Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new "mixed play" product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in the digital world. The technology underlying the product was an NFC chip embedded in the physical Hot Wheels die-cast car that could be scanned to add a digital version of the car into a virtual domain, where users could see their stats and play video games with the car. The goal for the new mixed play experience was to extend the age of the Hot Wheels customer, as children were observed to be moving on from physical toys to digital play at a younger and younger age. The mixed play concept had received unprecedented investment and support, since it represented a whole new approach to play that could set the stage for the future of Hot Wheels and other Mattel brands. In early 2019, the product development phase was nearly complete and plans were being set for the launch. Key decisions needed to be made around positioning, naming, pricing, channel, promotion, and launch timing. Given the high expectations for the innovative mixed play platform, it was critical to get these go-to-market decisions right.

In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the number one selling toy in the world (by unit volume), however, play patterns among children were rapidly changing and children were moving on from physical toys to digital play at a younger and younger age. Hot Wheels needed to determine how to respond. One option considered was the development of a new "mixed-play" product that blended physical and digital play. While the mixed play idea was still at an early conceptual stage, it would likely involve embedding a chip into the Hot Wheels die-cast car, turning it into a "smart car" with its own unique identification. Users could play with the smart car in the physical world and on an app, thus offering an opportunity to also appeal to Hot Wheels consumers who were intrigued by digital play. Hot Wheels had made a number of forays into the digital space over the years, through licensing the brand to app and game developers and developing toys with some digital elements. The licensing strategy was low risk, low reward, and Mattel's own digital development had produced varied results, creating a culture hesitant to take big risks in the digital space. Down knew that a mixed play innovation would require a significant investment in time and resources. However, Hot Wheels parent company, Mattel Inc. had seen revenues and operating income drop for the past three years. It was unclear if Mattel's new CEO, Margo Georgiadis, would be supportive of the mixed play direction as the cornerstone of Hot Wheels' growth plan.

In 2016, Xavier Lopez Ancona, president and co-founder of KidZania-a Mexican company with international success in developing and operating theme parks where children could play as grown-ups and pretend to be adults assuming the role of countless professions-needed to decide how to continue to differentiate the brand and grow revenue in the very competitive and dynamic entertainment market. Around the world, the revolutionary and innovative edu-tainment concept developed by KidZania was the most copied. Despite the growth, KidZania corporate revenues began to stagnate in 2012 because of the depreciation of the Mexican currency. Four alternatives were being considered: Growth in number of current parks to continue building scale as a defensive strategy, developing smaller park formats to target cities where the current format was not sustainable, developing an interactive platform that could bring together the growing digital market and the role-playing experiential learning, or transforming the company into a content development enterprise. Xavier's team needed to recommend the best alternative to pursue to the Board of Directors.

In mid-2005, Leo Piccioli took over as Officenet Staples (ON) General Manager knowing full well that his key challenge lay in driving ON to reach Staples' profitability requirements. He was aware that one of the reasons for ON's low profitability rested with the company's sales force. Because ON's original competitive advantage had faded and sales reps were free to set the prices, reps often granted significant discounts to their customers to win the business. Typically, 40 percent of the items in a purchase order were priced below their regular prices. In a highly competitive market and with an increasingly commoditized offering, Piccioli needed to revise the company's pricing policy. Should ON change the pricing delegation practices that were so deeply embedded in its organizational culture? If so, what kind of pricing policy should ON pursue to improve its profitability while keeping its sales reps motivated? With an industry that primarily used price (rather than non-price) competition, what could ON's management do? This case is also available in Portuguese and Spanish