個案總覽

The management team at ING Bank of Canada was preparing to launch Canada's first discount bank. Initially, the bank planned to serve its customers using mail and telephone. Later, it planned to supplement the telephone banking service with an interactive voice response system and an Internet-based service. ING hoped to attract customers by offering significantly higher interest rates on its savings products than any of its competitors. There was some skepticism about the viability of the proposed business model. At the time of the case, the president and CEO of ING Bank was reviewing the proposed launch strategy.

Chai-Na-Ta (Asia) Ltd. is the Hong Kong-based operating arm of Canada's Chai-Na-Ta Corp., an integrated ginseng firm. The decision has been made to enter the mainland China market and the general manager must make decisions on the entry city, target market(s), product(s) focus, distribution, and pricing. Although he has significant knowledge of the Hong Kong market, he is unsure of the degree to which this can be transferred to the mainland markets. This case pushes the student to develop a marketing strategy in a situation in which there is imperfect market information.

The Vancouver plant manager of British Columbia Box Limited was about to make a half-million dollar decision. The plant required a new $500,000 machine, and the manager must decide which manufacturer will get the order. The case illustrates many concepts in industrial buying.

Gervais Lavoie, managing director of the Canadian-Chinese joint venture, Beijing Oasis High Nutrition Food Co., needs to decide what means of distribution is most appropriate for the company's newly-developed fruit nectars. The decision is complicated by the fact that different means of distribution have different implications for the ultimate pricing and promotion of the products.

In companies in which a brand is the key source of competitive advantage, it is essential to collect and evaluate data as a part of brand management. To do this, managers need information from a variety of functional areas throughout the firm. One of the ways accountants can provide useful information for marketers is by conducting periodic brand valuations, assigning financial value to the equity created by the name or image of a brand such a NIKE or Intel. Doing this aids management decisions regarding short-term expenditures and long-term benefits. We describe here how brands can be valued and how this information can be used for decision-making. Methods of brand valuation include cost-based approaches, market-based approaches, income-based approaches, and formulary approaches (which use multiple criteria in arriving at brand value, as practiced by the consulting firm Interbrand and Financial World magazine). Advantages and disadvantages of these approaches are noted. The measure of brand value may include subjective elements, but the lack of a financial measure means that the importance of intangible assets might be overlooked. Brand valuation, as a bridge among different functions and disciplines, appears to be the most promising technique capable of illustrating the importance of the brand to managers.

At a time when other areas of business are undergoing dramatic improvements in productivity, marketing seems to be getting more expensive and less effective. Marketing has seen no great advances since the advent of brand management and network television after World War II. Reviewer Peter Sealey looks for solutions in three new books. Competing on Value, by Stan Maklan and Simon Knox, advises companies to look beyond specific products and provide value by enlisting the entire organization in satisfying consumer needs. Radical Marketing, by Sam Hill and Glenn Rifkin, tells how niche companies such as Boston Beer won share in competitive markets by carefully studying their customers and bringing their own passions to bear. While these two books offer real improvements to marketing, they don't offer a conceptual breakthrough that enables companies to get beyond the limitations of brand management. Seth Godin's Permission Marketing, by contrast, tells marketers to replace basic brand strategies with full-fledged dialogues with consumers. For Godin, the Internet is tailor-made to host such dialogues; it allows marketers to integrate all their interactions with customers into one medium and permits companies to discover and exploit the individual interests of the target audience. Sealey agrees that the Internet offers the technology for innovation in marketing, but he goes further than Godin, saying that the Internet will lead companies all the way to customer-driven marketing. Customers will actively engage companies and aggressively seek information, allowing marketers to drastically reduce their often wasted efforts to capture consumer attention.

What makes for success in high-tech markets? Many managers believe it's offering products with the best performance at the lowest price. Yet most would also acknowledge that price and performance are just the ante to get into the game, that they don't make the difference between a successful high-tech venture and an unsuccessful one. One factor that can make the difference, the authors argue, is brand management. The problem is, most high-tech managers think of branding only as an advertising campaign or a slogan. Developing and maintaining a strong brand in the fullest sense requires much more--it's conceiving of a promise of value for customers and then ensuring that the promise is kept. The Gateway Computer brand, for example, is a promise of friendly service that's backed by efficient help lines and effective order and service fulfillment. Building a powerful brand requires fives steps. The first two steps involve determining the tangible characteristics of the offerings that carry the brand name and the benefits the customers accrue from those benefits. In the remaining steps, high-tech managers consider the psychological or emotional benefits of the products; what "value" means to a typical loyal customer; and what, ultimately, is the essential nature and character of the brand over time. Like the Apple brand--which has been consistently synonymous with easy-to-use, reliable computers--and the IBM brand--which promises value built on its long tradition of superior service and support--a successful brand commands enduring premium profits that can help a high-tech company get off the price-performance roller coaster.

What does cyberspace mean for physical retail space? Has on-line shopping changed the fundamentals of retailing? And how should managers evaluate new in-store technologies? In this article, the heads of Marks and Spencer, Neiman Marcus, and Karstadt join two distinguished academics to look at what's in store for the bricks-and-mortar store. There's no doubt that new technologies have made retailing more complicated and more competitive. Using the Web, for example, consumers can conceivably sidestep their corner store and patronize shops across the country or around the world. Eventually, they might forsake retailers altogether, shopping directly from manufacturers. By the same token, though, managers can use technology to magnify the benefits of their location--using Web sites to show, for example, the retail topography of a local town and to highlight when stores that sell particular products will be open. And new in-store technologies promise managers--and customers--increased efficiency and more knowledgeable service. It's too early to predict how these new technologies will play out. But the contributors suggest that the fundamentals of retailing really haven't changed. Whether they know it or not, consumers still weigh the same factors when determining where to shop: scope of product assortment, price, convenience, service, and ambiance. The Internet has just added another layer of urgency to an already established agenda--forcing managers to examine their priorities in newly creative ways.

An elementary treatment of all aspects of marketing strategy. Intended as a supplement to case discussions in the early stages of an introductory marketing course. A rewritten version of an earlier note.

Students evaluate the consistency and liability of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos's marketing strategy. Bezos founded Amazon.com as an Internet retailer of books, and by 1999, the site also sold CDs, videos, used books, and gifts and operated an auction service.

The marketing head of the Boston Red Sox is reviewing the team's "Friendly Fenway" fan satisfaction program. The program is described in the context of the team's on-the-field performance, the ballpark's character, and team marketing and fan-building in general. The revenue implications of increased customer satisfaction are also raised, within the framework of team economics.

The National Football League (NFL) is negotiating its next round of national television contracts with its broadcast and cable TV partners. The revenues from these contracts constitute a major source of income for the individual NFL teams. The case provides information on the history of the NFL on television, TV ratings for major sports, TV rights fees for major sports (including the recent new NBA TV contract), and the current contract with each broadcast partner. Ideas proposed to the NFL by rights-holders and rights-seekers are also included.

DayQuil Brand Sampling is part of a three-case series about the execution of a sampling project for the DayQuil brand of cold medication made by Procter & Gamble. The Brand Sampling case focuses primarily on brand management issues. The case serves to introduce students to the implementation aspects involved in a sampling program as well as to some tricky decisions regarding use of samples from a different country. In particular, the use of samples from the United States in the Canadian market requires over-stickering the expiry date and using one which is one year longer. While the use of the extended expiry date was perfectly legal and safe, the potential for consumer confusion was significant. (The other cases in this Procter & Gamble series are Managing DayQuil Sampling, case 9A98C015, and DayQuil Sampling Operations, case 9A98D020.)

The Disco chain of supermarkets has pursued a successful local niche strategy in Argentina to compete with intense competition from multinational chains. Now Disco considers options for expanding its regional strength.

Tells the story of Snapple's rise and fall, and poses the question "Can it recover?" Many soft-drink brands flourished in the 1980s serving New York's Yuppies, but only Snapple made the big time. It went from local to national success and was poised to go international when the founders sold out to Quaker. The brand proved harder to manage than Quaker anticipated and in 1997 was sold for a fraction of its acquisition price. The case presents factors accounting for the growth and decline and provides a qualitative study of the brand. What action should the new owners take?

Spreadsheet supplement for case 599-126.

Describes the evolution of Zucamor and its business strategy, particularly after the opening of the Argentine economy in 1992 and 1993. Traces the action that led to its association with U.S. paper giant Union Camp. Poses some of the critical challenges faced by the company's new management.