Merger will reshape automotive market

Fiat Chrysler merges with Peugeot

Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot finalized their 50-50 merger this week. The combined company expects to sell nearly 9 million vehicles every year, making it the world's 4th largest automaker by volume and 3rd largest by revenue.

Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot to Merge

If Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot complete their just-announced merger, the resulting firm will be the industry's fourth largest.

Read more about this merger here.

Business Roundtable: Corporations Should Benefit ALL Stakeholders

One of the most influential business groups in America, the Business Roundtable recently announced it supports the concept of redefining a corporation to benefit all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

This is a major shift away from the idea that profiting shareholders takes precedence over consideration of other stakeholders (employees, customers, vendors, and communities).

Read the entire announcement here.

Store Brands Continue Strong Growth

Value-minded consumers are choosing private-label store brands in many cases, cutting into the sales of established manufacturer brands. Not surprisingly, grocery chains such as Kroger are feeding this trend by increasing the breadth and depth of their private-label product mix.

Marketing Plan Glossary

Cannibalization.
Greenwashing.
Multichannel marketing.
Psychographic characteristics.

All these and more terminology for marketing planning can be found on the Marketing Plan Glossary site here.

Airbus Drops A380 Super-Jumbo Jet

In June, 2006, I posted about the different strategies and market forecasts of Airbus vs. Boeing.

Airbus thought passengers would be flying hub to hub in giant jets like the A380. Boeing thought passengers would be flying point to point in smaller jets.

Now, more than 12 years later, Airbus has decided to discontinue its super-jumbo A380. Orders had been dropping off . . . and now Airbus will remove the 380 from its product line.

It turned out, Boeing's vision of how passengers would prefer to travel, coupled with tech advances in jet fuel economy and airline decisions, made a big difference in marketing new commercial jets.

Marketing Plan Resources

Thanks for visiting.

If you're formulating a marketing plan, take a peek at the sample plan posted on the website for my U.S. textbook. It will give you an idea of how to organize a marketing plan and the kind of content included.

You can also browse the glossary of key terms on the same website.

For a listing of links to marketing plan resources all over the web, see here. You'll find news sites, marketing data sites, and many other useful sources of statistics and updated info about companies and concepts.

And finally, if you're looking for my perspective on whether competitors are stakeholders, here's one of many posts on the subject. Yes, competitors are stakeholders, in my view!

Marketers Market for Halloween

Yes, "holiday creep" has Halloween candy/costumes in stores even before back-to-school marketing begins. But marketing trends go well beyond these basics.

No matter what you're marketing, be aware that if you're using Halloween themes in email marketing, you may have fewer folks open your messages. Yet the conversion rate is solid, meaning those who open messages can be converted into buyers.

Some marketers prefer to intro or preview Halloween goods and services early, little by little, to build anticipation and awareness. This is certainly the case for theme parks and other service marketers that offer special Halloween experiences.

Seasonal products or campaigns related to Halloween need time to reach audiences and generate response. The soft-drink brand Fanta rolled out Halloween-themed Snap filters early to encourage usage and viral reaction.

Halloween and pumpkins are a traditional association. Pumpkin food products are selling well as the fall season gets into full swing before Halloween. As usual, marketers are pushing pumpkin spice everything. In fact, Starbucks and Dunkin' began marketing pumpkin flavors in August this year. But, despite rumors, there is NO Oscar Meyer pumpkin-flavor bologna.

Should You Collaborate with Competitors?

Competitors are stakeholders. I've established this numerous times on my blog. As shown above, two of my original posts about this topic have attracted more than 16,000 views in 9 years.

What's been changing, in recent years, is the trend toward actively collaborating with competitors for mutual benefit. This does not mean setting prices together, which is illegal. It does mean looking for specific areas where collaboration would be advantageous for two competitors (or perhaps the entire industry).

For example, what about sharing resources with a competitor to give each something unique to market? Read how a brewer came up with a novel idea and recruited competitors to work together.

Advertising agencies are working together, in some cases, to win and service clients. Maybe an agency sees a competitor with a particular focus that can add value for part of a big project. Or maybe an agency wants to bolster its bid for work by combining forces with a specialized agency.

Are there situations when collaboration can help you be a more effective marketer?

8 Sources of Info about Specialized Marketing Topics

Looking for info about specialized marketing topics? Here are 8 good sources to keep you updated:

• Automotive marketing - weekly news from MediaPost
• Social media marketing - news from Social Media Today
• Sports marketing - news from The Drum
• Mobile marketing - news from Marketing Land
• Digital marketing - news from Advertising Age
• Retail marketing - news from Retail Dive
• Content marketing - news from Direct Marketing News
• Online marketing - news from Entrepreneur