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Marketing management, digital marketing, advertising and promotion management, and technology management.

The case is suitable for BBA and MBA students. It can also be considered in executive education programs.

Venkatesh Kothapalli, the marketing head at Reebok India headquarters at Gurgaon, was in a decision dilemma about the effectiveness of using social media marketing and its employment in the current scheme of marketing strategy being planned. He had been able to generate a fair amount of awareness and excitement amongst potential users on Reebok's social media sites. However, these often fail to convert into topline sales. In addition, Alex his superior had given clear instructions that no separate budget would be earmarked for this type of medium. So Venkatesh had to divert some parts of his existing budgets (which he did from the PR budget and the DM budget) and channel these into the new area of social media marketing. This had also created concerns in Venkatesh's mind about the possibility of the new media not showing favourable results while budgets of the traditional and tried and tested media like PR and direct marketing were being chopped.

These include: understanding the dilemma of an organization's adoption of newer marketing tools as opposed to traditional marketing practices; evaluating the role of newer mediums like social media marketing and its long term and short term relevance; understanding the origins and development of social media marketing to grasp the full scale of its usefulness; and appreciating the complexities of measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing initiatives.

Teaching notes are available, please consult your librarian for access.

This paper seeks to identify the focus areas for marketing strategies targeting children.

The paper integrates and structures key insights from existing research on children's influence and roles in decision making and postulates a planning framework for marketing to children. Current marketing examples are cited to illustrate and support the framework.

The PPP planning framework developed here highlights what should be the direction and focus of marketing strategies, given the level of interest and influence of children in a particular brand/category.

The framework postulated is conceptual and has not been tested empirically.

The paper seeks to help marketers tailor their strategies to create maximum impact in the children's segment.

The paper presents an integrated perspective incorporating both the interest and the influence levels of children and develops a practical planning tool that can be leveraged by marketers.