(Scenario 18-5) Scenario 18-5
An old adage states that all publicity is good publicity. However, Professors Jonah
Berger of the Wharton School, and Alan Sorensen and Scott Rasmussen of Stanford
found that there is such a thing as bad publicity. The colleagues studied the relationship
between bad publicity and its impact on music albums, books, and movies. In 2010,
they published their findings in an article in Marketing Science. After studying cases
involving the late Michael Jackson, Russell Crowe, and various authors, the colleagues
concluded that negative publicity can increase product sales. Michael Jackson sold
more albums after receiving negative media attention, and films starring Russell Crowe
received higher rankings following an incident in which he allegedly threw a cell phone
at a hotel employee. These high-profile stars actually thrived after receiving substantial
amounts of negative publicity. However, in many lower profile cases, negative publicity
hurt sales and product reception. The three colleagues conducted an analysis of The
New York Times’ reviews and book sales and found that negative reviews hurt sales of
books by well-established authors, but helped sales of books by relatively unknown
authors. After conducting their study, the authors found that conventional wisdom is
wrong: not all publicity is good publicity. But they did show that negative publicity can
sometimes be positive; it all depends on existing-product awareness.(Ned Smith, “Can
Bad Buzz Be Good?” Business News Daily, November 1, 2010)
The text states that we have entered a “new era” for public relations. What is one factor
that contributes to this belief?
a. increased media coverage of company advertising
b. more aggressive efforts to catch firms acting in an improper manner
c. increasingly sophisticated and connected consumers who are talking to each other
more and more about brands
d. more focus on public relations and its various applications and less concentration on
the rest of the marketing process
Corporate advertising that is designed to influence public opinion on issues of concern
to the sponsor is known as
a. cause-related advertising.
b. advocacy advertising.
c. word-of-mouth marketing.
d. image marketing.
Which phenomenon is experienced when the consumer’s current situation is
unsatisfactory, mental discomfort or anxiety are recognized, and the individual becomes
motivated to take action?
a. habit
b. need state
c. cognitive dissonance
d. involvement
As one of the world’s largest computer and technology developers, Dell, Inc. has never
been a stranger to advertising. However, due to a consistent decline in market share, the
Texas-based company is looking to overhaul its advertising efforts for the first time in
years. In the past, Dell found success promoting its products as some of the top
“inexpensive” computer products on the market. However, the company’s new ad
campaign, which will be targeted towards more high-end users, will make no mention
of product price. The company is looking to reinvent its image, and believes the first
step in doing so is to revamp its outdated advertising campaign.In order to reinvent the
company’s image, Dell formulates a team in its marketing department that will be
responsible for every aspect of the advertising campaign. The company decides that
using company employees will allow it to maximize the profits generated from the new
campaign. This team will be an example of
a. an interactive agency.
b. a full service advertising agency.
c. a public relations firm.
d. an in-house agency.
You are a production assistant working on a 30-second television spot for Happy Heart
Hound, an all-natural gourmet dog food for puppies and young dogs. The client wants
to emphasize the healthful ingredients as well as the “happy and fun-loving” nature of
the product.
Your production team is ready to show the client shots from the unfinished project to
give an idea of what the commercial will look like. These shots do not include
transitions, special effects, or audio, but are merely selections from the first step in
postproduction. This means these excerpts are from the
a. director’s rough cut.
b. digital editing.
c. audio edit.
d. master copy.
After it drew a record-low 9.8 million viewers in 2004, ABC dropped the rights to air
the Miss America pageant. Six years later, in 2010, ABC once again agreed to air the
event after cable network TLC declined to pick up the pageant for a fourth year.
Although ABC decided to pick up the pageant for a second time in the last twelve years,
the terms of the agreement are far more favorable for the large cable network. Similar to
its first stint with the network, the pageant will be shown on Saturday nights
(television’s lowest viewing night of the week). The difference this time comes in the
price ABC had to pay to acquire rights to the event-because of the recent decline in the
event’s popularity, the network had to pay very little, and ultimately deemed the deal to
be a “no-lose” situation.One of the difficulties facing the pageant’s board of directors is
appealing to a younger target audience. The board decides that utilizing social networks
such as Facebook and Twitter is crucial, and feels it needs to do something exciting and
memorable in order to attract viewers. What type of group would be effective in making
this happen?
a. production services group
b. creative services group
c. market research group
d. buying services group
What was the reason, cited in the text, behind the convergence of Madison & Vine?
a. the desire to recapture the fading glamour of the good old days of advertising
b. the recession-era focus on more work and less leisure time
c. the erosion in the effectiveness of traditional broadcast media
d. the natural and inevitable partnership between marketing and promotion
(Scenario 14-1) When the social networking/gaming website Foursquare launched in
2009, it was only accessible to residents in 100 U.S. cities. One year later, an updated
version of the service allows check-ins from locations all over the world and has over
500,000 users internationally. The site, which allows registered users to connect with
friends and update their location, receives over one million check-ins per week. When
users visit a particular store, their profile is automatically updated and they can share
feelings about favorable experiences (or unfavorable ones). The site now holds
partnerships with over 800 establishments worldwide, and high-profile partnerships
with the Bravo Network and The New York Times have greatly increased the site’s
popularity.
A search on Bing using the phrase “foursquare social media” results in thousands of
matches. These multiple matches occur because sites like Bing
a. accept multiple registrations from a single website.
b. use search engine technology to optimize results that direct users to lists of possible
sites.
c. accept payment from businesses in exchange for repeated mention on lists of search
results.
d. reflect the number of people actually performing a search on a particular phrase at
any one time.
Facing stiff competition from Walmart and K-mart, executives for Target stores have
decided to focus on reaching more affluent shoppers and luring them away from
traditional department stores. They have already expanded the products and brands they
offer to include reasonably priced items by modern design masters. Target hopes to
draw more affluent shoppers into its stores through a series of advertising campaigns
that are presently in the planning stages. Most of the advertising budget will be directed
to ads in regional luxury magazines, which research shows are frequently read by
affluent individuals.
Another magazine ad designed for Target’s new campaign shows a well-dressed shopper
pushing her loaded Target cart to her Jaguar, showing satisfaction in the parking lot as
she spots another consumer loading Target shopping bags into her Jaguar.Which
objective is this ad hoping to achieve?
a. to instill brand preference
b. to scare the consumer into action
c. to situate the brand socially
d. to change behavior by inducing anxiety
Before he can make final decisions on where to place ads and how to display
promotions for a new bottled water, a media planner has to decide which broad
categories to use-television, radio, magazines, newspapers, Internet sites, etc. When he
zeroes in on using both television and the Internet he has chosen his
a. unmeasured media.
b. media classes.
c. supplemental media.
d. media vehicles.
Brush Strokes is an art supply store located in a town with a population of about
100,000 people. The town is also home to a major state university. Brush Strokes gets a
majority of its business from the student population. It has used the services of a local
full-service advertising agency in the past. A great majority of its marketing budget has
gone toward running small advertisements in the local and school newspapers at the
beginning of each term. The advertising agency is now recommending that Brush
Strokes devote a majority of its budget to running television spots during broadcasts of
the university’s football and basketball games. While the owners of Brush Strokes agree
that they could be doing a better job of reaching a larger portion of the student
population, they have not come to any conclusions about the best way to accomplish
this.The agency has informed Brush Strokes that if they agree to its recommendation
for television advertising, the agency will have to rely on outside sources for some of
the work. In all likelihood, the agency will seek the most help with
a. producing the spots.
b. creating the ideas for the spots.
c. developing the strategy behind the spots
d. assessing the effectiveness of the spots.
What type of firm or group takes creative ideas and turns them into actual ads?
a. marketing research services
b. creative services
c. account services
d. production services
Scenario 15-1
One of the nation’s most popular times for sales promotions was a great deal longer than
usual in 2010. Black Friday, which typically takes place the Friday following
Thanksgiving, started in October for a number of retailers and was also scheduled to
occur throughout the month of November. Sears and Walmart, who had been
experiencing a continuous decline in sales recently, were the biggest names behind the
move. Executives from a number of companies began to realize that consumers respond
to the word ‘sale,” regardless of the time of year, so they decided to simply stretch the
period of time in which their biggest sales ran. Companies designed new sale flyers and
circulars, and began to promote the various sales on their websites. Other companies
such as Target were also implementing a similar strategy-by emphasizing savings
earlier in the season and for a longer period of time, company executives hoped their
brand would be the first, second, and last choice for consumers during the holiday
season.(Stephanie Clifford, “Stores Push Black Friday Into October.” The New York
Times, October 28, 2010.)
On one of the company’s websites, a sweepstakes was designed to award one lucky
customer after he or she provided feedback on a number of planned sales promotions
for the holidays. One characteristic of a sweepstakes is
a. winners can only be awarded with monetary prizes.
b. winners are determined purely by chance.
c. there can only be one winner per sweepstakes.
d. there is a complex system for determining a winner.
The blend of different media that will be used to effectively reach the target audience is
referred to as
a. media mix.
b. media objective.
c. route weight.
d. media reach.
As one of the world’s largest computer and technology developers, Dell, Inc. has never
been a stranger to advertising. However, due to a consistent decline in market share, the
Texas-based company is looking to overhaul its advertising efforts for the first time in
years. In the past, Dell found success promoting its products as some of the top
“inexpensive” computer products on the market. However, the company’s new ad
campaign, which will be targeted towards more high-end users, will make no mention
of product price. The company is looking to reinvent its image, and believes the first
step in doing so is to revamp its outdated advertising campaign.Dell decides not to use a
full-service advertising agency because it would like its own employees to take
responsibility for the new ad campaign. Still, full-service agencies do provide a number
of advantages-one of these advantages is
a. full-service agencies are often expensive, and spending a lot of money on advertising
impresses consumers.
b. full-service agencies are very large, so there are lots of people to help design ad
campaign.
c. full-service agencies often have an array of talented professionals to meet all the
needs of a client.
d. full-service agencies are the only way to create an ad campaign that implements
integrated brand promotion.
The husband-and-wife owners of a St. Louis hot dog production plant have recently
expanded their operations and now sell hot dogs to grocery chains nationwide. They
want to evaluate the share of voice commanded by their firm. To do that, they must first
know the
a. total advertising expenditures within the hot dog category.
b. reach and frequency of their media schedule for hot dog ads.
c. GRPs of their competition within the hot dog category.
d. national sales figures for the entire hot dog industry.
A majority of the promotional funds spent on event sponsorships today go toward
sporting events.
One common problem seen in the new media mix involves matching the brand with the
entertainment property.
Public relations is the one and only tool that can provide damage control after bad
publicity hits.
In the world of promotion, authenticity refers to the quality of being perceived as
genuine and natural, a definite plus in brand placement.
Sales promotion can attract attention and motivate trial purchase, so it is often used to
introduce new brands to the public.
A relatively new technology that has advertising potential is the widget, a module of
software that accesses a “featured store” with specials or sales, available to consumers
via a simple click-through.
Sales promotion is generally used as a long-term tactic and widespread strategy to
promote an image for the brand and create emotional connections with the consumer.