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In May 2021, the founder of Yardstick Educational Initiatives Private Limited, a provider of experiential learning programs in India and the United Arab Emirates, was facing various business challenges. The company was started in India in 2008 but had been increasingly focused on the more profitable Middle East market since 2012. Attempting to stay current with technology advancements in educational products, it made considerable investments to develop new products and enhance its flagship learning product, the Yardstick Experiential Learning Program. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 caused a major setback for the company. Cash flow issues and reduced working capital were forcing the founder to decide which client segment to continue serving and which products to support. With only three months left in the peak sales season before the next academic year, the founder had to make important decisions.

On February 16, 2021, Slave Free Chocolate removed Tony’s Chocolonely (Tony’s), a chocolate company based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from its “Ethical Chocolate Companies” list due to Tony’s association with Barry Callebaut, a cocoa processor associated with child slavery in West Africa. Tony’s, a B Corp-certified company whose founding mission was to eradicate child slavery from the cocoa supply chain, had to address its public removal from the list immediately to maintain the company's credibility. How should the chief executive officer of Tony’s respond to the removal?

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Explores channel management issues in the U.S. food industry. Natureview Farm, a Vermont-based producer of organic yogurt with $13 million in revenues, is the leading national yogurt brand (24% market share) sold into natural foods stores. It has achieved this through its special yogurt manufacturing process and through cultivating personal relationships with dairy buyers in the natural foods channel. Set in 2000, when the company faces financial pressure to grow revenues to $20 million by the end of 2001 due to a planned exit by its venture capital investors. The immediate decision point that the protagonist, Natureview's vice president of marketing, faces is whether to achieve this revenue growth by expanding into the supermarket channel.

Atlantic Computer, a leading player in the high-end server market, has detected a marketplace opportunity in the basic server segment. They have developed a new server, the Tronn, to meet the needs of this segment. In addition, they have created a software tool, called the "Performance Enhancing Server Accelerator," or PESA, that allows the Tronn to perform up to four times faster than its standard speed. The central question revolves around how to price the Tronn and PESA. Although cost-plus, competition-based, and status-quo pricing are the most common means by which firms establish prices for their offerings, these approaches may prevent firms from fully realizing the benefits that are due to them. Provides an opportunity to optimize value capture for the firm by utilizing value-in-use pricing (i.e., examining the value that a firm's offering creates for the customer, and using the savings generated as the basis for developing prices). Also allows for the exploration of the challenges surrounding the implementation of a value-in-use pricing strategy. These include the reactions of competitors, customers, and stakeholders within the firm.

Cambridge Sciences Pharmaceuticals (CSP) expects final approval for its revolutionary weight loss drug, Metabical. Metabical will be the only weight loss drug with FDA approval that is also clinically proven to be effective for moderately overweight people. Barbara Printup, Senior Marketing Director for CSP, must develop the positioning strategy and marketing communications plan in preparation for the launch of the new drug. Printup must consider the consumer decision-making process and the interaction between the consumer who purchases the drug and the health care provider who prescribes the medication. Despite promising medical studies and consumer research, poor positioning of the drug in the highly competitive market for weight-loss solutions could spell disaster. Students analyze market research data and consider the optimal positioning strategy and marketing communications program.

Metabical is a new weight loss drug from Cambridge Sciences Pharmaceuticals intended for moderately overweight individuals. In anticipation of final FDA approval, the senior director of marketing, Barbara Printup, prepares for the product launch and must make several critical decisions. First, she must select the optimal packaging size for the drug which typically requires a 12-week course of treatment. Next, she must determine the appropriate pricing. Since most insurance companies do not cover weight-loss medications, price has a direct impact on the sales forecast. To establish the initial demand forecast, Printup considers three approaches based on different assumptions. Her final recommendations must consider long term profitability and meet the company's desired return on investment.The case includes a quantitative assignment for students.

Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, a small luxury private hotel management firm running a collection of 12 individually branded hotels and resorts in multiple countries, was wondering how to foster customer retention and loyalty and capture the maximum value from its 115,000 guests. Rosewood had always allowed each hotel to stand as its own individual brand, with the Rosewood name presented as a muted sub-brand, if at all. Now Rosewood's new leadership was contemplating whether the firm should significantly increase the prominence of the corporate identity, making Rosewood a corporate brand. The main challenge that Rosewood's executives face is to assess whether the potential economic benefits from increased guest retention can outweigh the $1,000,000 marketing investment needed to implement the corporate branding strategy. The central focus is a quantitative assignment that asks students to calculate how customer lifetime value would be affected by a shift from individual branding to corporate branding.

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Teaching note for case 915539.

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Hunley, Inc. manufactures rods for the niche sport of fly fishing. It specializes in freshwater rods that are perceived as "middle-market" products, targeted at "avid" fly fishers, In the face of declining revenue and a decreasing price per unit sold, the company's president is considering several growth options, including introducing a rod made from state-of-the-art materials (moving up-market) and expanding distribution into Walmart (down-market). Hunley's president must decide whether either option is feasible and if so, what kind of marketing plan is necessary for each to succeed. If neither option is chosen, he must determine what other ways Hunley might grow. This is a rich marketing mix case that requires students to develop a qualitative and quantitative plan for Hunley's product line under two very different growth options. The discussion can illuminate numerous marketing issues that an instructor might want to emphasize, including: brand extension, product and company market position, positioning statements, market segmentation, introductory marketing programs, new product launches, channel conflict, sales force management of a strategic shift, among others. This case is suitable for an introductory marketing course for undergraduate or MBA students. It can also be used in a section on positioning and increasing consumers' willingness-to-pay within a strategy course. Further, the challenges facing Hunley are relevant to many courses in executive education.

Companies often believe they should make their customers' experiences as effortless and predictable as possible. But the authors' research shows that this approach is overly simplistic--and can even backfire. While in some instances (say, watching movies on Netflix) customers want their journeys to be easy and familiar, in others (working out on a Peloton bike or playing World of Warcraft) they want to be challenged or surprised. This article outlines four kinds of journeys: Routines are effortless and predictable and are suited to utilitarian products. Joyrides are effortless and unpredictable and work with products that deliver an on-demand thrill. Treks are effortful and predictable and are associated with products that help people achieve challenging long-term goals. Odysseys are effortful and unpredictable and are perfect for products that facilitate customers' passion projects. Each type of journey has its own design principles. Routines should offer consistent touchpoints in familiar sequences; joyrides, endlessly varied moments of delight. Treks require goal-posting (breaking big objectives down into small ones), and odysseys, substantive variation and journey tracking.

Eric Faust founded the Duluth Coffee Company (DCC) in 2012 with a $10,000 loan and a lot of passion for coffee. The company was a classic garage startup, where Faust had a 3-kilogram roaster cranking up limited batches of coffee and selling them to local coffee shops and restaurants. Then Faust rented a store in downtown Duluth, Minnesota. He turned it into a coffee shop with an upgraded 12-kilogram roaster that occupied a central spot at the café. As Faust was developing direct relationships with coffee growers, he realized that DCC could play a bigger role in improving farmers' livelihoods by buying more of their coffee. Faust decided to upgrade to a 70-kilogram roaster to be custom built and installed in the café. With the increase in the volume of the coffee he roasted and sold, the company would need to have a new distribution strategy. Sam Levar, the newly hired marketing manager, developed plans for a new distribution strategy to be run by his boss. Levar felt that the status quo inhibited the growth of the business and limited profitability in the long run. Faust and his three employees were tied up running the café while sourcing the coffee beans, roasting, prospecting, packaging, warehousing, fulfilling orders, invoicing, and managing accounts receivables and cash flows. Levar suggested outsourcing the distribution function to an experienced distributor(s). Such a decision would help the company have higher sales volumes and better long-term profitability. However, Faust was wary they might lose control over the brand he built from the ground up. Their conversation left Levar considering the pros and cons of preserving the status quo versus recruiting experienced distributors or a wholesaler. Is it time for a new distribution strategy? What should Levar recommend for Faust?

Struggling to maintain a work-life balance after the birth of her second son in 2011, Dalia Barsoum left her executive position in Wealth Management at the Bank of Montreal to start her own business. She founded Streetwise Mortgages, an independent mortgage brokerage that targeted customers interested in purchasing investment properties. Customers were offered hours of free consultations on building wealth through real estate and had access to Barsoum's network of support. The value of these consultations to customers caused many clients to book meetings, consuming time and resources without generating a penny in revenue for Streetwise. By August 2020, Barsoum felt overwhelmed by the number of requests; she had only so many hours for consultations and needed to come up with a solution. She was considering charging a refundable fee for consultation meetings to discourage less-serious customers from booking one. Alternatively, she liked the idea of a screening tool, such as a questionnaire that determined customers' needs, resources, and goals to tailor the advice and services better.

Many social media platforms exist today, but the thing all of them have in common is that they are used by real people. Algorithms and analytics are typically what marketers focus on when utilizing social media; however, they should instead be striving to meaningfully connect the company to the people who will help them grow. Taking a people-first approach, this book discusses how to better use social media for marketing purposes and communicate with others using social media platforms. Reaching a certain audience is not the only goal; listening to them is also vital for marketers to take full advantage of social media. This approach will never change even though the various social networks always are. By making sure that people are the focus of all social media strategies, marketers can offer more value to companies and the people they serve. Chapter 1 explores the idea of a people-first approach to social media and how this might apply to various social networks. Companies need to reframe their understanding of social media. To start this process, consider your personal network: your advocates, cheerleaders, problem-solvers, casual observers, and those working against you. People on social media inhabit all these roles in relation to companies, but businesses focus on algorithms, "engagements," and inhuman communication rather than actual conversations, questions, and experiences. Everything posted on social media should be an opportunity for a new conversation. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok are all discussed, including their individual purposes and roles within a company and their potential benefits. Questions are offered to encourage marketers to consider how they can use these channels more effectively.

Many social media platforms exist today, but the thing all of them have in common is that they are used by real people. Algorithms and analytics are typically what marketers focus on when utilizing social media; however, they should instead be striving to meaningfully connect the company to the people who will help them grow. Taking a people-first approach, this book discusses how to better use social media for marketing purposes and communicate with others using social media platforms. Reaching a certain audience is not the only goal; listening to them is also vital for marketers to take full advantage of social media. This approach will never change even though the various social networks always are. By making sure that people are the focus of all social media strategies, marketers can offer more value to companies and the people they serve. Chapter 2 begins by looking at demographics and psychographics. Demographics-such as gender, race, location, and marital status-are typically what people are defined by in marketing. Psychographics looks at a person's subjective qualities, including values, fears, stresses, and joys. A company's best customers will usually be similar in psychological characteristics. Customers and clients are often the sole focus of marketing; however, there are five other audiences companies should consider: employees, centers of influence, investors and donors, partners and suppliers, and competitors. Each of these audiences is explored, and tools for how to cater to them are offered. Prioritizing audiences is essential for effective marketing, and specific audiences will change over time.

Many social media platforms exist today, but the thing all of them have in common is that they are used by real people. Algorithms and analytics are typically what marketers focus on when utilizing social media; however, they should instead be striving to meaningfully connect the company to the people who will help them grow. Taking a people-first approach, this book discusses how to better use social media for marketing purposes and communicate with others using social media platforms. Reaching a certain audience is not the only goal; listening to them is also vital for marketers to take full advantage of social media. This approach will never change even though the various social networks always are. By making sure that people are the focus of all social media strategies, marketers can offer more value to companies and the people they serve. Chapter 3 discusses how to find people from different audiences through social media. Employees should be a company's biggest fans; engage them when they are still applicants. Offering social media trainings to employees can be beneficial if a company has a clear social media policy. Customers often look at company websites first, so social media channels should be prominently shown there. When a customer is engaged with a company's social media channels, the company should promote the customer and their relationship. Typically, getting investors engaged on social media is easy, but they should be more involved with a company's social media strategy and practices. Leverage current business connections by creating social media content together. Guidelines are provided on finding new people outside of the already existing audiences: incorporate social media channels into marketing, sales, and customer service processes; take advantage of paid and promoted opportunities; and ensure ads are communicating in meaningful ways.