The specific case and case study questions posted by the student were:
Gatorade is one of the best known marketers in the world. As the producer of sports drinks and one of the first companies to make widespread use of athletes to endorse its products, Gatorade is best known for its creative television commercials. However, Gatorade also recognizes the impact of social media on its brand and has done more than most brands to put that in the center of its marketing efforts. Enter the Gatorade Mission Control Center in Chicago. This room sits literally in the middle of the marketing department and can be considered a war room for monitoring the brand's performance using real-time social media. The room features monitors that tap into services like Radian6, which turns data into visual meaning. For example, Gatorade's marketing team can use the data from Twitter to track sentiment about the brand, its competitors and its athlete partners. Gatorade can also monitor similar information found on blogs and social networks in order to portray a complete brand picture. Senior Marketing Director, Consumer & Shopper Engagement, Carla Hassan, stated that Mission Control has been used to develop its "Gatorade has evolved" campaign. They also use this information for more conventional tactics such as optimizing landing pages and increasing consumer engagement.
Question 1. Why do you think having the Mission Control Center central to the marketing department is important to Gatorade?
Question 2. Why do you think social media is so important to Gatorade? Do you think it deserves this placement within the marketing mix?
Question 3. Do you think that social media will be this important to most brands in the near future? Why or why not?