<b>All royalties from the adoption of this case will be donated to Birchway Niagara. </b><br><br>In March 2023, Women’s Place of South Niagara (Canada), an organization focused on ending abuse and intimate partner violence, rebranded as Birchway Niagara, to better represent what Birchway offered: it was not only a place for women. However, Jennifer Gauthier, its executive director, found herself in the fall of 2023 reflecting on the mixed success of the rebrand. The problem, according to Gauthier, was that “our communication was not as bold as it needed to be to really get the message out there.” Should she back away from the new brand and focus on the organization's core mission or go all-in on the new brand? Was a solution using both goals within one marketing campaign the right way forward? <br><br>
<p align="justify">Natalie Jung, amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, transformed her newfound passion for handcrafted jewelry into Radiant Sun Shop (RSS), a thriving Etsy business with 3,100 transactions as of February 2023. Initially launched during her virtual undergraduate studies, RSS flourished with her dedicated time. As Jung approached the end of her master’s degree and subsequent graduation in April 2023, uncertainty loomed regarding the future trajectory of her business. Contemplating the role of RSS in her post-graduation life, Jung grappled with pivotal entrepreneurial questions, unsure of where to commence her introspection. Balancing academic milestones and entrepreneurial aspirations, Jung embarked on a critical self-examination to navigate the evolving dynamics of Radiant Sun Shop in her life ahead.
Natalie Jung, amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, transformed her newfound passion for handcrafted jewelry into Radiant Sun Shop (RSS), a thriving Etsy business with 3,100 transactions as of February 2023. Initially launched during her virtual undergraduate studies, RSS flourished with her dedicated time. As Jung approached the end of her master's degree and subsequent graduation in April 2023, uncertainty loomed regarding the future trajectory of her business. Contemplating the role of RSS in her post-graduation life, Jung grappled with pivotal entrepreneurial questions, unsure of where to commence her introspection. Balancing academic milestones and entrepreneurial aspirations, Jung embarked on a critical self-examination to navigate the evolving dynamics of Radiant Sun Shop in her life ahead.
Struggling to maintain a work-life balance after the birth of her second son in 2011, Dalia Barsoum left her executive position in Wealth Management at the Bank of Montreal to start her own business. She founded Streetwise Mortgages, an independent mortgage brokerage that targeted customers interested in purchasing investment properties. Customers were offered hours of free consultations on building wealth through real estate and had access to Barsoum's network of support. The value of these consultations to customers caused many clients to book meetings, consuming time and resources without generating a penny in revenue for Streetwise. By August 2020, Barsoum felt overwhelmed by the number of requests; she had only so many hours for consultations and needed to come up with a solution. She was considering charging a refundable fee for consultation meetings to discourage less-serious customers from booking one. Alternatively, she liked the idea of a screening tool, such as a questionnaire that determined customers' needs, resources, and goals to tailor the advice and services better.
Created in 2015, BEWOOD was a sustainable fashion brand start-up in Lille, France that sold a range of products with wood as their primary component. The company's best-selling product was a wooden bow tie named "Mr. Divergent." In March 2018, Laury Bonjean, founder and owner of BEWOOD, had four options for growth available to her and had to decide which of these to act on and, most importantly, how to price them. She was considering offering two new products (a Father's Day box set and a subscription box) and had two new channel opportunities (a trendy shop wanted to sell her products and a pop-up store had invited her to participate). While these began as product and distribution decisions, Bonjean felt that pricing formed a huge part of the strategizing. Using qualitative and quantitative information she needed to decide how to proceed and needed to do so very soon.
In late 2018, the founder and owner of Pupadise, Inc., a pet care business in Canada, was nearing her graduation from university and needed to decide what to do with the business she had built in her undergraduate years. Pupadise cared for clients’ pets when the pet owners could not; its services primarily consisted of live-in and drop-in pet care. The owner was considering selling the business, but was concerned that the sale price would be low because her business had no traditional assets. Inspired by a guest speaker in her pricing class, she realized that her client list of 300 pet owners had value, but wondered how to price it. She had a meeting scheduled with a prospective buyer and wanted to prepare. Should she sell her business, and if so, for how much?
In late 2018, the founder and owner of Pupadise, Inc., a pet care business in Canada, was nearing her graduation from university and needed to decide what to do with the business she had built in her undergraduate years. Pupadise cared for clients' pets when the pet owners could not; its services primarily consisted of live-in and drop-in pet care. The owner was considering selling the business, but was concerned that the sale price would be low because her business had no traditional assets. Inspired by a guest speaker in her pricing class, she realized that her client list of 300 pet owners had value, but wondered how to price it. She had a meeting scheduled with a prospective buyer and wanted to prepare. Should she sell her business, and if so, for how much?
Receiver Coffee (Receiver), a Prince Edward Island-based coffee roaster and café, had found success since opening in 2012. Co-owner Colleen MacKay and her partners were trying to grow the wholesale side of the business, selling high-end coffee to cafés, restaurants, and other businesses outside of their usual trading area, with a focus on Ontario and Quebec customers. Sales growth of wholesale coffee had been limited, despite the overall success of the brand in its home region. Receiver had a clear identity as a high-quality local coffee roaster, a well-defined set of marketing tactics including price and promotion, and ambitious growth goals. Now in 2018, the question for MacKay was how to go about finding a market that could take Receiver to the next level.
AlloVoisins, a web platform founded in 2013, had reached its 2018 enrolment goals seven months ahead of schedule. Because of a large new competitor entering the market, Edouard Dumortier, CEO, was evaluating a list of partners for his planned Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C) strategy. These partnerships aimed to drive further enrolment. AlloVoisins allowed people within communities to post needs (e.g. babysitting, borrowing tools, house checking, etc.) for other members to fulfill for a mutually agreed upon fee. The company had previously used paid media but did not find that such channels resulted in the enrolment figures Dumortier believed he needed to compete. This type of advertising and promotion also required a lot of cash, which as a start-up AlloVoisins did not have. Therefore Dumortier opted for B2B2C strategies, which required less cash on hand. AlloVoisins was considering partnering with other businesses and selling to them, or getting them to promote his company, rather than communicating directly with customers. The question, though, involved selecting partners from a list he came up with after some research to best achieve his goals. In order to maximize AlloVoisins' opportunities, partners would need to provide access to the largest database of customers possible but also fit well with the value offered by AlloVoisins.
In August 2016, Aron West, owner and creative director of board game publisher Elzra, was deciding whether or not to part ways with Impressions, his distributor. West had a hit product with his game Catacombs and its spinoff games and had recently concluded a very successful crowdfunding campaign. West was starting to believe that he was able to move on from Impressions, which specialized in small publishers with few products. Impressions acted as an extra layer of distribution between major distributors and small companies that may not have been worth the larger distributors' time. For their services, Impressions took 18% of the end price of the product, roughly equal to Elzra's share. The decision was also relevant because Elzra and Aron West had experienced some difficulty with which ales Impressions had a legitimate claim to, and the lack of flexibility exhibited by Impressions' president, Aldo Ghiozzi. West had been preparing for life after Impressions by training his operations manager to handle some of the distribution tasks, forging relationships with larger distributors, and developing company infrastructure. On one hand, Impressions was demanding, expensive, and Elzra may have outgrown it. On the other hand, working with Impressions, according to West, made everything easy.
In October 2014 Bruce Miller, Chief Marketing and Development Officer and co-owner for The WORKS Gourmet Burger Bistro was considering changes to the structure, level, and presentation of his restaurants' prices. The WORKS was the premiere full-service burger restaurant chain in Ontario and had been the fastest growing full-service restaurant business in Canada in 2013, posting 50% year-over-year growth. In the four years Miller and his partners had owned The WORKS they expanded from five locations in one city to 26 locations across Canada. During that time, however, Miller had not altered prices in any significant way and was facing increasing costs of beef as well as a lack of clarity amongst his target segment as to what The WORKS was and what it offered.
In February 2016, the president of the Union Pearson Express was being pressured to lower the fare price. The rail link between Union Station in downtown Toronto and the Toronto Pearson International Airport had only been running for eight months, but ridership was well below targets. On average, the train ran at only 10 per cent of capacity, and current revenue only covered 35 per cent of operating costs. The president and her team had set the one-way fare price at CA$27.50 to reflect the high-value positioning of the train. However, this price had received a great deal of criticism. The president had attempted to combat the criticism both in the press and with marketing actions, blaming entrenched consumer behaviours regarding travel. She also offered discounts and promotions to boost ridership, which ultimately failed. Now she had to decide whether to lower fares and how to market the Union Pearson Express.
In February 2016, the president of the Union Pearson Express was being pressured to lower the fare price. The rail link between Union Station in downtown Toronto and the Toronto Pearson International Airport had only been running for eight months, but ridership was well below targets. On average, the train ran at only 10 per cent of capacity, and current revenue only covered 35 per cent of operating costs. The president and her team had set the one-way fare price at CA$27.50 to reflect the high-value positioning of the train. However, this price had received a great deal of criticism. The president had attempted to combat the criticism both in the press and with marketing actions, blaming entrenched consumer behaviours regarding travel. She also offered discounts and promotions to boost ridership, which ultimately failed. Now she had to decide whether to lower fares and how to market the Union Pearson Express.
John McCulloch takes a job as assistant general manager at a meat packing plant. After a short time in the job, he discovers it was nothing like he expected, worker safety is constantly compromised, the safety of the public from consuming tainted food is compromised and everything is subordinated to the production line's constant movement. He must decide whether or not he will stay with the company.
Hayward & Guzman researches and develops contact lens products and has recently developed a new disposable contact lens. Two segments with different price sensitivity have been identified. In order to reach these segments, the products will need to be packaged and sold differently. A marketing representative for Hayward & Guzman must develop a marketing mix for the two segments and determine pricing for each product.