Chapter 11 – Product, Branding, and Package Decisions Marketing 5th
13 How has the company positioned its brand? How does it go about communicating its
position?
The company has positioned its brand to meet the needs of women and help women live
Additional Teaching Tips
This chapter examines product lines, mix, and breadth. Different branding strategies are
addressed. Students use critical thinking skills to discover why brands are valuable to a
firm. Product packaging and labeling also contribute to the firm’s overall strategy and
those concepts are also reviewed in this chapter.
This is a fun exercise to get students excited about brands. To demonstrate the value of
a brand, instructors may want to start the topics discussion by gathering brand symbols
(such as below) and brand character icons such as the ones below without any identifying
writing on it. These can be obtained through a Web search of the character for instance
type “Tony the Tiger” in your search engine and download the graphic. Place the
symbols on a transparency in color. Start the class by dividing the class into four or five
groups. The instructions: The leader is to write down the brand name from input of
group members. Time the exercise. It usually doesn’t take long depending how many
characters you use. At the conclusion declare a winner and then ask the students “Why
are brands valuable?” Students realize the importance of brand recognition through the
brand character or icon.
Online tip: The same exercise can be used in an online forum in synchronous
connection with the class where each of the brand characters are shown. The first student
that types in the correct brand name would ‘win’ and the instructor shows the next image.
A synchronous course discussion can then occur about the importance of the brand
character/logo.
Product packaging is known as the last five seconds of marketing. Instructors can bring
in an empty Pringle’s can as well as other interesting examples of packing. Pringles is
one of the first package designs to protect from breakage of food items such as potato
chips. The class can address how packaging becomes the last five seconds of marketing.
Package label requirements by the FDA and package design for shelf space should also
be addressed.
Remember to review the Newsletter for Instructors and its accompanied PowerPoint
presentation, which integrates examples and discussion from the newsletter. Each
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