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Northern Telecom has spent $50 million to develop a new family of telephone systems for small businesses. The investment proposal was justified on the basis of appreciable market share impact. Now, the project team must develop the appropriate supporting marketing program for the launch of the product in two markets--the United States and Canada.

Describes the importance of positioning for retail outlets. Sections of the note deal with aspects of the retailing mix.

In 1992, BMW attempts to revive its position in the United States market. In 1991, unit sales had fallen to 53,000 from 88,000 in 1987. The new CEO of North America considers a multifaceted plan to turn around the situation.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 593082.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 593-098.

Starting as a modest 20-bed hospital, Aravind had grown into a 1,400-bed hospital complex by 1992. It had by then screened 3.65 million patients and performed 335,000 cataract surgeries, nearly 70% of them free of cost for the poorest of India's blind population. Aravind's founder, Dr. Venkataswamy, now 74 years old, had a goal to spread the Aravind model to every nook and corner of India, Asia, and Africa. The case sets the stage for developing such a plan of action.

Too often, quality programs fail to improve quality because they concentrate on internal processes that do not affect the customer. This is at least partially due to the alienation of marketing from the quality movement, a situation for which both sides are partially at fault. Ideally, marketing should serve as the eyes and ears of the organization, linking the external customer to managerial processes. One way to do this is to organize the collection of customer satisfaction measures around the managerial processes themselves. This forms a natural bridge from the customer to management and allows management to track the impact of quality improvements all the way from internal process measures to overall customer satisfaction and market share.

In May 1992, Intel Corp., the leading supplier of microprocessors for IBM-compatible personal computers, announced the retail availability of OverDrive processors, a new line of performance upgrades for the Intel 486 series of microprocessors. The case chronicles the evolution of Intel microprocessors and math coprocessors. Next, it describes the genesis of the "speed-doubling" technique that is employed in the OverDrive Processor and it details the important implementation issues. The central questions are the following: How does a firm manage a product line in the context of rapid technological change? What are the consequences--for the end users, and hence the system and component manufacturers--of rapid product change? How does product upgradability help mitigate some of these consequences? How should Intel develop the OverDrive business? And how will this affect the company's mainline microprocessor business?

Describes a company marketing branded rice products to three different countries--Italy, Argentina, and Poland. Explores the differences and similarities between the countries in terms of consumers, competition, products, and margins.

People don't take vacations to "get away from it all," states marketing guru Ted Levitt, but to escape from modern commercialism. And the chief culprit is advertising: omnipresent, relentless, loud, sometimes tasteless. Even if you like a product or love an ad, the ubiquitousness, the repetition of advertising can drive you crazy. But advertising helps a lot too, Levitt asserts. Facilitating the free flow of commerce, advertising creates opportunities and employment and spurs innovation. Informing, entertaining, and exciting, it presents a change of pace amidst the usual news, drama, sports, or MTV. Ads open doors to the products people create to reshape their environments and enhance their lives, the tools they use to get results. And in an era where there is so much to mistrust, advertising is straightforward in its purpose. Acting in behalf of whoever is paying, it hides no agenda but blatantly seeks your money.

A telephone company is launching a new network feature, voice mail, and requires a complete marketing communication program. This case provides detailed market information to enable specification of target audiences and communication objectives. (A sequel to this case addresses media and production costs, Newton Launch (B).)

A telephone company has identified the target audiences and objectives associated with its new voice mail system (see Newton Launch (A)). This case provides very detailed media and production costs and other information to enable the preparation of a complete marketing communications program for the launch of voice mail. The two cases constitute a very thorough workout in all aspects of marketing communication, especially advertising, direct marketing, merchandising, and publicity.

The manager of a telephone company is examining all major forms of marketing research in an effort to answer questions about how to package together 15 network features for the residential market. This case is especially useful to illustrate research design issues.

The marketing manager for the Imaging Systems business unit (ISY) at Hewlett-Packard Medical Products Group is considering channel strategy and channel management issues raised by the upcoming introduction of a new cardiac imaging product. Product marketing's plans call for the use of indirect distribution channels to enter a new segment; important managers in ISY's direct sales force disagree.

Northern Telecom Canada is launching its new payphone system, Millennium. The marketing director for the new line of pay telephones is considering how to price the terminal part of the system. There are many considerations, including an extensive evaluation of the economic value of the system to the telephone company's customers, pay telephone agents, users and, of course, Northern Telecom itself. A complete marketing plan is required to sell to telcos, agents, and end users. This case requires much greater than usual preparation time.

The marketing director of Warner-Lambert's Irish subsidiary is completing the marketing plan for the launch of Niconil, a transdermal skin patch to facilitate smoking cessation.

Planning is underway for the launch of Pert Plus shampoo in Canada following two successful product launches in the U.S. A number of launch decisions have already been made. Major decisions remain to be made on pricing and on response to probable trade pressure for compensation on inventory of the original product. The teaching objectives include the development of pricing decision-making skills through analyses of consumer behaviour, trade behaviour, and forecast financial outcomes.

To today's customers, value can mean any number of things, from convenience of purchase to after-sale service and dependability. But that doesn't mean companies have to excel at everything. A study of over 40 companies found that market leaders like Dell Computer, Home Depot, and NIKE succeed by narrowing their business focus, not by broadening it. They concentrate on one of three value disciplines--operational excellence, customer intimacy, or product leadership--and align their entire operating model to serve that discipline. Companies should choose a value discipline that fits with their existing capabilities and culture and then push themselves relentlessly to sustain it. And they should willingly change their operations to support that value discipline.

For Jim Carr, marketing manager, Europe, for DuPont's Carpet Fibre Division, there was no alternative: to maintain its European preeminence, the company would have to create a whole new way of dealing with customers. One of the issues that would have to be resolved was who, in fact, was the customer: the mills that purchased the fiber and manufactured it into carpets or the commercial and residential end users? For Carr, the mills were a vital link in the overall industry chain, but unless somebody took the lead in truly meeting the needs of the end user, the entire chain would be weakened. And the problems were formidable--most notably the fact that customers detested having to buy carpets. DuPont would take the lead in designing services applicable throughout the distribution channel, from the mills to wholesalers, retailers, and end users, to enhance the customer's entire carpet buying experience.

Now that DuPont had successfully designed and delivered the kinds of services that would enhance the customer's carpet buying experience, Jim Carr, marketing manager, Europe, for DuPont's Fibre Division, had a new challenge: how to reassess the links within the entire carpet distribution channel? The relationships within this chain, like those in many other industry chains, had been largely adversarial; each member out to strengthen its part of the whole, even if this meant endangering the integrity of the whole. DuPont would now take the lead in ensuring that end users' needs were being met by all in the channel, no matter how far removed. And DuPont, although the farthest removed, also had the most to lose if things went wrong; the company annually invested hundreds of millions of Swiss Francs in fiber R&D, but unless these efforts were shared by others in the chain, they would fall flat. Carr thus launched a system of customer alliances for total gain. Who would these customers be? What were the selection criteria? How would they make them cost effective? How would they change people's attitudes and behaviors? were top on Carr's agenda.