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Describes how to manage the pricing process so that your product or service does not become a commodity, and so that you have substantial price latitude. Designed for sales, marketing, and general managers responsible for price making and related activities.

Microsoft is planning the introduction of Internet Explorer along with Windows 95. Issues include how aggressive the company should be in providing its browser with Windows 95 and restricting OEMs (original-equipment manufacturers) from putting other browsers on their computers. Should Microsoft go for initial share, concentrate on stealing over time, retain customers, or enlarge the total size of the browser market? Students use a Markov process with initial states and switching probabilities to gain insight into resolving these issues.

Starbucks is faced with the issue of how it should leverage its core competencies against various opportunities for growth, including introducing its coffee in McDonalds, pursuing further expansion of its retail operations, and leveraging the brand into other product areas. The case is written so that students need to first identify where Starbucks' competencies lie along the value chain, and then assess how well those competencies can be leveraged across the various alternatives. Also provides an opportunity for students to assess what is driving growth in this company. Starbucks has a tremendous appetite for cash since all its stores are corporate, and investors are betting that it will be able to continue its phenomenal growth so it needs to walk a fine line between leveraging its brand to achieve growth and not eroding it in the process.

Brand loyalty is one of the core concepts of the marketing discipline that has enjoyed practical and academic attention for over 75 years. The era of relationship marketing, with its focus on retaining customers for life, has instilled yet greater interest in the concept, precipitating unprecedented growth in frequency programs designed to lock in customer loyalties over time. Despite this rich history, many questions remain about the definition, measurement, and significance of brand loyalty. Some state that brand loyalties are declining and that in today's consumer world, multibrand usage--not brand loyalty--appears the norm. Others feel that the concept of loyalty itself is not outmoded or outdated, but rather that new theoretical and methodological perspectives are required that can revitalize what has become a theoretically uninspired, overly simplistic, and conceptually limiting idea. This case seeks to inform this latter point of view by encouraging students to "see" brand loyalty from the perspective of the consumers that live it. Includes color exhibits.

It is early 1998 and Biopure Corp., a small biopharmaceutical firm with no sales revenues in its ten-year history, has just received government approval to release Oxyglobin, a revolutionary new "blood substitute" designed to replace the need for donated animal blood in the veterinary market. A virtually identical product for the human market, Hemopure, is in the final stages of testing by Biopure and is expected to gain approval within one to two years. In response to the timing of approval for these two products, there has been a long-running debate within Biopure as how to proceed with Oxyglobin. At odds are those in charge of Oxyglobin, who want to see the animal product released immediately, and those in charge of the Hemopure, who worry that an immediate release of Oxyglobin would create an unrealistically low price expectation for what they feel should be a very high-margin human product. Exacerbating the problem is the nature of the biopharmaceutical industry, where product approval is never a certainty until achieved.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 598-150,

Presents a call to manage the sales force actively in today's intensely competitive world. Suggests five steps that are necessary to make the sales force effective, beginning with clear specification of the sales task to be achieved.

Executives at this Internet-based company evaluate the results of a pricing survey to decide what changes to make, if any, to the annual fee charged for the company's junk mail elimination services. Founded in 1996, Adios Junk Mail provides comprehensive elimination of unwanted direct-marketing solicitations. Clients select what types of direct marketing they want stopped. Once a month, the company generates a list of customers and their elimination preferences. It then mails the list to direct-mail companies, telemarketers, and database companies, requesting that the customers' names be suppressed.

Presents a survey discussion of retailing and current issues. Examines the impact of changing consumer attitudes on the industry and outlines the industry's response: consolidation, adoption of technology, use of brands and private labels, and changing relationships with vendors.

Chung Yong, president of Samsung China Headquarters (SCH), was considering a recent meeting with the SCH marketing director responsible for developing a marketing strategy for the entire China market. The topic at the meeting was the marketing strategy for color TV, which had been chosen as the flagship product for the China market. Samsung had to decide whether it should focus on the low- or high-end market segment (or both), and whether to import or produce locally.

Omega Paw is a small, entrepreneurial and successful company ($1 million in sales in the first year) which needs to position itself as a major player in the pet industry. Omega has developed and has begun to market many pet products, among them the Self-Cleaning Litter Box, and is faced with the challenge of where, how and through whom the next stage of its growth strategy will take place. Students must examine the typical consumers, trade channels and the competition, and then consider which of the five marketing alternatives best meets the company's objectives.

The buyer of power tools and power tool accessories for Canadian Tire Corporation had to make a decision regarding the depth and breadth for the circular saw product line. The previous year's assortment did not perform up to expectations and the company experienced a significant decrease in sales in that category. The buyer had six weeks to complete a strategy to increase profitability in the line and to decide which products would make up Canadian Tire Corporation's assortment.

The executive vice president, Investor and Trust Services Division, The Toronto-Dominion Bank, and chairman, Green Line Investor Services, was trying to decide whether he should request the authorization of the bank's top management to begin negotiations to acquire Waterhouse Investor Services Inc. Waterhouse was the fourth largest discount brokerage firm in the United States, and the acquisition, if consummated, would be the largest acquisition in the history of the bank. The case describes the major strategic moves of Green Line from its establishment in 1984 to the proposed Waterhouse acquisition in 1996. During this period Green Line became the dominant discount broker in Canada. The Waterhouse acquisition would represent its first major move into the global discount brokerage market. One of the issues in the case is trying to understand the reasons for Green Line's success in Canada and the potential transferability of its customer value and profit creation model to the highly competitive U.S. market.

The director of sales and marketing for the Delta Grand Pacific Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, needed to devise a marketing strategy that would ensure the hotel's success in its very competitive market. He wanted to ensure that the hotel maintain and eventually increase its two key benchmarks of performance, namely, occupancy rates and average room rates, by milking the Sukhumvit Micromarket to its fullest potential. Compounding this challenge was the anticipation of a sharp drop in occupancy at the hotel due to the likelihood that an important client contract would not be renewed.

Deals with the issue of cross-selling and managing a portfolio of products and services in business markets. Arrow/Schweber (A/S), a subsidiary of electronic parts distributor Arrow Electronics, has a portfolio of products that differ in the amount of value added by A/S. A/S uses value-added items such as programmable logic chips as "loss leaders" in order to acquire and retain a customer. It makes money when it sells the so-called "commodity" or low value-added products to the same customer. An Internet-based distributor is now offering Arrow a chance to sell commodity products through its e-commerce site. This new channel can threaten Arrow's overall business model if a large portion of its existing customers switch their purchases of the commodity products to this new distribution channel. Arrow needs to decide how it should respond to this challenge.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 598-022.

The Computer Shoppe has five year's worth of customer information of past computer system purchasers in its database. While sales are good, the owner is wondering how he can use the customer information available to him to increase sales.

The Computer Shoppe has five year's worth of customer information of past computer system purchasers in its database. While sales are good, the owner is wondering how he can use the customer information available to him to increase sales.

Bronner Slosberg Humphrey has succeeded by providing integrated direct marketing solutions for major service companies such as AT&T, American Express, and FedEx. A new CEO takes over from the company's founder and is wondering how to grow the company. Options include selling individual services (teleservices, database, web), and/or opening global offices.

Sandra Hawken is faced with the challenge of developing a marketing plan for Romil Reyes, vice-president of operations of Purely Gr...8! Water Company Inc., a premium purified bottled water company in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Romil, a 20 per cent owner of the business, wants to expand the target market from its current client base of Filipino home users. Romil's father, the majority shareholder, enjoys servicing the small client base and does not want to take risks with his business. Sandra is left with the task of making product positioning, pricing, promotion and distribution decisions that will appease both owners.