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After significant growth in 2013 when Hostess Baking, a major competitor, declared bankruptcy, Carolina Foods, Inc.'s CEO, Paul Scarborough, wanted to develop a strategy to maintain that level of growth for his family's 80-year-old commercial bakery and its Duchess brand. Hostess brands were purchased by various other commercial bakeries, and the Twinkie, an iconic American snack cake, was back on the market. CFI's Duchess family brand of baked sweet goods included honey buns, donuts and pies manufactured in the original factory in Charlotte, NC, and distributed to markets across the USA, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Consumer tastes were changing: Snacking in general was increasing and consumers were increasingly focused on healthy, or at least healthier, snacks. Social media was changing the marketing landscape: Could honey buns, donuts and pies be sold on line? Baked sweet goods firms were steadily consolidating across the nation. At CFI, no new products had been introduced over the past twenty years, the company did not have any dedicated marketing personnel, and no marketing budget was allocated (a sales budget did exist). Students can apply numerous basic marketing principles and tools to analyze and choose a viable marketing strategy for CFI. What strategy should CFI pursue for growth? Students may consider new product development, branding, market penetration, and market development, including changes in distribution strategies.

In early 2010, Martin Grable, President of the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas (CBCC), was ready to move the first community blood center in North Carolina to a new level. In a strategic planning retreat, he asked the Board of Directors to evaluate seven strategic options and provide its expertise to assist in determining the future direction of the center: Increase provision of specialized blood services by 1. Pooling donors for sickle cell patients, 2. Offering cord blood storage, 3. Developing a therapeutic apheresis/transfusion service or 4. Become a Center that provides a reference lab for other blood centers in the region; 5. Improve blood inventory management software utilization for the region's current hospitals so that CBCC became their sole provider of blood; 6. Expand geographically serving more hospitals and patients; or 7. Re-double efforts to increase donations through additional collection sites, improved marketing, more attention to current donors, and so on. Although all of the alternatives were needed by the community, CBCC did not have unlimited resources. Further, health care reform loomed on the horizon. Clearly, to serve the community, CBCC needed to not only survive, but also thrive in the near term. Which of the alternatives would allow achievement of that goal for the newest FDA-licensed community blood center?