Huntmello

McGraw-Hill Education | Marketing

Kate Spade’s Branding Challenge

Posted by on Feb 18, 2015

Kate Spade, a leading designer-inspired company, dreamed of following the path of other aspirational lifestyle brandswhich are able to book huge sales at premium prices for everything from clothing to furniture to dinnerware.  While company sales at Kate Spade were up more than 40 percent in 2014, Kate Spade is learning that creating a buzzy lifestyle brand is more difficult than it seems. Kate Spade announced the closing of all 19 of its neon-yellow Kate Spade Saturday stores which featured a sassier, cheaper alternative to Kate Spade New York. At about half the price of its grown-up sister brand, merchandise was meant to introduce younger women to the Kate Spade lifestyle. The extension proved to be a bridge too far. Clothes designed with a fun vibe for a professional woman in her 20s didn’t pair with Kate Spade’s designer feel. The stores were mostly filled with clothing, though the brand is best known for handbags and leather goods. Ultimately, Kate Spade Saturday had a hard time finding its identity. Source: Kim Bhasin, “For Kate Spade, a Move Downmarket goes Bust.” Bloomberg Businessweek, February 5, 2015 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-05/for-kate-spade-a-move-downmarket-goes-bust Discussion Question: 1. Is this brand extension problem unique to fashion, or do you think it is common across different types of products (cars, restaurants, etc.)? 2. Are their luxury brands that you think could successfully extend into lower priced products without hurting the overall...

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Flipping the Marketing Classroom with Connect

Posted by on Feb 18, 2015

  One of the things I am seeing more instructors do with the Hunt/Mello marketing textbook is using Connect to help flip the classroom.  I have personally used Connect to help mystudents understand the basic concepts of setting prices or the consumer decision making process before I discuss them.  By having students work through the interactives or video cases before class, my students come to class ready to apply that content to real marketing problems.  Their understanding of the strategies we are discussing makes them more confident and more able to develop solutions and ideas, rather than simply reciting facts. From both a professional development and AACSB accreditation standpoint, flipping the classroom in this way is helping to better prepare students for my class and what they face in the real world upon graduation. The best experiences I have had flipping the classroom using Connect are with the following topics: -Marketing Research Process (Connect Assignment 4-1) -Consumer Decision-Making Process (Connect Assignment 5-2) -Promotional Mix Budgeting Strategies (Connect Assignment 8-4) -Modes of Transportation (Connect Assignment 9-4) -Price-setting Process (Connect Assignment...

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