Unit 4: Discussion
Developing New Products and Services; Managing Brands
Firms need to innovate to respond to changing customer needs, prevent declines in sales from market saturation, diversify their risk, and respond to short product life cycles due to lack of product differentiation. Introducing successful new products is difficult; new-product development is risky, and many new products fail. Every product passes through several life-cycle stages and each stage poses new challenges requiring different marketing strategies and tactics.
We will look at how companies develop and manage products and brands. The product is usually the first and most basic marketing consideration.
P & G’s Secret Deodorant: Finding Inspiration in Perspiration
Secret deodorant was the first deodorant brand marketed exclusively to women in 1956. For some 50 years, the brand held a prominent market position. However, Secret brand management believed the brand was losing its relevance with its target market. The challenge facing the brand’s management team was to modernize the brand by making it relevant to a new generation of consumers.
The video case describes the thought process and program execution behind the “purpose-driven marketing” initiative for P&G’s Secret deodorant. As such, the case provides a contemporary look at how social media can be used in brand building. Moreover, the case permits a discussion about the link between fundamental consumer behavior and brand management concepts.
This case provides a “behind-the-scenes” look at the award-winning social media campaign for Secret deodorant. Equally important, it encourages you to link such concepts as the hierarchy of needs and brand equity to the marketing of Secret. In this way, you should come to appreciate the underlying theory that guided the development of the Secret campaign even though the terminology does not appear in the written case or video.
Sources
How Secret Found Inspiration in Perspiration . (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2016, from Adage.com: http://adage.com/article/news/secret-secret-finding-inspiration-perspiration/231791/ (Links to an external site.)
The History of a Fearless Brand (Links to an external site.). (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2016, from Secret.com
Kerin, R. A. & Hartley, S. W. (2017). Marketing. (13th ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Unit Learning Outcomes
ULO 3 Examine the importance of branding and alternative branding strategies. (CLO 3)
ULO 4: Evaluate ways that marketing executives manage a product’s life cycle. (CLO 4 & 5)
Directions
Initial Post
Review the following information about Proctor and Gamble’s efforts to revitalize Secret, a 50 year old brand:
Background on Secret:
· Read the video case in the textbook on pages 315-318.
· Watch the Secret video (Links to an external site.)
Secret Campaigns
· Explore Proctor & Gamble’s Secret campaigns “Let Her Jump” and “Mean Stinks”.
o Let Her Jump:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUYrqfs6tAY (Links to an external site.)
o Mean Stinks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqLUWSlvohA (Links to an external site.)
Based on the information provided above as well as internet research, put yourself in the position of a marketing consultant brought in to Proctor and Gamble to formulate a set of well-developed and supported recommendations to revitalize its 50 year old brand, Secret. You will be presenting your recommendations to the company’s senior leadership team. Your recommendations should be based on a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of its prior marketing strategies. The recommendations should be logically presented, well-supported, and thoroughly vetted.
IMPORTANT! Your grade for each weekly thread discussion will be determined by your analytical, integrative, problem-solving and critical thinking skills demonstrated by your posts and by your positive responses to the posts of your classmates. There is no minimum or maximum in terms of the word count; however, the response should explicitly address all required components of this discussion assignment. Your response should integrate external resources, which should be consistent with APA writing style and format (6th edition) and reflect higher level cognitive processing (analysis, synthesis and or evaluation).
Teacher Notes:
In its previous promotional strategy, P & G failed to understand the social environment impacting the female market. As we have learned thus far in this class, target markets can be further segmented into niche markets with unique needs and values. In the case of Secret, perhaps ‘the female market’ is no longer a satisfactory customer definition!
https://ispot.tv/a/AgKY (Links to an external site.)
So what do you recommend for this very mature brand?
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