Monthly Archives: December 2023

by | Tuesday, December 19, 2023 · 7:43 am

What Hurts EV Sales?

The shift to electric vehicles (EV) sure seems to have slowed way down. According to research from company CarGurus, EV inventories are not only up 506% from a year ago, they are on the lot an average of 82 days compared to 64 days for gas-powered cars. Sales are down, but why when reducing emissions and being environmentally sound are so important to consumers?

Well, prices of EVs are still a factor, even though prices have been cut by Tesla and other manufacturers. The average EV list price is 28% higher than a gas car, and with interest rates near 8%, a new EV costs more than $200 more per month. New EV buyers also need to install at-home chargers for roughly $2,000. However, EV tax credits may help the situation when, as of January 1st, buyers can get up to $7,500 EV credits upfront, plus some states also have tax credits for new buyers.

But one of the biggest concerns revolves around charging stations, especially when taking road trips away from the home charger. Sound infrastructure for charging stations is still an issue. According to Pew Research, Americans are not very confident that the necessary infrastructure will be built in order to support a large number of EVs. While 17% think are confident that it will happen, 53% are not very confident.

The Wall Street Journal tested 120 charger stations and found problems ranging from different ports on different cars and charging stations, to broken charger stations. Of the stations checked, 40% were broken with 27% being out-of-order, 10% with payment issues, and many more with connection issues (handshake between car and charging station).

Will you buy an EV?

 Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: Who plans to buy an EV after they graduate? Why or why not?
  2. Show video about public EV chargers: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/joanna-stern-personal-technology/how-bad-are-public-ev-chargers-i-visited-over-120-to-find-out/0CA1EEF7-79C4-4818-B876-899E4B2EFCCD
  3. Show additional research on EV viewpoints from Pew Research: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/13/how-americans-view-electric-vehicles/
  4. Divide students into teams.
  5. Have each team work on a promotional plan for EVs that accounts for the issues of price and/or charger infrastructure. What do consumers want to hear?

Source: Lee, M.(14 November 2023). Here’s why people aren’t buying EVs in spite of price cuts and tax breaks. USA Today; Sterns, J. (15 November 2023). How bad are public EV chargers? I visited over 120 to find out (Video). Wall Street Journal.

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by | Sunday, December 17, 2023 · 8:42 pm

Holiday Shopping: Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2023

Ready… Set… Shop!

Yes, it’s that time of year again as Black Friday has become a big shopping excursion for consumers. It also seems to get longer. This year, Black Friday sales started weeks earlier and the deals continued on for weeks afterward.  

While we might suspect that spending is still leaning towards online shopping, brick-and-mortar stores and malls saw an uptick in visitors and shopping. Foot traffic in top-tier indoor malls jumped almost 300% compared to the visitor traffic during the first three quarters of the year. Consider that Target had 160% more visitors and Best Buy gathered 700% more traffic.

According to Adobe, Cyber Monday also grew at a rate of 9.6% compared to last year, making it the biggest online shopping day, ever. Electronics, smartwatches, TV, and audio equipment were big sellers along with gaming products. Top gifts were clothing and accessories, toys, gift cards, books, video games, and beauty products.

Some additional shopping highlights:

  • 200.4 million consumers shopped over the five-day holiday shopping weekend from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.
  • Black Friday was again the most popular day for in-store shopping at 76.2 million shoppers.
  • Black Friday was also the most popular day for online shopping at 90.6 million shoppers
  • Shoppers spent $9.8 billion online (an increase of 7.5% from last year)
  • Mobile devices accounted for 54% of online sales, exceeding revenue from desktop shopping.
  • Cyber Monday was the season’s biggest online shopping day at $12.4 billion.
  • Shopper traffic in stores was up 2 – 5% compared to 2022.
  • Big categories for in-store shopping were health and beauty, jewelry, apparel, and home stores.
  • Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) rose significantly by 42% compared to 2022.

No matter what is happening with the economy, people still like to shop and give gifts.

What did you buy?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss spending over the Thanksgiving weekend. Show video: https://youtu.be/lDw6EhPgwXU?si=t03H0qw8u9lhhb8c
  2. Show the NRF shopping charts: https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/thanksgiving-holiday-weekend-sees-record-number-shoppers
  3. Poll students about their shopping over Thanksgiving Week – Cyber Monday.
  4. Where did they spend? How much?
  5. Divide students into teams.
  6. In teams, have students tally how much they spent, which products were sought after, etc. See which teams are the biggest spenders.
  7. Have each team design a holiday sales promotion for a company of their choosing.

Source: Kohan, S. (26 November 2023). Black Friday online sales up 7/5% and in-store shopping visits climbed. Forbes; National Retail Federation. (28 November 2023). Thanksgiving holiday weekend sees record number of shoppers; Norfleet, N. (29 November 2023). Shoppers flock to Black Friday deals. Minneapolis Star Tribune.

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by | Monday, December 11, 2023 · 7:00 am

Rebranding San Francisco

San Francisco’s standing has declined since the pandemic. The city’s problems include homelessness, overt drug use, crime at stores, and homelessness and housing. Speaking of housing, it costs more to build housing in San Francisco than in any other city in California. This definitely impacts relocation and homelessness levels.

These types of issues certainly impact business investment, employment, and tourism. To improve the image, wealthy locals are putting $4 million into a new ad campaign to promote San Francisco’s innovation and creativity. The tag line: “It All Starts Here.” But is this enough to turn around the negative narrative?

One measure to track is tourism. This past August only 69% of the city’s hotel rooms were occupied, compared to 85% during the same period in 2019. Tourism is only one facet though – the campaign also aims to build local support and pride for the city at a time when retailers including Target, Office Depot, and Nordstrom have exited the city as crime at stores has dramatically increased.

Of course advertising and marketing alone can’t save the city. But it can focus the work and remind people of all the great parts of San Francisco and build pride.

What do you think?

 Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: Who has been to San Francisco? What attributes does it have for travelers? What are the negative aspects?
  2. Show ad and background video: https://youtu.be/fPqbtCiMEtE?si=abvj4mXJ-IkH-o4X
  3. Discuss how marketing can impact a city’s brand. What are the needed elements?
  4. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a town or city for re-branding.
  5. Discuss the various promotional tactics that can be used for rebranding.
  6. Have students come up with tactics and list all the tactics on the white board (ex: billboards, print, direct mail, etc.).
  7. For their town, have each team select three different tactics. For each tactic, explain why it was selected and how it will be used.

Source: Knight, H. (19 October 2023). San Francisco’s brand is in trouble. Can a new ad campaign fix it? New York Times; Knight, H. (27 October 2023). San Francisco has a new slogan, and not everyone is a fan. New York Times; other news sources.

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