It is February 2011 and Brian France, CEO of NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), is facing a crisis. In the last five years, attendance at weekend NASCAR races has fallen 22 percent and television viewership has declined 30 percent. Key marketing sponsors have recently left the sport. At the same time, the U.S. economy has only begun to recover from an economic recession that has had an adverse impact on the sport of auto racing as a whole. Some leaders within NASCAR counseled Brian that these trends in attendance, viewership, and sponsorship stemmed from the recession and that NASCAR should continue with business as usual. But Brian sensed that the industry needed fundamental change and that he, as CEO of NASCAR, was the one that must lead this change. With Brian at the helm, NASCAR embarked on an unprecedented amount of qualitative and quantitative research to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the entire industry. At the center of this research was the NASCAR consumer. Highly engaged, enthusiastic consumers were at the heart of an industry business model that had been successful for decades. But in 2011, marketing within all of NASCAR needed to transform, as it was clear that consumers were disengaging with the sport. As the consumer research results unfold, Brian and leaders within NASCAR must make tough choices and set priorities. The case focuses on four key areas in which decisions need to be made by NASCAR leadership: digital marketing and social media, targeting the next-generation NASCAR consumer, enhancing the star power of NASCAR drivers, and enhancing the consumer experience at NASCAR events. Focus group videos offer students a customer-centric deep-dive into these challenges. At its heart, this is a case about great leadership and transforming marketing throughout an entire industry. A wrap-up video from CEO Brian France summarizes how NASCAR executives tackled the difficult questions posed in the case.
Brazilian medical-devices maker Bosi e Faora has seen its prices decline as its sales reps scramble to sign up clinics by offering steep discounts. The company aims to turn things around with a "solutions" strategy that, along with medical equipment, offers ideas and training to health care providers that want to improve patients' overall health, not just purchase hardware. When one semirural but influential customer resists the upsell at a high-stakes meeting, blood pressures flare and a 15-year business relationship is on the line. This fictional case study is written by Eric T. Anderson and features expert commentary from David Mok, of DePuy Synthes Spine (a Johnson & Johnson company), and Nandakumar Jairam, MD, of Columbia Asia Hospitals.
Brazilian medical-devices maker Bosi e Faora has seen its prices decline as its sales reps scramble to sign up clinics by offering steep discounts. The company aims to turn things around with a "solutions" strategy that, along with medical equipment, offers ideas and training to health care providers that want to improve patients' overall health, not just purchase hardware. When one semirural but influential customer resists the upsell at a high-stakes meeting, blood pressures flare and a 15-year business relationship is on the line. This fictional case study is written by Eric T. Anderson and features expert commentary from David Mok, of DePuy Synthes Spine (a Johnson & Johnson company), and Nandakumar Jairam, MD, of Columbia Asia Hospitals.
Brazilian medical-devices maker Bosi e Faora has seen its prices decline as its sales reps scramble to sign up clinics by offering steep discounts. The company aims to turn things around with a "solutions" strategy that, along with medical equipment, offers ideas and training to health care providers that want to improve patients' overall health, not just purchase hardware. When one semirural but influential customer resists the upsell at a high-stakes meeting, blood pressures flare and a 15-year business relationship is on the line. This fictional case study is written by Eric T. Anderson and features expert commentary from David Mok, of DePuy Synthes Spine (a Johnson & Johnson company), and Nandakumar Jairam, MD, of Columbia Asia Hospitals.
Robert Davidson, pricing manager for Tupelo Medical, was concerned about the variability in price paid for its top-selling product, the Micron 8 Series blood pressure monitoring system. Using historical transaction data, Davidson must determine the appropriate price floor. Setting a price too high risked the loss of a large number of customers, putting the company at substantial risk due to the importance of the product. Setting a price too low would impact Davidson's ability to meet the stated objective of increasing margins by 3 percent. He wondered what the optimal price floor would be and what the expected profits would be for that new price floor. Additionally, the company's business varied considerably by geographic region, account size and account type. As a result, he needed to consider whether it made sense to set a single price floor or whether he could improve profits by allowing some variability in the price floor by customer segment.
From 2002 to 2011, coffee-machine manufacturer Keurig Incorporated had grown from a privately held company with just over $20 million in revenues and a plan to enter the single serve coffee arena for home consumers, to a wholly owned subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., a publicly traded company with net revenues of $1.36 billion and a market capitalization of between $8 and $9 billion. In 2003 Keurig had introduced its first At Home brewer. Now, approximately 25 percent of all coffee makers sold in the United States were Keurig-branded machines, and Keurig was recognized as among the leaders in the marketplace. The company had just concluded agreements with both Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks that would make these retailers' coffee available for use with Keurig's specialized brewing system. The company faced far different challenges than when it was a small, unknown marketplace entrant. John Whoriskey, vice president and general manager of Keurig's At Home division, had to consider the impact that impending expiration of key technology patents and the perceived environmental impact of the K-Cup® portion packs would have on the company's growth. Whoriskey also wondered what Keurig's growth potential was, and how the new arrangements with Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts could be leveraged to achieve it.
The power of analytics in decision making is well understood, but few companies have what it takes to successfully implement a complex analytics program. Most firms will get greater value from learning to do something simpler: basic business experiments. Managers need to become adept at routinely using techniques employed by scientists and medical researchers. Specifically, they need to embrace the "test and learn" approach: Take one action with one group of customers, a different action (or no action at all) with a control group of customers, and then compare the results. The feedback from even a handful of experiments can yield immediate and dramatic improvements. In this article, the authors provide a step-by-step guide to conducting business experiments. They look at organizational obstacles to success and outline seven rules to follow.
In February 2003, President and CEO Nick Lazaris faces critical decisions on Keurig's launch of a new consumer coffee brewing system. Keurig has successfully sold single-cup brewing systems through commercial distribution channels and is now expanding to the lucrative consumer segment. However, a meeting with key strategic partners six months prior to launch raised questions about the product design. This prompted the Keurig management team to revisit its decisions on product design, pricing, and the marketing plan. With six months to launch, what should the company do?