個案總覽

The president of a national placement agency is preparing to make a final pitch to sign Greyhound Canada as a client. Greyhound wants to reposition its brand as a mainstream travel option, particularly for suburban commuters, and needs cost-effective ways to get its message to consumers. The company views product placement as a viable tool for building brand awareness, but worries about losing control over its brand image. Even more serious are concerns about the absence of reliable metrics to assess the overall effectiveness of product placement. The case covers fundamentals of product placement, particularly with respect to strengths and weaknesses, and provides an excellent basis for discussing its value as part of an overall marketing communications strategy.

The snack bar supervisor of The Waterview resort in Northern Ontario just had another argument with his boss. He was angry and hated the thought of finishing the remaining four weeks of his summer contract. It was obvious to the supervisor that his boss held a personal grudge against him that was growing in intensity. He wondered how to finally settle their differences. Students will analyse a set of complex issues.

The CEO of Coca-Cola is faced with increasing criticism over the company's handling of alleged human rights abuses in Colombia. A grass roots protest movement known as The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke has built international support for a boycott of Coca-Cola products on college campuses. The campaign centers specifically on the intimidation and murder of union leaders at a specific Coca-Cola bottling plant in Colombia. Coca-Cola asserted that it was not responsible for such abuses. Rather, the violence at the Coca-Cola plant was the product of a political situation that was beyond the company's control. The company further argued that it was in compliance with local labor laws, and had been dismissed as the defendant in lawsuits filed in Colombia and U.S. courts. At the time of the case, Coca-Cola is faced with anti-Coke campaigns at more than 100 college campuses worldwide and official boycotts of its products at a number of large well-known campuses in the United States. In response, the company has undertaken an audit of its bottling plants in Colombia. It also launched a public relations campaign aimed at refuting accusations of human rights violations. The case can be used to discuss corporate ethics, extraterritoriality, marketing and public relations.

The owner of Tutti Matti, a new restaurant specializing in authentic Tuscan cuisine, opened only four months before the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto, Canada. Tutti Matti had a successful first six months, and the early performance was encouraging. However, to continue the restaurant's success and to overcome the added challenges created by SARS, a strong and creative marketing plan was necessary.

This case describes the measurement and evaluation of high performance principles of people management in a retail bank by a consulting company. This case serves as a platform for students to deliberate on what is involved in an organization's quest to achieve competitive success through its workforce. A unique strength of the case is that students are asked to quantitatively test their arguments with data provided in an Excel spreadsheet that accompanies the case (Ivey product #7B07C004). The case is intended as an integrated case across organizational behavior, management science and communication. The organizational behavior teaching approach is included to demonstrate that effective people management is associated with competitive advantages. For management science, the case serves to practice correlation and regression analyses. For communication, the case allows students to prepare a presentation that effectively communicates the complex and comprehensive results of their analyses.

In January 2003, EPCOR Utilities (EPCOR) was facing great pressure from a radical community group that wanted the company out of its community of Rossdale - where EPCOR was founded in 1891 and had been operating since. The pressure had mounted to the point that EPCOR's sole shareholder, the City of Edmonton, had asked that EPCOR prepare a long-term plan for its operations in Rossdale as part of a formal review of the land use at the site. Operations of EPCOR were $3 billion. The case encourages students to think through the senior vice-president of public and government relations job of engaging (or at least placating) the community from a philosophical level to the practical details of implementation.

Supplement to EPCOR Utilities Inc. A Critical Community Consultation (A), product 9B07M009.

Dove is one of Unilever's better-known personal care brands. It has significant top-of-mind awareness among women in many countries. In an attempt to increase sales volume by 80 per cent, Unilever re-launched Dove in 2004. The campaign asks the question What is real beauty? and attempts to redefine it in ways that challenge commonly portrayed stereotypes. This case examines the re-launch of Dove, Unilever's well-known international personal care brand, and the marketing issues behind its phenomenal success. It also raises questions about how to maintain the brand's momentum as the next phase unfolds. In 2007, Dove products are still well thought of by consumers and the campaign has attracted imitators, including brands outside the cosmetics and beauty care sector.

The co-founder of a continuing education lecture series needs to develop and implement a marketing communication strategy to meet target enrolment while constrained by limited promotional funds. The case focuses on the development of a marketing communication strategy in a non-profit environment and emphasizes the importance of target market definition. It introduces issues surrounding the use of e-commerce and websites to support a marketing plan.

The head of logistics has received a number of customer complaints regarding various aspects of the company's product delivery policy. She must decide what can be done to increase customer satisfaction with its pricing, delivery service and customer relations. The head of logistics is not sure if it's a problem with communications or internal problems with the delivery process. She will have to assess customer feedback and examine the sales process.

The human resources manager of the Toronto office of RSM Richter LLP, reflected upon the company's efforts and outcomes in relation to recruiting junior accountants from the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario. Although Richter had similar salary and benefits to those of the Big Four accounting firms, it offered a unique environment in which employees were able to get to know one another personally and junior accountants were likely to become exposed to different aspects of auditing that they would not encounter in larger firms. Yet, Ivey students seemed more likely to accept offers from one of the Big Four. The human resources manager considered various alternatives.

The owner and founder of Boman Communications, was proud of the company's business concept which utilized technology to allow flexibility and efficiency in the production of marketing materials. However, despite this strategic advantage, the company had been unable to attract more than one large client. More importantly, recent events had led the owner to believe that many of his own employees did not understand the company's business concept. If they did not understand the company's business concept, how could they sell it to customers? Bowman knew he had to address these issues soon but was unsure how to do so.

The chief executive officer of Calgary-based Guest-Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd., a leading provider of high-speed Internet access to the hotel industry, must consider whether and how his company should grow its business overseas. Ninety-seven per cent of Guest-Tek's fiscal year 2003 revenue was derived from North American hotels - a market he knew would eventually become saturated. Guest-Tek had listed publicly in January 2004. Both internal and external investors now demanded results. Other geographic markets held the promise of new growth and competitors were already pursuing those opportunities.

The owner of Runners' Choice, a running specialty store, must determine what changes to make to his marketing strategy in order to differentiate his business from that of his chief competitor, which has a similar name. Students perform a customer analysis, evaluate the existing promotional activities and product offerings of the two similar competing businesses to clearly position Runners' Choice relative to its competition.

The senior project manager at Metropole Services is getting the sense that her business relationship with her software development group is taking a turn for the worse. According to her, she was their project manager and it seemed strange that her team members - all subordinates, were excluding her from an important client meeting. She must figure out what the issue is, and if something truly is wrong, take the appropriate steps to correct it immediately.

Monsanto is a large chemical manufacturing company specializing in chemical products for agricultural use. This case explores the company's attempt from 2002-2004 to launch a version of genetically-modified wheat in Canada. It details opposition to the launch from farmers and environmentalists, and focuses on how these groups used communications to resist Monsanto's product launch.

A senior partner in a healthcare consulting firm has to decide what to do in the face of accusations from the chief executive officer of a major healthcare firm. The CEO, reading a prepared statement at a press conference, has accused the senior partner at Kohlberg Associates of a serious, unreported conflict of interest. The senior partner has to consider several issues, including if he should respond, how to respond, who to contact first, and most importantly, what he should say. Adding to his problem is the fact that he is in a state of shock and may not be in an optimum mental state.

For many years two entrepreneurs have run a successful chefs school in combination with Ontario's apprenticeship program, their two private restaurants and the support of a few generous patrons. However, as they approached eventual retirement, they had no successors in sight and no teaching building apart from their restaurants. A professional fund-raising firm said that the various interested parties might raise $600,000 to help fund a teaching building but the total need of $2 million would be out of reach. The entrepreneurs were looking for a marketing and fund raising campaign to raise $2 million.

A social entrepreneur undertakes to launch a bank with charitable status itself that could provide financial services to up to 161,000 charities. He has quietly arranged support from major for-profit banks and government officials. The day before his press conference to tell all stakeholders about this new bank, he is still struggling with the key words to describe the bank so that it conveys it purposes, but offends as few stakeholders as possible. Students must evaluate his proposed three key words and propose other descriptors.

The president of the University of Western Ontario was contemplating how to best handle a potentially explosive issue: the planned award of an honorary degree to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a prominent abortion-rights activist and operator of six abortion clinics in Canada. The pressure from various interest groups opposing the award continued to grow and attracted considerable local and national media attention. The chair of the university's board of governors went on record stating his disagreement with award decision. With university's reputation at stake, the president knew that he had to plan for the worst, yet hope for the best. The supplement Weathering the Storm: The Fallout of the Decision to Award an Honorary Degree to Canada's Pioneer Abortion Doctor (B), product 9B05C034, looks at the events on the day of convocation.