The school year is pretty much over for most of us. This summer, I will be posting every three to four weeks, for those of us who are teaching summer school or who would like to keep up with current developments over the summer. Weekly news posts will resume in late August. If you have any suggestions for topics, please post a comment!
This week's highlights (with applicable teaching topics and links to discussion below):
- Foods with Health Benefits, or So They Say - Advertising, Packaging, Ethics
- The Ultimate Guide to Twitter - Social media
- Googlegate - Public relations, Ethics
- A Ferrari Hatchback - Branding
- Groupon Now - Social media, Sales promotion (Videos included)
Foods with Health Benefits, or So They Say
- The article: Foods with Benefits, or So They Say, from The New York Times.
- The facts: Food marketers are increasingly coming under fire on both ethical and regulatory grounds for the health claims they make regarding their products. This article offers several examples of potentially misleading claims.
- Classroom uses: This is a good example for a discussion of marketing ethics. Some of the issues are straightforward, but others are not. For example, one concern stated in the article is that consumers will believe that eating foods that claim to be heart healthy will make them believe that they are protected from heart disease and can eat other unhealthy foods. Is it the marketer's responsibility to protect people who might make unwise choices because they do not fully educate themselves about nutrition? Or is that the responsibility of the consumer?
- The article: The Ultimate Guide to Twitter, from CopyBlogger.
- The facts: An excellent compendium of blog posts and articles about Twitter.
- Classroom uses: Not really for the classroom, but if you want to expand your knowledge of Twitter--how to use it and how marketers use it--this would offer some good summer reading.
- The article: The Irony of Facebook's Secret PR War Against Google, from Atlantic Wire and GoogleGate: I'm Defending Facebook, from PC Magazine.
- The facts: Both articles discuss the revelation this past week that a PR agency hired by Facebook attempted to encourage bloggers and news outlets (including USA Today) to write articles painting an unfavorable view of Google's actions regarding user privacy.
- Classroom uses: Another ethics example. The two articles present contradictory arguments, with the second one saying that this was merely an overzealous version of something that happens all the time. You may want to ask your students if the "whisper" campaigns discussed in the second article are ethical or not.
- The article: Sex on Wheels? Now It's 'Room for Groceries,' Too from The New York Times.
- The facts: Ferrari has decided to introduce a hatchback, in order to inject a dollop of practicality into its product mix.
- Classroom uses: The article offers excellent insights into the marketing of a luxury brand, explaining the custom manufacturing of each car (and outlining the sound test that ensures that the engine "screams" at the right pitch) and the firm's intentional policy of creating scarcity in order to maintain the brand's mystique.
- The article: Say Hello to Groupon Now and Right Here, Right Now Deals, from Mashable.com (includes a video)
- The facts: Groupon, the social couponing website, has expanded its offerings to include Groupon Now. The new service will offer short-term coupons that will be displayed based on the user's location (determined from GPS on a mobile device).
- Classroom uses: Groupon offers some examples of the possibilities of mixing sales promotion with technology. According to an article in CNN Money (which includes a video), Groupon appears to be the fastest-growing startup in history, but some have questioned the long-term viability of its business model. Groupon Now expands Groupon into a new space--location-based promotion--which has so far been the province of Foursquare and its competitors. It seems to lack the social component of the original Groupon offering (where a minimum number of people had to take advantage of an offer in order for it to be ratified), but it may be more attractive to many retailers because it reaches out to consumers who are nearby and offers them a "take it or leave it--now" discount.
