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Mary Kay is one of the best-known direct sellers of women's cosmetics in the world. Its channel strategy is to use independent beauty consultants, who are independent distributors, to sell directly to consumers. Its compensation plan is multilevel, providing commissions to distributors on their own sales as well as the sales of the distributors they recruit. At the time of the case, the company is grappling with a well-established change in consumer behavior--the decline of the stay-at-home mom as she returns to the workforce--combined with the opportunities offered by Internet selling. Focuses on the company's efforts to move with consumer demand and behavior, while remaining true to its core goal of "Improving Women's Lives." Discusses ways Internet technology can be used throughout the company's channel and supply chain structure, not just as a route to market.

Michaels Craft Stores is the largest arts and crafts retailer in the United States and in the world. Its CEO, Michael Rouleau, wants to expand the chain to 1,000 stores by 2006. The key constraint is the lack of sophistication among Michaels' supplier base, which is made up of over 1,000 suppliers, many of which are small, creative companies with little computer or logistics knowledge. As a result, the cost of running Michaels' supply chain is high. Describes the company's efforts to build the sophistication of its suppliers through educational Vendor Flow Training courses that teach suppliers how to adopt state-of-the-art practices for improved efficiency in supplying their channel.

Verklar is the leading maker of roof windows based in Europe. Its Austrian subsidiary has historically dominated the Austrian market, with about 85% market share. However, at the time of the case, its market share has dropped to about 75%, and many of its dealers have either dropped the line entirely or are buying not from the company, but from the few remaining large dealers who still buy directly from Verklar. This has prompted the president of the subsidiary to devise a new way--called the Quota System--to run the distribution channel in the country to improve performance. Asks the reader to examine the sources of market share decline and whether the proposed Quota System solves the channel's problems.

Considers why Blockbuster has a competitive advantage in video retailing. Details both Blockbuster's use of revenue sharing contracts with movie studios to coordinate the vertical chain and Blockbuster's "Go Home Happy" marketing campaign. Challenges readers to understand how revenue sharing contracts, which are imitable and sometimes used by Blockbuster's competitors, can nevertheless be a key part of Blockbuster's advantage.

Provides an overview of the domestic airline industry. Offers details on industry structure and performance necessary for basic industry analysis (or five forces analysis). Also emphasizes cost and benefit drivers, especially hub-and-spoke vs. point-to-point service and sources of differentiation.

Looks at the strategic positioning decision of ValuJet Airlines when it entered the fortress hub of Delta Airlines. ValuJet's strategy, and Delta's response, is an example of what is sometimes called Judo strategy--where the entrant uses the incumbent's strengths against them. ValuJet positions itself in such a way that it is very costly for Delta to retaliate.

The case describes a crisis management situation faced by Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler-Benz AG. In 1997 Mercedes introduced a revolutionary new car, the A-class, Mercedes' first entry into the compact car segment. The A-class was positioned as an entry-level vehicle in the Mercedes line and represented Mercedes' attempt to grow beyond its core market. A few days after the car was officially introduced, it rolled-over during a test known as the "moose test" conducted by a Swedish journalist. The A-class's failed moose-test created extensive media coverage in Germany and other European countries, threatening the success of the A-class launch.

Looks at the merger of two Chicago-based nonprofits that share similar missions and clientele, but have different strategies and capital structures. They also operate in the highly competitive job training/temporary work field, where organizational survival is at stake. Suburban Job Link is a fee-driven, largely commercial nonprofit, and STRIVE/CES is a philanthropic-based nonprofit dependent on grants and government for revenue. Explores alternatives to a merger and proceeds from merger discussions to post-merger outcomes.

Focuses on Apple Computer's launch of iTunes and iPod as a way to give Wintel users a relationship with Apple. Deals with issues of brand equity, corporate and brand goal setting, target selection, and matching product and service characteristics with goals and targets. Also allows for a discussion of channel partners, their interests, and their impact on the likely success or failure of a strategy.

In 2000, Millennium Pharmaceuticals was the poster child for successful genomic companies. Millennium's fast growth and exuberant valuations were due to the elegant alliances the company had forged with top pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and agricultural companies. However, as the market shifted and Millennium was forced to fully integrate, the type and structure of its alliances no longer worked.

West Teleservice, a telemarketing firm, is considering going public at the end of 1996. Asks students to price the IPO. During the previous 18 months, seven other telemarketing firms have gone public. Prior to this, there were no publicly traded telemarketing firms. The industry is in flux. Historically, wholly owned subsidiaries of telephone companies, banks, and insurance companies conducted telemarketing. However, cost cutting caused many of these firms to outsource the business. Thus, although total telemarketing business isn't growing very quickly, the outsourced portion is growing 50% per year.

This case addresses several issues dealing with entrepreneurship, including identification of opportunities, valuation, and most importantly, partnership splits among founding partners.

Steve Meyer, the chief marketing officer at Trilogy, was evaluating the best way to move forward with an innovative, customer value-based pricing approach for its enterprise software solutions. Trilogy had radically transformed its business from a product-centric organization to a customer-centric one, and value-based pricing was a pillar of this transformation. Meyer had to evaluate three pricing approaches: traditional license based, subscription based, and gain sharing. He had to assess which pricing approach Trilogy and Trilogy's clients would prefer and the conditions under which gain-sharing pricing would work. Meyer also had to address several adoption barriers that prevented customers from embracing the gain-sharing pricing approach.

Maybelline is the world's leading mass cosmetic company. It enjoys tremendous success and a commanding market share, particularly in the eye makeup category. But Maybelline also acknowledges a weakness in the strategic face segment, most notably in the profitable foundations product lines. Approaches the challenge of successfully growing this important category by looking at every aspect necessary to make this move, including: consumer marketing strategy, consumer behavior and purchasing patterns, demographic analysis, segmentation and targeting, product management, distribution channels, pricing, advertising, and understanding the competitive environment.

ThoughtWorks, a medium-size IT systems integrator, was growing quickly but identified "lack of clear positioning around which to build a brand" as the biggest impediment to continued growth. The company had identified features that it believed differentiated it from its competitors and was considering alternative segments to target. Asks readers to choose a target and develop a positioning statement for that target as well as identify the assumptions underlying the recommended positioning strategy and suggest how market research could help establish the validity of those assumptions.

Shows how a regional family company threatened by national competition must make changes to its structure and way of doing business or face extinction or sale.

A successful five-generation family business group in India separates its ownership role from its operational management role to meet the needs of a more global economy. This includes hiring professional nonfamily business unit managers as well as including nonfamily directors on the corporate board.

Presents the options available for a successful transition of leadership from one generation to the next, based on a family's and company's unique history, structures, and players.

A large family business in banking and ranching is shifting leadership to the next generation and has developed a protocol to select board members by consensus. However, when the selection occurs, it is not made in accordance with the protocol, and a third-generation family member questions why the selection rules were changed by second-generation members without input or vote. Highlights the growing pains of developing fair processes and guidelines for nominating and selecting board members, meeting family expectations, communicating with constituents, and encouraging active roles in governance at the cousin-stage of a family business.

Addresses a new product launch into the emerging interactive television industry and the role of market research in shaping the strategic marketing plan. Illustrates the challenges of measuring and understanding probable consumer response and adoption behaviors given a technically innovative product offering. The competitive environment is dynamic, with competitors also poised to launch. But this company hopes to retain its first-mover advantage, which also gives it the burden of educating the right consumers quickly and driving rapid adoption.