Expectations for Tuesday: each team talks to FOUR people from your city

Hi guys,

We spent today going through the product itinerary, talking about how small differences in breakfast choices, practices, and objects (foods, packaging, delivery modalities, and the mental models of what counts as bread, breakfast, toast, etc) can be quite important.  Small differences can make a big difference.

We messed with the example of Panasonic in China.  And we watched a video about New York (okay I know its not a foreign country but to me it feels like a different world!)--in which a company wants to understand who buys home improvement/maintenance things, and what people do with them, how they transport them, who and what and when and even why those products are used in context.  This information is critical to designing products, retail experiences, and marketing plans.

So: now to your projects.  On Tuesday, each group will report on WHAT THEY LEARNED from four people.  The point is to try to find four people to talk to who are

• from your city, or if you can't find them, nearby
• they can be former or current residents
•  talking to them may mean exchanging text messages or even an email
• if you CANT reach anyone at all, call me or email me.  If you can only get two out of four that's not so bad, but be able to tell me what you learned in the process of NOT finding them.  (This is also data, that can tell you something about how to approach people)
•  Expect to be told "no thank you."  Consider your approach.  If you really want to learn about a town, then people are likely to open up.  Think about what you can offer in return: pictures or stories about your own life?  Offers of lunch and a beer when someone comes for a visit?  BE creative

How to get in touch?  Try these:
• Call the embassy.  There should be a trade attache, or a cultural attache.  In the case of China, there should be a local tourism office, a local "find outside business investors" office where people speak English.  In the case of China, there are QQ groups for people learning English.  And there are blogs.  Use Google Translate to try to find people there.  Special interest groups (sports, sexuality, dating, business, travel) have social networking sites: try them out, see who you can meet).
 •  Facebook may not exist in China, but Chinese people in the USA use it and they have friends in China.  Same thing for Pondy (try Orkut for India).  Network.  Reach out.
• What about the international student office on campus?  Anyone from Cameroon?  Plenty of people from China: who is from Changsha?  Sardinia?  Southern Italy?  You get the idea.

The reports you make should walk through what you learned about the product itinerary for the product or service you have in mind.  If its a computer, where do people buy them now?  What is associated with them (other objects, tools, services) who does the buying, and when?  How are things shipped, unpacked used?  Walk through as much of the itinerary as you can get your hands on.  Websites like Picasa and Flickr may have some clues.  

If you get stuck, call me.  In some ways, this is an experiment and a difficult one.  Try your best!

Ken

PS: If you have not read the China piece on Panasonic, please do.  I'll have some additional readings for you posted tonight.  But not a lot. I want you to be finding four people to talk to!

Oct 29 Revivew & Update: Retail Channels

Today's topic: retail and the product itinerary

NYC delivery: you don't have a car, so how do you "schlep" the stuff home? You have stuff delivered, that's how. 

What's in Here:

Lexicon, a Review, and a Reading Assignment.

Lexicon

DTC: Direct to consumer (what Avon used to do--but now, in China, they are also at the cosmetics counter in department stores)

Bolsa familiar: the social program (started, I believe, by President Lula in Brazil, or Brasil, if you are in Brasil).  It tried to lower the poverty rate by guaranteeing a floor income for poor people.  It had the result of pushing some lower income people into the lower-middle-class, which in turn raised the level of household consumption.  Of computers and Epson printers, for example.

Curaçao: a chain of department stores targeting lower income new arrival immigrants, started in Los Angeles by a couple of entrepreneurs.

Logias Americanas: a chain of white-goods stores in Brazil, targeting middle-class consumers.

Trust: an element in exchange or purchase that presents an interesting cultural problem.  What is fresh milk?  Can packaging increase trust?  Who do you trust to buy safe, healthy products?

Transaction: the moment when goods change hands for money.  Shopping is the wider process; transaction is the moment of monetary exchange.

Desjeux and Zhang: authors of the paper about the product itinerary that you've read.

Review

First,  we discussed how you MUST find a product.

You MUST find someone to talk to in the country you are targeting. 

We suggested that you can check Facebook.  Cameroonians are on Facebook; they tend to be from Los Angeles. How can you find them?  Maybe "friend" a Cameroonian in Los Angeles and find out who they know in Yaounde? Maybe find a phone number for a business and try giving a call?  Maybe trying to find a local, African social networking site?  Maybe, call the embassy in Washington: ask for the cultural attache, the chargé for cultural or economic activities?  Embassy's have offices for cultural affairs, tourism, and for business.  Try to find someone to talk to you. 

But when you get someone, what to talk about?  

I suggest you walk them through the product itinerary.  Ask about:

1. Pre-purchase

2. Purchase

3. Transport

4. Storage

5. Use

6. Disposal

You should ask about your product or product category.  Say its a computer. So then,  at each point along the itinerary, you may ask what people do.  for (1. Pre purchase, you ask, maybe "how do you figure out what to buy?  talk to friends? learn about it on tv? Just go to the store?  What store?  How do you shop?  Do you shop on-line?  Who do you TRUST for information about  the product?  Then, (2.) where do you go to purchase?  Where else might you go?  Do other people go to other kinds of stores? Are there really more than one place to get them?  Does anyone sell this stuff door-to-door

*note: in Keegan, we are reminded that cars in Japan are sold door to door.  So much for simple evolutionary models of retail, right? 

Then, consider transport, storage, and Use.  For use: who uses?  Who shares?  Who decides when something can be used?  (these questions demand some creativity: and they depend on the product.  Then disposal.  Think about the things associated with the product: does it come in a box? A Bag?  Is the box or bag re-used? Does the box or bag convey any information?  Are things really consumed, and thrown away, or are they given away or put in storage at the end of their useful life? (Think: Americans with TV sets tend to put them in the kid's room, then the garage, where they live forever, or they go to the goodwill at some point: things are recycled whether you know it or note: think of clothing in Santiago, Chile.). 

Today in class we talked about Chapter 12 in Keegan, retail channels. Reviewing Keegan's chart on page 

 336.  What is missing?  Hint: do you buy stuff on a smart-phone?

We put ourselves in groups, six of them, to interview six people who are not natives to the USA (or, in one case, a USA person who never ever buys things online, making him a little bit of an outlier).  We learned about Breakfast in each country, and asked questions about the product itinerary.

Reading Assignment

1. Be sure you have read and understood Chapter 12 in Keegan.

2. Be sure to download and read the short article on China Panasonic in China. 
3. Download and review the powerpoint from store location research about New York (okay, its not International, but its a very different culture).

Next Class:
We'll continue to briefly report out the results of your interviews about breakfast.
We'll discuss using the product itinerary as a way to discuss retail distribution problems, challenges, and strategy. We'll discuss the New York example, and watch some video. There will be a quiz about this, and watch out.  You actually will have to write something.

Update and 3rd Presentation Information

Quick Update:

Your grades on the midterm have been posted to Blackboard.

We will NOT have presentations Tuesday. I'm going to give you guys an example, and we'll post instructions for you, too.

For the Third Presentation

"You’ll highlight a retail channel, a consumer product, and a service, and select one especially interesting and rich one of these in a particular national or regional setting for depth exploration in your fourth report."

To prep, read Keegan Chapter 12.  Especially pp. 335-343.

Note the chart on page 336.  You will notice it includes "catalogue sales." The book does not mention Internet sales.  Why is this?  You need to include it.

I'd like each group to report on the presence and nature of each of these. Try to find an example of each, if they are present.

Retail Channels
1. door to door (direct sales)
2. Internet sales, including both desktop and mobile as a sales / purchase interface
3. Retail store types:
    Big-box retailers
    Regional/national chain stores (e.g. Casino, Mahima, and Onashi in Cameroon).
4. Franchising
4. Mom and pop retail (non-franchise)
5. Market stalls

Consumer Product
Here, you select a consumer product widely used and sold in your area.
Try to identify the itinerary of the product.

1. Where is it designed/manufactured?
2. How does it move to the marketplace? (Identify the steps on the value chain).
3. Where is it sold?
4. Who is buying it?  
5. How is it used?

I guess you need a couple slides for this one.  It could be tricky.  This is where you may need to interview a local person.  How to do such an interview will be part of the topic of the Tuesday class discussion.

Services
Here, I would include restaurant along with the range of services you usually find in any market economy: transportation, automotive, communication (Internet providers, mobile service providers), medicine, legal, accounting, education, hair/beauty/salon, environmental/engineering/architectural, funeral/religious services.
1.  What services are not on this list that should be on this list for your city?
2.  What services predominate? What services are growing? Shrinking?
3.  Pick an example service.   Who uses it?  What does it cost? How is the service delivered?  What other products/services are related to or involved in the service delivery? Are there international aspects, international players in the business?

Again, a local person can help you, but websites may be interesting here: how many architectural firms are there in Cameroon?  Can you call one?  You get the idea.

Last, you'd pick a product (or service or retail environment) in which you want to play, and which you want to market in your country/city.

Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 posted here
Meanwhile, if you already are comfortable with part I and II, take a loot at Desjeux and Zheng. (The article is on the list of downloads to the right: and its not very long!)

I may remove about five to seven questions, and put in five to seven new ones. 

Review and question bank for Thursday Mid Term Examination

Since some of the questions in the question bank may be revised (and some new "false" choices may be inserted), don't memorize answers, understand concepts.  I'll limit the use of "all of the above" or "none of the above" answers. 

Find the parts of the book or your lecture notes that refer to the question.  Study those.

There are two segments that you need to read to respond to reading questions  that are NOT on in the question bank.

Please read de Mooij Ch 4, especially 113-114; 130-133; and 143-148.

Please read Keegan (related to the de Mooij content: its about positioning) 277-288.  

Please take a look at the Desjeux and Zheng article (there are maybe three or four questions in the question bank about this article, and I think the contrasts between studying PRACTICES versus "motivations" or other psychological categories) is an interesting and important departure from usual marketing research practice.  Please try to understand what Desjeux and Zheng are  doing.  Its a translation and the style of writing is different than what you are used to.  Try to get the main idea, and consider how it is different from the approach used by de Mooij.  There will be a question or two that contrasts these two approaches–that is, contrasting de Mooij and Desjeux.

The question bank is being posted in segments, here.  

These PDF files show suggested correct answers. I reserve the right to edit or slightly modify some of these questions.  All the questions you suggested are found here, in addition to a packet of new ones. 

Look on the right for "MidTermQsPart1, Part2, Part3, etc.

Midterm Question Bank PDF files include:

Part 1: Krupps, Miller (Trinidad Article), Miller (Global Jeans)

Part 2:  Lexicon, in-class presentations, Adithi Metta (Day in the Life inIndia)

Part 3: Jeopardy Quizz questions (revised a bit) 

Part 4: di Mooij, a few more Jeopardy Quiz Items (remember: its HERE), and some class discussion points.

Part 5: some new questions, some more class discussion, and more Keegan

Please check back here for updates and details, as I'll be updating and adding to this page this evening and a little bit on Wednesday.

And, on Wednesday, more details about your upcoming presentations.  For now, just know that you need to talk to a real resident (or former resident) or your town (or at least, near your town! Get on Facebook!)

The Questions Not in the List are Taken From This Reading: (and yes these will be multiple choice questions).

de Mooij Chapter 4, (especially pp 113-114,  130-133, 143-148)

       1 question on self-concept and branding

       1 question on body and identity

       1 questions on sex and love related attitudes  

       1 question on "lifestyle

AND 

Keegan 277-288 (up to New Products in Global marketing).

Although there are ALREADY a couple of questions about Desjeux and Zheng in the question bank, please take a glance at the Desjeux and Zheng article: a couple NEW questions will ask you to compare/contrast the approach by Desjeux and Zhen versus the approach taken by de Mooij (as seen in her Chapter 4).

Note: we'll MAYBE read a four page case during the quiz, and I'll ask three or four questions about it.  The case is here, "Panasonic Listens in China".  Give it a pre-read.

There will also MAYBE be a short video that will be followed by four questions.  The 50 questions after that should be a snap.  

-K 

PS: Hat-tip to J. Morris for helping me correct a badly worded answer in Part 2 (its landowners, not farmers, on that question).

Quick Update: for the Midterm

Here are the questions we created today: I'm posting these quickly now so you can have them to review.

I am looking for you guys to email me the additional question

I will post to blog later  tonight the rest of the questions.

All questions you design will be on the midterm 10 NEW questions that I come up with will be on the midterm but I will =tell you where they come from (readings, etc).  

Additional questions that will appear on midterm will also be posted: I’ll select 60 percent of them.

So, by 8:30p I'll do a blast email with all the questions except the 10 NEW questions (you will, though, know not only what chapters those questions come from but what SECTIONS of the chapters they come from. 

Which of the following are used to identify krup’s brand positioning in E Germany

1.     Free listing

2.     Brand map

3.     Intuition

4.     Google

Which was used to advertise & promote their products in w Germany

1.     Retail stores

2.     Specialty shops with live displays

3.     Online promotion

4.     Television advert5isements

What would be the best strategy for Krupps market entry

1.     Reduce price & change brand image

2.     Maintain price & brand image

3.     Reduce prices and maintain brand image

4.     Maintain price but change brand image

Which is not one of the three market focus areas for Krupp's

1.     West Germany

2.     Usa

3.     Europe

4.     Asia

What made a difference in E. German existing brand awareness

1.     Advertising by newspaper

2.     W German television

3.     Families visiting W German friends and relatives

4.     None of the above

For the Coke as a Sweet Drink from Trinidad: what kind of symbol does miller refer to Coke cola as?

1.     Meta-symbol

2.     Global symbol

3.     International symbol

4.     Local symbol

What is a meta symbol?

1.      It’s a sequence of more than one character?

2.     We don’t know or care

What was the only product that needed to be imported to make the soda in Trinidad?

1.     The concentrate

2.     Sugar

3.     Glass for the bottle

4.     Caramel

Which is not a generalization that soda companies that command their logic of operation?

1.     The cola flavor structure

2.     Law of range expansion

3.     Law of average

4.     Key bottleneck is distribution

How many major bottlers of sweet drinks were there in Trinidad

1.     One

2.     Two

3.     Five

4.     Six

An example of low level unbranded jeans sold in Kannur:

1.     Jeans county

2.     Jeans town

3.     Jeans world

4.     Jeans city

5.    

At what age do Indians tend to stop wearing jeans? (Men)

1.     39

2.     35

3.     60

4.     40

Why do Indians stop wearing jeans at 40?

1.     It represents a difference in how they present their identity as a student.

2.     They get too fat to wear them

3.     There are sumptuary laws that prohibit adult men from wearing jeans.

4.     None of the above

In the context of global denim, South Asia is

1.     The  highest consumer of jeans

2.     A country where half the people wear jeans

3.     

The last major region with low jean consumption

4.     A place where only 10 % of women wear jeans

Which one of the religions is not talked about the website about denim?

1.     Muslims

2.     Hindu

3.     Judaism

4.     Christian

Which of the following countries play the most sports? (de M. Ch 1)

1.     Austria

2.     Denmark

3.     Belgium

4.     Germany

How could culture be describe

1.     Art created by humans

2.     Art created by Americans

3.     The identity of a country

4.   

  The glue that bind groups together

Which is not a topic of general consumer decision making

1.     Buying and consumption

2.     Brand loyalty

3.     Dissatisfaction

4.     Opinion leaders

Which is not one of the five dimensions of national culture according to Hoefsted?

1.     Power distance

2.     Individualism collectivism

3.     Uncertainty avoidance

4.     National self determination

(video: Ariapalayam)

What are NOT the primary wage earning economic activities of women:

1.      milk production

2.     Wage labor

3.     Petite shop operations

4.     Managing the household

What is the average household income

1.     25 to 35 $ month

2.     25 35$ a year

3.     10 to 25$ a month

4.     40 to 50$ a year

What are the two major groups in the village

1.     Farmers and merchants

2.     Landowners and wage workers

3.     Buddhists and Hindus

4.     College graduates and non graduates

 What are local products?

1.     Rice and milk

2.     Televisions and electronic devices

3.     Cars

4.     Detergent

Day in the life. . . . (correct answers only)

What types of brands are found in the stores

*(western and Indian brands)

What was allowed to do in the Bazaar that is unusual to us?

(cut the line)

What did D. not like her husband’s car?

( brand image)

What social class is the family?

(upper middle class)

(

                                   

Oct 10 course review and upcoming goodies to read and watch

What's In This Blog
¶ Lexicon from class.
¶ Readings for Tuesday, and a video to watch, a web-page to visit
¶ One New Case
¶ Some ideas about your projects (forthcoming)

Please remember: Tuesday we meet in Colloquium.  If its not too chilly we'll meet outside to start with.  Then work in groups as before.

Lexicon from Class
Positioning (could be the fifth "P")
Discourse vs. Practice
(What people say vs. what they actually do)
Free-listing: an inductive method to get at cultural categories and meanings.
Hegemony

Bibliography: for further reading.
Miller, Daniel
A Theory of Shopping (1998)
Capitalism: An Ethnographic Approach (1997)
Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary

Video and Readings for Tuesday

Please read diMooif Chapters 4 and 5 for class tomorrow.  This, plus the "day in the life" reading, the video, and the website here will all be discussed on Tuesday (the diMooj material is not terribly dense, but give it a good skim).

Here is the website about denim use in India.  Read it.  Its fun.  And its by Dan Miller, who cares about material goods and their local expression.  Its an anthropological site: can you find the marketing relevance, here?

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-denim-project/ww

Here is an introduction to village economy in India. Its 18 minutes long.  Take a look.  This is village, not urban India.  I am trying to connect the Puducherry team to the ethnographers who did the work on this film.  I sent a Facebook note to Ramanathan today, and hope to hear from him soon).Here's the link in case this won't play in the blog.  There is a business case story behind this video about Microsoft's somewhat misguided efforts in India that I will tell you about in class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz8u3mNp6Rc

I hope we can do for Italy, China, and Cameroon what I we are doing here for India.  We'll spend some class time trying to identify and understand some business cases from each location, and you can help me find and share video and web resources on your locations.

One New Case

FYI: There is an additional case posted here, about L'Oréal.. If you missed a classd or a quiz, you'll want to follow the instructions in the syllabus and do a brief case-write up and email it to me, following the instructions in the syllabus. You may download it from the link at the right.

Ideas About Your Projects

I've discovered that it is possible to find street-scenes and market scenes from places like Pondicherry.  I've found that most of the Facebook entries for Cameroon are of Cameroon people (Cameroonians?) who live in Los Angeles.  Those are two pathways.

The main point is that you will need to actually talk to someone who lives in these places.  I'm trying to find my Cameroonian former student, but so far no luck.  Try Facebook.  Try Orkut.  Look around for blogs, universities, and so on.  Go to International Student Office and find a local student from Cameroon, Pondy, or Italy or China.  Heck, talk to you Chinese colleagues in class!

If you missed the group meeting (and I know I did miss on!), here's the marketing plan outline for you: it is called "Marketing Plan" and its available for download, here.

Thursday Oct 8: SEGMENTS Fall in the Air and Coffee in the Cup

What's In Here

¶ Review of today
¶ An article for you to read for this week
¶ Some thoughts about your groups

Review of the Day

We met in Colloquium; we teamed up on the segmentation, targeting, and positioning chapter in Keegan.  Ambassadors from each team took the learnings (key points, why they are important, and what was missing/what do you criticize) to the other groups.

A few key points and Questions

1.  Segments: know what they are.
Q: Are segments static? Is a segmentation a point in time? Could it be more?
Q: Do segments correspond to an "average person"?  What are the problems with that?

2.  Targeting: know what this is.
Q: How narrow should a target be?  How broad?  How do you know?
Q: When does it make sense to target across cultures (e.g. globally?)  Why?

3. Positioning: know what this is
Q: If positioning happens in the "mind" of the customer or end-user, how do you control it?
Q: What is the meaning of positioning if customers have their own meanings in mind?  If they do, then what does the marketer do?

Task for your teams: be thinking about a product (and, perforce, a channel in which to market it) for which you will develop a marketing plan for your OWN country.  Be aware that your CEO will be asking you where ELSE you might market this product (e.g. into one or more of the other groups/cities in class).

Individual tasks: you will still be asked to get some depth knowledge about your city. This will involve sending me a short bibliography and some simple reporting (format TBD) about your city.  In your teams, you already have a city focus: as a team you are experts in that city. As an individual, you have to be an expert in your city.  Yes, that includes that city the name of which you can't remember (in South Africa, for example).

An Article to Read 

Individuals often make new kinds of sense out of products.  This article is a little theoretical at the start, but look for the main point(s). How has "positioning" of Coke in Trinidad been the result of corporate efforts; how has it been the result of local "mental models."  And, what is a mental model, anyway?

The article is HERE and on the right, in the downloads; look for the "Coka-Cola: A Drink from Trinidad" article.

Thoughts for your Groups

Be thinking about a product and a channel IN YOUR COUNTRY that you want to work on. BE sure it makes sense for roughly 18 to 25 year old people.  That's whose daily lives/needs you need to understand in your country.