This evening’s brand management case discussion centered around how Black and Decker could shake their poor reputation among professional tradesmen and expand their market share with this segment. Black and Decker eventually decided to release products under the Dewalt brand, since Dewalt was well-known and well-respected among professional tradesmen. In addition, they decided to attack their primary competitors in areas they were perceived as weak, such as customer service, repair, and tool loaner programs that would reduce a tradesman’s downtime on the job.

The biggest takeaways from the night were when the professor played a video from the 80s when Black and Decker announced the launch of the Dewalt brand. He announced that the launch would begin with 33 new products. The number 33 is proudly and largely displayed on the overhead. Then, comments were made about how the tools would be of great use to many different professions. The presenter ended the list of trades by saying something like “…and our favorites, the masons.” Everytime I saw each of these references, I smiled, clapped, and threw up a couple of Devil-horn/666 hand gestures. My classmates probably thought I was insane (which I probably am due to countless hours studying conspiracy theories). I wish I had that video to post here; it was so surreal the way this information was presented.

Anyway, Black and Decker must have done something right, since they were able to increase their market share to over forty percent of the segment. And, I’m sure being friends with the masons helped.  ;-)

The phrase “mandatory volunteerism” should cause you to shudder. If you’re not, as the old phrase goes, you’re not paying attention. This is something that I’ve been railing on about for awhile now, but now I’m able to see it come to fruition in the form of a smarmy, innocuous sounding piece of legislation known as the GIVE Act, HR 1388. I could go on and on about it, but I think the video embedded below emcompasses the majority of my thinking on the subject (appropriate Southern drawl included):

H/T:  restrainednomore at Break The Matrix

As a former psychology student (and current marketing student), I found this video very blogworthy. It’s part of a BBC series called “The Century of the Self” and covers psychoanalytic theory and its ties to successful marketing through fear and unconscious desires. It’s a shame that Freud is so maligned in undergraduate psychology theory classes as being non-PC and out-dated. Apparently all that stuff I spent years studying has practical applications (for fun and profit). Part 1 of the video is embedded below.

The remaining parts of the series are available on Google Video: Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

H/T:  The Daily Paul