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The learning outcomes are as follows: to analyze host market characteristics and consumer behavior to develop sound value propositions; to distinguish the characteristics of traditional retail as opposed to the ones of modern retail; to identify the potential benefits and challenges of working with traditional retail; to discuss how informality may affect business relations; and to identify potential avenues to align divergent interests between the focal firm and traditional retailers.

The case described the situation faced by French International Company (FICO), a leading manufacturer of cigarettes, after the acquisition of Fosforera Colombiana (FOCOSA) in Colombia. FICO aimed to leverage the leadership position of FOCOSA and of its flagship brand Ferrari Lights that possess a 60% market share. However, after just a few months, it was clear that the acquired subsidiary was not performing adequately. The financial results obtained were disastrous. To face this situation, FICO appointed as the new marketing director to Waldo Tarantini who has experienced dealing with informal markets. To be aligned to the Colombian consumption pattern of five cigarettes daily, Waldo decided to launch a new presentation of the leading brand denominated Ferrari five, a package of 5 cigarettes at COP 1000. Considering that more than 60% of the sale can be explained by traditional retail, it was mandatory to secure its participation. Nevertheless, traditional retailers obtained up to 56% margin by selling single sticks. Waldo and his team rapidly needed to craft a commercial strategy to secure the participation of traditional retailers in a market plagued by informality, smuggling products and lack of control from national authorities.

The case is intended to be used at the early stages of post-graduate studies and in executive education programs addressing issues such as emerging markets, informality, the base of the pyramid, trade marketing and product launches. In particular, the case can be used in MSc in Marketing’s students, first-year MBA students or executives following short courses. The field of studies in which the case should be taught is marketing or trade marketing in particular when analyzing emerging economies.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

▪ Students learn how an educational institute impacts water resources on the campus and its surrounding community.

▪ Students acquire knowledge on how decision-making, related to natural resources, is influenced by the institute’s obligations towards surrounding communities and the long-term sustainability of the resources.

▪ Students become acquainted with the decision-making process adopted by an educational institute for achieving resource-efficient development on the campus.

▪ Students learn how to design evaluation methods for investments related to water conservation at an educational institute.

▪ Students become proficient with the payback method specifically when evaluating water-enhancing projects at an educational campus.

Dr Ajit Parulekar, Director at Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa, India, was evaluating options to improve the sources of water at GIM at the beginning of 2021. He was reviewing the projects proposed to meet the water requirement at the campus for the next five years (2021–2025). The projects were recommended by consultants (ENV Consultants Pvt Ltd) who proposed a total expenditure of US$68,667 which involved storage enhancement and water table upgradation (See Case Exhibit 11). The maintenance department had studied the plans but their projections showed that the execution of these projects and initiatives would still lead to a deficit of water in the future. Dr Parulekar reviewed the reports and weighed the expected tangible and intangible benefits from the proposed projects. The projects had to be carefully selected, keeping in mind the multiple objectives to be met: an increase in water supply within a short time, a financially optimum investment and a minimum impact on the surrounding community. The selected projects had to meet the long-term sustainability objective of resource efficiency at the campus.

Students studying finance, project appraisal, campus sustainability at graduate or postgraduate management programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 4: Environmental Management.

Transforming a production-oriented firm into a marketing-oriented firm; aligning marketing strategy of local companies in globalizing emerging markets; creating sustainable competitive advantage.

Post graduate management courses in marketing management, strategic marketing, international marketing, business strategy.

This case is about how the leader in the Indian paper industry, Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT), is proactively transforming a production-oriented firm to a marketing-oriented firm to compete in the globalizing emerging market scenario, in the wake of economic liberalisation. It requires the participants to evaluate the impact of marketing initiatives made, and align BILT's marketing strategy to leverage it's strengths and help create sustainable competitive advantage.

To understand the need for local companies in emerging markets to proactively align marketing strategy to build competitive advantage in the globalizing industry.

Teaching notes.

Strategy.

MBA.

On 20 May 2016, the Management team at Patanjali Ayurved Limited (PAL), an Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, had assembled in their Haridwar office, India, to discuss their future growth plans. The team was in a celebratory mood, as their internal reports suggested the annual revenue forecasts for the year 2016-2017 to be INR 10bn, an increase of 100 per cent as compared to the previous fiscal year 2015-2016 that recorded annual revenues of INR 5bn. PAL incorporated in 2006 and co-founded by Acharya Balkrishna operated in four business segments of foods, personal care, home care and Ayurved products. The products sold under the brand name Patanjali were single-handedly promoted by Swami Ramdev (hereafter referred as Ramdev), a popular Yoga practitioner and preacher amongst the Indian masses, as well as PAL’s co-founder. Ramdev recommended PAL’s products in his yoga sessions on television and yoga shibirs which had led to huge positive “word-of-mouth” publicity for their brand Patanjali. Their fast-paced growth in less than a decade had generated a disruption in the Indian FMCG sector, resulting in a negative impact on the sales of established multinational corporations (MNCs) such as Colgate-Palmolive, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), ITC Limited (ITC), besides the domestic players such as Dabur India Ltd. and Emami Ltd. This had led their FMCG competitors to launch plans to strengthen their product portfolios so as to provide a tough competition to PAL. The management team at PAL, though confident of achieving their annual revenue targets, were apprehensive of this new competition from the big players of the FMCG sector. Were they capable of continuing their success story? Going forward what strategic steps would ensure them a sustainable growth and a market leader position? The mood turned reflective as the team pondered on some of these questions.

The case is structured to enable discussion on: conducting and understanding a general environment analysis and industry and competitive analysis and critically evaluating the firm’s strategic positioning and scope in a competitive environment.

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CSS 11: Strategy.

The learning outcomes of this paper are follows: students should be able to understand the complexity related to the provision of safe drinking water for disaster-hit areas and effective solutions to overcome this problem. Also, students should be able to evaluate the need for awareness about post traumas mental health especially in case of disasters and identify how technology can provide answers to such critical issues.

The case represents a unique scenario where the head of an organization has moved away from the financial prospect and invested time and efforts for the provision of safe drinking water to the inaccessible areas and devise strategies for the improvement of disaster relief operations.

Undergraduate and post graduate students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 4: Environmental Management.

The case describes the strategy of a large Indian Public Sector Bank (PSB) to enhance financial inclusion and financial literacy of less privileged people located in poorly accessible parts of India. While pursuing the developmental objective ‘imposed’ by the Central Bank/government, being a listed entity, the PSB had to be mindful of the financial viability of the strategy so as to protect the interest of its minority shareholders. The issues covered are endemic to most developing countries where public enterprises often become instrumentality of the state.

The hot breakfast cereal division of Quaker Oats was in serious decline, and the increasing American preference for speed and convenience at breakfast did not bode well for the category. The senior VP overseeing the hot breakfast division has been given an ultimatum by the CEO to turn the company's namesake product line around. She develops a marketing plan, but will it work?

To analyze a mature product category within the context of its competition and consumer trends, and apply several aspects of brand management and marketing strategy to maintain market share in the face of changing consumer preferences and intense competition.

The learning outcomes of this study are to identify and discuss ways in which energy consumption in a residential educational institute can be reduced by improving demand-side energy management for sustainable development; summarise the challenges that an institute faces in transitioning to a more environmentally friendly mode of operations concerning energy management; illustrate the difference between operating expense and capital expenditure methods used for solar rooftop projects from the perspective of Goa Institute of Management (GIM); and analyse different project proposals for solar rooftop power generation energy using capital budgeting techniques.

Dr Ajit Parulekar, director at GIM, was evaluating the steps taken over the past few years for sustainable energy management to understand their impact and consider ways in which to take the environmental sustainability agenda forward. One of the projects that he was considering was the rooftop solar power plant. GIM had received proposals from several different vendors and evaluated three proposals out of these. He needed to decide on the capacity of the rooftop solar power generation and the type of contract that he should get into for the implementation of the project. This case study describes the differences and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of all the mentioned models with respect to GIM.

This case study is suitable for post-graduate level management students, as well as for undergraduate-level finance and management students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS4: Environmental management.

Marketing, International Business, Strategy, Packaging, Promotion.

Graduate students.

This case is recommended to master's students studying consumer behaviour, products strategy, brand activation and international business. Practitioners in the food industry, design and advertising industry may also find this case interesting. Policymakers looking at mobility of products across borders may also consider this case interesting.

This paper explains the role of packaging in brand and product strategy; describes how packaging can give a competitive advantage in the fast-moving consumer goods category; relates consumer insights to strategy using packaging to achieve market objectives like penetration, market share increase, engagement and loyalty.

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

This case was developed solely for the purpose of classroom discussion. Some details of the case, including names of the companies, have been disguised. This case is not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of academic or business data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management of the personnel or company.

Only when the custodial staff showed up at his office door did Vinod Mehra realize that it was already 3 am. Vinod is the VP of Supply Chain for Dockomo Heavy Machinery Equipment Limited. He had spent the entire night analyzing the data from the spare parts division in Pune, India. It was April 15 and he had just two weeks to go before the annual review of the company.

The spare parts division's growth at Dockomo has slowed down to about 10 percent annually when compared to the growth rate of 20 percent an nually over the previous years. Their cancelled orders stood at a staggering 8 percent due to parts unavailability, but at the same time the inventory in the system was $6 million higher than the previous year. Vinod was unsure of the response he would receive from the board of directors, since the inventory level increased along with the number of cancelled orders.

At the meeting, the board was considerate, but Vinod was asked to conduct an analysis of the shortcomings and prepare a report on the leading causes for the unavailability of parts to the customers. He was also asked to prepare a report on the approach to be followed to fix these problems by the next quarterly meeting. Vinod was already aware of many issues which existed in the supply chain, but he had to go through a complete analysis to gain a clearer understanding of the shortcomings in their distribution processes.