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Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion 1
CHAPTER 16 Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion
This chapter begins with the learning outcome summaries, followed by a set of lesson plans for you to use to
deliver the content in Chapter 16.
• Lecture (for large sections) on page 3
• Company Clips (video) on page 4
• Group Work (for smaller sections) on page 6
Review and Assignments begin on page 7
Review questions
Application questions
Ethics exercise
Video assignment
Case assignment
Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing from faculty around the country begin on page 18
2 Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion
LEARNING OUTCOMES
16-1 Discuss the effects of advertising on market share and consumers
Advertising helps marketers increase or maintain brand awareness and, subsequently, market share. Typically, more is
spent to advertise new brands with a small market share than to advertise older brands. Brands with a large market share
use advertising mainly to maintain their share of the market. Advertising affects consumers’ daily lives as well as their
purchases. Although advertising can seldom change strongly held consumer attitudes and values, it may transform a
consumer’s negative attitude toward a product into a positive one. Finally, advertising can also change the importance of
a brand’s attributes to consumers. By emphasizing different brand attributes, advertisers can change their appeal in
response to consumers’ changing needs to try to achieve an advantage over competing brands.
16-2 Identify the major types of advertising
Advertising is any form of nonpersonal, paid communication in which the sponsor or company is identified. The two
major types of advertising are institutional advertising and product advertising. Institutional advertising is not product-
oriented; rather, its purpose is to foster a positive company image among the general public, investment community,
customers, and employees. Product advertising is designed primarily to promote goods or services, and it is classified
into three main categories: pioneering, competitive, and comparative. A product’s place in the product life cycle is a
major determinant of the type of advertising used to promote it.
16-3 Discuss the creative decisions in developing an advertising campaign
Before any creative work can begin on an advertising campaign, it is important to determine what goals or objectives the
advertising should achieve. The objectives of a specific advertising campaign often depend on the overall corporate
objectives and the product being advertised, and are often determined using the DAGMAR approach. Once objectives
are defined, creative work can begin (e.g., identifying the product’s benefits, developing possible advertising appeals,
evaluating and selecting the advertising appeals, executing the advertising message, and evaluating the effectiveness of
the campaign).
16-4 Describe media evaluation and selection techniques
Media evaluation and selection make up a crucial step in the advertising campaign process. Major types of advertising
media include newspapers, magazines, radio, television, the Internet, outdoor media such as billboards and bus panels.
Recent trends in advertising media include shopping carts, computer screen savers, DVDs, CDs, interactive kiosks,
advertisements before movies, posters on bathroom stalls, and “advertainments.” Promotion managers choose the
advertising campaign’s media mix on the basis of the following variables: cost per contact, reach, frequency,
characteristics of the target audience, flexibility of the medium, noise level, and the life span of the medium. After
choosing the media mix, a media schedule designates when the advertisement will appear and the specific vehicles in
which it will appear.
16-5 Discuss the role of public relations in the promotional mix
Public relations is a vital part of a firm’s promotional mix. A company fosters good publicity to enhance its image and
promote its products. Popular public relations tools include new-product publicity, product placement, consumer
education, sponsorship, company Web sites. An equally important aspect of public relations is managing unfavorable
publicity in a way that is least damaging to a firm’s image.
16-6 Define and state the objectives of sales promotion and the tools used to achieve them
Marketing managers can use sales promotion to increase the effectiveness of their promotional efforts. Sales promotion
can target either trade or consumer markets. Trade promotions may push a product through the distribution channel using
sales contests, premiums, P-O-P displays, trade allowances, push money, training, free merchandise, store
demonstrations, and business meetings. Consumer promotions may push a product through the distribution channel using
coupons, rebates, premiums, loyalty marketing programs or frequent buyer programs, contests, sweepstakes, sampling,
and point-of-purchase displays. The biggest trend in sales promotions on both the trade and consumer side has been the
increased use of the Internet.
Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion 3
TERMS
advergaming
coupon
product advertising
advertising appeal
crisis management
product placement
advertising campaign
flighted media schedule
public relations
advertising objective
frequency
publicity
advertising response function
frequent buyer program
pulsing media schedule
advocacy advertising
infomercial
push money
audience selectivity
institutional advertising
reach
comparative advertising
loyalty marketing program
rebate
competitive advertising
media mix
sales promotion
consumer sales promotion
media planning
sampling
continuous media schedule
media schedule
seasonal media schedule
cooperative advertising
medium
sponsorship
cost per contact (cost per thousand
or CPM)
pioneering advertising
trade allowance
point of purchase (P-O-P) display
trade sales promotion
cost per click
premium
unique selling proposition
LESSON PLAN FOR LECTURE
Brief Outline and Suggested PowerPoint Slides:
Learning Outcomes and Topics
PowerPoint Slides
LO1 Discuss the effects of advertising on market share
and consumers
16-1 The Effects of Advertising
1: Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion
2: Learning Outcomes
3: Learning Outcomes
4: The Effects of Advertising
5: The Effects of Advertising
6: Advertising and Market Share
7: The Effects of Advertising on Consumers
LO2 Identify the major types of advertising
16-2 Major Types of Advertising
8: Major Types of Advertising
9: Major Types of Advertising
10: Major Types of Advertising
11: Product Advertising
LO3 Discuss the creative decisions in developing an
advertising campaign
17-3 Creative Decisions in Advertising
12: Creative Decision in Advertising
13: Creative Decision in Advertising
14: Setting Objectives: The DAGMAR Approach
15: Creative Decision
16: Identify Product Benefits
17: Identify Product Benefits
18: Exhibit 16.1: Common Advertising Appeals
19: Unique Selling Proposition
20: Executing the Message
21: Exhibit 16.2: Eleven Common Executions Styles for
Advertising
22: Post-Campaign Evaluation
4 Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion
Learning Outcomes and Topics
PowerPoint Slides
LO4 Describe media evaluation and selection
techniques
17-4 Media Decisions in Advertising
23: Media Decisions in Advertising
24: Media Decisions in Advertising
25: Major Advertising Media
26: Newspapers
27: Cooperative Advertising
28: Magazines
29: Radio
30: Television
31: Internet
32: Outdoor Media
33: Alternative Media
34: Media Selection Considerations
35: Qualitative Factors in Media Selection
36: Media Scheduling
LO5 Discuss the role of public relations in the
promotional mix
17-5 Public Relations
37: Public Relations
38: Public Relations
39: Public Relations Tools
40: Functions of Public Relations
41: Managing Unfavorable Publicity
LO6 Define and state the objectives of sales promotion
and the tools used to achieve them
16-6 Sales Promotion
42: Sales Promotion
43: Sales Promotion
44: Sales Promotion
45: Objectives of Sales Promotion
46: Trade Sales Promotion
47: Benefits of Trade Promotions
48: Tools for Consumer Sales Promotion
49: Coupons and Rebates
50: Loyalty Marketing Programs
51: Coupons and Sweepstakes
52: Sampling
53: Methods of Sampling
54: Point-of-Purchase Promotion
55: Online Sales Promotion
56: Chapter 16 Video
Suggested Homework:
• The end of this chapter contains assignments for the BoltBus Publications video or the product placement case.
• This chapter’s online study tools include flashcards, visual summaries, practice quizzes, and other resources that can
be assigned or used as the basis for longer investigations into marketing.
LESSON PLAN FOR VIDEO
Company Clips
Segment Summary: BoltBus
BoltBus is Greyhound’s curbside, express bus service. BoltBus operates primarily in the Northeast between major hubs,
with some other service in the Northwest. This clip covers how BoltBus reaches its target markets through advertising,
promotion, and social media.
These teaching notes combine activities that you can assign students to prepare before class, that you can do in class
before watching the video, that you can do in class while watching the video, and that you can assign students to
complete as assignments after watching the video in class.
During the viewing portion of the teaching notes, stop the video periodically where appropriate to ask students the
questions or perform the activities listed on the grid. You may even want to give the students the questions before
starting the video and have them think about the answer while viewing the segment. That way, students will be engaged
in active viewing rather than passive viewing.
PRE-CLASS PREP FOR YOU:
PRE-CLASS PREP FOR YOUR STUDENTS:
• Preview the Company Clips video segment for Chapter
16. This exercise reviews concepts for LO1–LO5.
• Review your lesson plan.
• Make sure you have all of the equipment needed to
show the video to the class, including the DVD and a
way to project the video.
• You can also stream the video HERE
• Have students review and familiarize themselves with
the following terms and concepts: effects of
advertising; types of advertising; advertising appeals;
executing the message; and media decisions in
advertising.
• Ask students look for an example of American youth-
targeted advertising. If it’s in print, have them bring it
to class.
• Assign students to study Exhibit 16.1 in their
textbook for discussion in class.
VIDEO REVIEW EXERCISE
ACTIVITY
Warm Up
Briefly discuss students’ findings from the Pre-Class Prep youth ad. Discuss the specific medium of
the ad, the execution style, and the product/service being promoted. Ask if the students have seen ads
for the same products that weren’t aimed at youth and if so, how the ads differed.
In-class
Preview
• Discuss Exhibit 16.1, Common Advertising Appeals. You can have students complete the
diagram individually, as teams, or as a full-class activity, starting with brainstorming for
examples, and then pointing out that the advertising appeal becomes what’s known as the
company’s, or product’s, unique selling proposition.
• Discuss Exhibit 16.2, Eleven Common Executional Styles for Advertising. Brainstorm for
examples and point out that the message execution is the starting point of the AIDA process.
• Discuss Exhibit 16.3, Advantages and Disadvantages of Major Advertising Media. Point out that
the product being advertised and the message used to advertise it have great impact on selecting
the proper medium.
• Have copies of the Company Clips questions (below) available for students to take notes on
while viewing the video segment.
Viewing
(Solutions
below.)
1. Who does BoltBus consider to be its core consumers? How does the company use that
knowledge to decide how they market BoltBus?
2. Which type of product advertising does BoltBus use?
3. Does BoltBus use consumer sales promotion? If so, what is the primary promotion they use?
Follow-up
• Divide students into groups of three to five and have them pretend that they are working for a
company who wants to develop an advertising program using transportation sources, such as
BoltBus. Give them 10 to 15 minutes to develop an outline for an advertising campaign that
targets the BoltBus customer. Have as many groups as time allows share their outlines with the
class.
Solutions for Viewing Activities:
1. Who does BoltBus consider to be its core consumers? How does the company use that knowledge to decide
how they market BoltBus?
BoltBus considers its core customers to be university students going home or taking weekend trips, or young
2. Which type of product advertising does BoltBus use?
Students can argue for either competitive or comparative advertising. Competitive advertising is more applicable
3. Does BoltBus use consumer sales promotion? If so, what is the primary promotion they use?
Student answers will vary. They can argue that the consistently low prices negate the need for consumer sales
LESSON PLAN FOR GROUP WORK
In most cases, group activities should be completed after some chapter content has been covered, probably in the second
or third session of the chapter coverage. (See “Lesson Plan for Lecture” above.)
• For “Class Activity – Prime Time TV,” provide the information and the questions asked by the class activities as
described later in this chapter. The class activity was designed to be completed by one person, but each student
should bring his or her findings to class and discuss them in small groups.
• Application exercises 1 and 2 are both suited to group work. Application 1 is an interesting group assignment to be
done out of class. Application 2 can work as an in-class activity, but you can also send students to do videotaping
outside of class and then review videos in class.
Class Activity – Prime Time Television
Ask students to watch one hour of prime-time television and answer the following questions. They will need a watch or
clock with a second hand and undivided attention during commercials.
• In a one-hour (full 60-minute) period, how many minutes were devoted to advertising? How were they
distributed throughout the hour?
• How many commercials were 60 seconds long? 45 seconds? 30 seconds? 15 seconds?
• Were there any other commercial lengths?
• Was the same product advertised more than once during the hour? Were the commercials identical?
• In a “pod” of several commercials, do you feel that one position is strongest? Is being first the best? Is being last
the best? Why?
• How well do the commercials fit with the program? Do the programs and the products have similar target
markets?
Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion 7
REVIEW AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR CHAPTER 16
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the reasons why new brands with a smaller market share spend proportionately more on advertising
than brands with a larger market share.
Companies that market brands with a small market share tend to spend proportionately more for advertising than
2. What is an advertising appeal? Give some examples of advertising appeals you have observed recently in the
media.
Although students’ answers will vary, they should address some of these points: An advertising appeal represents a
3. What are the advantages of radio advertising?
Students’ answers should address some of these points: In relationship to other media, radio advertising is quite
4. At what stage in a product’s life cycle are pioneering, competitive, and comparative advertising most likely to
occur? Give a current example of each type.
Pioneering advertising is intended to stimulate primary demand for a new product or product category at the
5. How can advertising and publicity work together? Give an example.
Students’ answers should address some of these points: Each is a way of communicating information to potential
6. What is the primary factor that determines sales promotion objectives? Name some different types of sales
promotion techniques, and explain the type of customer they are intended to influence.
The general behavior of target consumers determines the sales promotion objectives. Students’ examples of sales
8 Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion
7. Discuss how different forms of sales promotion can erode or build brand loyalty. If a company’s objective is
to enhance customer loyalty to its products, which sales promotion technique would be most appropriate?
Some promotions—such as coupons, contests or rebates—may encourage brand switching and actually result in less
8. What forms of consumer sales promotion might induce impulse purchases? What forms of sales promotion
are more effective at persuading consumers to switch brands?
9. How does trade sales promotion differ from consumer sales promotion? How is it the same?
Manufacturers use many of the same sales promotion tools used in consumer promotions, such as sales contests,
10. What are the main forms of trade sales promotion? Which type might be most enticing to a grocery store
manager? To a buyer for a major electronics chain?
Trade sales promotions may be sales contests, premiums, and point-of-purchase displays or trade allowances, push
APPLICATION QUESTONS
1. Form a three-person team. Divide the responsibility for getting newspaper advertisements and menus for
several local restaurants. While you are at the restaurants to obtain copies of their menus, observe the
atmosphere and interview the manager to determine what he or she believes are the primary reasons people
choose to dine with them. Pool your information and develop a table comparing the restaurants in terms of
convenience of location, value for the money, food variety and quality, atmosphere, and so on. Rank the
restaurants in terms of their appeal to college students. Explain the basis of your rankings. What other
market segments would be attracted to the restaurants and why? Do the newspaper advertisements
emphasize the most effective appeal for a particular restaurant? Explain.
Students’ results for this project will vary.
2. Design a full-page magazine advertisement for a new brand of soft drink. The name of the new drink, as well
as package design, is at the discretion of the student. On a separate sheet, specify the benefits stressed or
appeals made in the advertisement.
Students’ answers will vary.
3. You are the advertising manager of a sailing magazine, and one of your biggest potential advertisers has
questioned your rates. Write the firm a letter explaining why you feel your audience selectivity is worth the
extra expense for advertisers.
Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion 9
Although students’ answers will vary, they should address some of these points: An advertiser can use a very
4. Identify an appropriate media mix for the following products: chewing tobacco, Playboy magazine, Weed-
Eaters, foot odor killers, and “drink responsibly” campaigns by beer brewers.
The options for chewing tobacco are limited by laws. Traditionally they have used print, outdoor, and sports
5. How easy is it to find out about advertising options on the Internet? Go to Looksmart’s and Yahoo’s
advertiser pages (http://www.looksmart.com/about-us/ and http://advertising.yahoo.com/). What kind of
information do they require from you? Send an e-mail requesting information and compare what you
receive.
6. As the new public relations director for a sportswear company, you have been asked to set public relations
objectives for a new line of athletic shoes to be introduced to the teen market. Draft a memo outlining the
objectives you propose for the shoe’s introduction and your reasons for them.
Students’ answers should address some of these points: Public relations management must establish clearly defined
7. Review the newspapers in your area for one week. Try to review several and varied newspapers (local,
campus, cultural, countercultural, etc.) During this period, cut out all the event advertisements that list
sponsors. Once you have your collection, spread them out so you can see them all at once. Identify any
patterns or connections between the type of event and its sponsors. Identify companies that sponsor more
than one event. What do sponsors tell you about target markets? After analyzing the ads, write a brief
paragraph summarizing your discoveries.
8. You have recently been assigned the task of developing promotional techniques to introduce your company’s
new product, a Cajun chicken sandwich. Advertising spending is limited, so the introduction will only include
some low-budget sales promotion techniques. Write a sales promotion plan that will increase awareness of
your new sandwich and allow your customer base to try it risk-free.
Students’ answers will vary.
10 Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion
9. Consider the different consumer sales promotion tools. Give an example of how each type of tool has
influenced you to purchase—or purchase more of—a product or service.
10. Not everyone thinks supermarket shopper cards are a bargain. Go to http://www.nocards.org and read
several pages. Is the information compelling? What do you think of shopper cards? You may want to use the
Internet to research shopper cards in more detail before forming an opinion.
11. Contests and sweepstakes are very common in the entertainment industry. Radio stations have contests
almost weekly (some daily); local television morning shows quiz viewers on trivia; even movies offer
sweepstakes in conjunction with film previews and premiere nights. Think of a television or radio program
unlikely to have contests or sweepstakes (things like Cops, The View, Scooby-Doo, or your local classical music
radio station, for example). Once you have chosen your program, design a contest or sweepstake to promote
the show or the channel on which it airs. List the objectives and describe the rationale behind each part of
your promotion.
Students’ responses will vary.
12. How can uPromote.com (http://www.upromote.com) help you with your sales promotions efforts? What kind
of marketing budget would you need to take advantage of its services? What kind of company would be best
served by uPromote.com?
Students’ responses will vary.
13. Form a team of three to five students. As marketing managers, you are in charge of selling Dixie Cups.
Design a consumer sales promotion plan and a trade sales promotion plan for your product. Incorporate at
least three different promotion tools into each plan. Share your results with the other teams in the class.
APPLICATION EXERCISES
Application 1
You may think that creating advertising is easy. After all, you have a lot of experience with advertising, having been
bombarded with advertisements since you were a child. But creating advertising presents real challenges. In this exercise,
you will be challenged to create an ad for a new product for animal use that is based on a product used by humans. Some
examples include bras for cows, claw polish for tigers, and “Minute Mice” for cats. You can pick any product and any
animal, but the combination must make sense.
Activities
1. You have been hired by the purveyor of your chosen product to create a print advertisement. Lay out your
ad on a piece of paper that is no smaller than 8.5 by 11 inches and no larger than 11 by 14 inches. Include a
headline, illustration, logo, and body copy. Your illustration may be either hand drawn or clipped from a
magazine.
Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion 11
2. Include the copy for your ad directly on the front of the ad unless your copy blocks are too large for you to
be legible or neat. If that is the case, then label your copy blocks with letters, put them on the back of your
ad, and write the corresponding letter in the appropriate place on the front of the ad.
3. Don’t forget to pick your own brand name for the product or service (like “Minute Mice”).
Purpose: To experientially demonstrate how difficult it is to create advertising.
Setting It Up: This exercise is an excellent group project. Divide students into groups of three or four and have them
brainstorm product ideas. The exercise in the text deals with human products for animals. The original also proposes
creating advertising for illegal products (see below).
This exercise was inspired by the following Great Idea in Teaching Marketing:
S. J. Garner
Eastern Kentucky University
CREATING ADVERTISING FOR AN ILLEGAL PRODUCT OR SERVICE
When I first started teaching Principles of Marketing twelve years ago, I experienced a problem getting students to really
pay attention to the Advertising/Promotion section of the course. I wanted the students to see how tough it is to create
advertisements. I considered having them create an ad for a product that was already on the market. I quickly realized
that the vast majority of them would simply copy an existing ad. Thus, they would not experience writing copy or putting
together a proper layout. I decided to try something completely different, and have developed the following technique:
I begin by going over in class the parts of a print advertisement. I show the students a variety of examples using different
ad forms, copy styles, and layout designs. I then give them the following assignment:
Each of you is to pretend that a currently illegal product or service has recently been legalized. There are a number of
things to select from including (but not limited to) theft, murder, prostitution, speeding, gambling, counterfeiting, tax
evasion, drunk driving, buying votes, and taking drugs. You have been hired by the purveyor of your chosen product or
service to create a magazine advertisement.
Lay out your ad on a piece of paper that is no smaller than 8-1/2" by 11" and no larger than 11" by 14." Include a
headline, illustration, logotype, and body copy. The illustration may be either hand drawn or clipped from a magazine.
The copy you write for the ad may be placed directly on the front of the presentation (if you can neatly letter it and say
everything you wish to put across), or you may indicate one or more copy blocks on the front and then neatly type the
copy for each block and place it on the back of the layout. It usually makes for a neater presentation if you mount the
layout on a piece of cardboard or poster board. Pick your own brand name for the product or service. If you decide to do
a layout that can be rated X, enclose it in a brown paper wrapper. This assignment is due two weeks from today.
No credit will be given for a “Coca-Cola/cocaine” ad. I know you can be more creative than that!
This assignment is only worth 20 points out of a possible 400 in the entire course, but the students put an amazing
amount of effort into their creations. Since I usually have around 120 students in each Principles class, I cannot show
everyone’s ad to the class. What I do instead is select the 15 best ads from the standpoint of layout design, humor, and
putting across the sales message, and show them to the class. As I show each of the best, I discuss why they are good
examples from a marketing standpoint.
I have been using this assignment for many years and have worked some of the bugs out of it over time. One bug I
should mention is that once in a long while, a student will complain about being made to promote something dangerous.
Thus, I have evolved an alternate assignment that I also offer to the students each semester. That is, instead of an illegal
product or service, they may elect to take some current product designed for people and turn it into a product for a
specific animal. Some examples in this alternate category include “Minute Mice” for cats, claw polish for tigers, and bras
for cows (all of which were invented by past students). The same guidelines that apply to the illegal ad also apply to the
animal ad. Students may select either assignment. The vast majority pick the illegal product.
12 Chapter 17 ♦ Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion
The students really enjoy this assignment. I have had students ask me the first day of class if they were going to get to do
this during the semester! They actually look forward to it! As a matter of fact, I suspect it is one of the reasons why
students are willing to sign up for an auditorium section of Marketing Principles rather than one of the smaller sections.
I warn the students that these assignments will not be returned to them. I destroy all but the best ones from each
semester. That way, the new students must do the work and cannot simply copy some former student’s efforts. I put
some of the best ads up on my office walls. It cheers up the “institutional look” and students come by to see if their
efforts were so honored.
Application 2
In this age of 24-hour cable news channels, tabloid news shows, and aggressive local and national news reporters intent
on exposing corporate wrongdoing, one of the most important skills for a manager to learn is how to deal effectively
with the press. Test your ability to deal effectively with the press by putting yourself in the following situation. To make
the situation more realistic, read the scenario and then give yourself two minutes to write a response to each question.
Activities
Today in the nation’s capital, a public-interest group held a press conference to release the results of a study that found
that the food sold in most Chinese restaurants is high in fat. The group claims that the most popular Chinese dishes,
including orange chicken, pork fried rice, and Hunan beef, contain nearly as much fat as the food you get from fast-food
chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King. (Much of it is fried or is covered with heavy sauces.) Furthermore,
the group says that customers who hope to keep their cholesterol and blood pressure low by eating Chinese food are just
fooling themselves.
A TV reporter from Channel 5 called you at Szechuan Palace, your Szechuan-style Chinese restaurant, to get your
response to this study. When he and the camera crew arrived, he asked you the following questions:
1. A new study released today claims that food sold in Chinese restaurants is on average nearly as fattening as that
sold at fast-food restaurants. How healthy is the food that you serve at Szechuan?
2. Get the camera in close here [camera closes in to get the shot] because I want the audience at home to see that
you don’t provide any information on your menu about calories, calories from fat, or cholesterol. Without this
information [camera pulls back to get a picture of you and the reporter], how can your customers know whether
the food that you serve is healthy for them?
3. These new studies were based on lunches and dinners sampled from Chinese restaurants across the nation. A
local company, Huntington Labs, has agreed to test foods from local restaurants so that we can provide accurate
information to our viewers. Would you agree to let us sample the main dishes in your restaurant to test the level
of calories, calories from fat, and cholesterol? Furthermore, can we take the cameras into your restaurant so that
we can get your customers’ reactions to these studies?
Purpose: To give students an opportunity to role-play crisis management.
Setting It Up: This exercise works well for pair work or group work. The example is dramatic in nature, supposing a
television station’s camera crew has shown up unannounced at your place of business to do an exposé. Students are
given a limited time to answer the interviewer’s questions and no time to prepare the responses. Consider sending teams
to the university’s audio-visual center to videotape their dramatic role play. Students could watch the videos in class and
then determine how the responses will “play” in the media. As an alternative to the dramatic role-play in the text, you
can use the original Great Idea below.
This exercise was inspired by the following Great Idea in Teaching Marketing:
Jack K. Mandel
Nassau Community College
PUTTING STUDENTS “IN THE LINE OF FIRE” TO LEARN CRISIS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
