HOT TOPICS BOOKLET(0-13-020786-1) (2078F-0)

INTRODUCTION TO HOT TOPICS IN MARKETING

Marketing is one of the most dynamic functions in business. Nearly every day, changes occur in the marketing environment; in consumer and organizational behavior; in product development; in pricing; in channel relationships; in marketing communications; and in technology.

Such constant change fuels the ongoing development of new marketing concepts, trends, and practices. Hot Topics in Marketing covers some of today's hottest marketing issues—updating, extending, and enhancing your text's coverage of the dynamic world of marketing.

Topic Coverage

Tapping The Customer Gold Mine

Technology is changing the way marketers store, sort, and analyze customer data in preparation for reaching out to the right customers with the right offers at the right time. Learn how American Express, ITT Sheraton, Hickory Farms, and Prudential Insurance—as well as tinier firms such as Internet-based Sunhawk—are applying data warehousing and data mining to improve the cost-efficiency and the effectiveness of their marketing activities.

The Store as Brand Icon

Nike, Warner Brothers, Virgin Group, and Microsoft have been adding more punch to their powerful brands using brand-driven retailing, an approach in which the store is designed for brand image as much as for shopping, for experience as much as for merchandise. Brand-driven retailing is a high-profile way for marketers to support brand equity in today's intensely competitive global environment, as you'll see in this chapter.

Nostalgia Sells

Everything old is new again, thanks to nostalgia marketing. Using period-specific cues in product design and advertising, many companies are devising specific marketing campaigns to reach the giant baby boomer generation. Volkswagen's New Beetle is a prime example; other marketers jumping on the nostalgia bandwagon include Old Navy, Burma Shave, and Toyota. This chapter offers an inside view of nostalgia marketing.

Brand Equity By Design

Brand equity is more critical for success than ever before, as Starbucks, Cadbury, Gymboree, Nike, and other savvy marketers are well aware. And the key to building brand equity is in the nitty-gritty details—including how the brand is presented to the world in the form of designs for logos, packaging, even annual reports. In this chapter, you'll find out how and why marketers are building brand equity by design.

Drugs Go Direct-To-Consumer

In this chapter, you will learn about the new marketing era of direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs. In the past, pharmaceuticals firms used push strategies to market their prescription drugs. But since the U.S. Federal Drug Administration relaxed its rules on television and radio advertising of prescription drugs, the emphasis has been on pull strategies. This chapter explains how and why Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Merck, and other pharmaceuticals firms are aiming high-profile advertising campaigns directly at consumers.

Price War in Online Brokerage

A price war is underway in the fast-paced world of Internet-based securities trading—and the driving force behind the freefall in pricing is competition. Dozens of brokerage firms have launched Web sites in recent years, luring investors with the promise of lower commissions. Cybertrading is an attractive business because its costs are much lower than in traditional full-service brokerage. Learn how entrepreneurial upstarts such as E*Trade, Ameritrade, and Web Street Securities are using price to compete with Charles Schwab and other established brokerage houses.

Chapter Features

At the start of every chapter, you will find an eye-opening statistic or fact related to the chapter's hot topic. Below this "What's Hot" factoid you will see two or three learning objectives to indicate the outcomes for that chapter.

The body of the chapter includes definitions, background information, and a thorough discussion of the hot issue and its significance. In-depth examples show how each hot issue applies to business, government, or nonprofit marketing.

At the end of every chapter, you will find two discussion questions, a group exercise, and an Internet exercise. For more information, go online and point your Web browser to the Internet sites mentioned in the "Enrichment Resources" section below the exercises.

Integration with Text Coverage

Hot Topics in Marketing has been developed to accompany five Prentice Hall marketing textbooks:

Marketing: An Introduction, 4/e by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong

Principles of Marketing 8/e by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong

Marketing 7/e by Joel R. Evans and Barry Berman

Marketing: Real People, Real Choices1/e by Michael R. Solomon and Elnora W. Stuart

Marketing: Connecting with Customers 1/e by Gilbert D. Harrell and Gary L. Frazier

The concepts and issues discussed in each Hot Topic chapter correspond to the following chapters in these five texts:

Hot Topic Chapter / Kotler,4e
Marketing: An Introduction / Kotler,8e
Principles of Marketing / Evans,7e
Marketing / Marketing: Real People, Real Choices / Marketing: Connecting with Customers
Tapping The Customer Gold Mine / Chapter 4, Marketing Research and Information Systems / Chapter 4, Marketing Research and Information Systems / Chapter 4, Information for Marketing Decisions / Chapter 5, Marketing Information and Research / Chapter 5, Marketing Information and Research
The Store as Brand Icon / Chapter 12, Retailing and Wholesaling / Chapter 13, Retailing and Wholesaling / Chapter 17, Retailing / Chapter 15, Retailing and Direct Marketing / Chapter 13, Retailing and Direct Marketing
Nostalgia Sells / Chapter 14, Advertising, Sales Promotion, and Public Relations / Chapter 15, Advertising, Sales Promotion, and Public Relations / Chapter 19, Advertising and Public Relations / Chapter 17, Advertising / Chapter 15, Mass Communi-cations
Brand Equity by Design / Chapter 8, Product and Service Strategies / Chapter 8, Product and Services Strategies / Chapter 14, Branding and Packaging / Chapter 10, Managing the Product / Chapter 9, Product Decisions and Strategies
Drugs Go Direct-To-Consumer / Chapter 13, Integrated Marketing Communi-cation Strategy / Chapter 14, Integrated Marketing Communi-cation Strategy / Chapter 15, Considera-tions in Distribution Planning and Physical Distribution / Chapter 16, Connecting with the Consumer / Chapter 14, Integrated Marketing Communi-cations

Now get ready for some of the hottest topics in marketing today.