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By 2006, Phillips Food Inc. had grown into one of the largest seafood businesses in the United States and was the number one U.S. brand for crab meat. The company comprised a restaurant division, a foodservice products division that sold to restaurants, and a retail products division that sold to grocery stores. In August, 2006, Phillips' product manager was responsible for defining the communication strategy decisions required to launch its new product: first-to-market pasteurized king crab. The product manager had already spent half of his advertising budget promoting the product to buyers in the foodservice and restaurant channels. He had to decide how to spend the remaining portion of his budget to best reach seafood buyers in the consumer retail channel. He had an opportunity to showcase the product at an upcoming major industry food show; however, he had already planned to spend his budget on advertising in a trade publication for the retail grocery channel. He had to examine the relative merits of each option and present an overall recommendation on how to best launch and sell the product. Qualitative, quantitative and financial aspects were to be considered; as well, the product manager had to determine the costs, returns and qualitative benefits that each option provided.

This note takes the reader through the development of a positioning statement for a target market. The exercise includes determining the relevant point of reference (market definition, product category, competitive set) and associated points of parity, the point of difference, and why customers should believe the product or service can deliver on the desired positioning. The appendix contains a description of perceptual mapping, a tool that is often used when making positioning decisions.

Is branding an effective tool for generating shareholder wealth for companies that are active in a business-to-business environment? Or, do other factors such as innovation and manufacturing efficiency-or the lack thereof-create or destroy shareholder wealth? Based on an examination of almost 1,700 companies listed either on the United States or European stock exchanges, this study reveals this crucial relationship could be described as a W-shaped curve with five distinctive phases, depending on the strategic branding position of the company. Used strategically, business-to-business (B2B) companies with a balanced corporate brand strategy, generally yield a return to their shareholders that is 5%-7% higher. It is therefore vital that key executives, including the board of directors, systematically assess and monitor the strategic branding position of their company and how their branding investments are performing against key competitors. This study reveals that shareholders should insist on systematic performance feedback from the corporation regarding all key items in the balance sheet-it - including branding. As disclosed herein, very few of the companies analyzed possessed an optimal balance between branding and financial performance.     

Brand extensions are always tempting to marketers, and in the case of luxury brands the allure is particularly strong. While the path to luxury brand success may be partly paved with extensions, there are even more examples of brand extension disasters that litter the way. Brand extensions continue to be among the most researched and studied phenomena in marketing. When it comes to luxury brands, however, the factors that lead to successful extension have received far less attention. In this article, we consider the notion of perceived premium degree of the brand as a function of its category, and what we term the degree of adjacency between its product categories. Building on our research, which found that a luxury brand's perceived premium degree has a different impact on profitability depending on whether or not the brand is spread across adjacent product categories, we demonstrate when luxury brand extensions work-and when they fail. Perhaps most importantly, we herein introduce the premium adjacency matrix as a tool for luxury brand managers to consider in formulating extension strategies.      

In summer 2008, the Nashville Predators' management team was considering the strategy behind marketing the team. They thought it prudent to investigate the feasibility of opportunities in other hockey markets throughout North America, should a new owner want to move the team. Management had to consider both financial returns and on-ice success. They needed to create a comprehensive strategy, starting from a recommended location, and moving through specific recommendations on promotions, pricing and customer focus. To help create their strategy, the management team performed the following: developed a comprehensive tactical marketing plan, including income projections; identified the marketing challenges of operating in very different markets; recognized that the choice of a city location largely constrained the remaining decisions and tactics. Using this information, the management team could now identify their next steps, and what future plans should include.

Rob Griffin, senior vice president and U.S. director of search for Media Contacts, a communications consulting firm, is faced with the task of optimizing search engine marketing (SEM) for Air France. At the time of the case, SEM had become an advertising phenomenon, with North American advertisers spending $9.4 billion in the SEM channel, up 62% from 2005. Moving forward, Griffin wants to ensure that the team keeps its leading edge and delivers the results Air France requires for optimal Internet sales growth. The case centers upon Air France's and Media Contacts' efforts to find the ideal SEM campaign to provide an optimal amount of ticket sales in response to advertising dollars spent. This optimal search marketing campaign is based on choosing effective allocation of ad dollars across the various search engines, as well as selecting appropriate keywords and bid strategies for placement on the search result page for Internet users. In determining the optimal strategy, the case presents background information on the airline industry as well as the Internet search options available at the time, including Google, Microsoft MSN, Yahoo!, and Kayak. Additionally, background information is provided on SEM and its associated costs and means of measuring the successfulness of each marketing effort. The case illustrates how one must first determine the key performance indicators for the project to guide analysis and enable comparison of various SEM campaigns. Cost per click and probability to produce a sale differ among publishers. Therefore, using a portfolio application model's quadrant positions can be used to determine optimal publisher strategies. Additionally, pivot tables help illustrate campaigns and strategies that have historically been most successful in meeting Air France's target Internet sales. Multiple recommendations on how Media Contacts can assist Air France in improving its SEM strategy can be derived from the data provided.

Even as discretionary budgets are drying up, some B2B vendors have found a way to reach their customers' resource owners and motivate them to buy. They do this by identifying a thorny issue in the customer's company or industry and developing an original, compelling point of view about it. They pitch this point of view to a carefully chosen line executive in one crucial meeting and then prove its worth with a short diagnostic study. This is the essence of what the authors, all managing directors at TCG Advisors, call provocation-based selling. Sybase, a data management and mobility company, was successful with this approach in the summer of 2008, as it tried to pry business out of financial services clients that were severely cutting their operating costs. Instead of probing for what those clients thought they might need, Sybase salespeople pointed out what they should be worried about: an industrywide failure to manage risk comprehensively. By revealing the scale of the threat and the opportunity, Sybase was able to sell its Risk Analytics Platform, a new tool for integrating risk management. Provocation-based selling doesn't align with the customer's outlook; it provides a new angle on the situation. It doesn't identify and respond to the customer's "pain points"; it outlines a problem the customer hasn't yet put a name to. Framing a provocation creates a readiness to listen, and a diagnostic study converts the dialogue into a contract. The provocation-based sales cycle is resource intensive but appreciably shorter than that for solution-based selling - and it leads to significant business opportunities.

This practical guide, published by Business Expert Press, leads readers through the issues they will face in developing new marketing opportunities in foreign markets. Chapter 1, Understanding Markets Through International Market Research, introduces international market research, summarizes the characteristics of foreign markets, and highlights the importance of research to ensure international organizational success.

This practical guide, published by Business Expert Press, leads readers through the issues they will face in developing new marketing opportunities in foreign markets. Chapter 2, Global Market Opportunity Assessment, summarizes the six activities associated with Global Market Opportunity Assessment (GMOA). Firms regularly encounter favorable combinations of circumstances, locations, or timing that offer prospects for exporting, investing, sourcing, or partnering in foreign markets. GMOA is an approach for analyzing these opportunities in order to choose the most appropriate ones to optimize company performance.

This practical guide, published by Business Expert Press, leads readers through the issues they will face in developing new marketing opportunities in foreign markets. In Chapter 3, Fundamentals of International Market Opportunity Research, the authors explain the fundamentals of international market research, the types of information needed in international research, and how these are gathered and converted into useful, managerially relevant information. They also address the merits and limitations of primary and secondary data, and offer suggestions regarding online resources. They then discuss the nature of buyer behavior. Finally, in a special section called "Food for Thought," they examine research on perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and values, all of which strongly influence buyer intentions to purchase.

This practical guide, published by Business Expert Press, leads readers through the issues they will face in developing new marketing opportunities in foreign markets. In Chapter 4, Customized Research Using Primary Data, the authors examine research using primary data, particularly regarding survey research. We also address focus groups and the challenges of conducting these. As Food for Thought, we offer a three-phased approach to conducting international market research composed of macro-, micro-, and cultural analysis.

This practical guide, published by Business Expert Press, leads readers through the issues they will face in developing new marketing opportunities in foreign markets. In Chapter 5, Methodological Considerations in International Market Research, the authors address methodological considerations in international market research. They examine the challenges of research validity, reliability, and equivalency in developing measures and assessing constructs. They also highlight the institutional environment in which international market research takes place. As Food for Thought, they offer a deeper discussion of some of the measurement issues that researchers face in international studies, especially survey research in multiple countries, and they suggest coping mechanisms that help to overcome these issues.

This practical guide, published by Business Expert Press, leads readers through the issues they will face in developing new marketing opportunities in foreign markets. In Chapter 6, The Research Process and an Example (the final chapter of the book), the authors present an extended example of a market research situation involving Acme Motor Company, based in the United States. Acme seeks to market its line of fuel-efficient automobiles to France and other countries in Europe. The authors weave into this example important research issues, such as properly modeling the research question, developing hypotheses, constructing the relative measures, and sampling and data collection. They also address data analysis through research methods and reporting research findings in a managerially relevant manner.

In December 2008, nightlife impresario Noah Tepperberg is celebrating the fifth anniversary of his New York City nightclub Marquee. While most clubs are over within their first one-and-a-half years, Tepperberg has succeeded in keeping Marquee one of NYC's hottest clubs for what seems an eternity in the nightlife industry. However, concerns remain about Marquee's staying power, rising costs, and increased competition. When is the right time for Tepperberg to pull the plug on Marquee?

The case describes the effort of Merck, a global leader in pharmaceuticals, in making available its medicines to the poor. The challenge for the company (or for that matter, any pharmaceutical company) is how to integrate its business strategy with its corporate social responsibility, especially when operating in "lower income" countries.

This case analyzes the business strategy and expansion of JWT China from the late 1990s to 2008. As part of the world's fourth largest marketing communications network, JWT China grew into one of the largest integrated communications companies in China operating from offices in various parts of the country. The case provides students with a comprehensive history of and insights into China's advertising industry and the challenges for foreign and domestic firms operating within a highly regulated media environment controlled by the Chinese government. At the same time, this case offers insights into the structure of the highly fragmented Chinese consumers market, exploring the socio-economic disparities in income and media access as well as culturally determined consumer behavior across different regions and urban and rural areas. The case lets students explore how these trends might impact JWT's advertising and marketing strategies in the future and how to evaluate JWT's business expansion in China dealing with local and foreign competition.

In September 2008, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of Hewlett-Packard Company's Personal Systems Group (PSG) gathered his thoughts before a meeting with his top executives and managers for product design and marketing. On the agenda was a discussion of strategic next steps for the group. Hewlett-Packard (HP), a technology company providing a wide range of products and services including computers, handheld devices, servers and digital entertainment, employed 172,000 people and posted $104 billion in sales in 2007. PSG, one of HP's three major divisions, offered notebook and desktop personal computers, handheld mobile computing devices, monitors, workstations, and related support services. Bradley's PSG had played an important role in HP's financial success over the previous three years.

In 2005, to the astonishment of many sports industry insiders, superstar basketball player LeBron James fired his agent and established his own firm, LRMR, to handle all aspects of his business ventures and marketing activities and named his childhood friend Maverick Carter as the CEO. LRMR is tasked with turning James into a global icon as well as helping him reach his personal goal of becoming basketball's first billionaire. In late 2008, James has entered various lucrative endorsement deals and is considering three exclusive videogame endorsement opportunities from Electronic Arts, 2K Games, and Xbox Live to add to his portfolio. Allows for a rich discussion about how superstar athletes and other celebrities can create and capture value from their brands as well as what role talent agencies and other intermediaries play in that process. Provides in-depth information on three endorsement opportunities that each represents a common way in which talent can (choose to) get compensated: through a fixed-fee payment, a bonus payment structure, or a revenue-sharing agreement.

VOSS is a Norwegian bottled water company that produces one of the world's purest drinking waters, sold at an ultra-premium price in a sleek cylindrical glass bottle of minimalist design. In the U.S. (the company's primary market), VOSS' high-end brand presence is strongest in on-premise locations -specifically, top-of-the-line restaurants, hotels, and clubs. The brand has only recently begun penetrating the off-premise channel. In June 2007, Ole Christian Sandberg, VOSS' founder and Head of U.S. Operations is considering how to grow the brand. The key question is whether VOSS should increase its distribution in the off-premise channel: Will this diminish VOSS' high-end brand cachet? A related question is whether VOSS should begin expanding its portfolio by offering, for example, flavored water for the rapidly-evolving U.S. bottled water market.