Tag Archives: Environment

by | Wednesday, July 3, 2024 · 7:52 am

Are you Healthy? Ask Your Bathroom Fixtures.

Consider that danger can be around you, even at home. Where is this danger at home? The kitchen, right? Nope.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) thinks that the smallest room in your house – the  bathroom –  is the most dangerous room in your house! The bathroom? Dangerous? Yep. Nearly 22% of dangerous household injuries occur in the bathroom. And a third of bathroom injuries happen while showering or while using the toilet – those slippery surfaces can cause us trouble. Yikes!

But before we scare you too much, it’s also important to note that the bathroom can also be the first – and best – place for a daily health evaluation. The future of the bathroom may have some of these options available to you. Some of these are available now in high-end hospitals, hotels, luxury homes, and senior living facilities:

  • Toilets that can detect conditions such as kidney issues, urinary tract issues, and dehydration.
  • Toilet pods that sit inside toilet bowls and can detect glucose levels, vitamin levels, and more, and sends results to an app on your phone.
  • Toilets that self-clean!
  • The mirror reminds you to use your prescription face cream. Smart mirrors can use augmented-reality to guide meditation or face yoga and can also measure blood pressure.
  • The shower uses an infrared light and sauna steam to help sooth inflamed muscles.
  • The floor bath mat detects posture, balance, weight, and body composition. It may even help predict falls.

Are you healthy? Such a simple, and yet loaded, question.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: Who has had an accident in the bathroom? How could bathrooms be safer? More advanced?
  2. Show several sites that offer advancement for the bathroom.
  3. Toi Labs toilets: https://toilabs.com/
  4. Withings toilet pods: https://www.withings.com/us/en/u-scan
  5. Care OS BMind smart mirror: https://www.care-os.com/
  6. Nuralogix app for health insights: https://www.nuralogix.ai/
  7. Kohler smart toilet: https://www.kohler.com/en/products/toilets/shop-toilets/numi-2-0-one-piece-elongated-smart-toilet-dual-flush-30754-pa
  8. BBalance smart bath mat: https://www.bbalance.io/
  9. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a smart bathroom product and develop a marketing plan. Make sure to include a description of the target market as well as promotional tactics.

Source:  Paynter, S. (9 April 2024). The medspa bathroom: Fixtures that monitor your health. Wall Street Journal.

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by | Thursday, June 6, 2024 · 11:06 am

Chevy Malibu comes to the End of the Road

It seems that all good things must come to an end. And one of those things, Chevy’s Malibu sedan, is nearing the end of its life cycle. The model was first launched in 1964 and was marketed as the Chevy Chevelle, before eventually becoming the Chevy Malibu in 1978. Over the years, Malibu sold 10 million cars and was the choice for a family sedan.

But now this car model is entering its twilight time as GM announced it would end production later this year. Taking its place, GM is preparing to launch new electric vehicles (EV) including the new Chevy Bolt EV. The Malibu was the last car/sedan sold by Chevy in the U.S. Only the Corvette remains – and that’s definitely not a sedan.

GM isn’t alone; Ford and Stellantis have also stopped making sedans as consumers’ taste has moved on to SUVs and trucks in the U.S. Last year, only 8% of new car sales in the U.S. were mid-sized, down from 22% in 2007.

Bye, bye, Malibu. We’ll miss you.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the stages in the product life cycle. What are the marketing objectives in each stage?
  2. Show Chevy Malibu website: https://www.chevrolet.com/cars/malibu
  3. What stage of the PLC is the Chevy Malibu now entering?
  4. Divide students into teams. Have each team draw a product life cycle and place various products and services into each stage.
  5. Next, have students brainstorm on how to reposition or revise products/services to that they can move into an earlier stage of the life cycle.

Source: Associated Press. After 60 years, Chevrolet Malibu rides off into the sunset (10 May 2024).; Boudette, N. (8 May 2024). G.M. will retire the Chevrolet Malibu to make more electric cars. New York Times; Windolf, J. (9 May 2024). The Chevy Malibu was so uncool it was cool. New York Times.

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by | Saturday, April 20, 2024 · 9:41 am

Tide Evolves into New Tile Form

Laundry is big business. How big? Roughly $9.3 billion worth of big annually! Market researcher Circana estimates that of that amount, 70% is spent on liquid detergent, 24% on packets and tablets (e.g. Tide Pods), and powder detergent is only 6%.  Tide Pods were launched in 2012 and quickly reached $500 million in sales within its first year.

That’s a big shift in how consumers select detergents to do their laundry. And Tide (owned by Proctor & Gamble) is introducing yet another form of detergent – dry detergent sheets for your laundry – with hopes to repeat its success with Tide Pods.

Why the new form? The dry laundry sheets appeal to consumers who want to eliminate both plastics and waters that adversely impact our environment. The new technology also eliminates the need for heavy plastic bottles and thereby reduces shipping weight and cost for online purchasers. P&G isn’t the first to use this dry sheet format, but it is the largest laundry detergent brand and hopes to convince consumers to change the way they wash clothes.

What are they? The dry sheets are roughly the size of your palm and are composed of six layers of fibers that dissolve in cold water, reducing energy bills for washing. A package of 44-tiles will retail for $19.94, the same price as a 45-pod container of Tide Power Pods + Ultra Oxi.

Unlike the colorful Tide Pods, which presented problems with children mistaking the pods for candy as well as criticism of water pollution, the dry sheets will be colorless, a form preferred by consumers in the testing phase.

What’s your preferred laundry detergent?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show website: https://tide.com/en-us/our-commitment/tide-evo
  2. Discuss the importance of clearly defining a target market.
  3. Divide students into teams. For Tide evo, what is the target market? Include demographics, psychographics, behaviors, values, attitudes, etc.
  4. Based on the target market profile, what makes this product unique for these customers?
  5. Discuss newness from the consumers’ perceptive. Is this product an example of continuous innovation, dynamically continuous innovation, or discontinuous innovation? Why?
  6. How does this product fit into P&G product line?
  7. Who is the main competitor to Tide evo?

Source: Khan, N. (3 March 2024). P&G launches Tile Tiles in bid to change how laundry is done. Wall Street Journal; Weiss, G. (8 March 2024). Forget Pods. Tide wants to make fabric ‘tiles’ the future of laundry. Business Insider.

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