Begins with a description of the elements of post-deregulation competition in the commercial airline industry. This should facilitate a discussion of the use of quantitative methods to support a broad range of tactical and strategic airline decisions. The principal thrust of the case is on revenue management. First, there is a description of the principal pricing concepts, followed by two examples of pricing decisions facing American. Next, there is a discussion of the basic yield management concepts and comments on the challenges in their implementation. Finally, there is a brief write-up on the structure and future of the revenue management organization.

Examines the decision by Pharma International on whether to launch an antimalarial product in Nigeria and, if so, how that should be implemented. Involves commercial, ethical, and policy considerations. Rich in situation assessment data, the case refers to criticism of pharmaceutical marketing practices in the Third World and CIBA-GEIGY's Servipharm initiative, one response to this problem.

Identifies the elements of marketing strategy and introduces frameworks for strategic marketing decisions. The frameworks deal with market definition and selection, positioning and differentiation, and market entry/exit decisions. Other topics discussed include selecting and articulating the marketing vision and values, anticipating and responding to competitors' marketing strategies, and determining the appropriate degrees of flexibility and focus in marketing strategy formulation.

Multinational company needs an improved cost system to determine the profitability of individual customer orders. Its strategy is to have significant sales and profitability growth without adding additional administrative and support people. The new cost system assesses a charge to each customer order received and an additional surcharge if the item ordered is not normally stocked. The goal is to direct sales resources to the most profitable customers: those who buy standard products in large predictable quantities with minimal demands on technical resources.

Describes actions taken by senior management of Kanthal after seeing the results of the newly installed account management system. Designed as a class handout. A rewritten version of an earlier case by the same author.

Northwest Airlines is evaluating improvements to its revenue management system. This system executes a program of economic price discrimination under which the airline attempts to control the conditions on its discount fare offerings. Students must evaluate the effect of deregulation on the economics of the airline industry, and weigh the importance of aggressive asset management. They must then evaluate price discrimination as a means for airlines to maximize the profit contribution from the fixed inventory of seats on each flight. A secondary issue for the case (though it is crucial for airlines) is the importance of the proposed technology to Northwest's competitive position in the industry.

This case involves the evaluation of a complex financing for Sallie Mae. The financing is a reverse PERL, which is a foreign-currency issue. Sallie Mae must consider the pricing of the issue as well as the effectiveness of the proposed hedging arrangement.

The AUCNET system links buyers and sellers in the wholesale used car market in Japan. Video images delivered via videodisk or satellite along with an inspector's opinion and objective character based data are used to conduct a realtime auction over computers and telecommunications links. Over 1,000 cars are sold in a once-weekly auction. The company is considering exporting the technology to the United States. The following issues are raised: 1) What are the characteristics of markets which are suitable for this technology? 2) What are the important management issues with respect to implementation and operation of such an Electronic Market Access Forum? 3) What is the impact on market structure? and 4) What issues are raised in trying to move the technology to new markets?

Explores the "new" theories of international trade--also called strategic trade policy--which were developed in the 1980s. Examines why economists and policy makers thought new approaches were necessary to explain international trade, the contributions of industrial organization to these theories, and the implications of these theories for firm strategies and government policies.

Colonial Homes supplies a complete raw materials package to build entire homes. The price of the package is guaranteed at the signing of the sales contract, while delivery (and payment) are not effected for up to six months. In an effort to reduce its exposure to fluctuating lumber prices, Colonial sources the package (mostly lumber) through the only lumber yard that also offers a six-month price guarantee. The lumber yard recently raised its prices, prompting Colonial to look elsewhere (with no or lesser fixed price guarantees).

An introductory note for MBA students on the nature of marketing and topics encountered in its study. Defines the topic then breaks marketing into two major conceptual pieces--the tools, tasks and variables of the marketer, and the marketing process. In the tools piece, promotion (advertising and selling primarily), pricing, distribution, and product policy are considered. In the processes one, situation analysis, strategy formulation, planning, organizing, budgeting, marketing implementation, and marketing performance analysis are introduced. The intent is to give the beginning MBA student an overview of both the discipline and the major topics involved in its study. The organization proposed captures in large measure the design of the First Year Marketing course at the Harvard Business School as well as the organization of the book Marketing Management by the authors of this note.

Introduces learning by the case method, with application to marketing learning. Places case learning in the stream of experiential learning and explains the advantages and disadvantages of experiential learning methods. Turning to case learning specifically, the note discusses the nature of cases, their construction using a physician-patient analogy, why companies cooperate with case writers, how cases are analyzed, the role of the case teacher, and the beneficial effects of successful case study. Concludes with some preparation guidelines for students and instructors and gives sources for further reading.

Picks up where National Demographics & Lifestyles (A) left off, describing the company's financing and very successful performance through 1987. At this point, the founders and venture backers face some difficult choices around how and when to harvest the value they have created. Options include a public offering or sale of the company.

U.S. manufacturers spend, on average, 56 cents of every sales dollar on purchased goods. They need fewer, smarter suppliers whom they can turn into production partners. At companies such as Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, and Ford buyers put together interfunctional teams of engineers, quality specialists, and purchasing agents to evaluate suppliers. When negotiating price, buyers need as much information as possible about production costs. However, they must not abuse this access by shaving suppliers' margins to the bone.

Manufacturers that thrive into the next generation will compete by bundling services with products. The factory will be the hub of their efforts to get and hold customers. Some companies are already exploiting their factories' service potentials. Upstream activities like marketing, design, and quality, are folding into downstream activities like sales, repair, and aftersales support.

To gain an edge in service marketing, first one must build a strategy. That strategy must limit itself operationally and in scope or one ends up with service too diffused and ineffective. Customers can be classified in many ways; two obvious ways are the cost and convenience of serving a particular group. Good service meets or exceeds customers' expectations. A service provider can do a lot to position itself so that it can manage these expectations.

The Salvation Army's effectiveness is characteristic of the best nonprofit organizations; in motivating knowledge workers and raising their productivity they are pioneers. In successful nonprofit enterprises amateurs are being replaced with unpaid staff members, many of whom are managers and professionals in their for-pay jobs. They volunteer because they believe in the mission; they stay because they are given responsibility for meaningful tasks, held accountable for their performance and rewarded with training and the chance to take on more demanding assignments.

Old methods of decision making, such as incrementalism and "rational" decision making don't meet the needs of a world with too much information and too little time. A new model allows one to make decisions with partial information and to adapt to new information as it becomes available. Adaptive or "humble" decision making involves two sets of judgments: broad, basic choices about an organization's goals and policies; and small, experimental decisions based on in-depth examination of a focused subset of facts and choices. Managers can use humble decision making to increase the flexibility and adaptability of their decisions.

A customer satisfaction guarantee is meaningless if customers must jump through hoops whenever they complain. To satisfy them, it is necessary to make immediate amends--by giving employees both the obligation and the authority to honor a guarantee on their own and on the spot. In restaurants this may mean giving away drinks and food or picking up a check. Although this initially incurs high costs, each time something is given away a problem that can be fixed is identified. Finding and correcting the ultimate cause of each system failure leads to fewer complaints, higher sales, and lower costs.

Executives who don't usually interview candidates for management positions can benefit from first writing a job description specific enough to cover the position's details but general enough to cover its managerial aspects. This exercise forms the basis of a written interview guide which helps the interviewer elicit the most pertinent and useful information in each interview. Focusing on applicants' past performance and framing questions in a way that calls for revealing answers is the best approach. Revelations about past behavior are in any case the best indicator of future performance.