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Supplement to 519034.

Rosslyn Resource identifies exploration targets (potential mineral deposits) in the mining industry and advances them until the project can be monetized, usually through sale to a larger mining company, in return for an upfront fee and a royalty on future revenues. Rosslyn has invested heavily in developing proprietary, innovative equipment and geological data sets that would make exploration cheaper and faster. Rosslyn must decide what to do with the Two Rivers site, for which a preliminary study shows favorable results. Rosslyn could follow its standard approach and sell Two Rivers, or it could move further down the value chain by developing an operational mine at the site (which would be a first for Rosslyn). The potential financial reward for doing so would be far higher, but this option entails higher risk and capital expenditures than Rosslyn is used to. This case can be used in advanced undergraduate, MBA, or executive-level courses.

CNS Worldwide has long been the market share leader in the IaaS cloud server market, yet it has remained unprofitable for years. Industry capacity utilization is low, and prices have declined over 70% over the last decade. CNS is considering withdrawing from the market if it cannot find a way to increase prices. As a large public bid is about to be held, CNS must decide whether to bid and, if so, at what price. This case is intended for use an introductory marketing management course that involves an in-depth analysis of pricing. It can also be used in courses on pricing, business-to-business (B2B) sales, or competitive strategy. The case introduces students to specialized pricing mechanisms, oligopolistic markets, the challenges of avoiding a price war, the concept of price leadership, and the possible effects of a firm taking this role, including what it needs to do to succeed. There is a direct analogy to the airline industry that can be discussed during the last part of the class.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 917531.

"A Warby Parker of mattresses? Somebody is going to do it. Why not us?" This was the topic of a conversation begun in spring 2013 among Gabe Flateman, Philip Krim, Neil Parikh, and T. Luke Sherwin. The four met as members of a New York City venture accelerator program. All admired Warby Parker's success in delivering on the promise of "designer eyewear at revolutionary prices," via a direct-to-consumer sales model. "Big Mattress," their term for the current manufacturer / retailer system, featured not only high prices, but also, as they would describe to many in the days ahead, "one of the worst buying experiences in the world."

In 1995, before people "googled" or "yelped," Angela Hicks (HBS, 2000) was establishing her Angie's List as a pioneer in the accumulation and dissemination of consumer rating information. Hicks focused on the home repair and maintenance market and, as she put it, "particularly on high cost of failure situations where good information on potential service providers is correspondingly of high value." Angie's List had a paid subscription model as it charged "members" for access to the information they collectively provided on service providers. More recently, companies such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google have started offering free access to their reviews while relying totally on site advertising and service provider fees for their revenues. In 2015, Angie's List collected close to $68 million in membership fees. In January 2016, with recent declines in the growth rate of member numbers, Angie's List has to decide if it was time to drop the "paid subscription for all" model and introduce a free version of its service to its product line.

This case picks up from the events in Planters Nuts and describes how the new management team for Planters turned the brand around in 2013 by implementing a new brand positioning accompanied by a multimillion dollar marketing campaign.

In 2012 Planters had about $1 billion in U.S. annual revenues, but had experienced declining unit sales and household penetration over the past six years. The snack nuts category was growing overall, but household spending was shifting away from peanuts, cashews, and mixed nuts-Planters' core business-to almonds and pistachios. A new brand management team for Planters had to develop a plan to reinvigorate the still largest brand in the category, and specifically to decide whether to focus on rebuilding its traditional product categories or on attempting to capitalize on the newer nut categories. Central to this process were questions of segmentation, targeting, and positioning.

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in marketing. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides. This Reading focuses on the three issues a company must address in developing its product policy: 1. Product mix breadth refers to the variety and number of product lines offered. 2. Product line depth is the number of items in a given product line. 3. Product item design refers to each individual product's specifications. This Reading contains two Interactive Illustrations: the first, "Altius Golf Ball Positioning," explores the effect of product positioning on market share in markets with different degrees of cannibalization from the perspective of a golf ball manufacturer that plans to extend its product line. The second, "Product Bundling," explores how pricing "bundles" of products and services is influenced by their perceived value, using the example of hotel accommodation prices in different locations and for different segments of hotel guests (business travelers, vacationing families, and budget-minded students). The Reading also contains two videos, one on strategies for creating new product categories and one on using a customer feedback loop to manage the uncertainty of product innovation.

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in marketing. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides. This Reading provides the basic knowledge a marketing manager needs in order to choose the right combination of research methods, as well as the best way to present research findings to stakeholders. Furthermore, this Reading shows how effective decision making hinges on marketing intelligence, which is defined as a deep and informed understanding of the relationship among the customer, the marketing environment, and the company's offerings.

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in marketing. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides. This reading provides an introduction to the framework for marketing strategy: how a business creates and retains a customer, as well as the growing importance of making customers active ambassadors for its brands. The reading begins with a description of the 5Cs analysis for developing a marketing strategy (customer, company, collaborators, competitors, and context). It then discusses two sets of decisions every organization needs to make: the Aspiration Decision (what the company hopes to achieve in the market) and the Action Plan Decision (or "marketing mix" of the 4Ps-product, promotion, placement, and price). Finally, it considers the different kinds of actions required for customer acquisition vs. customer retention.

This Core Curriculum Reading introduces the fundamentals of getting price right. First, it introduces value pricing, which requires a detailed understanding of the true economic value (TEV) that a firm's product creates for a specific customer. Value pricing also requires a decision to divide that value between the firm (providing the firm its incentive to sell) and the customer (providing the customer with an incentive to buy). After covering the key elements of the value-pricing approach, the Reading explains the concepts of price customization, consumer sensitivity to price, and the impact of price on the organization's profitability. Readers also learn how both quantitative research and managerial judgment are used to make optimal pricing decisions. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides.

Peak Sealing Technologies (PST), a manufacturer of premium carton sealing tapes, stresses technological innovation as the company's core value. But when a new regional competitor introduces a less expensive and inferior product, PST is faced with a decision that could conflict with their values. Product manager Emma Taylor must decide if the company should augment its existing high-quality product line with a cheaper, less effective product to compete with their competitor. However, this decision could cannibalize PST's premium line. Emma is faced with a key issue in product line management--determining the variety of products in the line that serve the same function. Students are introduced to the problems of "trading down" the product line and must consider whether the company's corporate values are a strength or liability. This case can be used effectively in a first-year MBA course on marketing management to illustrate concepts associated with the risk and strategy of introducing a product line extension. It also allows for more complex analysis that would be appropriate in an Executive MBA program or advanced MBA elective courses in Product Management, Business to Business Marketing, Sales Management or New Product Development.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Product #914533

StepSmart Fitness, a manufacturer of exercise equipment, is undergoing a sweeping reorganization. The new CEO has terminated the District Sales Director and Regional VP and promoted 30-year-old Benjamin Cooper to manage the underperforming New England district. A first-time manager with no one to train him or explain the causes of the district's underperformance, Cooper has 10 weeks to diagnose the problems and make recommendations that will ensure a turnaround in the territory in less than 16 months. Left to his own devices, Cooper must review the sales data, the incomplete notes left by his predecessor, and his own thoughts after spending a day in the field with each sales person. Then he must make decisions about termination or probation for current employees, the hiring of additional salespeople, ways to increase productivity, and potential new methods of evaluating salesperson performance. He is set to present his conclusions to his also-newly-appointed manager, the Regional VP for the Northeast, in a few days.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Product #914509.