Editorial

Citation

Harker, M. (2009), "Editorial", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 27 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/mip.2009.02027daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Volume 27, Issue 4

Welcome to the fourth issue of the year. This special issue of Marketing Intelligence and Planning marks something of a departure from our usual output in that it is a collection of teaching cases on a variety of marketing topics. Why have we done this? Many research projects are written up into formal scholarly articles with painstaking care given to method and analysis. In meeting these requirements imposed upon us it is sometimes possible to lose sight of what should be two of our key objectives. First, the primary goal of academic research in marketing is to learn and understand more about customers, markets and marketers. Second, as well as the small groups of colleagues that we engage with in detail, we have larger audiences that are not best served by traditional academic papers. We hope therefore, that these case-papers will present aspects of what have been in some cases major projects in formats and language that may be more readily accessible to one of our largest audiences – marketing students – whilst at the same time signposting the way to the most recent and relevant literature. We hope that they will find these marketing stories credible, real and enlightening.

We wish to thank David Cox of Pearson Publishing, who was generous enough to sponsor the Case Track at the annual Academy of Marketing Conference in 2008 hosted by Robert Gordon University of Aberdeen to the tune of £2,000. These prizes generated significant interest in the new track and brought in a substantial number of submissions from around the world. It is from developed and enhanced versions of these and others that we have drawn our seven cases.

Our first paper is by Ross Brennan of Middlesex University, London. Ross reminds us that there is [or should be] significantly more to using cases in marketing-education than picking one at random and requiring students to analyse it. He presents a simple but insightful framework that should allow marketing educators to improve the accuracy and the utility of their case teaching.

Our first case – by a team from the Simon Fraser University of British Columbia, Canada – takes a look at the key topic of brand development. In an article, that may challenge the views of some on the appropriateness and applicability of marketing concepts they report on the difficulties inherent in maintaining the brand of the Canadian Armed Forces at a time when many of those personnel are on active duty. This case was awarded the first prize of £1,000 at AM2008.

Next in our line-up is a case produced as an output of a major project investigating social marketing operations. Louise Hassan of St Andrews University and colleagues report on national and international efforts to reduce smoking – comparing and contrasting attempts at demarketing of tobacco sponsored by governments within the EU.

Ann Torres, of the National University of Ireland takes as her theme the fact that new firms encounter a wide-range of marketing issues – product development, positioning, channel development and of course pricing – that seem as if they all need to be solved at once. These problems are raised in the context of a recent start-up in Galway.

Kim Lehman and John Byrom of the University of Tasmania, Australia present the tale of Coopers Brewery – a traditional family firm in Adelaide. This small enterprise is a successful “nicher” in the culturally and economically significant beer market, and the case illustrates how such an oddity can survive in highly competitive markets dominated by a few large players.

Difficulties inherent in developing and implementing sophisticated IMC programmes across national boundaries are discussed by Barbara Caemmerer of Strathclyde University, Glasgow in her case on a French car maker attempting to increase sales in Germany in the context of known country-of-origin handicaps.

International marketing and taking established brands into new markets are the two main themes of the case presented by Paurav Shukla and Steve Hogan, both of the University of Brighton. The value of cases in presenting real management decision-making processes as being both complex and uncertain is clearly shown by the story of Martas Precision Slides, a Taiwanese light engineering firm.

Finally, Stephen Henderson of Leeds Metropolitan University presents a case relevant to classes on arts and tourism/leisure services marketing wherein important points are made about changes in society and the impact of these trends on organisations providing services to them.

Michael HarkerAssistant Editor