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This case looks at a new start-up company, d.light Design, as it was seeking to go to market in India with its solar-powered LED lamps in 2009. Sam Goldman, founder and chief customer officer of d.light, was in New Delhi, India; his business-school friend and co-founder Ned Tozun was in China, the site of the company's manufacturing plant.

One of the key decisions Goldman and Tozun needed to make was whether d.light should focus on just one distribution channel in India, or multiple channels. The startup had limited capital, so it needed to get the distribution question right to generate revenue quickly.

The case thus combines an entrepreneurial problem with an emerging-market, or bottom-of-the-pyramid, channel design challenge. This case does not focus on product design or manufacturing challenges but rather on questions of:

• The constraints d.light faced in creating an aligned distribution channel. These constraints can have legal, environmental, and/or managerial foundations

• Demand-side misalignments in the channel structure that will occur if d.light chooses one or another of the considered channels in the case, namely, (a) the RE (rural entrepreneur) channel, (b) the village retailer channel, or (c) the centralized shops channel

• • What mix of channels—or what single channel—d.light should focus on in the Indian market

• • The financial return possible based on d.light's current cost structure and overhead expenditures in India

The constraints d.light faced in creating an aligned distribution channel. These constraints can have legal, environmental, and/or managerial foundations

Demand-side misalignments in the channel structure that will occur if d.light chooses one or another of the considered channels in the case, namely, (a) the RE (rural entrepreneur) channel, (b) the village retailer channel, or (c) the centralized shops channel

• What mix of channels—or what single channel—d.light should focus on in the Indian market

• The financial return possible based on d.light's current cost structure and overhead expenditures in India

• Assess channel benefit demand intensities for chosen target market segments

• Assess channel alignment constraints that can limit the channel designer's ability to optimize the channel to meet identified end-user demands for channel benefits

• Use these ideas to defend a choice of one or more possible channel structures as appropriate parts of a company's overall channel system

• Analyze financial opportunity in this situation, given cost parameters and possible market penetration estimates

Assess channel benefit demand intensities for chosen target market segments

Assess channel alignment constraints that can limit the channel designer's ability to optimize the channel to meet identified end-user demands for channel benefits

Use these ideas to defend a choice of one or more possible channel structures as appropriate parts of a company's overall channel system

Analyze financial opportunity in this situation, given cost parameters and possible market penetration estimates

After completion of the case study, students will be able to understand the putty industry, consumer behaviour for putty, comparative advantage of putty to different industries and within industry and market entry strategy for newly introduced product.

Putty market in India grew at a compound annual growth rate of 15% over the period FY07–FY20. Many organized and unorganized players entered the putty market since its introduction. Putty was invented by cement companies to increase offtake of cement which otherwise declined owing to reduced use of marble. Painters are purchasing putty to be used before the paint to improve the texture of the walls and to fill cracks. Therefore, to take advantage of distribution channels and dealers’ network, paint companies introduced putty. Consumers, who use putty to improve aesthetics of their home, have very less knowledge about putty. They depend on painter or contractor for it. XYZ colourant company wanted to enter the white putty market to use the market opportunity along with coloured putty for economic project where cost is the constraint. This case study culminates with the probing question about the peculiarity of industry where two different industries are involved for the same product. This case study is designed to understand the target consumers’ behaviour and the entry decisions of the company to the growing market.

This case study is designed for use in second-year management programmes, especially for the students of strategic management and marketing strategy courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Identify the advantages and disadvantages of being first-to-market with a new product in a new environment. Explain the differences between business-to-business (B2B) and B2C markets, how they are interconnected in the speciality consumer good category and the challenges of developing a balanced strategy for both. Assess the competitive positions of different market players within both B2B and B2C. Analyse the role of brand in a niche market and how brand perception influences consumer behaviour. Identify and assess the different strategies for growth in an evolving niche market.

Origin Coffee is an artisan coffee roaster in South Africa grappling with rising competition, evolving consumer tastes and brand management concerns. As an early entrant, Origin largely created the niche market for speciality coffee across the country as both a retail coffee shop and a wholesale supplier to independent shops and businesses. This case follows founder Joel Singer 15 years later, in August 2020, as he contemplates how to scale the business, which has cultivated a brand synonymous with quality and excellence. Repeated efforts to expand the Origin footprint have met with disappointment and the business is still operating exclusively from its original roastery-café in Cape Town. Yet, the customer perception is that Origin is an industry giant – an established player that has outgrown its plucky upstart status. Origin also faces an increasingly crowded competitive landscape of local artisan roasters and larger chains. The case showcases the power of entrepreneurial innovation to cultivate a new niche market, as well as the risks of playing in a market that is very narrow and immature. Students are left to determine what Origin’s place in the future of South African coffee can and should be.

This case is appropriate for students enrolled in postgraduate programmes such as Master of Business Administration and Executive Education programmes. Although the case learnings are transferrable, this case will be particularly useful to students with interests in entrepreneurship, B2B and B2C market strategies and niche market strategy.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

“Originally as a business providing community life services since its founding in 2017, Dingdong (Cayman) has transformed itself into a fresh e-commerce company. After making adjustments to its business model and operating strategy for three times, Dingdong (Cayman) has completed the strategic transition from grocery surrogate shopping to comprehensive self-operation, and built its own commercial fortress. In 2019, the total revenue of the company was five billion yuan. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, its monthly revenue exceeded 1.2 billion yuan in February 2020, and the year's total revenue was expected to hit 15∼18 billion yuan. To date, Dingdong (Cayman) has formed a supply chain fully based on digital operation and built a commercial fortress in the fresh e-commerce industry. Despite this, its future prospect is not free from challenge. This case mainly deals with the following questions: How about the strategic positioning and core competitiveness of Dingdong (Cayman) in its early days? In the process of rapid expansion, what are the advantages and problems in its business model? How can the digitally operated supply chain support its continuous expansion in the future?”

After completion of the case study, students will be able to understand general and specific challenges associated with carrying on a family business that faces market challenges including stiff competition from existing and newer players, understand the plywood manufacturing process and its supply chain management, understand the businesses operating in an organized versus the unorganized market, comprehend the marketing strategies adopted and identify a reasonable solution to address the challenges associated with the operations of a business.

This case study focuses on Gattani Industries (a plywood manufacturing company) located in the northeastern region of the Indian state of Assam. Headquartered at Cinnamara industrial zone of Jorhat district, Assam, the company began its operation in 1992 under the leadership of Makhan Gattani (Director). Gattani Industries catered to both residential and commercial demand. Its clients included the departments of central and state governments in India, public sector undertakings and civil contractors. The company had a wider distribution network across the country and adopted the one- and two-level marketing channels to reach consumers. It aimed to sell its products through dealers across the cities in India. However, in December 2019, Gattani faced the challenge of developing a growth strategy to overcome competition and use the upcoming market opportunities for business growth in the diverse and complex environment that existed in the country.

This case study is designed for use in graduate or undergraduate programs. This case study can be used in strategy, supply chain and marketing courses at Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration levels.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS11: Strategy.

This case study will allow students to critically analyse and develop entry strategies into untapped foreign markets. The case study was designed to introduce students to identifying and analysing information related to target markets for expansions in international business.

The main objectives of this case are to evaluate and make the “Go Global” decision for the company; to take a position on entry timing for a company for entering an overseas market; to select a country for entry based on cultural, administrative, geographic and economic analysis and other relevant factors; and to evaluate a firm’s readiness for exports.

This case study on Satya Pharmaceuticals presents a typical dilemma faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets such as India while exploring the untapped overseas markets to expand their business. Satya Pharmaceuticals produced over-the-counter Ayurvedic medicines. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the consumer preference for Ayurvedic products had increased globally. Home country governments’ emphasis on exports and conducive consumer preferences created an opportune time for such SMEs to explore uncharted markets with a propensity for herbal medicines. Amidst strict regulations regarding safety, efficacy, labelling and packaging norms, along with a subjective understanding of the consumers’ sentiments regarding alternate medicines, SMEs had to select their target market carefully for their products to be successful overseas. This case study presents the basic information that entrepreneurs needed to explore the foreign markets. It revolved around checking firms’ preparedness to explore foreign markets, identifying target markets, timing the entry and entering those markets.

This case is appropriate for graduate-level courses in management that offer subjects such as international business.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 5: International business.

Few cases allow the student to understand the relationship between brand strategy, marketing strategy, implementation, and analysis. While some conceive of the process as being sequential, this case demonstrates that in fact, this process is more fluid, and that implementation and analysis impact subsequent strategy.

This field-based case provides a rare glimpse into the turnaround of a brand that was all but dead. After Buick suffered more than five decades of declining business results and an inferior brand image versus all rivals, few thought that the brand could be resuscitated. This case provides a valuable under-the-hood look at how the Buick team, over time, progresses through a series of marketing improvements all anchored on an evolved strategy. Specifically, Buick introduced a shift in brand strategy behind an evolved brand essence statement (i.e., brand positioning), improved product lineup, new-to-the-world innovation, enhanced dealership service, and more compelling advertising. The results led to a record number of product awards, significantly improved advertising measures, improved service ratings, and better business results.

Despite significant improvement across multiple dimensions of the business, Buick still trailed key competitors on one of the most important measures Buick tracked—the brand momentum rating—suggesting that there was still more work needed to complete the brand turnaround. The case introduces Molly Peck, the new marketing director on Buick, who is wondering what more, if anything, Buick should do. The material allows for instruction around marketing strategy and the process of converting it into implementation through the use of a creative brief.

Marketing.

MBA/Postgraduate.

The case describes the situation faced by a sales manager of a commoditized product in a tough and competitive market. Aileron Consumer and Lighting Group (ACLG) was among the top ten fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the country while also being among the fastest growing companies in India and had a diverse portfolio ranging from trade lighting to commercial and institutional lighting. Sunil, the sales manager, after his training found himself in the Budhwar Peth market in Pune, Western India where he was expected to find a way to increase sales of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The product was undifferentiated and the competition was extremely strong with large allocations to advertising and dealer support. Sunil realized that his only hope for achieving his sales targets was to organize a sales promotion. His team and he came up with three options for sales promotions – two trade promotions and one consumer promotion. Sunil had to make the right choice of sales promotion for his market and the situation he found himself in.

This case is well-suited for courses in sales and distribution management, marketing channels, sales promotions or promotion management. It can also be used in courses dealing with marketing strategy or integrated marketing communications. This case allows the instructor to discuss sales channel and sales promotion issues faced by sales managers in an Indian context.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Decision-making seems simple, but, in reality, it is not an easy task to decide the cause for its profound result or consequence, leading to inevitable failures. Therefore, a leader must recognize whether there is something incorrect so as to avoid bad results. A good leader is a person who carefully reviews and analyzes aspects of a problem, knows the strengths and weaknesses of his organization and evaluates what the advantages or risks are. It cannot be denied that the appropriate options will reap many benefits to the business. For such important things, this paper will discuss the dilemma of Viettire, a tire distributor company in Vietnam. Accordingly, its CEO was worried about what strategic option he should adopt to approach the Myanmar market while ensuring a strategic fit to its company’s resources and capabilities and also to the overall market demands of the tire industry environment in both countries. However, with different ideas, the expansion strategies in this new market become controversial. The General Director and Founder of Viettire were wondering how Viettire could expand its existing business into Myanmar. To expand the company to new emerging market in Myanmar, Hoang Nguyen – CEO of Viettire – had conducted a strategic analysis of external environment factors to define the opportunities and threats when doing business in Myanmar by using Porter’s five forces model, S.W.O.T and competitive advantages analysis. The results indicated that Myanmar’s business environment is highly risky for foreign investors because of uncertain political, economic, social reforms in the process. Among three options, namely, exporting, licensing and wholly owned, however, Option 2 is illustrated as the best strategy for its dilemma.

Postgraduate/Graduate Business level.

As for a market mechanism, what produces, how and for whom, is not the business’s demand but the consumer’s demand. The business sells only what the market needs, not what it has. In the period of increasingly competitive conditions, stabilizing and expanding markets are a prerequisite for survival. If stability is seen as a “defensive” way, expansion is a “defensive attack” like trying to hold on the “pie” that the market gives to itself. This strategic action is to strengthen regular, close relationships with existing customers and establish new customers. As a result, the potential market is transformed into a target market. Hence, decision-making of which market, which method is the issue that a leader has to think the choice to avoid risks. Mr Hung, Viettire’s co-owner, suggests that Myanmar should be taken into account as a company’s new entry, thus exploring this potential market to increase the company’s growth and profitability. In the progress, Viettire’s marketing team had been doing a thorough tire market investigation in Myanmar. It was concluded that this emerging country, especially Yangon City, was the most suitable for those who were willing to embark on an overseas investment expansion. They believe this was a good opportunity to gain market share compared with other entrants and competitive rivals; if Viettire hesitated to invest, others definitely had jumped in with a first-mover advantage. However, the CEO, Mr Hoang, was worried about what strategic option he should adopt to approach this new market while ensuring a strategic fit to its company’s resources and capabilities and also to the overall market demands of the tire industry environment in both countries.

Understand the basic decisions that firms contemplating foreign expansion must make: which markets to enter, when to enter those markets and at what scale. Recognize the current strategic decisions an organization is facing: positioning, portfolio and market expansion approach. Learn how to develop an effective strategic plan. Be familiar with different strategies for competing globally and their pros and cons. Evaluate various strategic options and decisions in accordance with a company’s resources and capabilities.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This case should facilitate participants to analyze the influence of internal and external factors on a growing company in the dairy, agro and food industries; analyze the drivers of a company’s competitive advantage; evaluate the relevance of the company in the new product-markets; and propose growth strategies for the expansion of the business beyond the core markets.

Gyan Dairy began its journey in 2007 and operated in the business-to-business segment by supplying skimmed milk powder and white butter to other dairy players. Then, the company launched its packaged milk brand in Lucknow – the capital city of Uttar Pradesh – one of the largest provinces in India. By the end of 2020, Gyan was the leading private dairy brand in Uttar Pradesh. The company’s vision was to become one of the top dairy brands in India by 2035. While deliberating on the growth choice, the company’s senior management debated whether to strengthen the company’s position in the existing markets or expand operations in adjacent locations. Increasing market share would have led to price wars or advertising costs. Diversifying into product categories involved the risk of product–market misfit and new product development and marketing costs. However, pursuing these options would further strengthen the company’s position in the North Indian market. Expanding into new locations would help establish the company’s presence across different parts of India. However, both these options were replete with various challenges. Expanding into new markets needed one of the promoters of the Gyan Diary, to relocate, build new markets and institutional connections and build a completely new localized economy of scale, which would create a financial burden on existing operations until the new operation was self-sustainable. However, in this journey, they would find and build a model to help expand their operations in other countries as well. Ideally, the company could pursue all the options, but this was not possible due to constrained resources.

This case allows students to discuss and evaluate alternate growth options associated with operationalizing the growth strategy choices in perishable branded food categories beyond existing markets and products. In addition, it also helps discuss how to arrive at such decisions after analyzing the focal firm’s market opportunities and existing capabilities. This case is helpful for the “growth strategy” module in the strategic management core course in a general MBA program and in specialized MBA programs in food and agri-business management.

This case is suitable for graduate-level courses on strategic management courses in general management programs and agri-business management programs. In a strategic management course, the case will help cover topics such as analysis of the internal and external environment of the firm and growth and expansion strategies. This case will help teach how to build competitive advantage in dairy and agro-food industries and the strategic analysis needed while pursuing growth decisions. Emerging markets, including India, are the growth markets for leading multinational companies in the food and dairy industries.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.