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In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of twenty of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. Under the terms of the Nestlé acquisition, each of the purchased confectionery brands was permitted to use the Nestlé parent brand name for one year after the close of the sale. After that time, the Nestlé Crunch Bar would be rebranded with the Ferrara parent brand (i.e., Ferrara Crunch Bar). As the Nestlé Crunch Bar brand transitioned to its new owners, it was time for some serious brand analysis to assess the brand equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar and plot a course for its future growth. How strong/weak was the brand? What were its sources of brand equity that could be leveraged in brand storytelling? Which types of messages might attract new consumers to the brand and what might work to cause infrequent users to purchase more often? Did the product itself need to be changed? Were there brand extension possibilities? Luckily, an old consumer research study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar conducted by Professor Gerald Zaltman was found on the shelves at Harvard Business School. The study used an innovative market research methodology developed by Professor Zaltman, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), which had proven to be useful to brand managers hoping to better assess and understand their brands. The research methodology and raw data from Professor Zaltman's ZMET study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar are presented in the case tools to help students assess and understand the brand equity of the Nestlé Crunch Bar and map its future strategic course.

This case traces why the $1 billion women's clothing retailer decided to attract younger customers, what went wrong, and the actions taken to recover. By the end of 1999, the company has reestablished itself and faces several growth opportunities and must decide on the best course of action.

Divisional management must decide whether to support a leveraged buyout by a private equity group and, if so, what percent of ownership should go to the various partners involved. The appropriateness of the financing structure and the value of the equity depend on the sustainability of the turnaround effected less than one year earlier.

Describes the creation and financing of Officenet, an office supply distributor in Argentina. The company serves the business-to-business market through a catalog (combined with phone orders) and also through an Internet-based catalog. Officenet is a pioneer in both catalog and Internet channels. While the company is possibly an acquisition target for one of the large U.S.-based office supply distributors, the entrepreneurs have to do a lot of work before they can realize an exit. They have to decide in which direction to grow the company and how to finance this growth. Specifically, a commercial paper program seems feasible in the near future, and the entrepreneurs have to decide on its size.

Provides guidelines for how to successfully enter a new senior management position. Identifies key traps into which new leaders fall and provides a framework for organizing to succeed in the first few months on the job.

Presents results of an Internet-voting promotion used to guide selection of a brand name for a new clothing firm extension.

Supplements the (A) case.

Six-party negotiation of land use and development.

Six-party negotiation of land use and development.

Six-party negotiation of land use and development.

Six-party negotiation of land use and development.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 100044

Harvard Business School's (HBS) California Research Center, a three-year experiment initiated in July 1997 to facilitate research, case-writing, and course development centered in the Silicon Valley Region, has been a "phenomenal success." In June 1999, HBS Dean Kim Clark and faculty are contemplating whether to modify or retain the current mission and scope of the California Research Center.

CitySoft is a very small software developer that is grappling with issues of cost measurement and management.

The Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network needed to gain a better understanding of its unit-of-service costs, which had been rising at a rate of 10% per year. The network's step-down costing system gave only aggregate costing information, and there was some concern that it might be inaccurately representing the true cost of the intern and resident program, the interpretive services department, and the use of nurse practitioners. So the Primary Care Unit (PCU) initiated a pilot activity-based costing program. The case provides detailed exhibits on the methods of allocating costs using activity-based drivers.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 100054

Spreadsheet supplement for case 700-047.

The case 'Hitting the Wall: Nike and International Labor Practices' is set in the mid-1990s, when Nike, one of the world's most successful footwear companies, is hit by a spate of alarmingly bad publicity. After years of high-profile media attention as the company that can "just do it," Nike is suddenly being portrayed as a firm that relies on low-cost, exploited labor in its overseas plants. Nike officials vigorously deny the charges, claiming that Nike has no control over the independent contractors who manufacture Nike shoes. But the activists will not retreat. Eventually, Nike must learn to deal with the activists' claims and with the tangle of conflicting data that surrounds the concept of a "fair" or "living" wage.

By the fall of 1999, StarMedia had sprinted to a sizable lead in the race to acquire Latin American Internet users. Its pan-regional, horizontal portal was the first to target Spanish- and Portuguese-language speakers on the Internet, registering 1.2 billion page views in the third quarter of 1999. Thirty-three-year-old StarMedia co-founder Fernando Espuelas was the toast of "Silicon Alley" and a recognized hero throughout Latin America. A picture of him on the cover of Internet World magazine--ripping his shirt open to show the StarMedia logo, like Superman, summed up the spirit of the company. But each day brought an announcement of a new initiative by a heavyweight nemesis. To maintain its lead, StarMedia raised and spent money at a frenetic pace, promoting its brand, acquiring companies, and launching new Web initiatives. Losses for 1999 were projected to be $90 million on revenues of $19 million, a burn rate made sustainable by private and public financing rounds that had netted the company half a billion dollars since its 1996 inception. By December 1999, StarMedia had evolved from a pure Web company to an integrated media company that stretched into the ISP, mobile phone, and broadband production businesses with more than 700 employees in 12 countries. As the new millennium dawned, the major question facing StarMedia's executive team was how to best leverage the company's infrastructure to maintain and extend its traffic leadership--and to monetize its audience--in an environment that was becoming both more competitive and more sophisticated. Includes color exhibits.

Kate Spade's founders try to finance and grow their luxury handbag and accessories business. As the case ends, the founding team must decide among four potential strategic partners offering to purchase different shares of Kate Spade at various valuations. Includes color exhibits.