The strategy of viral marketing gets customers to sell a product to other customers on behalf of the company. That often means convincing your friends to climb on the bandwagon, and sometimes you get a cut if they buy something. Some might argue that that means you’re selling out your friends (or at least selling to your friends) in exchange for a piece of the action. Others might say you’re simply sharing the wealth with your buddies. Have you ever passed along names of your friends to a company or Web site? If so, what happened? How do you feel about this practice?
> The Coca-Cola Company pulled a UK Internet promotion campaign after parents accused it of targeting children by using references to a notorious pornographic movie. As part of its efforts to reach young social media users for its Dr. Pepper brand, the com
> Google updated its terms of service to allow shared endorsements though it’s likely most users don’t read these terms too carefully. Not everyone is thrilled about finding out his or her comments appear in an ad without giving explicit permission. Users
> The Great Recession is over, so things ar elooking up for many consumers. Still, is frugality the “new normal” or will many of us revert to the free-spending dys before the bubble burst in 2008?
> Is there such a thing as personality? If so, how might you intergrate knowledge about consumer’s personality traits into a marketing strategy?
> Commercial Alert, a consumer group, is highly critical of neuromarketing. The group's executive director wrote, “What would happen in this country if corporate marketers and political consultants could literally peer inside our brains and chart the neura
> Go to www.peapod.com. Online grocery is alive and well. Although most grocery purchases that we make fall into the category of habitual decision-making, somehow, this concept is working for some people. Spend some time on this site and assemble a grocery
> One way to clearly see the impact of shifting cultural values on consumption is to look at the increasing emphasis on the importance of health and wellness. In recent years, top-performing new food/beverage products featured items with natural or organic
> You may wish to encourage students to explore TripAdvisor before discussing this case. As an exercise, you could ask them to plan out a sample Spring Break trip using TripAdvisor reviews. 1. How comfortable should consumers be in letting the review of o
> Have students discuss other businesses that use “theater” to keep customers coming in. 1. Evaluate the shopping experience at Jordan’s. Why is it so successful? Be sure to consider how they have incorporated concepts related to physical and social surro
> This case can be taught as part of the decision-making process. If used in class, you can ask students to outline the stages of the decision-making process for choosing a new vehicle. 1. How does Tesla Motors’ marketing strategy connect with the changes
> Have the students list as many shampoo brands that they can think of. 1. Describe Cream Silk’s promotion within the context of the multiattribute model: Which attribute(s) were central to the promotion and how does the model explain what they company was
> It used to be that putting on a watch was just a standard part of getting dressed in the morning. How could you hope to move successfully throughout your day, making it to appointments on time, if you weren’t wearing a watch on your wrist to let you know
> Organizations and educators are continuing to explore the impact of avatars and virtual worlds. You may wish to ask the class what virtual worlds they use and why. 1. How might classical conditioning operate for a consumer who visits a new tutoring Web
> This case could be assigned as an out-of-class or in-class activity. As an in-class activity, it might be more effective to have the class read it, then break them into small groups to discuss the questions. This is because a good response to the questio
> Have each student think of a time when they had to get rid of something that had been significant to them. Analyze this situation in terms of divestment rituals.
> What do we mean by the term global consumer culture?
> Why is it difficult to place a product in a consumer’s evoked set after it has already been rejected? What strategies might a marketer use in an attempt to accomplish this goal?
> What is external memory and why is it important to marketers?
> What is “big data”?
> Why is it important for businesses to learn about their heavy users?
> What do we mean by an exchange?
> Why is it not necessarily a good idea to advertise a product in a commercial where a popular song is playing in the background?
> List the steps in the model of cognitive decision-making.
> What are the two dimensions that determine whether we will react positively or negatively to a purchase environment?
> What is time poverty, and how can it influence our purchase decisions?
> What are demographics? Give three examples of demographic characteristics.
> How does a brand name work as a heuristic?
> Technology has the potential to make our lives easier as it reduces the amount of clutter we need to work through to access the information on the Internet that really interests us. However, perhaps intelligent agents that make recommendations based only
> List three problems with measures of memory for advertising.
> What is an example of an exemplar product?
> Define nostalgia, and tell why it is such a widely used advertising strategy.
> Name the three stages of information processing as we commit information about products to memory.
> Why does a pioneering brand have a memory advantage over follower brands?
> How does the likelihood that a person wants to use an ATM machine relate to a schema?
> Why do U.S. phone numbers have seven digits?
> Name two different disciplines that study consumer behavior. How would their approaches to the same issue differ?
> What is the difference between C2C and B2C e-commerce?
> Provide a definition of consumer behavior.
> Identify some important characteristics for a product with a well-known brand name. Based on these attributes, generate a list of possible brand extension or licensing opportunities, as well as some others that consumers would not be likely to accept.
> What are sociometric techniques? Under what conditions does it make sense to use them?
> What is the difference between a market maven and a surrogate consumer?
> Which is more powerful, positive or negative word of mouth?
> What is word-of-mouth, and why is it more powerful than advertising?
> List three factors that help to determine store image.
> What are some important pros and cons of e-commerce?
> What is the difference between a lecture and a drama?
> Why do marketers use metaphors to craft persuasive messages? Give two examples of this technique.
> Give an example of the sunk-cost fallacy.
> Name two ways a consumer problem arises.
> Give an example of the type of purchase that each of the three types of decision-making – cognitive, habitual, and affective - would most likely explain.
> What is prime? How does it differ from a nudge?
> What are latitudes of acceptance and rejection? How does a consumer’s level of involvement with a product affect his latitude of acceptance?
> What is a halo effect, and why does it happen?
> What is the difference between buzz and hype?
> What is source credibility, and what are two factors that influence our decision as to whether a source is credible?
> Describe the elements of the traditional communications model, and tell how the updated model differs.
> List three psychological principles related to persuasion.
> How do levels of commitment to an attitude influence the likelihood it will become part of the way we think about a product in the long-term?
> “Do as I say, not as I do.” How does this statement relate to attitude models?
> Identify a set of avoidance groups for your peers. Can you identify any consumption decisions that you and your friends make with these groups in mind?
> How can an attitude play an ego-defensive function?
> What is the basic philospophy behind a lifestyle marketing strategy?
> What is fattism?
> List the three semiotic components of a marketing message, giving an example of each.
> The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Explain this statement.
> What is the difference between an absolute threshold and a differential threshold?
> Define social marketing, and give an example of this technique.
> Give two examples of important legislation that relate to U.S. consumers.
> Identify and describe the three stages of perception.
> The economics of information perspective argues that advertising is important. Why?
> Marketers use “tricks” to minimize psychological waiting time. These techniques range from altering customers’ perceptions of a line’s length to providing distractions that divert attention from waiting: One hotel chain received excessive complaints abou
> List three dimensions that describe the self-concepts.
> Ask a student to bring in an ad in which the brand being marketed was at one time a status symbol, but fell out of fashion for a time (e.g., Cadillac, Parker Pen, Izod-Lacoste, etc.). Have the student discuss whether the ad still attempts to create that
> This chapter mentions that psychographic analyses can be used by politicians to market themselves. What are some of the marketing strategies and techniques used by politicians in recent elections? Did the candidates design special appeals to attract the
> Have each student characterize three different people that they associate with (friends, coworkers, classmates, family members, etc.) based on traits (trait theory). Each of the three should be distinct. How could an advertiser use this information?
> Have each student extensively describe a consumption situation that reflects each of the following: need for affiliation, need for power, and need for uniqueness.
> Have students think of examples of products or services that each of them has purchased that fit the three types of motivational conflicts found in Figure 4.1.
> What is the relationship between an opinion leader and an opinion seeker?
> Is there such a thing as a generalized opinion leader? Why or why not?
> What is an opinion leader? Give three reasons why they are powerful influences on consumers’
> What is viral marketing? Give an example of this strategy.
> Some retailers work hard to cultivate a certain look or image, and they may even choose employees who fit this look. Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, seems to link itself to a clean-cut, all-American image. At one point, a lawsuit claimed that Abercromb
> Describe some ways in which marketers are using the Internet to encourage positive WOM.
> How does the Principle of Least Interest relate to your success in a romantic relationship?
> What is brand community, and why is it of interest to marketers?
> List three types of social power, and give an example of each.
> What is the difference between recycling and lateral cycling?
> How do business models in the sharing economy differ from traditional purchase processes?
> What is the difference between unplanned buying and impulse buying?
> List three separate motivations for shopping, give an example of each.
> Describe the difference between a superordinate category, a basic level category, and a subordinate category.
> “Marketers need to be extra sure their product works as promised when the first introduce it.” How does this statement relate to what we know about consumers’ evoked sets?
> In his book Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, author Malcolm Gladwell argues that hallowed marketing research techniques like focus groups aren’t effective because we usually react to products quickly and without much conscious thought so it
> What is prospect theory? Does it support the argument that people are rational decision makers?
> What is purchase momentum, and how does it relate (or not) to the model of rational decision-making?
> Describe a heuristic a couple might use when they make a decision, and provide an example of it.
> What is a kin-network system?
> What are some differences between “traditional” and “modern” couples in terms of how they allocate household responsibilities?
> What is the difference between an autonomic and syncretic decision?
> List three roles employees play in the organizational decision-making process.
