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Dewar's is considering employing new media options. The company had committed resources to a new CD-ROM magazine, Launch, in 1994, as its first experiment with new media. During 1994, a number of additional opportunities have been presented to both Leo Burnett and S&S including other CD-ROM "digizines" and World Wide Web sites. Jamie Prusak must now decide how to evaluate these new opportunities, as well as several other lower technology media alternatives, in terms of costs, effectiveness and efficiency, and long-term impact on the brand's two target markets.

Dewar's, a major brand of Scotch whisky, produced by United Distillers of the U.K., and the U.S. leader in the Scotch category with a 15% market share, faced a declining market among traditional consumers of distilled spirits. Given the growing societal, legal, and regulatory opposition to drinking in the U.S., the marketing options were limited. In addition, drinking preferences had shifted away from distilled spirits to lighter, lower alcohol beverages like wine, wine coolers, and beer. In early 1993, Dewar's U.S. importer, Schieffelin and Somerset, in cooperation with the brand's longstanding advertising agency, Leo Burnett, began to explore the opportunities for repositioning Dewar's to younger adults. Repositioning Dewar's was a necessity for the brand to remain viable in the long term. Its existing customer base was aging, and younger drinkers who did drink Scotch were consuming less. The issue is how to update the brand's image to attract younger consumers. The brand manager faces the decision of planning the strategy for a repositioning or "recruitment" campaign for the brand.

Vistakon, an independent and entrepreneurial subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, pioneered the production and marketing of disposable contact lenses with the 1987 launch of Acuvue, the first disposable extended-wear lens--a soft contact lens that patients wear for a period of less than two weeks and then abandon. By 1993, Acuvue was the leading brand of soft contact lens in the United States. In March 1994, Gary Kunkle, president of Vistakon, was presented with the test market results for an addition to the firm's product line, 1 Day Acuvue, the world's first daily disposable contact lens. The test market results raised a number of strategic issues relating to: 1) the positioning and pricing of the new daily wear disposable product; 2) cannibalization of the firm's existing extended-wear disposable lens; and 3) the mix of push and pull components required for the introductory marketing campaign to be effective in generating and coordinating demand from both eye-care professionals and consumers. In deciding how to proceed, Kunkle must evalute the risks associated with commencing an immediate launch with an unproven strategy as opposed to extending the test market.

Erox Corp. is a biotechnology start-up that creates products containing synthetic human pheromones. It was founded in 1989, went public in 1993, and brought in a turnaround team in 1994. Sales ramped from $110,000 in 1993 to over $1 million in 1994, with prospects for continued hypergrowth. Pheromones are odorless biochemical cues secreted by people and animals to influence the behavior of others of the same species. Biotechnologists have discovered human pheromones, and Erox has patents protecting its use of synthetic human pheromones for men and women in cosmetic products such as perfumes, colognes, and body lotions. Realm is preparing a national U.S. retail launch of its fragrance product lines: Real for women and Realm for Men. Michael Stern, VP marketing and sales, has developed a successful direct-marketing campaign using a 30-minute infomercial. His challenge is to develop a leveraged marketing communications campaign to support the launch of Realm in Bloomingdales.

Corporate success depends on breaking through the clutter of messages and products facing consumers in the marketplace. But the more innovative the idea--whether it is a new product, package, price, or promotion--the greater the risk. Traditional marketing research methods, such as test markets, focus groups, controlled field experiments, and even STMs, have limitations. Some are vulnerable to observation and manipulation by competitors; others are contrived and unrealistic, too expensive, or simply incapable of providing the information that managers need. But a new alternative--the virtual store--not only addresses those limitations, it also broadens the horizons of marketing research.

A decade ago, many observers predicted Caterpillar's demise. Yet today the company's overall share of the world market for construction and mining equipment is the highest in its history. And the biggest reason for the turnaround, writes Caterpillar's chairman and CEO Donald Fites, has been the company's system of distribution and product support and the close customer relationships it fosters. The backbone of that system is Caterpillar's 186 independent dealers around the world. They have played a central role in helping the company build close relationships with customers and gain insights into how it can improve products and services.

U.S. corporations lose half their customers every five years. But most managers fail to address that fact head-on by striving to learn why those defectors left. They are making a mistake, because a climbing defection rate is a sign that a business is in trouble. By analyzing the causes of defection, managers can learn how to stem the decline and build a successful enterprise. The longer customers stay with a company, the more they are worth. The key to customer loyalty is value creation. The key to value creation is organizational learning. And the key to organizational learning, says the author, is grasping the value of failure.

Documents two problems in the product development process of Northern Telecom's new Greenwich key systems product line. These problems are due to the conflicting goals of the marketing, design, and manufacturing groups in the product development team. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Executive Vice President Durk Jager was convinced that the huge sums being spent on trade and consumer promotion could be put to better use, and that P&G should overhaul its pricing strategy to one of consistent list prices with little, if any, promotional spending. Two category managers (for hand-dishwashing liquids Dawn, Ivory, and Joy, and for Folgers coffee) were considering the potential consequences of putting their products on the "value pricing" bandwagon. Should they implement value pricing? And if so, how much should they reduce list prices for these national brands? Major changes to the original budget and marketing plan would be required, and these changes would have to be accomplished without compromising the profitability of the category.

Provides a simple illustration of a methodology for making a financial evaluation of a brand.

The idea that "relationships" exist between consumers and products has implicitly occupied a central place in brand marketing thought and practice. Now as relational (one-on-one) marketing is said to be replacing transactional (mass) marketing as the dominant paradigm of the field, explicit theoretical development of these ideas becomes critical. This case presents detailed qualitative data on three women and their relationships with brands. Intended to reveal the deep connections consumers may form with brands across product categories, providing new insights into phenomena such as brand loyalty and brand equity that will inform brand management practice.

The company is coming into the market with an industrial chemical in the 1990s. Their competitor is a firm which has had a monopoly in the market for many years through patent protection. Hudson must decide on a pricing policy for its new product.

How real is the private-label threat to branded products? What should national-brand manufacturers do about it? On the one hand, manufacturers have reason to be concerned. There are more private labels on the market than ever before; collectively, unit share of store-brand goods place first, second, or third in 177 of 250 supermarket product categories in the United States. But many manufacturers have not fully recognized two important points in considering this threat. First, private-label market share generally goes up when the economy is suffering and down in stronger economic periods. Second, manufacturers of brand-name products can have significant influence on the seriousness of the challenge posed by private-label goods. It is difficult for managers to look at a competitive threat objectively and in a long-term context when day-to-day performance is suffering. But the authors strongly advocate keeping the private-label challenge in perspective.

Jan Bakke, founder and chairman of Norway-based MRT, was planning the U.S. market entry strategy for CardioScope--its electrocardiograph system. How could MRT get a foothold in the U.S. market against competitors who had been around for 50 years? How could he ensure that MRT would be able to defend itself once it entered the market? What segments should it target, and how should it position itself?

The owner/operator of Fleetway Bowling Centre in London, Ontario, is faced with making a decision on whether to introduce a new computerized software program that could combine bowling with the game of bingo. If he decides to go ahead with Bingo-Bowling, he needs to develop a complete marketing plan to introduce this game to the public. In particular, he must decide whom to target (league/recreational bowlers), what media to choose and whether this opportunity would be financially attractive for Fleetway. Lastly, he wondered how to market the game to a group with weak representation at Fleetway: The University of Western Ontario student market.

Category management is a technique used by retailers where the product assortment is sub-divided into categories that 1) reflect the purchasing behaviour of the target consumers and 2) are managed as separate business units. In category management, retailers aim to improve the overall performance of a group of products, rather than focus on individual items. In other words, it is a change in perspective about the competitive dynamics of products in the assortment. Individual categories have a manager with the responsibility for making both the buying and merchandising decisions for the category and for planning and achieving the sales and profit goals. (A color version of this case is available at a higher price.)

The key account manager at Pioneer Products, sat before her computer pondering the challenge that faced her. She had been asked by the category manager at King's Food Store (KFS) to work with him on a review of the table syrup category. She knew that the performance of the table syrup category, and indeed, the various brands and items within the category, had caused some concern at KFS recently. The table syrup category was a small one for King's Food Store and they really needed the expertise and resources available from the syrup manufacturers to improve the performance of the category. She knew that the category review was the first step in developing a category management program with KFS. She was excited about the opportunity to partner with KFS but she knew that she had a lot of work to do to review and understand the category before making her initial presentation. As she prepared for her task, she wondered what market and product performance information to review and what recommendations she would make to KFS. A follow-up case (9A95A007) is available.

The key account manager at Pioneer Products, was elated. She had just presented the category manager at King's Food Stores (KFS), with her observations and preliminary recommendations based on her review of the table syrup category (see King's Food Stores (A), 9A95A006). He was delighted with her new insights into the category and was now considering the formation of a strategic alliance with Pioneer Products to manage the table syrup business. He had just provided her with additional valuable, confidential information about consumer behaviour, pricing, and promotions. Her challenge now was to develop further her recommendations for KFS.

Describes the history and unique operating principles of the most successful corporate law firm in the country. Closes with a lengthy quotation by Martin Lipton, who is one of the firm's founding partners and who is described in an American Lawyer article as the "Elvis Presley of the M&A field." Lipton reflects on certain activities that the firm carries out aimed at building its reputation. Whether or not these activities constitute marketing is left an open question.

Monsanto has one product, Roundup, accounting for 30% of company net income and is going off patent. How should the company position itself and its products in the future?