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The Wahaha Hangzhou Group Co. Ltd. is one of China's largest soft drink producers. One of the company's products, Future Cola, was launched a few years ago to compete with Coca Cola and PepsiCo and has made significant progress in the soft drink markets that were developed by these cola giants. The issue now is to maintain the momentum of growth in the face of major competition from the giant multinationals and to achieve its goal of dominant market share.

The head of sales and marketing in a large medical devices firm must decide how to assign his sales force. He compares selling in the pharma, specialty pharma, and device industries and analyzes the reasons for the differences.

TradeCard Inc. is a New York-based financial supply chain service provider focused on serving importers and exporters. Its product--TradeCard--aligns the documentary and financial requirements of a domestic or international trade transaction with the physical movement of goods. TradeCard launched its product in Hong Kong then moved on to open representative offices in Asia. In November 2002, TradeCard Inc. decided to enter China. Not only is China considered to be the biggest market in the world but most of TradeCard's biggest customers in the United States, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan have their products manufactured in mainland China. With China's accession to the WTO, foreign companies, including TradeCard Inc., are eyeing China as a very promising market. However, China has yet to develop its legal, financial, and technological infrastructure to accommodate international players. Discusses how a structured B2B online payment system such as TradeCard can be marketed in China and how TradeCard Inc. can create a critical mass of users in China.

Senior executives at Vanguard are evaluating their marketing strategy. In particular, they are looking at their approach to market segmentation, the organization of the marketing function, and the weight placed on marketing metrics in the corporate dashboard in light of an economic and stock market downturn.

Starbucks, the dominant specialty-coffee brand in North America, must respond to recent market research indicating that the company is not meeting customer expectations in terms of service. To increase customer satisfaction, the company is debating a plan that would increase the amount of labor in the stores and theoretically increase speed-of-service. However, the impact of the plan (which would cost $40 million annually) on the company's bottom line is unclear.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 504-016.

Fenix Group's business spans from general merchandise retailing to Italian fashion. The diversity stems from the management's multiniche marketing strategy. Looks at the journeys of two entrepreneurs who started out with a tiny garment trading company and, in the span of 30 years, expanded into a multinational network of manufacturing and retailing with $230 million annual turnover. How did Fenix identify and tap into niches in different markets? What does it take to be successful in niche markets? Also analyzes Fenix's strategy and discusses the critical success factors of its multiniche marketing strategy.

The members of Singapore Airlines' (SIA) management committee needs to decide whether to cancel the implementation of the new lie-flat seats in business class after the effects of the global recession on the travel industry in September 2001. SIA was considered the gold standard for its innovative customer service, and the $100 million new seats project for the international market was planned to bolster that reputation. But with increased competition in the airline industry and the dramatic drop in travel after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the main agenda item for the management committee was how to cut costs.

In Spring 1998, Citicorp and Travelers merged to create a financial powerhouse that united the bank with Travelers' consumer finance and brokerage businesses, including Salomon Smith Barney and Primerica. It was the first U.S. financial services company to combine banking, insurance, and investments under one umbrella. Both entities historically had very different cultures, driving a radically different approach to branding. During completion of the merger, a team of managers was responsible for recommending to top management a new brand identity that would unite the entire organization and provide it with a strategic focus. The new brand also had to inform customers and shareholders of Citigroup's new financial capabilities and allow cross-selling without sacrificing the power of component brands. In a tense post-merger situation, decisions must be made early and decisively to prevent damaging brand equity.

CARE USA is spearheading a rebranding process for the organization. Examines the process and components of the rebranding strategy and its impact on CARE USA's direct mail strategy. Includes color exhibits.

XM Satellite Radio is a radically new way to listen to radio. Management must develop a marketing strategy to launch the firm and the category. A crucial aspect of the strategy is to determine which of two business models the company will pursue. Should it focus predominantly on charging customers a monthly subscription fee or on selling advertising time to advertisers? This decision is closely related to target market selection and to the choice of optimal price points for subscription fees and radio receivers. Market research commissioned by XM provides rich insights into these issues. In addition, XM management needs to figure out how to establish partnerships with the leading electronics manufacturers. A consideration of its market share and channel presence are essential to XM's ultimate success in integrating satellite radio into home and car audio systems. As it formulates its plan, XM needs to take into account the competitive landscape, primarily comprised of broadcast radio (AM and FM) that has been in existence for many years and is offered for free, as well as a second satellite radio provider (Sirius). Includes color exhibits.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 504-009.

Peter Kelly became CEO of Med-Mart, a home health supply company, shortly after his search fund acquired it in 1993. Unfortunately, at the time of purchase, Med-Mart's sales growth, inventories, and receivables had been grossly overstated, leading to a precarious financial situation once these errors were discovered after the acquisition was completed. During the summer of 1995, Kelly hired Tim Martin as Med-Mart's vice-president of sales to boost sales and help rescue Med-Mart from financial peril. However, Martin's proposal to increase sales involved refocusing Med-Mart from thousands of products down to just a few high-margin products, eliminating over 80% of current revenues. Kelly was wary of implementing such a drastic plan and knew that success was wholly dependent on the ability of the sales force to increase sales of the few remaining products dramatically. Kelly thought they could reorient the sales force to implement Med-Mart's proposed change in strategy effectively by changing the commission scheme. Kelly's next step was to design this new commission plan, considering the dollar value and timing of commission payments, as well as any thresholds, caps, or ramping of commissions. He wondered how the sales force would react to a compensation revamp and handle selling only one primary product.

Most companies make charitable donations, but few approach their contributions with an eye toward enhancing their brands. Those that do take such an approach commit talent and know-how, not just dollars, to a pressing but carefully chosen social need and then tell the world about the cause and their service to it. Through the association, both the business and the cause benefit in ways they could not otherwise. Organizations such as Avon, ConAgra Foods, and Chevrolet have recognized that a sustained cause-branding program can improve their reputations, boost their employees' morale, strengthen relations with business partners, and drive sales. And the targeted causes receive far more money than they could have from direct corporate gifts alone. The authors examine these best practices and offer four principles for building successful cause-branding programs. First, they say, a company should select a cause that advances its corporate goals. Second, a business should commit to a cause before picking its charitable partners. Third, a company should put all its assets to work, especially its employees. And fourth, a company should promote its philanthropic initiatives through every possible channel.

In-N-Out Burger is a fast-food chain with 171 company-owned locations in three states--California, Nevada, and Arizona. It has an extremely hardcore customer base and the company appears to be in good financial health. The primary issue in this case concerns expansion: how quickly should the company expand and should that growth occur regionally or nationally? A secondary issue involves the question of brand stewardship, namely, who is in the best position to steward the brand as it continues to grow over the next decade?

Habitat for Humanity underwent a brand valuation study and found that its brand was worth $1.8 billion, equivalent to Starbucks. Senior management reviews the issues facing the organization; students are afforded insights into what drives brand value for a major nonprofit and what is critical for building and protecting brand value.

The sauce company Lee Kum Kee, one of the best known Hong Kong brands, had a long history that began in 1888 and was run by the same family for four generations. The company was founded by Lee Kam Sheung as a small oyster sauce manufacturer in Guangdong Province, China. It relocated to Macau in the early 1900s and moved once more to Hong Kong after World War II; it remained based there in the decades afterwards. Lee Kum Kee was already expanding beyond the Guangdong-Macau-Hong Kong distribution network in the 1920s to North America, when it was also making shrimp paste. In the 1970s and 1980s, after the torch passed to third-generation leader Lee Man Tat, there was rapid geographical market and product diversification. Lee Man Tat's sons, who were educated in the West, inherited the leadership from their father in the 1990s, and the pace of modernization and diversification continued while the company's marketing strategy remained vigorous and adaptable. The company overcame a consumer confidence crisis--called the 3-MPCD crisis--in the late 1990s and early 2000s and continued to thrive. By early 2003, Lee Kum Kee had already developed more than 200 sauces. Its distribution network covered 60 countries in five continents, and its products were available in more than 80 countries. What lessons about strategic brand management can we learn from the way Lee Kum Kee developed, maintained, and expanded the reach of its products over a whole century? What lessons about crisis management does the company's handling of the 3-MPCD crisis offer?

This technical note describes many of the issues, techniques and resources available in the field of shelf space management in the early 2000s. It assumes basic familiarity with category management and merchandising techniques.

Zhongda Optical Cable Engineering Company is a small company that provides optical cable engineering services to contractors who are installing intranet applications in a province in China. As an early entrant in the market and a high quality service provider, the company had been able to charge premium prices, however, the market has changed. There are now many competitors who provide similar services. Furthermore, contractors - and sometimes end-users - were learning how to do Zhongda's major task, optical cable welding, for themselves. Zhongda has three options: aggressively target end-user accounts; retreat from cable engineering services and focus on distributing cable components or start manufacturing optical cable welding machines. None of these is a perfect match for Zhongda's capabilities, but the prospects for continued prosperity in its current role are bleak.

This technical note describes many of the issues, techniques and resources available in the field of shelf space management in the early 2000s. It assumes basic familiarity with category management and merchandising techniques.