoming Marketing Research lecture. This article by Keith Phillips of Survey Sampling International (SSI) really highlights the new trends facing survey researchers as the market continues to evolve. In short, this will have a significant impact on how we reach the consumers we survey and the messages we convey.

SSI surveyed 1,000 panelists each from the US, UK, Canada, France, Spain, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and Australia. The sample was balanced on age and gender. Some of the highlights from the SSI global project include:

1. “Traditional” media is becoming less relevant – newspaper readership continues to soften and the Internet is now perceived as more valuable than television as an information source. This was consistent across all countries.
2. Social networking continues to increase its role in facilitating communication with friends and family members. This trend is consistent across all countries, except Japan where social networking is less relevant for maintaining family communications.
3. Time spent in social networking is not passive observation. Respondents were actively engaged in creating content.
4. Texting and Instant Messaging are on the growth curve across all age groups, the exception to this trend is those 45+ in the US and Canada, where texting and Instant Messaging rates are below norm.
5. Email has reached a mature phase and is being used less for communication. The message is clear – we will need to expand beyond email for survey invitations.
6. Cell phone use is also continuing to increase globally, as is the share of “smart phones”. Look for mobile communications to increase in importance as a research tool.
7. Multi-media use means increased fragmentation.

What I think from this research is that we need to continue our efforts to develop and administer online surveys that are engaging and dare it be said, fun! This will require short and concise questionnaires that engage respondents on multiple levels (audio and visual). Our invitations will need to be creative and crafted for short messaging. Our sampling efforts will need to look outside the traditional boxes.

It is indeed a new day for survey research!

The question we must ask is how can we engage survey respondents, who are time-starved and at an attention deficit, any thoughts?