Marketing Exercise
Directions
Interview 10 of your classmates by asking them to answer the following:
1. Which brand of automobile they own
After you have interviewed 10 individuals, team up with four of your classmates—meet under
the sign for the product about which you are interviewing. Pool the results of your interviews
with your research team. Based on the pooled results, do the following:
1. Determine the market segment that the top three brands appear to target (based on
demographic data).
2. Do a benefit analysis for the top brand. (Hint: What benefits do people seek from their
ownership of a certain brand?)
3. Prepare a profile of the top brand target market based on the psychographic and AIO data
you have collected.
Debriefing
At the conclusion of the various teams’ reports, ask participants if they would care to base a
product decision on this survey. Students are quick to point out the shortcomings of collecting
Elwin Myers, Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi
Collecting, Creating, and Market Researching Direct Mail Sales Letters
Direct mail advertising continues to comprise a substantial component of the advertising budget.
This assignment helps students observe the current writing practices used by direct mail sales
Collecting and Analyzing Direct Mail Sales Pieces
1. Students are required to locate 20 different direct mail sales writing pieces—10 from local
2. Students carefully analyze each piece to determine distinctions between local and national
3. Since many sales letter recipients discard letters unopened, sales letter writers realize the
Students will notice that some of the written messages may entice or encourage readers to
open the envelope, while other messages may distract or annoy potential readers. The
4. After examining the sales letter envelopes, students should peruse the sales matter inside
An effective sales letter should be organized as other sales messages: attention, interest,
Conducting Market Research on Student-Written Sales Letters
5. After students have analyzed their 20 sales letters including the envelopes and enclosures,
they should be qualified to identify effective sales letter concepts. Their next assignment is
6. After writing what students think are effective sales letters, their last task is to conduct a
Gregory S. Martin, University of West Florida
Using Secondary Data for Marketing Decisions
Marketing Principles students should have a direct experience with using market research data as
an input for marketing decision making. Time constraints and large class sizes can make the
collection and use of primary data impractical. (I know, I’ve tried!) Cases can provide a context
for the consideration and use of secondary data, but most deprive the student of the experience of
actually doing “research” to develop decision-relevant information. I’ve found the following
exercise to be manageable and at the same time provide some hands-on experiential benefits. It
makes use of one of the most widely available sources of basic secondary market data, the
annual Sales & Marketing Management Survey of Buying Power. The following example
assignment is customized for use in my classes, but variations on the basic format are endless.
Students will develop many different variations of the decision process (e.g., ranking methods,
weighting schemes, etc.) that can be discussed and compared in an in-class debriefing session
after completion of the assignment. This discussion does a good job of illustrating the “fuzzy”
nature of most marketing decision processes.
Assignment:
Copies of the Florida section of Sales & Marketing Management Survey of Buying Power are on
reserve in the Library. Use this secondary source of market information to complete your choice
of one of the following tasks. Report your findings in a one-page report.
a. A home electronics company wants to test market a new product in a Florida Metro Area.
This area has a high proportion of (a) residents aged 24 to 31 and (b) household EBIs of
b. A growing regional retailer of furniture not currently doing business in Florida wants to
expand its market coverage into two Florida counties by August 1, 2015. The firm’s market
Michael C. Murphy, Langston University at Rogers University
Jon Shapiro, Northeastern State University at Rogers University
Storytelling: Metaphor Generation as a Customer Understanding Research Tool
Traditional market research techniques such as surveys and focus groups often fail to reveal the
customer’s hidden inner feelings that are not easily verbalized or quantified. As a result,
In our classrooms, storytelling is an informative and entertaining way to help students expose
nonverbalized feelings as well as behaviors associated with product usage. We typically work
Next, each student is instructed to clip out magazine pictures and to assemble them into a collage
After three weeks, each student brings his or her collage to class and is allotted several minutes
In the next learning phase, each product group of 10 meets outside of class to interpret the
We think both you and your students will have fun utilizing one of the new emergent tools in
PART 2: Integrated Case Assignments
Marketing Miscues
Four Loko Targets Young College Hedonists
Phusion Projects, LLC was founded in 2005 when three friends from Ohio State University had
the entrepreneurial idea to start their own company. From this company came the Four Loko
The Product
Referred to as an alcoholic energy drink, Four Loko comes in a 23.5-ounce can, with alcohol
content of 12 percent (comparable to four beers). The Four Loko product, in several
fruit-flavored varieties, was displayed on store shelves in brightly colored cans at a retail price of
Health advocates contend that the caffeine masks the effects of the alcohol that is being
The Target Market
Today’s college students grew up with energy drinks on store shelves. From the high school
The Panic
According to health experts, ingesting caffeine with 12 percent alcohol can lead to a heart attack,
especially for someone fatigued or with a cardiac condition. The alcoholic energy drink could
Response
In response to the panic around the safety of Four Loko, law makers in numerous states began
In a statement released by Phusion Projects, the company noted that it marketed its products
responsibly to those of legal drinking age and shared the concerns of college administrators
about underage drinking and abuse of alcoholic beverages. However, the company held strongly
Several Central Washington University Students,” Huffington Post, October 25, 2010; Mike
Hughlett, “Caffeinated Alcohol Drinks Stir up Legal Concerns,” Chicago Tribune, August 24,
2009,
Open-Ended Questions
1. Profile the target market for Four Loko.
Age: college student, probably under 21, although should be at least 21 years of age since
the product is an alcoholic beverage
2. Outline the consumer decision-making process for Four Loko.
a. Need Recognition
b. Information Search
c. Evaluation of Alternatives
d. Purchase
e. Post-purchase Behavior
Closed-Ended Questions
True/False
1. University and governmental policy makers responded to consumer behavior rather than
the legality of Four Loko.
PTS: 1 OBJ: 6-2 TOP: AACSB Reflective Thinking
KEY: CB&E Model Customer MSC: BLOOMS Level I Knowledge
2. The founders of Phusion Projects went to college together and quickly founded their
company after graduation. They did not need sophisticated market research to know their
potential customers.
PTS: 1 OBJ: 9-1–7 TOP: AACSB Reflective Thinking
KEY: CB&E Model Customer MSC: BLOOMS Level I Knowledge
3. There is no such thing as “bad press.” The banning of Four Loko increased its sales.
PTS: 1 OBJ: 8-9 TOP: AACSB Reflective Thinking
KEY: CB&E Model Product MSC: BLOOMS Level I Knowledge
4. When Phusion Projects defended its product and compared it with mixing rum and Coke, it
was actually repositioning Four Loko.
PTS: 1 OBJ: 8-9 TOP: AACSB Reflective Thinking
KEY: CB&E Model Strategy MSC: BLOOMS Level I Knowledge