With Shoppers Pinching Pennies, Some Big Retailers Get the Message

In an article from the New York Times, many large retail companies are changing their marketing strategies to focus more on the value of the products they are selling. For many of them it means concentrating on lower prices. This is due to the current economic recession that is affecting the United States as well as the world.

Getting Face to Face(Book): a marketing strategy for small businesses

In an article entitled Getting Face to Face(Book), from the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal, journalist Tannette Johnson-Elie discusses the use of Facebook as a marketing strategy for small businesses. The article focuses on a man named Joe Woelfle, owner of Blatz Market and Liquor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Woelfle opened his store just six months ago, and has been a member of networking site for over a year.

Sacrifice: how to Sell a Nanny, a Mermaid, and a Lion

This article was about the marketing strategies of Disney Theatrical Productions. Due to the economic crisis, tickets sales for Broadway shows have decreased. Therefore Disney has had to come up with new ways to sell tickets to their shows. Their most recent plan mentioned in the article is called, “Kids Go Free.” It is designed to run from January 6, 2009 to March 13, 2009. “Kids Go Free” is a ticket discount program that works by giving away one free kid ticket with every full-price ticket purchased for mostly weeknight performances.

Advertisers Adjust to Market Luxury in a Recession

Whether it is tough economic times or marketing a product in an international market different marketing strategies are needed. The article Advertisers Adjust to Market Luxury in a Recession, discusses many companies strategies for dealing with recession. The article discusses more specifically marketing strategy of high cost luxury goods.

“In the Game at L’Oreal”

L’Oreal is already a booming international company that has found a new way to go about recruiting potential employees. Known as Brandstorm, a competition for marketing students from over 30 countries, they compete to have the best marketing proposal first on a national scale then internationally. By competing, these students become familiarized with L’Oreal as a company as well as the products they have to offer.

“OfficeMax Wacky Marketing Strategy”

Bob Thacker the senior Vice President for advertising and marketing at OfficeMax clearly understands the global demand for his products. He operates around 1000 stores across the United States and Mexico. He argues that office supply stores are not the kind of places that send shoppers into states of joy and also argues that among his competitor’s consumers see very little difference between the products.

“Nano to Ride on Innovative Marketing”

Tata, an Indian company that controls major retail outlet Westside and electronic megastore Croma, has just come out with an ultra cheap car called the Nano which will be available at their own retail stores as well as Indian automobile dealerships. Tata has high hopes for this new car saying it broke new grounds in design, engineering and production processes. An insider says their marketing approach is unlike other small car companies.

A Link between Marketing Strategies and Organizational Structure.

This article compares three separate international businesses and their approach expanding globally. The three companies discussed are Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and Starbucks with comparisons to how their company chooses to run in United States compared to different countries globally. It is looked into by what differences needed to be made within their marketing strategy, organizational structure, and overall distribution methods in order to better accommodate the different markets. Overall, it seems that there is a connection between marketing strategies and organizational structures. All three of these international companies chose to expand the same way globally as they did in the U.S maintaining the basic principles of their core policies yet accommodating to separate areas to meet specific needs.

McDonald’s ‘McCafe’ Picks Up Steam, Challenging Starbucks

In this article the author talks about the global company McDonald’s. In 1993 McDonald’s launched their first McCafe in Australia. The McCafe specialized in specialty coffee. It was a great success around the world but McDonald’s was hesitant to bring the concept to the U.S. in fear that the idea would not take off. In 2005 McDonald’s opened a few test sites in the U.S. Now it seems that the McCafe’s have truly taken off and has even taken market share from Starbucks.

Response Mine Interactive Launches – “Outsights” Competitive Intelligence Service.

Response Mine Interactive (RMI) an agency specializing in search engine marketing, online retailing and consumer lead generation announced today the launch of a new interactive product “Outsights” which will help analyze and measure online activity of client competitors. By capturing the marketing strategies, outsights offer companies detailed reports of what competitors in their industry are doing in the way of interactive marketing.