Marketing A New Product

Level: Intermediate to Advanced                                                                                        Time: 30 to 60 minutes                                                                                                   Focus: Discussion, creativity, marketing

This sequence of activities is a particularly neat blend of fantasy and realism. It culminates in useful and amusing practice of presentation skills.

PROCEDURE

1. Ask the class to brainstorm a list of ten common objects. Have one student list these on the board.

2. Tell the class to forget this list for a moment and to brainstorm a new list, this one of ten materials that objects can be made of/from (wood, glass, etc.). These materials need not have any connection with the previous list. Have a different student write these on the board.

3. Ask everyone to consider the two lists and to speculate on the most unlikely combinations of materials and objects, for example, a wooden balloon.

4. After the class comes up with five or six suggestions, the whole class should discuss and then vote on the strangest combination of all those proposed.

5. Form groups of three to five students and ask each group to prepare a 15-second radio advertisement for this same product (i.e. the wooden balloon or whatever was voted the strangest combination). Set a 10- to 15 minute time limit. Ask groups that finish early to decide on the background music they would use in their advertisement.

6. Each group presents their radio advertisement to the class.

VARIATION

Ask business students and people in business to prepare a marketing plan rather than a radio spot.