This week's highlights (with applicable teaching topics and links to discussion below):
- We Hold These Tweets To Be Self-Evident - Social media, Just for fun
- The TSA Marketing Campaign that Could Have Been - Public relations, Integrated marketing communications
- Amazon Prime's Success Story - E-commerce, Customer loyalty
- Black Friday is Mixed Green This Year - Retailing, E-commerce
- Luxury Brands Online - E-commerce
We Hold These Tweets To Be Self-Evident
- The article: We Hold These Tweets To Be Self-Evident, from Mashable.com.
- The facts: What if the Founding Fathers had had access to Twitter? This cartoon has Jefferson using Twitter to solicit ideas for the Declaration of Independence, while his fellow FFs whine about their wigs and retweet the news that the British are coming.
- Classroom uses: Just for fun!
The TSA Marketing Campaign that Could Have Been
- The article: The TSA Marketing Campaign that Could Have Been, from the Marketing Profs blog.
- The facts: The article proposes a coordinated marketing communications plan that the TSA could have used to sell the increased security measures to the public.
- Classroom uses: This article really resonated with me--it crystallized the thoughts I've had about the scanning/pat-down mess. The TSA has good reasons to be less than 100% transparent; however, if it thought of travelers more as customers and less as cargo to process, I think the current outcry could have been avoided or at least lessened. As a classroom example, it shows that marketing has applications outside of for-profit businesses.
- The article: What's In Amazon's Box? Instant Gratification, from Business Week.
- The facts: Amazon Prime is a six-year-old program in which customers pay an annual fee and then receive free two-day shipping on a range of products. According to this article, analysts credit Prime as a major component in Amazon's success, and competitors are experimenting with similar approaches.
- Classroom uses: Most discussions of customer loyalty programs focus on airline frequent flyer programs and store frequent buyer programs, where customers join at no cost and earn rewards through participation. Amazon's program charges up front--thus all but guaranteeing that the customer will use the program--and then returns the savings slowly with each purchase.
Black Friday is Mixed Green This Year
- The articles: Online sales see 16 percent spike Black Friday, from the Associated Press, Shoppers Back in Black Friday Binge, from Reuters, and Black Friday Sales Up 0.3% to $10.7 Billion, ShopperTrak says, from Bloomberg Business Week.
- The facts: Reuters presents anecdotal data that brick-and-mortar stores had a good Black Friday; however, ShopperTrak disagrees. Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, online sales saw an increase on Black Friday, despite the conventional wisdom that the big day for online sales is Cyber Monday, the first work day after the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Classroom uses: Just a few useful factoids, if you want to talk about Black Friday in a class next week.
- The article: Luxury Brands Tailoring Approach to the Web, from The New York Times.
- The facts: Luxury brands, both small ones and established firms, are increasingly selling their wares online, as new features like video and online chat allow luxury designers to forge relationships with their customers.
- Classroom uses: The conventional wisdom was once that people wouldn't buy luxury brands online; this article explains why that trend may be changing.
