Professional English. Text adapted from Emilio Robles ipad: Mass communications doesn t have to be massive, just smart

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1 Professional English Cambridge English for Marketing case study Part 1 Henrik Kettunen / Alamy a Work in pairs. What communication channels and tools can you think of? Make a list of methods which are both new and traditional. b You are going to read an article about the launch of the Apple ipad (a small tablet computer which combines the technology of a smartphone and a laptop computer). Look at the title of a magazine article, below. Then in pairs, say what you think the author might mean by smart communications. PSL Images / Alamy ipad: Mass communications doesn t have to be massive, just smart c Now read the complete article. Which communication channels and tools are mentioned? By now, almost all the western world and a good part of Asia and Africa have all heard of Apple s latest breakthrough product, the ipad. The sheer number of impressions this launch has generated is in itself impressive. But what is even more impressive is the use of early adopters and key influentials to drive the story, enthusiasm, excitement and buzz for Apple, not the company itself. Remember that Apple is not a company that makes much use of social media, yet check out the Twitter hashtag #ipad and end user blogs to get a sense for the mountain of coverage and interest generated for the ipad. How does it do this? Good old-fashioned smart PR and a communications strategy that relies on the magnification effect of early adopters and key influentials to amplify launch noise via traditional PR, Word of Mouth (WoM) buzz, and aspirational excitement. Adrian Lyon / Alamy Apple ipad 2 with Smart Cover Text adapted from Emilio Robles ipad: Mass communications doesn t have to be massive, just smart d Read the text again and decide whether the following sentences true (T) or false (F). 1 The launch of the ipad has been a worldwide success. 2 Most of the PR for the product was created by Apple itself. 3 Apple s marketing department is not very interested in using sites such as Facebook or Twitter. 4 Apple s communication strategy relied only on new communication techniques and channels to reach its target audience. 1 Cambridge English for Marketing Cambridge University Press 2011

2 e Match a word or phrase (1 10) to the correct definition (a k). 1 breakthrough product a the amount of publicity a new product or service has received 2 early adopters b an activity which causes an increase in interest 3 key influentials c a completely new type of product 4 buzz d desire for the product 5 social media e to make a large audience of consumers aware of a new product 6 coverage f personal recommendation 7 magnification effect g excitement and interest in something 8 to amplify launch noise h the first people to use a new product or technology 9 Word of Mouth (WoM) i people with the power to affect the buying decisions of other consumers 10 aspirational excitement j websites or services (tools) which allow consumers to interact with each other Part 2 Work in small groups. Do you agree with the statement below? Why / why not? Part 3 Product information and PR generated from your own company is not as believable and much less important than messages spread by the general public. Work in groups. You have been asked by your Marketing Director to present your ideas for a teaser campaign for the launch of an innovative product. Your campaign should target key influentials (such as celebrities or opinion formers) and early adopters to encourage them to write and talk about your product publicly. In your groups, think about: What your innovative product will be (see for examples of this kind of product) Your promotional objectives Your target audience Ways of reaching this audience (your communication channels and tactics think about a range of traditional and non-traditional communication channels and tools / promotional tactics for your launch campaign) How you will measure the success of your campaign Then prepare a presentation of your ideas to share with the rest of the class. You may find the following language from Cambridge English for Marketing Units 6 and 7 useful: Idea generation (pages 46 48) Describing your target market (pages 54 and 55) The promotional mix (page 57) Giving a presentation (page 58) 2 Cambridge English for Marketing Cambridge University Press 2011

3 Professional English Cambridge English for Marketing TEACHER S NOTES Before you begin For the task in Part 3, students are asked to choose an innovative new product and then give a presentation of ideas for a marketing campaign for it. If you think it is unlikely that your students will know of any innovative new products, you may want to ask them to find a product that interests on this website for their homework before the lesson in which they complete this case study activity. To set the scene for the case study, ask students to look at the logo(s) and tell you what products they associate with them e.g. personal computers, mobile phones, etc. Ask them to decide which of the companies have brought out breakthrough products (completely new product types) e.g. the Apple ipod, iphone and ipad. Ask students if they know what is meant by the terms early adopter and late adopter (or late majority) and ask them to decide which term applies to them when thinking about purchasing breakthrough products. Ask students to think about who the early adopters are for the products/services created by their own organisation or for an organisation they know well. You could also ask students which marketing approaches most often influence their own purchasing decisions for innovative products (such as personal recommendation, TV advertising, online discussion forums, etc.) Note: early adopter and late adopter The terms early adopter and late adopter (or late majority) come from the theory of diffusion of innovation a theory which is interested in how new ideas and technologies spread across (and adopted by) cultures around the world. An early adopter is someone who is keen to adopt new ideas or technologies and who actively seeks out information about new products in specialist journals, etc. An early adopter is often also an opinion former who has an influence on the way others behave. Early adopters are also likely to have greater exposure to the mass media. A late adopter (a member of the late majority) is the early adopter s opposite: this person is often sceptical about new and innovative products and consequently slower to take up new ideas and technologies. Late adopters tend to be very cautious purchasers and are likely to need persuading before they buy a product or service. 3 Cambridge English for Marketing Cambridge University Press 2011

4 Part 1 a Students work in pairs to brainstorm new and traditional communication channels and tools. Suggested answers New channels: satellite TV, Internet/websites New tools: communication, blog posts, interactions via social media Traditional channels: corporate advertising and brochures, publications, press releases, TV channels, cinema advertising, outdoor advertising Traditional tools: events, sponsorship, sending out press releases to newspapers and magazines b Students discuss their ideas in pairs. Suggested answers intelligent; targeted communications; cost-effective ways of achieving objectives using a combination of traditional and more contemporary marketing techniques. c Students scan the text quickly looking for examples of communication channels and tools mentioned in the text. You could tell students that the text probably includes some words and phrases that are new to them. Tell them that they will look at vocabulary in the text in more detail later on. social media, Twitter, end user blogs, old-fashioned/traditional PR (public relations), launch, Word of Mouth (WoM) d Students answer the questions. You could tell students that the answers to the questions can be found text. 1 True 2 False. Early adopters and opinion leaders talked about the product and so carried out PR for them 3 True. The messages on the Twitter hashtag #ipad have not been written by employees of Apple, but by enthusiastic and satisfied customers. 4 False. Metrics (measures of the success of marketing activities e.g. number of enquiries per advert) used included: number of impressions, coverage on social media sites such as Twitter; blogs, amount of publicity generated (launch noise) e Students match the words and phrases to the correct definitions. You could tell students that the words and phrases in 1 10 appear in the same order as they appear in the text. 2 h 3 i 4 g 5 j 6 a 7 b 8 e 9 f 10 d 4 Cambridge English for Marketing Cambridge University Press 2011

5 Part 2 Students discuss the question in groups, justifying their answers with real world examples where possible. Go around the classroom monitoring each group s discussion. If students don t have much to say about the question, you could prompt them by asking them to think about: the problems associated with negative PR which can arise when consumers have a bad experience with a company, its products or its services the increasing significance of WoM (word of mouth) marketing as consumers find new ways of communicating with each other (such as Twitter). Part 3 Students brainstorm ideas in groups. Allow 30 minutes preparation time for students to think of a product and generate ideas for a campaign. You could extend the activity by asking students to prepare powerpoint slides of their presentation as a homework activity. 5 Cambridge English for Marketing Cambridge University Press 2011