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MARKETING BY WALKING AROUND
An objective this semester is to give you some experience in "marketing by walking around." Essentially, this is the
practice of noticing the marketing activities we encounter in daily life, decoding the marketing strategies which underlie
them and critiquing those strategies.
1. Noticing: Without making any special effort to seek out marketing activities, we are exposed to (literally) thousands
of such activities daily. Pay attention to life as if it were a rich lab for the analysis of marketing strategies.
2. Decoding: When you observe a particularly interesting marketing activity, the first question you should ask is why?
For example, when you notice an unusual slogan: you might ask, why this slogan—and not some other? When you
encounter an interesting pricing method, you might ask: why this pricing method and not some others? As a customer,
when you are frustrated by some annoyance, you might ask, why this form of customer service and not some other?
Answering why requires some knowledge of marketing strategy basics. After a few weeks into our course, you will
know enough to decode the underlying marketing strategies.
3. Critiquing: Finally, ask yourself if there is a better way. Try to look at the marketing activity from the perspective
of the marketer. You may be surprised at how often you think of marketing techniques which would be more effective
than those actually in use. Or, you may find the particular example so terrific that you wonder why other marketers
don’t implement it. (I.e., you don’t necessarily have to improve on a strategy if it’s already A+ quality.)
The purpose: To develop a high level of expertise in marketing by observing such stimuli that are ubiquitous.
Examples:
McDonalds: Why are there no telephones in the typical McDonalds or no juke boxes? If the company is interested in
customer satisfaction, don't these basic amenities make sense?
Most prices end in a "5" or "9". So, why do many of the QVC shopping network price offerings end in 1 or 7?
TV and other repairs: why so often do we have to wait forever for the repair shop to fix our appliances or to return our
phone calls? Why do we often feel abused by the service if everyone knows that repeat business and word of mouth are
critical?
Why do people get haircuts for $95 when they can go to Astor Place for under $20?
Superbowl ads: at about $1 million for 30 seconds, these should be the greatest hit commercials and yet they are
criticized for not being of equally high quality. What do you think sponsoring companies are trying to achieve with their
campaigns? What is especially clever and breakthrough and what is banal?
The best choices would be the examples that fall into one of the following categories: marketing activities which are
exceptionally clever; marketing techniques which are counterproductive; unusual or surprising marketing activities;
marketing techniques which are especially revealing about the marketer’s underlying strategy; marketing activities for
which the underlying strategy may be something other than what seems obvious at first. Please don’t submit any
examples that would be “inappropriate” to discuss in front of the whole class. Enjoy your thinking!! Samples of
previous students' MBWA assignments are attached.
Prepare a one page typed summary of your description, decoding and critique of the example. If possible, attach an
illustration of what it is you are discussing. This assignment will be collected and will be graded as an assignment worth
5%. If you would enjoy sharing your example (and boost your class participation grade) please sign up with our TA.
We will have students present a one minute synopsis of their examples on the designated day in class.