個案總覽

Despite the hype, metaverse marketing isn't a fad that brand strategists can ignore. Here are 6 mistakes to avoid when entering the emerging virtual world marketplace.

In July 2019, J.Crew Group Inc., a multi-brand, multichannel specialty US clothing retailer, was investigating a launch within a new apparel category. The company’s marketing research manager had been tasked with interpreting trends and market potential within the industry as well as primary customer research, to recommend a new product line that would increase revenues. She saw three main potentially viable options in the rental, resale, and athleisure markets. Using a mixed methods approach, the research manager would need to provide the chief marketing officer with her recommendation regarding a new product line for J. Crew Group Inc..

Spreadsheet to accompany product W27129.

Blu-Smart Mobility Pvt. Ltd. (BluSmart) was India’s first company to foray into the electric mobility space. Launched in 2019, BluSmart offered ride sharing, car sharing, and shared charging services, and aimed to make India a pollution-free country by providing customers with a complete urban mobility solution. Within a year, BluSmart had garnered investors’ attention and received millions in funding to grow its fleet. It also planned to expand its three services to other Indian cities. However, BluSmart’s future in India was not without challenges. How would these constraints affect BluSmart’s growth, and how could it expand in the Indian market?

This case provides many different examples of pricing with ethical concerns that are spread across two common pricing contexts-value pricing and dynamic pricing. The examples include pharmaceutical pricing, ridesharing, dynamically priced vending machines, and more. These brief examples raise substantial issues about pricing for class discussion. Students should think about why ethical dilemmas arise in each of the examples, and if there is any underlying essence that ties together these ethical dilemmas.

This short case describes how Ana L. Mamede, Hellmann's brand manager at Unilever Portugal, responds to an aggressive campaign by rival Kraft Heinz by developing a brand "purpose" for Hellman's mayonnaise focused on reducing food waste. When Heinz, the ketchup king, sought to increase its market share by offering high discounts and enhanced distribution, it threatened Hellmann's lead in Portugal and throughout Europe. Ana pushes promotional activities in the short term, which yield good results, but realises a new plan is needed for Hellman's in the long term. She considers three options: (i) further promotional activities, (ii) innovation - developing the product line by launching new products and flavours), (iii) branding and communication - enhancing the brand's identity by developing a purpose - to inspire consumers to waste less food.

In January 2021, Entomo Farms (Entomo), a family-owned Ontario-based Canadian cricket producer, received additional funding to support its growth and prepare for the entry into Canada of what would be its biggest competitor. As Canada’s largest and only organic cricket supplier, Entomo generated most of its revenue as a supplier of crickets as raw material to food manufacturers; however, due to anticipated industry changes, Entomo was increasing its consumer-level presence by producing and selling more of its own brands as consumer packaged goods (CPGs). To support this decision, Entomo’s chief operating officer needed to develop a strategic marketing road map for growing the revenues from the company’s CPG segment.

Spreadsheet to accompany product W26997.

In August 2021, uTrade Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (uTrade) was considering various options for its future. The financial technologies (fintech) company was founded in 2011 and based in Mohali, India. By 2021, uTrade had become a trusted state-of-the-art technology solutions provider to India's major stockbrokerage firms. However, the changing market landscape, declining brokerage margins, and market disruption by discount brokers were creating challenges for uTrade's business model, forcing the company to consider alternative growth strategies that were more aligned with the new market requirements. Although vertical integration could help uTrade capture a larger share of the value chain, it could also create a potential conflict of interest with existing clients. Horizontal expansion through a new banking, insurance, or digital payment venture could also have benefits and potential challenges in terms of resource deployment and compatibility with the existing business model. Another issue was a push from uTrade stakeholders to sell the company and enter another segment of the fintech industry. The founder had to make a decision.

A major home builder wishes to purchase lumber (Southern pine). The builder wants delivery in six months but prefers to lock-in the price near current rates. The lumber wholesaler must decide on a pricing and sourcing strategy. Examples include: 1) buy & hold, 2) wait and see, and 3) hedge with futures. There is no futures market in Southern pine, but there is a market in Hem-Fir (a somewhat similar wood). Data on historical spot and futures prices is provided.

In March 2020, Evolko Systems Private Limited encountered several strategic and operational effects resulting from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The private health care technology company, which was based in California, United States, used artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide products and services to India’s health care market. The company’s chief executive officer had to mitigate risk from the pandemic using his company’s business model and value offerings. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a lockdown order effective across all of India to slow the progress of the virus, affected some of the company’s key business elements and had a macroeconomic impact on its operations. The chief executive officer’s challenge was to explore all options to continue the business operations and to determine how to transform its physically interactive business model to one with little or no physical contact with clients.

Mantra Ayurveda (Mantra), established in India in 2020, manufactured and marketed luxury Ayurvedic skin care and hair care products. The brand’s equity in the Indian market was low, its performance marketing efforts were not leading to expected revenue gains, and the revenue from direct-to-consumer (DTC) initiatives had experienced a negligible uptick in financial year (FY) 2020–21. In April 2021, the chief executive officer would have to convince the board and investors about his plans for achieving fourfold revenue growth from the DTC channel in FY 2021–22. He needed to propose a choice that would build the brand for long-term sustenance while delivering on short-term revenue goals, considering key strategic pillars: an international DTC market launch to expand; offline marketing to increase brand awareness; in-house and outsourced performance marketing to optimize digital efforts; and discounts, promotions, and the launch of smaller package sizes to drive trials. Making the right choice could lead to an expanded international brand presence and deeper penetration into the Indian luxury market. However, the wrong choice could mean an early exit of a major investor, leaving the company cash-starved and plunging both the company and the future of his career into uncertainty.

Penny Pink, the owner of Portneuf Valley Brewery (PVB), was feeling the negative effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and increased competition. In 2020, Portneuf Valley Brewing's (PVB) sales were down 30% from the prior year. While a large percentage of this decline was attributed to the pandemic, which caused significant damage to PVB, the brewpub had been operating at a loss since 2017. Penny Pink was determined to turn things around and had 90 days. While Pink believed her customers would still want to enjoy traditional in-house dining at the brewery, it was time to consider additional pivoting options as she looked forward to 2021. Pink needed greater flexibility in a changing business environment, and the ability to generate income from other sources. It was January of 2021, and Pink was considering multiple ways to pivot her business, including ramping up her delivery and take-out model, renting out her kitchen when not in use (i.e., ghost kitchen), purchasing a food truck, and/or installing a canning operation. Closing down the business permanently was also an option. Pink had up to $50,000 to invest into the business to try and turn things around. Also, she needed to create a business forecast for 2021, which proved difficult given the current business environment; it was unclear how 2021 would play out for PVB, and if Pink could save PVB from permanently shutting down.

In June 2018, the government of Canada passed the Cannabis Act, paving the way for the legalization of recreational cannabis cultivation, acquisition, possession, and consumption on October 17 of that same year. This move set off a flurry of activity as existing companies, investment firms, and entrepreneurs sought to establish an initial position within the burgeoning industry. Mīhī Cannabis and its chief executive officer needed to navigate the complex patchwork of government regulations and other market factors to establish a launch strategy for the company that would differentiate it from the anticipated competition and support the normalization of the industry in the eyes of the communities in which it operated.

Simple Energy was an electric scooter start-up in India founded with the intent of filling a market gap for a well-designed e-scooter, fully made in India, with sufficient range to be practical. In April 2021, with a couple of months left to launch Mark 2, the company’s first e-scooter, the founders needed to settle on their marketing strategy and decide how to position Simple Energy as a relatively new entrant in what was becoming a fiercely competitive market. Simple Energy had one model ready, but competitors had entered the market with multiple variants. Should Simple Energy introduce both a basic and premium variant of Mark 2? The founders also wondered whether they should focus on introducing Mark 2 in one city first or start operations in multiple cities simultaneously.

Simple Energy was an electric scooter start-up in India founded with the intent of filling a market gap for a well-designed e-scooter, fully made in India, with sufficient range to be practical. In April 2021, with a couple of months left to launch Mark 2, the company's first e-scooter, the founders needed to settle on their marketing strategy and decide how to position Simple Energy as a relatively new entrant in what was becoming a fiercely competitive market. Simple Energy had one model ready, but competitors had entered the market with multiple variants. Should Simple Energy introduce both a basic and premium variant of Mark 2? The founders also wondered whether they should focus on introducing Mark 2 in one city first or start operations in multiple cities simultaneously.

VH1, MTV, and LOGO were all popular television channels owned by the ViacomCBS television network. One of the most successful shows on LOGO was RuPaul's Drag Race, a reality television show featuring drag queens. ViacomCBS was considering moving RuPaul's Drag Race off LOGO to a different platform within the ViacomCBS portfolio in 2017. Before deciding where RuPaul's Drag Race would air, ViacomCBS needed to determine whether the show could be successful on another platform given its current fan base, how the potential move would affect the show's ratings, and whether the positioning or targeting strategy for the series would need to change if it were moved.

VH1, MTV, and LOGO were all popular television channels owned by the Paramount television network. One of the most successful shows on LOGO was RuPaul’s Drag Race, a reality television show featuring drag queens. Paramount was considering moving RuPaul’s Drag Race off LOGO to a different platform within the Paramount portfolio in 2017. Before deciding where RuPaul’s Drag Race would air, Paramount needed to determine whether the show could be successful on another platform given its current fan base, how the potential move would affect the show’s ratings, and whether the positioning or targeting strategy for the series would need to change if it were moved.

The South Korean K-pop band, BTS, is shattering linguistic boundaries and reshaping the global music industry. BTS became the first band in Billboard history to simultaneously top the Billboard Artist 100, Billboard Hot 100, and Billboard 200; and the sixth act to have four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles in less than a year. A critical component of BTS's success has been the efforts of a vast network of very dedicated fans called the ARMY. How did BTS build and grow its devoted global fanbase? Could other artists or even businesses follow BTS's lead?

The case is set in 2022 when Creative Chocolates, a popular United States based chocolate manufacturer, plans to enter the African market. Known in the United States for its unique "warm freshbaked" chocolates, Creative Chocolates expanded to over 100 countries with 26,000 outlets worldwide since its inception in the late 1980s. However, all their outlets were either their own stores or franchisees. Attracted by the market research data on the population growth and economic success of Nigeria and other African countries, Alan Rickman, the new chief executive officer of Creative Chocolates, plans a growth strategy based on penetrating the African market. The case presents Rickman's dilemma-whether to conduct test marketing or not-and builds on it to discuss his next step.