Tag Archives: product differentiation

by | Wednesday, January 22, 2025 · 7:28 am

YouTube TV Raises Prices

Are you ready for another price increase for your entertainment? This time it’s YouTube TV that is raising its monthly price to $82.99 per month, a 14% increase in price. (That’s nearly $1,000 for a year!)

In case you aren’t familiar with YouTube TV, it is a subsidiary of Google that provides both live channel feeds and on-demand content from 100+ TV networks and a cloud-based DVR service.  As of February 2024, it has more than 8 million subscribers.

YouTube TV is only available in the U.S., unlike competitors such as Amazon and Netflix that stream programming in various countries. However, YouTube TV provides live TV, live sports, unlimited DVR space, and up to six accounts on a single subscription. It can be watched on multiple devices such as phone, table, computer, and TV.

When it launched in 2017, the price was $35/month. In 2019, the price rose to $50/month; and in March 2023, it raised its price again to $73/month. Why the current price increase? The company stated “rising content costs” as the rationale.

What do you watch?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students about their streaming subscriptions. What do they view? How much do they spend?
  2. Show YouTube TV: https://tv.youtube.com/?sjid=15725763977763324957-NC
  3. Pricing is a complex topic. Discuss the six steps for pricing (determining objectives, estimating demand, determining cost/profit relationships, select price level, set list price, and make adjustments).
  4. Discuss the various pricing models in class: demand-oriented, cost-oriented, profit-oriented, and competition-oriented.
  5. For YouTube TV, divide students into groups and have each group work on any/all of the six steps.
  6. When setting the price level, assign each team a different model to use (demand-oriented, cost- oriented, etc.).
  7. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a different streaming service to examine: Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, Fubo, Sling, etc.
  8. What do each of the platforms offer? What is the price?

Source: Davis, W. (14December 2024). YouTube TV is letting some subscribers hold off that price hike. The Verge; Tan, E. (12 December 2024). YouTube TV Raises Monthly Charge 14 percent, to $82.99. New York Times; other news sources.

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by | Wednesday, December 25, 2024 · 7:14 am

Latest Candy Hit – Nerds Gummy Clusters

Do you love candy? We love candy – a lot! It typically starts around Halloween and continues until Easter. So many holidays to celebrate and candy is one way to enjoy them.

The problem is that there are also a lot of candy products from which to choose, many of which have been around for decades and have a devoted consumer base. That makes it difficult for new products to gain a market following. It can be even harder to resurrect a dying product, but Nerds has done it. Enter: Nerds Gummy Clusters, a gummy core holding just the right amount of mini Nerds to make the perfect, crunchy bite.

Nerds needed revitalizing. In 2018, Nerds sales were only $40 million. But in the past year, with the new product, sales have increased to $800 million.

Of course it doesn’t hurt sales to have celebrity Kylie Jenner rave about the product to her 200 million followers on Instagram. And then follow that with a Super Bowl commercial. The result is great brand awareness and sales for the new candy.

What are Nerds Gummy Clusters? The candy is manufactured in Illinois, beginning with a melted gel that is poured into molds that create small, chewy orbs that look somewhat like a gummy bear. Added to that is dots of sugar (also called baby Nerds) in which the gummy balls tumble through a river of baby Nerds until completely covered. Crunchy and gummy.

Yum…

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students about their candy consumption.
  2. What kinds of candy do they buy? How much do they spend on candy in a month?
  3. Show Nerds Super Bowl commercial: https://youtu.be/VHjNKVwIHfs?si=nHPchTuHRIr3pzGx
  4. Show Nerds website: https://www.nerdscandy.com/crunchy-gummy-yummy
  5. Divide students into teams. Each team will develop a new candy product.
  6. Who is the target market for the new candy?
  7. Describe the new candy product.
  8. How will the candy be priced?
  9. Where can it be purchased?
  10. How is it different from an existing candy product?
  11. Finally, have teams develop a marketing campaign for this product and market.

Source: Sanders, H. (29 October 2024). Inside the colorful and cultish world of Ners Gummy Clusters. New York Times; Vranica, S., and Cohen, B. (7 November 2024). America’s newest hit candy is gummy, crunchy and printing money. Wall Street Journal.

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by | Wednesday, December 4, 2024 · 6:24 pm

Let’s Call It ‘Chaos Packaging’

Where does packaging fit in the marketing mix? Is it just a necessity to keep products from being damaged? Or does it impact the sales of a product?

It’s actually both, and a lot more. But for right now, consider how packaging can help differentiate products and gain consumers’ attention. Think about it. How does olive oil come packaged? Liquor? Sun screen? What about potato chips? They all seem similar due to common undifferentiated packaging.

All of these have a predetermined sort of package that consumers are used to seeing (and buying) on store shelves. But the ubiquitous packaging has the effect of making all the products look alike in the store. What would happen if we mixed it up and got creative with packages, bottles, and boxes?

Enter ‘chaos packaging’. Chaos packaging innovates to take a standard consumer product and put it into some sort of unique container that causes dissonance. In other words, it helps break through the clutter and noise.

Some recent examples of chaos packaging include:

  • Sunscreen in whipped-cream cans.
  • Gin in motor oil cans.
  • Tampons in ice-cream tubs.
  • Perfume in window cleaner-type spray bottles.
  • Olive oil in squeeze bottles.
  • Water in beer-style cans.
  • Coffee beans in VHS tape packages.

Consider that some product categories have only about a 3-second dwell time – meaning that consumers look at packages for 3-seconds before deciding what they need, grabbing it, and buying. Extending that precious look-time, or keeping the look longer, can make the difference between a product languishing on a shelf, or making it into a consumer’s shopping cart.

Take a look!

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: What products have unique packages? Does it matter?
  2. Discuss the importance and purpose of packaging in marketing products.
  3. Where does packaging fit in the marketing mix?
  4. Show video about chaos packaging: https://youtu.be/w9Sk16c2uXQ?si=UB9Qm9FV4A3q6-ui
  5. Divide students into teams. Have each team choose a product that comes in a standard type of package.
  6. Now, have the teams redesign the package to gain more awareness and attention.

Source: Alt, C. (27 October 2024). Tampons in an ice cream tub? Inside the ‘chaos packaging’ trend. The Times (London); Deighton, K. (21 October 2024). Ice-cream tubs of tampons and sunscreen from a whipped-cream can: Welcome to ‘chaos packaging’. Wall Street Journal.

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