Monthly Archives: March 2016

by | Monday, March 7, 2016 · 6:28 am

Top Car Brands in 2016

Cars

The automotive industry is notoriously tough. Each manufacturer competes for not only sales, but also for rankings by organizations such as J.D. Powers, Car & Driver, and Edmund. Among the most popular ranking report on vehicles is the one done by independent testing organization, Consumer Reports.

To compile the report, the team at Consumer Reports test drives and evaluates multiple attributes of 270 different vehicles. To be a top tier pick, the cars must score well in road tests, crash tests, and have better predicted reliability.

The top brands this year, in order, are: Audi, Subaru, Lexus, Porsche and BMW (tied), Mazda, and Buick.

This year’s winners by category include:

  • Compact car: Subaru Impreza
  • Midsize car: Toyota Camry
  • Large car: Chevrolet Impala
  • Subcompact car: Honda Fit
  • Sport car: Mazda MX-5 Miata
  • Small SUV: Subaru Forester
  • Midsize SUV: Kia Sorento
  • Luxury SUV: Lexus RX
  • Minivan: Toyota Sienna
  • Pickup truck: Ford F-150Did your vehicle make the list?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show Consumer Reports’ rankings: http://pressroom.consumerreports.org/pressroom/2016/02/consumer-reports-2016-annual-top-picks-kia-sorento-lexus-rx-are-best-suvs.html
  2. Show the video of car rankings: https://youtu.be/ihiJcQBvX74
  3. Discuss how companies can use the report in their marketing.
  4. What should companies that didn’t make the top list do to promote their vehicles?
  5. Review key aspects of developing a product positioning map, including determining the axis labels for positioning.
  6. Divide students into teams and have each team develop a positioning map for a category of automobiles.

Source: Consumer Reports, Manufacturing Business Technology

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by | Thursday, March 3, 2016 · 6:52 am

Small Company Wins Coveted Super Bowl 50 Ad Spot

Coffee

With 30-second commercials selling for $4.6 – $5 million, it seems that Super Bowl advertising is only for well-heeled corporations. After all, it’s tough for a small company to come up with that kind of money. Intuit QuickBooks felt the pain of small companies and for the second time, ran a competition for small companies to get a spot on the world’s largest advertising stage.

Open to companies with 50 or fewer employees, more than 15,000 small businesses entered the competition. In 2014, the winner was GoldieBlox with engineering toys aimed at girls. This year, the winner is New York coffee company, Death Wish Coffee. Founded in 2012, the company has 12 employees and sells roughly 1,000 pounds of coffee each day. At least that’s the amount pre-Super Bowl. After – it’s bound to be a lot more!

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the costs involved with advertising, and the risks to companies.
  2. Bring up Intuit’s competition site: https://www.smallbusinessbiggame.com/contests/sbbg
  3. How does this competition encourage small businesses?
  4. Next, show information about Death Wish Coffee: http://www.deathwishcoffee.com/
  5. What is it that makes this company unique?
  6. Finally, show the commercial: https://youtu.be/V_3H_Y5QUWw

Source: Associated Press, New York Times, other news sources

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by | Tuesday, March 1, 2016 · 6:48 am

Super Bowl ROI

ROI

Professors hear this question a lot in class: “Is the Super Bowl worth the expense?” After all, the price tag for 30-seconds can easily top $5 million. That’s a big percentage, and sometimes it’s all, of most companies’ advertising budgets. Here are the results from three relatively new Super Bowl advertisers.

Avocados from Mexico had its first Super Bowl ad in 2015 and credits the ad with helping to increase sales of avocados by 33%. Super Bowl advertising also helped drive sales up 25% during the four weeks preceding the big game.

Another case is that of automotive floor liner manufacturer WeatherTech, advertising for its third time in the Super Bowl this year. The company stated a 46% increase in visits to its Web site in 2015, and a 26% increase in phone inquiries. Not to mention increasing brand awareness and overall buzz.

A third case is that of Loctite, manufacturer of glue products. The company saw an increase of 8.6% of sales for the four weeks after its ad during Super Bowl 49. However, the ad also raised sales for the entire glue category by 6.5% overall. An unexpected consequence of the ad was that competitor Gorilla Glue saw its sales raise nearly 45% during the same period.

So, is advertising in the Super Bowl worth it? Yes.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the costs of advertising at Super Bowl.
  2. Poll students: Do they think there is a solid return-on-investment?
  3. Discuss marketing analytics that can be used to measure advertising ROI.
  4. To see the ads from this year’s Super Bowl: http://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/ads-super-bowl-50-a-z/302443/?utm_source=daily_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage&ttl=1455508006#Avosinspace
  5. Divide students into teams. Each team should select a new company for a Super Bowl ad. Give each team $6 million and have them develop an integrated marketing campaign that highlights the Super Bowl ad, but continues the promotion using additional tactics.

Source: Brandchannel.com, Ad Age Daily

 

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