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This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Managers and entrepreneurs frequently adhere to the motto of being first to market. But the authors have discovered that many pioneers fail, while most current leaders are not pioneers. Using a historical method, the authors try to determine why pioneers fail and early leaders succeed. They have found that market leaders embody five factors critical to success: vision, persistence, commitment, innovation, and asset leverage.

Rogers Communications, Inc., Canada's largest cable television provider, is deciding how it should respond to developments that appear to portend the convergence of its industry with the computing and telecommunications industries. In particular, it is investigating how it should test the market for high-speed Internet access via cable modem. This case describes decisions that need to be made to bring this service to market in a suburb of Toronto.

Reynolds Consumer Products Division must decide whether to discontinue its program of case allowances in favor of discretionary trade dollars targeted for market development.

This case concerns the development of a marketing plan for a southern Ontario dock builder, John Morrison, who is entering his second year of business. He has distribution and promotion decisions to make.

Here's a familiar story: A nonprofit organization joins forces with a corporation in a cause-related marketing campaign. It seems like a win-win deal, but the nonprofit--and the media--find out several weeks into the campaign that the corporation's business practices are antithetical to the nonprofit's mission. The nonprofit's credibility is severely damaged. Is the moral of the story that nonprofits should steer clear of alliances with for-profit organizations? Not at all, Alan Andreasen says. Nonprofit managers can help their organizations avoid many of the risks and reap the rewards of cause-related marketing alliances by thinking of themselves not as charities but as partners in the marketing effort.

Is interactivity the greatest marketing opportunity of all time? Or does it represent 101 ways to lose money? If it is an opportunity, how will it manifest itself? What will interactive marketing look like, and what will it mean for customers and for companies? Those were some of the questions explored in May 1996 at the Harvard Business School Conference on the Future of Interactive Marketing. HBR's Perspectives, introduced by conference chairman John Deighton, capture some of the highlights of the discussions. Commentator Martin Levin of Microsoft Corp., for example, stresses the importance of making sure a company's use of the Web is appropriate; Patrick Barwise of London Business School discusses security issues; Stephen Haeckel of IBM's Advanced Business Institute notes that surprises are fundamental to progress in exploiting interactive technology; Richard Tedlow of the Harvard Business School takes a skeptical stance with regard to the often dazzling claims made for high-tech interactivity. Eight other commentators from the busness world, academia, and government also offer insights.

Students evaluate McDonald's new Arch Deluxe hamburger, targeted to adults, including the launch program and the underlying marketing strategy in light of the company's skills, resources, and brand position.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 597-028.

In the early 1990s, Tweeter etc., a small regional retailer of higher-end audio and video equipment, faced increasing competitive pricing pressures from several large regional and national consumer electronics chains. In response, in 1993, they introduced "Automatic Price Protection" (APP) as the cornerstone of a strategy to restore price credibility in the minds of consumers. Under APP, Tweeter monitored local newspaper ads and automatically mailed a refund check to a consumer if an item purchased at Tweeter was advertised for a lower price by a competitor. Three years later, in 1996, Tweeter is questioning the impact of APP on their current competitive positioning. More importantly, with the pending entry of another major discount chain, Tweeter is forced to question how effective APP will be in a market increasingly dominated by large discount retailers.

In the summer of 1996, Masao Morita, president of Sony Personal Mobile Communication Co., contemplated how to formulate its multinational marketing strategy for the fast-changing car navigation systems market. Morita needed to resolve the conflicting views within his company regarding several key issues, including geographical market focus, product selection, and standard setting.

The nonprofit performing arts industry in America, along with many performing arts organizations around the world, are facing crises on a variety of fronts. Accordingly, arts organizations must learn new ways to attract the resources they need to sustain their mission and quality. Arts managers must improve their skills in increasing and broadening their audience base, improving accessibility to various art forms, and learning how to better meet the needs of specific audience segments and contributors. To accomplish this, they must develop a better understanding of their own business and of the interests, attitudes, and motivations of their customers. They must professionalize their marketing and management skills and learn to be accountable to all their publics: their artists, their funders, and their audiences. Then they can create offerings, services, and messages to which the target audience will enthusiastically respond, without compromising their artistic integrity.

The general manager of Fuji Film's Saudi distributorship must decide on a relaunch strategy for Fuji film and cameras in Saudi Arabia.

Supplements the (A) case.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 597029.

BSE or Mad Cow Disease is symptomatic of a series of technology crises. This case deals with how governments, scientists, businessmen, farmers, and the media face very difficult issues under exteme pressure.

Supplement for case UV6481

The purpose of the case is to help students understand the complex nature of a visible and expensive organizational buying process. The goal is to help students appreciate the nature of the selling task, the complex interplay of different decision-making-unit members, and both the political and economic factors that often permeate such purchasing decisions. The A case (see also the B case, UVA-M-0471) documents the procurement-decision process used by Los Angeles to purchase light-rail cars for its subway system. The A case traces the bidding process and ends with the final award.

A medium-sized investment management firm is attempting to decide whether to try to grow, and if so, how. It is a complicated decision because the managing partner and her colleagues have significantly different views. This case provides the background on the industry, firm, and situation.

Continues the plot about growth and sales strategies, and adds interesting pricing and sales compensation elements. The partners' meeting sharpens the disagreements among the five partners, and forces Anne Howard, the managing partner, to develop a clear action plan.

Goes to the heart of the sales strategy issues by asking discussion participants to: 1) develop a salesperson recruiting process, 2) choose among four resumes, and 3) develop a sales compensation approach.