PREVIEW EDITION

PULLED FROM THE HEADLINES!

Marketing Currents is a weekly current events news service that highlights unique and relevant business and marketing campaigns throughout the school year. The questions provided for student discussion will help to create a bridge between industry strategies/trends and the topics you are covering in class.

DISCUSSIONS: WEEK OF MARCH 11, 2024

• Gatorade Water Splashes Onto Shelves Nationwide
• Rockstar’s new rebrand is delightfully anti-energy drink
• Ikea’s new collection of office furniture is designed for complete focus
• Inside Keurig’s evolution from single-serve novelty to coffee powerhouse
• Yes, Wendy’s Is Selling $1 Burgers Following ‘Dynamic Pricing’ Fiasco

STORIES FROM AROUND THE WEB:

• Brands Celebrating Women Every Day, Not Just On March 8th, Will Grow Their Businesses, Not Check A PR Box
• Apple Releases 19-Minute Takashi Miike Short Film Shot on an iPhone
• Abercrombie & Fitch enters wedding category
• KFC’s Tower Burger Campaign Is Too Tall for TV Ads
• Ford Celebrates Car Girls on International Women’s Day – and Year Round

Gatorade Water Splashes Onto Shelves Nationwide

Chris Lindauer
March 10, 2024

TOPICS:

• Branding
• Brands
• Marketing Campaigns
• Marketing Currents
• Positioning
• Product Development
• Product Launch

https://www.youtube.com/embed/GRPrNcD5nr4?feature=oembed

Gatorade today announced the national launch of its first unflavored water – Gatorade Water – bringing the trust and credibility of the leading sports drink to a new aisle.

Click here to read the press release at prnewswire.com.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. There are dozens of water brands already available to consumers. Why might marketing be important to Gatorade for the new product to be successful?
2. What is positioning?
3. Why is positioning important?
4. How is Gatorade positioning its new water product?
5. What is brand extension?
6. How might this story represent an example of brand extension?
7. Gatorade’s press release states that the launch of Gatorade Water brings “the trust and credibility of the leading sports drink to a new aisle.” What does that mean?
8. How does that represent an example of brand strength?
9. Why do you think they are using recycled plastic for packaging?
10. Might that represent an example of marketing and/or positioning? How so?
11. What is a product endorsement?
12. Why do you think Gatorade chose to incorporate choreographers and dancers to endorse the new product?

Rockstar’s New Rebrand Is Delightfully Anti-Energy Drink

Chris Lindauer
March 10, 2024

TOPICS

• • Acquisition
  • Branding
  • Competition
  • Demographics
  • Packaging & Labeling
  • Target Market

Rockstar needs a little energy.

Pepsico, which acquired the energy drink for $3.85 billion in 2020, is hoping refreshed branding will help the sluggish brand gain market share—and in a competitive and increasingly crowded energy drink aisle it needs all the help it can get.

Read the story at fastcompany.com

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What is an acquisition?
2. Why would Pepsi acquire Rockstar?
3. Why do you think Rockstar has been struggling?
4. How might a crowded marketplace with a variety of competitors contribute to Rockstar’s struggles?
5. What is a rebrand?
6. What does packaging and labeling have to do with rebranding?
7. When you think of energy drinks, what does the packaging typically look like?
8. Why do you think Rockstar is rebranding?
9. Based on what you learned from this news story, describe Rockstar’s rebranded look.
10. According to this story, why is Rockstar pushing its lower-sugar product?
11. Who are they targeting with the lower-sugar product?
12. Why might they be targeting that demographic?

Ikea’s New Collection Of Office Furniture Is Designed For Complete Focus

Chris Lindauer
March 10, 2024

TOPICS

• • • Differentiation
    • Market Research
    • Positioning
    • Product Development
    • Product Launch
    • Target Market

The flexible office is going mainstream. Today, furnishings giant Ikea is releasing Mittzon, its newest system of furniture for the office. Designed specifically for all the ways the office has been contorted and reconfigured by the post-pandemic hybrid work schedule, the 85-piece collection is a flexible, movable kit of shape-shifting parts that is designed for an office environment that may never be static again.

Read the story at fastcompany.com

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What is a target market?
2. Why is it important for a business to identify a target market if they want their marketing to be successful?
3. How do you think the pandemic changed the dynamics of the workplace?
4. How do you think that influenced the way companies who sell furniture, office equipment, office supplies, and home goods approach their marketing?
5. Describe the new Ikea furniture line using information from this news story.
6. How long did it take for Ikea to develop the new furniture products?
7. What is “flexible” furniture?
8. How might “a “flexible” furniture line meet the changing needs of anyone purchasing office furniture?
9. What is market research?
10. Why do you think market research was important to Ikea as they developed this new line of office furniture?
11. How might “a “flexible” furniture line meet the changing needs of anyone purchasing office furniture?
12. Who might Ikea be targeting with this new line of furniture?
13. What is differentiation?
14. How might this new line of furniture provide a differentiation opportunity for Ikea?
15. Why is that important?

Inside Keurig’s Evolution From Single-Serve Novelty To Coffee Powerhouse

Chris Lindauer
March 10, 2024

TOPICS

• • • • • Acquisition
        • Competition
        • Differentiation
        • Entrepreneurship
        • Innovation

Once celebrated as a pioneer with its single-serve coffee pods, the future of the popular Keurig platform is increasingly built around its ability to replicate an array of coffeehouse-style drinks for a demanding consumer.

Read the story at fooddive.com

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What is innovation?
2. How did Keurig innovate in the coffee industry?
3. What is acquisition?
4. Why did Dr Pepper acquire Keurig?
5. According to this story, what is one challenge for Keurig as the brand matures?
6. What is competition?
7. With a new innovation, competition is typically limited (or even non-existent). If the innovation is successful, competitors will enter the market. Has that happened with Keurig coffee makers?
8. What can Keurig do to stay ahead of the competition?
9. What is differentiation?
10. Price can provide a differentiation opportunity. How has it provided Keurig with a differentiation point?

Yes, Wendy’s Is Selling $1 Burgers Following ‘Dynamic Pricing’ Fiasco

Chris Lindauer
March 10, 2024

TOPICS

• • • • • Pricing
        • Promotion
        • Publicity

Fast-food fans were aghast when news broke this week that burger chain Wendy’s would be testing out surge pricing — a mostly reviled strategy of raising prices during busy times made famous by Uber.

Read this story at foodandwine.com

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What is dynamic pricing?
2. Last week, it was widely reported that Wendy’s planned to test dynamic pricing. What does that mean?
3. Why would they be interested in testing dynamic pricing?
4. Based on what you learned from this story, what was the reaction from consumers to that news?
5. What is publicity?
6. How does negative publicity impact a business or brand?
7. What is crisis management?
8. How would you describe how Wendy’s handled the reaction from consumers?
9. What is promotion?
10. How might offering $1 burgers represent an example of both crisis management and promotion?
11. Do you think Wendy’s was still going to offer $1 burgers even without the negative response to the idea of testing dynamic pricing? Why or why not?