Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing
Ideas and resources for teaching marketing
Preferred format: This teaching activity is designed for individual students to create the perceptual maps and then for small groups to discuss the interpretation.
Student audience: Could be run with any level of marketing student, perhaps more suitable for students of introductory marketing as well as students of marketing strategy.
Exercise time: Given the … See the full activity...
This activity highlights the top level results from an attitudes/image market research study, comparing four different fast food chains. Your task here is to review the brand’s performance and see what the survey results have revealed.
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| Results in %’s | Brand A | Brand B | Brand C | Brand D |
| Lots of locations | 5 | 15 | 50 | 30 |
| Good menu range |
The promotion of a brand is just ONE aspect of building brand equity. Achieving strong brand equity requires many components, but it can create significant value in the marketplace. The following exercise contains a number of checklist points for you to discuss regarding the building of, and the return on, brand equity.
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Factors that may contribute to (or … See the full activity...
This activity is based on a chain of fitness centers. They want to increase their ongoing level of promotional activity, but are unsure how best to promote themselves in the marketplace. Therefore, this activity requires you to determine the most appropriate promotional strategy (given the information in the following case study).
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Fitness Fast currently consists of eleven fitness centers … See the full activity...
Consumer’s perceptions of salespeople vary significantly, usually depending upon typical stereotypes and people’s personal experiences. In this activity, you simply need to select the five attributes (from the list below) that you most associate with a salesperson.
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Possible Attributes of a salesperson
|
Good communicator |
Honest |
|
Good listener |
Aggressive |
|
Concerned for customer |
Pushy |
|
Tricky |
Two-faced (can’t be trusted) |
|
Too slick |
Medium to large firms tend to have many sponsorship opportunities presented to them. Keeping in mind that a sponsorship should be viewed a promotional tool (rather than simply a donation), please rank (in terms of value to the firm) the following sponsorship opportunities for a large supermarket chain.
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Opportunity A
This activity is based on a local regional bank that was become a little old-fashioned and behind the times. Their plan is to adopt a more modern image, whilst maintaining their strengths of being local and caring about their customers.
One of the first initiatives that they are undertaking is the development and launch of a new credit card… See the full activity...
There are a number of other options for the ‘source’ of the firm’s promotional messages. Your task in this activity is to identify which source would probably be the most appropriate for each particular promotional challenge.
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Some Possible Different Message Sources
Sometimes it can be effective for a firm to utilize a celebrity to help promote their product/brand. Your task is to identify whether any of the following firms could possibly benefit from using an ‘available’ celebrity. If so, which available celebrity would be most appropriate? (Note: A limited list of celebrities has been provided to make this activity more manageable.) … See the full activity...
‘How’ to communicate the desired message is an important aspect in the overall effectiveness of a promotion. The message appeal also plays a part in communicating the overall positioning for the brand/product. In this activity, you need to select the most appropriate type of ‘appeal’ (refer list below) for each challenge listed.
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Decoding refers to how consumers will understand the marketing communication. In this activity, you need to determine what is the main message for the following promotional messages. Keep in mind that most ads do not include a lot of copy (text), so they often have to draw conclusions or will use their existing perceptions
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In a magazine ad for … See the full activity...
This activity outlines two situations in regards to the potential impact on the firm’s positioning due to their distribution channel selection. Your task in this activity is to answer the assessment questions at the end regarding each situation.
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Increasing Sales of Jeans
The manufacturer of a well-known brand of jeans has determined that its selective distribution strategy is limiting … See the full activity...
As part of the marketing mix, pricing is an aspect that can help communicate and reinforce the firm’s positioning. For many consumers, price also acts as a guide to quality. In this activity, there is a key pricing decision to be made in the two situations presented. Keeping in mind the firm’s/brand’s positioning, outline whether these decisions are logical.
ACTIVITY/TASK… See the full activity...
In this exercise, you are presented with eight product alternatives, as you would find in a supermarket environment. As you will see, price is simply one aspect of the consumer’s perception of value. So review the following list of pasta sauces, which one would you buy?
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|
Brand |
Positioning/Marketing |
Price |
|
A |
The leading brand name – heavily advertising on TV |
This activity requires you to determine a price solely based on what value your product generates for the customer. As there are only insignificant variable costs involved, what price would you set?
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Assume you are the marketing manager for a large sales training company. Over many years, your firm has developed a unique set of sales training techniques. They … See the full activity...
In this exercise, you will evaluate the potential benefits and limitations of customer relationship management, usually known as CRM. Below you will find a list of statements and you need to indicate the degree that you agree or disagree with them.
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This fitness center needs your advice. They are starting to think that their positioning slogan is primarily responsible for their loss of new customers/members. Do you think it’s time for a new slogan?
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New Millennium Fitness Centers have the positioning slogan – “we’ll get you fit”. However, only 50% of new customers keep coming back after the … See the full activity...
In the following table you are presented with examples of positioning slogans gone wrong. However, at the essence of each is a good positioning concept, it is just that the words have been poorly constructed.
You need to review the slogans and see if you can rewrite them more appropriately, while still maintaining their central message.
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| FIRM | SLOGAN |
| For |
For this exercise, you are required to determine the positioning goals associated with various positioning slogans. In the table below you will see a number ‘well-known’ positioning slogans. For each one, outline what you believe the slogan means and what it is trying to communicate.
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Your task here is to construct a perceptual map, based on your understanding of 10 different university subjects. While it is not strictly a business exercise, this activity is an excellent way of understanding the concept of constructing a perceptual map.
It will help if you select two distinguishing (determinant) attributes for the map’s axes. Remember there is no right … See the full activity...
