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In his August 2012 earnings call, CEO Ron Johnson urged investors to be patient and stay the course with the revised JC Penney marketing strategy despite mounting negative financial indicators. The heart of the strategy was the "Fair and Square" approach to pricing. This was a switch from J.C. Penney's previous high-low pricing program to a new everyday low pricing policy that aimed to fit with a radical repositioning of the JC Penney business model and brand. However, with sales continuing to decline the Board fired Johnson in April 2013 and appointed Johnson's predecessor Myron E. "Mike" Ullman III as his successor. What would Ullman do to stop JC Penney's losses? Would he push forward with Johnson's "Fair and Square" vision; would he return to the former strategy; could he manage a hybrid strategy; or would he define a new path for the retailer to follow?

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.

By 2013, Adobe had reinvented itself from a publisher of popular software such as Photoshop and Acrobat to a digital marketing and digital media company. In May 2013, the company decided to stop selling its software as a package in favor of Creative Cloud where consumers paid a monthly subscription fee. Within a few weeks thousands of consumers signed petition complaining against this decision. Should Adobe reverse its decision? More generally, what new skills and capabilities does it need to develop as it reinvents itself?

This case, follows Ali Hurbas's efforts to use data extracted from the Dunia data warehouse to establish potential customers' customer lifetime value (CLV). Hurbas plans to use a spreadsheet model to evaluate Dunia's various cross-selling activities and their effectiveness in creating the greatest CLV. First, students should explain how the spreadsheet reflects the way in which Dunia makes money from cross-selling. Then students should use the spreadsheet to conduct what-if analysis to see how combinations of activities might improve total CLV, and sensitivity analysis to understand how cost parameters and other parameters would affect profitability. A teaching note for this case series is available to instructors to aid in class preparation.

Rehired in April 2013, Myron E. "Mike" Ullman III was brought back to stabilize the retailer's business. Under Ron Johnson's "Fair and Square" program, sales had declined rapidly and quarterly losses and expensive capital investments had put severe pressure on cash reserves. Ullman decided to combine "Fair and Square" everyday low pricing and high/low pricing to reverse the negative trend. For example, to welcome people back to its stores, J.C. Penney ran deep discount sales for Mother's Day and Veteran's Day. By November 2013 the retail stores posted positive sales comparisons year over year, the first time since December 2011. However, margins remained low and Wall Street was wondering if J.C. Penney was sacrificing margin to drive store traffic. Would 2013 holiday sales be strong enough for J.C. Penney to begin building stronger margins? Would another strategy have been more effective? Did the board dispose of Johnson too quickly? Was it wise to bring back Ullman? Can J.C. Penney get back on its feet?

Rather than encouraging customers to share their views about the company and its products with managers, the authors found, companies tend to focus on encouraging customers to take part in spreading positive word of mouth. Yet word of mouth is only one type of voluntary behavior that customers engage in. Moreover, it indicates only what people on the outside are saying, not how companies can improve their offerings or what customers may be looking for. The authors, who conducted surveys of customers as well as interviews and roundtable discussions with senior executives in a variety of industries, found that both customer word of mouth and customer- to-business interactions are associated with a customer's propensity to buy more of a company's products and services. While not all satisfied customers become repeat buyers, encouraging them to provide feedback and suggestions helps tie them more closely to the business. Companies can even recapture defecting customers simply by contacting them and encouraging them to participate. In addition, customer-to-business interaction is often more malleable than customer-to-customer word of mouth and more readily within the control of management. In a study of customers of a global bank, the authors found that customers who purchased the most were individuals who participated and engaged in much word-of-mouth behavior. High participation/ high word-of-mouth customers were the most loyal and attached to the brand; customers who did not participate tended to be the least valuable, the least loyal and the least attached to the organization regardless of whether they spread positive word of mouth.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Ethnography has often been portrayed as a "fly on the wall"technique, with anthropologists lurking in people's homes to observe consumers'unadulterated lives. The authors argue that this description does not do justice to the way ethnography actually works in the corporate world or to ethnography's increasingly important role in formulating business strategy. The authors'research across a variety of companies suggests that ethnography -artful in situ investigation into what customers do and feel and how they talk about what they do and feel -is a powerful tool to use to gain insights into your market. To arrive at a more in-depth understanding of how corporations use ethnography to their advantage, the authors conducted interviews with executives in various industries worldwide, including Ford and Wells Fargo. Where data analytics and surveys provide flattened snapshots, ethnography contributes an empathic understanding of how consumers live, work and play through gritty and detailed descriptions. Whether conveyed in video format, presentations or reports, these stories describe how people confront and surmount the hurdles they encounter in meeting their responsibilities and fulfilling their hopes in our globalized consumer culture. By delving into the richness of people's life stories, ethnographic research can pivot companies away from less meaningful segmentation parameters, such as demographics or purchase history, and toward those that drive behavior, such as purpose and intent. Quantitative techniques such as factor analysis can subsequently be applied to locate and size market segments.

For the most part, consumers have faith in online ratings and view them as trustworthy. But, the author argues, this trust may be misplaced. The heart of the problem lies with our herd instincts -natural human impulses characterized by a lack of individual decision making -that cause us to think and act in the same way as other people around us. When it comes to online ratings, our herd instincts combine with our susceptibility to positive "social influence."When we see that other people have appreciated a certain book, enjoyed a hotel or restaurant or liked a particular doctor, this can cause us to feel the same positive feelings and to provide a similarly high online rating. The author describes an experiment that he and two colleagues conducted on a social news-aggregation website. On the site, users rate news articles and comments by voting them up or down based on how much they enjoyed them. The researchers randomly manipulated the scores of comments with a single up or down vote and then measured the impact of these small manipulations on subsequent scores. The results were striking. The positive manipulations created a positive social influence bias that persisted over five months and that ultimately increased the comments'final ratings by 25%. Negatively manipulated scores, meanwhile, were offset by a correction effect that neutralized the manipulation: Although viewers of negatively manipulated comments were more likely to vote negative (evidence of negative herding), they were even more likely to positively "correct"what they saw as an undeserved negative score.

When Birnbaum joined SodaStream, in 2007, it was a sleepy company whose managers liked to boast that they had an 85% share of the "home carbonation business." He and his all-new management team brought enthusiasm and vision--and shortly began talking about a new cola war to grow SodaStream's share of the $260 billion global soda business. The ad they created for the 2013 Super Bowl reached more than 100 million viewers--but in an unexpected twist, an ad that never even got on the air garnered more attention. The original spot (called "Game Changer"), which took a direct shot at Coke and Pepsi, was rejected by CBS. The legal wrangling that followed generated headlines around the globe--newspapers in countries that don't even air the Super Bowl began doing stories on it. And the controversial ad has been viewed more than 5 million times on YouTube. From a marketing standpoint, it was a great investment.

Consumers used to rely mainly on manufacturers' product information, delivered through marketing materials, but online reviews and peer-to-peer information are increasingly influential. Companies should closely track the sources of information their customers turn to and find the combination of marketing channels and tools that will successfully steer their buying decisions.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today's CRM is a 10-chapter book published in 2014 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jeff Tanner, Jr., Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. In this book, the author explains how business leaders can capitalize on "Big Data," or the infinite customer information available in today's technology-based business environment. He provides a model for competitive advantage and maximized marketing performance through Dynamic Customer Strategy (DCS), an approach to understanding and utilizing Big Data. He includes real-world examples throughout the book and offers practical advice and discussion questions for both practitioners and students. In Chapter 1, Big Data and Dynamic Customer Strategy (19 pages), the author explains the foundation of his strategic model. He reviews the range of customer information from interaction to purchasing, and considers the volume, variety, and velocity of data. He explains how to work with and plan for big data through DCS and outlines the benefits of this approach, such as creating a shared organizational understanding of the business model. He illustrates a successful DCS with a real world example of how the retailer Cabela's increased the purchase follow-through of online customers. He also explores the technology required to implementing DCS and two common obstacles, the data itself and employee mindset.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today's CRM is a 10-chapter book published in 2014 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jeff Tanner, Jr., Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. In this book, the author explains how business leaders can capitalize on "Big Data," or the infinite customer information available in today's technology-based business environment. He provides a model for competitive advantage and maximized marketing performance through Dynamic Customer Strategy (DCS), an approach to understanding and utilizing Big Data. He includes real-world examples throughout the book and offers practical advice and discussion questions for both practitioners and students. Chapter 2, The Elements of Dynamic Customer Strategy (11 pages), explains that developing strong strategy begins with understanding good theory. The author defines the main components of a theory, such as conceptual definitions of end goals, relationships between variables, and the conditions dictated by environmental variables. He says that DCS is based on understanding market factors and the relationship between them. Decision-making requires business managers to isolate the effects of each variable, including the correlation, chronology, and causality of the relationships between variables. This process also requires managers to (eliminate) variables that are not relevant. The author explains how control can be achieved through experimentation or statistics and illustrates these concepts in an analysis of how Target Corporation used customer transaction data to identify future purchase interests.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today's CRM is a 10-chapter book published in 2014 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jeff Tanner, Jr., Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. In this book, the author explains how business leaders can capitalize on "Big Data," or the infinite customer information available in today's technology-based business environment. He provides a model for competitive advantage and maximized marketing performance through Dynamic Customer Strategy (DCS), an approach to understanding and utilizing Big Data. He includes real-world examples throughout the book and offers practical advice and discussion questions for both practitioners and students. In Chapter 3, Making Sense of Big Data (13 pages), the author examines the importance of developing a data strategy. He explains that companies often make misleading assumptions about data that send managers down the wrong decision making path. He defines data traps, such as assuming that all customers are alike, and how a proper data strategy can help companies avoid these mistakes. He outlines a four-step model for creating a data strategy: acquire the right data for the decisions to be made, analyze appropriately, apply¬ the knowledge operationally, and assess the data and the process. He considers different types of data needed: transactional, demographic, motivational, and lifestyle, among others. He highlights the use of a successful data strategy with the real-world example of Gallery Furniture.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today's CRM is a 10-chapter book published in 2014 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jeff Tanner, Jr., Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. In this book, the author explains how business leaders can capitalize on "Big Data," or the infinite customer information available in today's technology-based business environment. He provides a model for competitive advantage and maximized marketing performance through Dynamic Customer Strategy (DCS), an approach to understanding and utilizing Big Data. He includes real-world examples throughout the book and offers practical advice and discussion questions for both practitioners and students. In Chapter 4, Operationalizing Strategy (12 pages), the author explains how to translate theoretical concepts into measurable marketing actions. The first step is to articulate the operational definitions that will be used to guide and measure actions. For example, there must be a definition of what makes a lead qualified-number of website visits, previous purchase, etc.-and everyone in the company must share this understanding. These definitions help to focus attention on the relevant aspects of big data. The author also outlines the common obstacles in making good decisions with big data, such as moving too fast, misinterpreting numbers, and mistrusting data. He presents an example of a how Random House used data to successfully change their strategy. He explains how to use decision rules as a way to put definitions into action.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today's CRM is a 10-chapter book published in 2014 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jeff Tanner, Jr., Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. In this book, the author explains how business leaders can capitalize on "Big Data," or the infinite customer information available in today's technology-based business environment. He provides a model for competitive advantage and maximized marketing performance through Dynamic Customer Strategy (DCS), an approach to understanding and utilizing Big Data. He includes real-world examples throughout the book and offers practical advice and discussion questions for both practitioners and students. In Chapter 5, Acquiring Big (and Little) Data (14 pages), the author explains how to make data usable. The most important step, he says, is to know what data will inform decision-making. He recommends a Data Assets Inventory, which is a matrix of data variables and sources, to manage the data. He explains the criteria for judging data quality: accuracy and precision. He considers data variety, volume, and velocity and how technology enables companies to link varied data sources for new and innovative outcomes. He presents a real world example from JC Penney about asking for customer data and presents different methods of customer profiling. He also explains that, after acquiring the data, a company must go through the process of data cleaning and definition to prepare for analysis.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today's CRM is a 10-chapter book published in 2014 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jeff Tanner, Jr., Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. In this book, the author explains how business leaders can capitalize on "Big Data," or the infinite customer information available in today's technology-based business environment. He provides a model for competitive advantage and maximized marketing performance through Dynamic Customer Strategy (DCS), an approach to understanding and utilizing Big Data. He includes real-world examples throughout the book and offers practical advice and discussion questions for both practitioners and students. In Chapter 6, Analytics for the Rest of Us (14 pages), the author considers the relationship between data and decision-making, highlighting the importance of selecting the right statistical analysis. He reviews different types of analytics, including research, reporting, and affinity, and expands his previous discussion of the characteristics of good data to include metric versus non-metric data, distribution of the data, and unstructured data. He provides a real-world example of how the online retailer Gilt Groupe used big data to segment customers and tailor sales offers. He analyzes methods for measuring the impact of marketing messages and channels through techniques such as attribution models and sequential basket analysis.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today's CRM is a 10-chapter book published in 2014 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jeff Tanner, Jr., Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. In this book, the author explains how business leaders can capitalize on "Big Data," or the infinite customer information available in today's technology-based business environment. He provides a model for competitive advantage and maximized marketing performance through Dynamic Customer Strategy (DCS), an approach to understanding and utilizing Big Data. He includes real-world examples throughout the book and offers practical advice and discussion questions for both practitioners and students. In Chapter 7, Turning Models Into Customers (15 pages), the author outlines three steps for putting knowledge into practice. The first is to simplify the operational model to enable employees to capture key data and respond accordingly and quickly. He explains how to use personas to guide frontline employees on how to react to typical customer types both at the market level to guide decisions about the marketing mix and at the customer level to individualize customer experience. The second step is to map customer conversations to understand the customer decision process and identify opportunities for effective marketing. The author illustrates the value of both market and consumer level DCS through an analysis of Maybank. The third step is to move customers to the next stage of the purchase process, or convert them, in a profitable way by testing approaches and learning from their outcomes. He reviews two "test and learn" methods, attribution modeling and experimental design.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today's CRM is a 10-chapter book published in 2014 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jeff Tanner, Jr., Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. In this book, the author explains how business leaders can capitalize on "Big Data," or the infinite customer information available in today's technology-based business environment. He provides a model for competitive advantage and maximized marketing performance through Dynamic Customer Strategy (DCS), an approach to understanding and utilizing Big Data. He includes real-world examples throughout the book and offers practical advice and discussion questions for both practitioners and students. Chapter 8, Of Metrics and Models (17 pages), considers the use of data analysis in marketing models. The author reviews basic metrics and provides a model for data monitoring in three steps. The first is to decide what to monitor. The second is to identify the tolerance range (the appropriate range of variance in results). The third is to create a reporting or display system that provides for meaningful comparison and monitoring. He looks at different display types (such as statistic, real-time, conventional, and structured) and offers insight on how to determine the best method. He outlines assumptions in the decision-making process and provides three recommendations for decision-making. First, identify the assumptions underlying the data. Second, create metrics that fit the decision at hand. And, third, include statistics in the decision-making process. He illustrates the successful use of metrics through the example of Royal Bank of Canada.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today's CRM is a 10-chapter book published in 2014 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jeff Tanner, Jr., Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. In this book, the author explains how business leaders can capitalize on "Big Data," or the infinite customer information available in today's technology-based business environment. He provides a model for competitive advantage and maximized marketing performance through Dynamic Customer Strategy (DCS), an approach to understanding and utilizing Big Data. He includes real-world examples throughout the book and offers practical advice and discussion questions for both practitioners and students. Chapter 10, Customer Culture (14 pages), explains the importance creating and maintaining the right company culture to sustain a DCS. The author outlines the requirements for this culture, starting with leadership that teaches strategy rather than simply mandating it. He says that it is essentials to have a Customer Knowledge Competence (CKC), which entails a company's ability to acquire, analyze, disseminate, and operationalize customer information. CKC depends on three factors: people with the right skills, tools that enable data acquisition and management, and supporting work processes and policies. He adds customer culture as an additional requirement, including valuing and rewarding CKC. He highlights the importance of a culture of learning and outlines several ways to focus on learning, such as individual brainstorming and team-based decision making. He presents the real world example of how the Meredith Corporation successfully brought data management in-house.