In November 2021, Procter & Gamble Company (P&G)’s announcement regarding the recall of more than a dozen of its Old Spice and Secret aerosol deodorants and sprays over elevated levels of benzene threatened to damage their brand value. Considering that product recalls come at a cost and involve various phases, P&G need to assess how the recall will impact their brand value. As the Cincinnati, Ohio, multinational consumer goods corporation progress with their recall, what can they do to sustain trust and confidence among their consumers and use the recall as an opportunity to solidify their brand image and superiority proposition and prevent an irreversible loss in their profits?
In June 2019, a newly promoted branch manager of a bank in Davao City, Philippines, must recommend to the bank’s head office who among six loan applicants will obtain loans from the branch. She has received applications for ₱24 million in loans but can only grant ₱18 million. The branch manager needs to (a) decide how much to loan and to which customers, (b) find ways to retain valuable customers and acquire new ones, and (c) consider new avenues to accommodate the increasing number of applicants at her branch. The case encourages students to apply customer relationship management concepts in deciding which borrowers to recommend and it offers an opportunity to discuss the role of marketers as trusted advisers to their clients.
The electric-vehicle market in India had never grown to its expected potential. Environmental uncertainties, structural challenges, lack of consumer awareness, and high costs all served as major deterrents to customer acceptance of electric cars. In 2014, Mahindra Reva launched the e2o, a completely revamped version of its previous electric vehicle, the Reva. Although the car was highly advanced and loaded with innovative features, sales remained stagnant. Should Mahindra Reva attempt to strengthen its market position or completely change its strategy and pursue other options, such as the hybrid-vehicle market.
Airtel mCommerce Services Limited was waiting for news from the Reserve Bank of India related to mobile banking regulations, as it was eager to unleash the massive potential and untapped opportunity in India regarding mobile commerce. Its service, Airtel Money, was struggling in India, but it had experienced a huge success in Africa. Though it had some initial success in India, it still had a long way to go to capture the Indian mobile market.
Within a few years of its establishment in 2010 by four young engineers in Pune, India, BlazeClan Technologies had prospered as a cloud solutions delivery company by providing true value to its customers in India and around the world. By 2014, though, the company was facing a long and slow sales cycle in the Indian market where businesses were hesitant to give up in-house data control to the cloud. Though the company invested a lot of marketing dollars in educating this potential segment through events, webinars, social media campaigns and talks at important industry forums, the customer base was not building and market penetration was not gaining ground. The momentum that was badly needed to push cloud adoption to the next level was also affected by external factors such as the availability of the Internet, regular service outages leading to network disruptions, resistance to change and unclear licensing issues. The company worked hard to reduce these fears, but it had a number of decisions to make to go forward.
Ideas Kitchen is a medium-sized kitchen maker that specializes in customizing the modular kitchen. As a result, it has built a loyal customer base. Business has been relatively good for Ideas Kitchen, and the company has been doing well financially. It has been capitalizing on the burgeoning growth of the modular kitchen market in India. However, several foreign players have begun entering the Indian market and almost all of them have been expanding at a rapid pace either through franchise models or by opening showrooms in a number of cities. The founder of Ideas Kitchen is in a dilemma about whether to stay a niche business or to take a bold step toward expanding product range and geographical reach.