Marketing Your Future

In this activity you will be using the basic principles of the four P’s (product, price, place, and promotion) to come up with a product, good, or service. Use the marketing mix graph on the next page, or create your own on a separate sheet of paper, to fill out each of your four P’s, plus a target audience (who would buy or use this product, good, or service). You can create anything you would like, realistic or not. Examples of these can be a flying car, a 3D TV, a futuristic video game console, etc. You can also come up with something more realistic like a candy, soda, or video game. Use this activity to unlock your creative thinking on how you would market your product. 

Materials:

• Marketing Mix Chart (printed or drawn out on a blank sheet of paper)

• Pen or pencil

Instructions: 

1. First, come up with a product. Remember, this can be a physical good, idea, or service. Explain the product and why we need it. Also, give it a fun and creative name!

2. Now that you have a product in mind, decide who your target audience is. In the middle of the chart put who you are targeting with your marketing mix. 

3. Now, give the product a price, explaining the reasoning why it’s priced that way (use similar product pricings for help). 

4. Next, describe how the product will be given to people. Will it be sold in stores, online, etc.

5. Lastly, how will the product be promoted? Will you need a commercial for it, can you put ads on billboards for it, or will word of mouth be enough?

This activity showcases how different brands compete against one another. The Cola Wars (Pepsi vs Coke), has been a brand rivalry for many decades. You probably even have a preference for Pepsi or for Coke! There are many other brands that compete directly against one another. Think of Nike vs. Adidas, McDonald’s vs. Burger King, and Microsoft vs. Apple. Everyone has preferences about what they like and brands will market their products to show why their brand is superior to the others.  

This activity will focus on the Cola Wars in the 1970s. We can see the effects of this campaign war today as these brands still compete against one another. 

Materials:

• Personal device

• Access to wifi/internet

• Reflection questions

• Pen or pencil

Instructions:

1. Begin by watching a short video overviewing the Cola Wars.

2. Read about the 1975 Landmark Pepsi Challenge and the 1985 New Coke Failure in Response to Pepsi

3. Answer the reflection questions 

1975 Landmark Pepsi Challenge

In 1975 Pepsi launched a blind taste test marketing campaign for people to take a sip of two unknown sodas. Pepsi reported that during this “Take the Pepsi Challenge” campaign people preferred Pepsi over Coke. This led Coke to make a massive change.

1985 New Coke failure in response to Pepsi

In response to The Pepsi Challenge, Coke launched the “New coke” Campaign, now seen as a massive failure. The change in Coca-Cola’s recipe did not sit well with consumers. This failure led to Coke reverting its formula to its original recipe, creating Coke Classic.

Reflections questions

Pepsi claims people liked Pepsi over Coke but, as the video explains, we know the added sweetness to Pepsi gave the effect that Pepsi tasted better. However, over the course of an entire can, people preferred Coke more. Below or on a separate sheet of paper answer the following questions.

1. Was Pepsi’s campaign morally right? Was the campaign in good faith in your opinion?

2. Did they mislead the public through their blind sip test? Why or why not?

3. Even though Coke still had more market share over Pepsi, why do you think Coke felt they needed to change their formula to make New Coke?

It’s common for brands to work national holidays into their marketing campaigns. Sometimes these campaigns are hits, and sometimes they are misses.

Materials:

• Personal device

• Access to wifi or internet

• Frayer Model Reflection Sheet

• Pen or pencil

Instructions:

1. Read about the Burger King Foundation’s new scholarship opportunity and how their marketing campaign did not quite have the impact they wanted.

2. Act as if you are in charge of repromoting this scholarship fund. Take time to explore the foundation’s campaign page and think about new ways to promote the work.

3. Complete the Frayer Model reflection.

During 2021’s International Women’s Day Burger King wanted to promote their foundation’s new scholarship. This scholarship was designed to help promote the culinary arts for women. According to the foundation’s website “women occupy only 24% of chef positions and less than 7% of head chef positions in the restaurant industry today” (Bkmclamorefoundation.org). Their mission states “since there aren’t enough women chefs in professional kitchens, we created the Burger King H.E.R. (Helping Equalize Restaurants) Scholarship to help BK® Team Members with a passion for food pursue a degree in culinary arts” (Bkmclamorefoundation.org).

Below is the marketing campaign Burger King released promoting their new scholarship during 2021’s International Women’s Day along with a tweet stating the same tagline.

After an uproar from the public, the campaign was halted and the original tweet was deleted. Below is an image of the tweet before it was taken down, along with follow-up tweets explaining the scholarship and the inequality of women in chef positions. 

Rework This Campaign

Act as if you are in charge of repromoting this scholarship fund. What would you do differently? How would you promote the inequity of women in the culinary arts? Which media platforms would you use and how would you rewrite the tagline? Explore Burger King Foundation’s website for details about this campaign.