Griffin Gale, an advertising professional and hockey enthusiast, was dedicated to growing the sport of ice hockey in Lincoln, Nebraska, through his work with the Lincoln Ice Hockey Association. He had to decide how to overcome the challenges of growing the sport in a city dominated by other sports, ensuring its future in the region.
The entrepreneurial beach vendor industry is culturally vibrant on the famous beaches of Zona Sul, including Copacabana Beach and Ipanema Beach, in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro (commonly known as Rio). Vendors, who mainly reside in low-income working-class districts known as a favelas, sell a variety of goods and services to locals and tourists from around the world. In addition to the numerous characteristics associated with Rio’s beach vendors, four key insights can be highlighted as being particularly noteworthy: the highly entrepreneurial and largely informal industry; the value created for consumers, vendors, and supply chains; the unique challenges; and the addition to Brazil’s economic and cultural fabric.
In early 2020, Daniela Suarez, a dynamic fitness entrepreneur, opened a successful studio in downtown Montreal, earning a loyal clientele with her energy and passion for holistic health. When COVID-19 shutdowns forced her to close, she quickly pivoted to online training, inspiring clients and growing her brand with engaging fitness and nutrition content. A fitness contest winner and nutrition textbook author, Suarez leveraged her expertise to cultivate a strong online following.<br><br>She later expanded into e-commerce with Ēvolvō, offering resistance bands and fitness apparel through drop shipping. While sales showed promise, new challenges emerged: What products should she offer? What mix would be optimal? How could she boost sales and profitability?
Derrick and Rebecca Pearson, the unlikely owners of KNTK 93.7 The Ticket, hoped to revitalize the traditional sports radio station in Lincoln, Nebraska, since purchasing it in September 2021. To accomplish their goal, they expanded The Ticket’s programming and incorporated a community-focused approach. But the Pearsons needed to decide how to balance their efforts between traditional terrestrial radio and digital platforms. They also needed to decide whether to focus on popular sports or explore niche sports to drive future growth and community engagement.
In February 2022, the chief executive officer of Defeat Duchenne Canada was eager to scale up the operations of his charitable organization, from its local origins in London, Ontario to a national and impactful venture. The management team had to find the best way to develop awareness of Duchenne muscular dystrophy to secure much-needed funding for research and improve access to treatment for the rare disease. Despite facing multiple resource constraints, including a name and branding change from Jesse’s Journey to Defeat Duchenne Canada, the team had to focus its efforts on generating the greatest impact.
Runza National, Inc. (Runza), an iconic Nebraskan quick-service restaurant chain had saturated its home Nebraskan market, with eighty-two stores across the state. A proud, family-run business, the Nebraskan chain was named after a mouth-watering regional specialty: the Runza sandwich. Also known as a bierock, this savoury bread pocket of Russian and German origins was adapted from a family recipe into the flagship offering. To foster further growth, the Runza team sought to expand the chain across the Midwest and beyond, through options such as company-owned stores, franchising, and ghost kitchens. Equally crucial were the areas in which to expand, with possible markets in nearby Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. Canadian communities also presented opportunities for international expansion. In determining the optimal markets and modes of entry, the company had to consider the effect of local factors on the company’s appeal. Its Nebraskan roots had made it a local icon with a devoted customer base, but the next steps beyond its home state would shape its future. Which states of the United States should they expand into, and was Canadian expansion viable? What market types—larger cities or smaller towns—were the most desirable, and which mode of entry was most feasible?
New opportunities, challenges, and decisions arose for a pub owner and his business partners when celebrity Halle Berry raved on social media about the hot wings served at the pub. Berry's post sparked an unprecedented 28-day sellout and a firestorm of news coverage that kept the business going at a time when the restaurant industry was suffering from government-imposed restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pub owner and his partners wonder whether to seize momentum and enter the fiercely competitive packaged goods industry, bottling and selling their signature wing sauces.
Denitsa Ikonomova is a champion professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars (France) who has become a desired social media influencer. She must now consider the business side of her profession and decide how to leverage her celebrity.
FODY Foods Inc. (Fody) was a Canadian-based entrepreneurial manufacturer and marketer of a line of food products designed for people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a condition that affected an estimated one billion people worldwide. With public awareness of the socially sensitive condition growing, Fody’s founder needed to figure out how to market the company’s line of products while creating a new category in the process.
Intelligent Avionics (IA) was an entrepreneurial company launching three inflight entertainment (IFE) systems. In April 2012, with a small development team working on the IFE system designs simultaneously, the time had come to meet with IA’s leaders to determine where the company should focus its efforts. The company’s vice-president of marketing contemplated which lines the company should bring to market and wondered how IA should market and launch its offerings. In addition, organizational and locational issues gnawed at him. He struggled with the company’s virtual structure, given that IA was composed of fewer than 15 staff members living in five different countries. As he contemplated how the structure was affecting IA’s effectiveness, he asked himself who IA’s target market should be.
By 2016, Birks Group Inc. (Birks) had largely recovered from the 2008 financial crisis and was posting profits again. Birks was a high-end designer and manufacturer of Birks-branded jewellery and a mono-brand and multi-brand retailer of luxury jewellery and watches. It operated 29 retail outlets across Canada under its Maison Birks and Brinkhaus banners and 17 stores in two U.S. states (Florida and Georgia) under the Mayors banner. After restructuring the company and rehabilitating the brand, Birks’s experienced chief executive officer wondered how to take the iconic Canadian company further in a rapidly changing market. He had to decide what balance Birks should strike in pushing the brand in different markets: Canada, existing U.S. markets, new U.S. markets, and international markets. Although the luxury jewellery industry had not performed well in the digital marketplace to date, he was eager to investigate Birks’s e-commerce options as well. What were the best ways to grow Birks and optimize resources and effort?
Santé Au Naturel was a natural health boutique in Montreal’s downtown core. The company was off to a strong start in a growing market, but as its best-selling products became more mainstream, large retailers were entering the market, stealing customers, and driving down margins. In early 2017, Santé Au Naturel's owner reflected on further differentiation of her offering and targeted marketing; she wanted to improve her marketing mix to grow sales and protect margins.
Club Sportif MAA (the MAA) was an iconic fitness club and athletic institution in Montreal and the oldest fitness facility in Canada. In early 2017, the club’s president and general manager faced a changing market and pressure to ensure that the club evolved and remained competitive. Consumer and fitness trends had increasingly fragmented the market in this area, and the MAA membership declined since 2016. The MAA, which traditionally served a fairly exclusive clientele, needed to examine its fitness, health, and social offerings to determine how to meet the evolving needs of a wider and increasingly diverse customer base without sacrificing the character of the brand. The president needed to decide how to preserve the MAA’s upmarket image while expanding its appeal. He needed to determine which market segments to target and how best to communicate the MAA’s offerings to these specific groups.