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This technical note presents the reason for using a binomial logic regression in marketing applications. It is used in Darden's "Big Data in Marketing" course elective. The issues surrounding the use of a linear regression model when the dependent variable is a dummy variable are identified. A consumer-utility-based behavioral rationale is presented for the applicability of the binomial logistic regression for modeling dummy variables. Simulated and real data examples are used to present the mechanics of the logistic regression and the interpretation of the outputs. The relationship between odds ratio and the logistic regression probabilities are presented. Application areas such as brand choice and customer retention are discussed.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) were heralded by some as a healthcare game changer, enabling smokers to switch to a new product which carried lower risk of cancer. However, there were concerns about the public health risk of e-cigarettes, particularly the chance that teens would easily develop nicotine addictions from smoking the fruit-flavored products. Manufacturers argued that current smokers, not teens were the target market, but laws regulating e-cigarettes were far less stringent than those governing tobacco products.

The case describes the nature of juvenile recidivism in Massachusetts and explores the potential structure of a privately funded, publicly guaranteed pay-for-success contract.

Coca-Cola is considering which of several global marketing/promotional efforts to bring to the United States. Each has proven successful in other parts of the world, but for varying reasons. All represent efforts outside of the industry's normal advertising-based approach to marketing.

Molson Coors’ chief corporate responsibility officer has been tasked to use the company’s efforts toward global corporate responsibility to drive its global competitiveness. He must roll out new corporate responsibility initiatives to engage employees across the company’s range of geographic locations.

Molson Coors' chief corporate responsibility officer has been tasked to use the company's efforts toward global corporate responsibility to drive its global competitiveness. He must roll out new corporate responsibility initiatives to engage employees across the company's range of geographic locations.

By 2010, Virginia had become the fifth-largest wine-producing state in the United States and Michael Shaps had developed a reputation as one of Virginia’s premier winemakers. He had recently doubled his annual production capacity and was considering whether to increase production of his own “Michael Shaps”-label wines (MS), or accept offers to produce private-label wines (PL) for customers — a service he dubbed “custom crush.” He could increase his profits by selling PL wines at higher margins. However, it would take time to grow this new business, and any capacity reserved for a “custom crush” operation would reduce the number of cases of his own MS wines that he could produce. The financials of custom crush looked very promising, because in addition to higher margins, revenue from PL would be guaranteed by contracts prior to harvest — a situation of unusual security in the volatile wine business. Although his MS wines were of high quality and regionally popular, producing his own labeled wines was more of a speculative business, subject to myriad factors. Beyond the short-term financial impact, he also had to consider how a PL business would affect his own MS brand. Finally, Shaps had the opportunity to package wine in a box at significant savings over bottles and had to decide whether or how to introduce MS or PL wine in a box.

A Latin-based urban music ensemble, Calle 13, shapes its art form to redefine the rap/reggaeton scene that is predominant in Latin America. This redefinition includes political and social backlash towards the leaders of various countries, including the band members’ homeland of Puerto Rico. While the group’s political and social criticism results in some welcome exposure for the musicians, it also results in cancelled shows. The group wants to expand its market, and the members must decide how to proceed: Should the band shed its controversial image in an effort to gain a broader degree of public acceptance? Should it maintain the current style, provoking and delighting listeners with its sometimes scandalous antics?

The inventor of the Kinkajou, a portable glass bottle cutter, has successfully completed a crowd-sourced financing campaign. His funding goal of $75,000 was considered to be quite ambitious and the timeframe in which he aimed to secure the funding was only 30 days. He managed the campaign impressively and exceeded his goal on the last day of the campaign. At this point in his business development, this entrepreneur has secured an offshore manufacturer, all backers have received their products and he has resolved a number of technical and operational problems. With so many challenges behind him, he now faces questions of future distribution through multiple wholesalers and is considering the opportunity of joining with a major international retailer.

Online storage company Dropbox provided remote-storage over the internet of any type of computer file, along with file sharing, synchronization and backup. Using a freemium pricing strategy whereby a basic service was free-of-charge and a premium service was paid, Dropbox grew into a business with 200 million users. But only an estimated 1.6 to 4.0% of its users provided any revenue to the company. This case examines how Dropbox used freemium pricing to facilitate product adoption and user referrals. A survey is provided of the cloud-storage industry, including an overview of the largest players and their pricing/service models. Further, various freemium-based companies across industries are compared, including user conversion rates and revenue profiles.

On September 26, 2013, the chief executive officer of the world-leading pasta manufacturer, the Barilla Group, was challenged with a precarious situation. A day earlier, during an interview on an Italian radio show, the company chairman made a series of anti-gay remarks when asked why the company did not feature advertisements with gay families. Social media exploded with negative comments and numerous equality themed pictures creatively featuring pasta. U.S. late night television shows mocked the company, and various equality rights organizations around the world called for a boycott of its products. Competitors also issued statements and ads extolling their respect for diversity. Everyone - customers, news media, competitors and organizations supporting diversity - were looking for an explanation. The company desperately needed to devise a strategy to publicly respond and avoid the negative long-term consequences of a damaged brand name, decreased market share and ultimately lost revenues.

Advantage Food & Beverage (AF&B), a sales and service vending machine company, has added an Avanti kiosk division and hired a sales representative to devote all their time to selling the kiosk service to businesses within a specific geographic market. In the first year of the kiosk operation, AF&B hired and fired three sales representatives while acquiring seven Avanti customers. A management review uncovered issues with the selling process and the lack of presentations to prospective customers. AF&B's owner pondered the relationship between the personal selling process and AF&B's current compensation approach for sales representatives. How could AF&B's compensation approach be changed to meet senior management's new emphasis on presentations, and how would the various options impact AF&B's profit and loss statement?

Over the past decade or so, Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd (KS&DL) - an Indian public sector enterprise - has observed a significant fall in its signature product's brand image, Mysore Sandalwood. The company now aims to rebuild its overall image by launching their new, Mysore Sandals Millennium, soap in January 2012. Millennium is a super-premium luxury soap offering that has taken three years of research and development and is targeted at the top-end consumer segment. It is priced at US$12.60 for a bar - making it the most expensive Indian soap on the market - where the premium range is available for as low as US$0.35 a bar. Will KS&DL succeed in marketing a product priced at a level that makes it unaffordable to most Indians? How can the company best go about executing and communicating its strategy to make this launch a success?

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER -Marketing category, ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition</strong></p><br>In 2012, HCL Infosystems Ltd. is a reputable computer hardware firm and a major player in the Indian desktop market. Due to changes in consumer behaviour, the desktop market is shrinking and demand is shifting towards laptops, where HCL has a miniscule presence. At the same time, the desktop market is witnessing the emergence of a new form of devices called all-in-ones (AIOs). HCL needs a significant presence in AIOs to retain its position in the Indian PC market. The company was an early entrant in the Indian AIO market in 2007 and sought to capture a niche market for its premium range, but did not succeed and withdrew its product line. The category has, in the last four years, grown in the mass market segment and HCL needs a successful relaunch of the HCL Beanstalk AIO in the face of intense competition from multinational competitors who have a head start. The problem is compounded by the fact that the HCL brand is losing market share and that the company lacks the financial resources to invest heavily in brand building. HCL’s management believes that the Beanstalk needs to capture eight per cent of the retail segment of the Indian AIO market in order to be able to gain the same share in the business-to-business market, which is slower to adopt new technologies.

Four GlaxoSmithKline employees were accused of bribing Chinese health care workers to prescribe the company's drugs. The accusations brought to light the questionable incentive structures of the Chinese health care system and the pressure on companies to adhere to local customs while still observing local laws.

In 2013, Chinese investigators detained four GSK employees for allegedly bribing health care staff to sell GSK pharmaceuticals. A month later, GSK's Asia Pacific regional president, Abbas Hussain, said the company would help identify corrupt practices. Two days later, GSK's CEO, Andrew Witty, called the allegations "shameful" and said the company would use the opportunity to "make changes."

La Presse, a French language newspaper in Montreal and the largest French language newspaper in North America, published an article summarizing the judgment of a trademark infringement case involving Lassonde Industries, a large Quebec conglomerate with sales of almost Cdn$760 million, and Olivia's Oasis, a small Quebec manufacturer of health and beauty products with sales of Cdn$250,000. Initially, Olivia's Oasis had successfully defended itself and it was awarded damages and costs by the courts. However, Lassonde appealed, which resulted in Olivia's Oasis having to pay its own legal costs - a judgment that could bankrupt the small company. By the end of the day, thousands of readers and members of the public had reacted via social media with such vehemence that Lassonde felt pressured to pay Olivia's Oasis' costs. The issues are related to the management of a company's reputation and the potential impact of negative public reaction in the long term.

This case is used in Darden's "Digital Marketing" course elective. It explores the experience of a niche search firm whose founder attributed her ability to open her recruiting firm to LinkedIn and the new model of recruiting it created. LinkedIn Corporation had been one of the most successful companies in the digital media space, with more than 4,000 employees and a market capitalization of over $25.5 billion in August 2013. But few people knew how LinkedIn had grown and how it had become profitable. LinkedIn had multiple unique aspects to explore: its focus on professional--not simply personal--social interaction, the company's B2B components, and also its marketing positioning from user experience to targeting and growth strategy.

Local businesses' experiences with using Groupon to promote themselves ran the gamut of roaring success to absolute failure. Why is there such a large range in outcomes for firms that used daily deal sites such as Groupon? This case examines the effectiveness of online daily deal sites from the point of view of local businesses.

Marketing managers tend to focus on "mean" or "net" consumer scores, but these miss an important point: Some brands are highly polarizing, with large numbers of "brand lovers" and equally large numbers of brand haters. Measuring "brand dispersion" will allow marketers to identify polarizing brands, and they can take steps to turn polarization to their advantage.