In 2021, the chief executive officer of Cocoa Luxury SA moved back to Switzerland and founded his premium chocolate brand, SwissOne, after spending two decades in Australia manufacturing confectionery products. Growing up in Bern, Switzerland—the location of the original Toblerone factory—had inspired his unique chocolate recipe and the first three chocolate bars he intended to sell. In January 2022, once he had finished his prototypes, to finalize his marketing plan, the CEO had to consider three questions: First, what was his overall marketing strategy? Second, what was the Swiss business environment like, and how competitive was the Swiss chocolate industry? And third, how could he best position his SwissOne brand, and what should the marketing mix look like?
In 2017, True Fruits, a German smoothie company, was operating in three European markets. The company had developed flash pasteurization, which was an efficient and gentle production process that made their product one of the highest quality smoothies in the world. The company successfully exported its product to premium Austrian and Swiss supermarkets, and was planning further expansion within Europe. True Fruits had strong brand loyalty, and a noteworthy, healthy lifestyle-oriented product. True Fruits' owners were convinced that entering other European markets would fuel the company’s growth.
In 2017, the German company mymuesli GmbH (mymuesli) was operating in six European countries. Having begun to successfully distribute its customizable organic breakfast cereals online, mymuesli built on its growing popularity by opening stores in various cities across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden, where the most popular versions of the product were sold. The relatively young company differentiated itself with its customizable, premium organic products, and relied on its strengths to adapt to lifestyle and health trends. After a conversation in early 2017 with fellow hotel guests hailing from different European countries, the three founders of mymuesli were convinced that entering new countries might be a promising option for the company’s future growth. They began to analyze the maturing industry and its impacts on the company's growth plans.
Paillasse International SA was a Swiss-based bread company operating in 15 European markets as of 2016. The company had invented a proprietary, patented process for producing bread concentrate that was used to make high quality, healthy breads. The company was successfully using licensing agreements for the bread concentrate with bakeries throughout the European markets; the latest agreement was with a retailer in Spain. The chief executive officer had just shared the good news with the company owner. The conversation then turned to questions concerning the future growth of the company. Where should it expand next? What impact would the maturing industry have on the company’s growth plans? How could the company maintain its competitive position in the market?
In 2005, Victorinox, the original producer of the Swiss Army Knife, acquired Wenger, including the fragrance label “Swiss Army Fragrance.” The acquisition of Wenger allowed Victorinox to become the only producer of the famous Swiss Army Knife as well as the key player in Swiss Army watches. Victorinox’s head of marketing was asked to design a business strategy that would successfully allow the company to enter the fragrance industry. How should Victorinox diversify into the fragrance business? Should it aim to transfer its existing brand attributes to fragrance products? Or should it adopt a strategy that would include the use of another brand to market the perfumes? The head of marketing had to present a plan to the CEO of Victorinox on how best to brand and position the product, and how to compete in the fragrance industry.