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Strategic Marketing Management. This case is also relevant for discussion in other courses like brand management.

Postgraduate Management students.

Just before the official launch of “no-negative” news edition by Dainik Bhaskar Corp. Ltd, there was widespread speculation that the group was risking too much by going against the set convention of the newspaper industry. The common belief in the industry was “If it bleeds, it leads” and “good news is no news”. While endeavoring to do away with this perception, the management needed answers to questions like “Would it really be an attractive proposition for the readers?”, “Was the group compromising the role and responsibilities of press in presenting the truth to the world?” and “How would it add value to the brand?” The entire debate was pivoted around the sustainability of positive marketing strategy and “Is it a good idea to go forward with No Negative?” For decades, Dainik Bhaskar was known for its strategy of capturing untapped markets or denting into monopolistic markets and become a leader. This case is an odyssey of moving away from the “me-too” to category (positive newspaper) positioning. The main objective of this case is to build the concept and rudiments of positive marketing in practical perspectives using the backdrop of the Hindi newspaper industry and its largest player breaking the myth “only negative news sell”. Besides this, the case also evolves the process of institutionalizing positive marketing in organizations.

The primary objective of teaching through this case is to make students aware and understand the emerging strategy of positive marketing and its ability to break through the present clutter in the market. It also elaborates on how companies can use this tool for differentiating themselves from others.

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

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Razorpay is a four-year-old Indian B2B fintech startup in digital payments which is venturing into digital lending. It aims to simplify digital payment flows involved in acceptance, processing, and disbursement of payments through superior technology and automation. This case details how Razorpay creates value for businesses by offering service convenience in B2B space. Razorpay started as a payment solutions provider, primarily known for their payment gateway. Over time the market for digital payment in India has matured, with multiple providers offering similar products making it difficult for Razorpay to sustain its growth by using technological leadership and service differentiation. To maintain its growth trajectory, Razorpay has launched multiple new products in the digital payment space as well as announced a foray into creating a marketplace for digital lending through launch of Razorpay Capital. The case provides details of the growth of Razorpay and its move from its core strength of payment gateway

By 2009 Netflix had all but trounced its traditional bricks-and-mortar competitors in the video rental industry. Since its founding in the late 1990s, the company had changed the face of the industry and threatened the existence of such entrenched giants as Blockbuster, in large part because of its easy-to-understand subscription model, policy of no late fees, and use of analytics to leverage customer data to provide a superior customer experience and grow its e-commerce media platform. Netflix's investment in data collection, IT systems, and advanced analytics such as proprietary data mining techniques and algorithms for customer and product matching played a crucial role in both its strategy and success. However, the explosive growth of the digital media market presents a serious challenge for Netflix's business going forward. How will its analytics, customer data, and customer interaction models play a role in the future of the digital media space? Will it be able to stand up to competition from more seasoned players in the digital market, such as Amazon and Apple? What position must Netflix take in order to successfully compete in this digital arena?

To examine the benefits and risks of investment in analytical technology as a means for mining customer data for business insights. Students will develop a strategy position for Netflix's investment in technology and its digital media business. Students must also consider how new corporate partnerships and changes to the customer channel model will allow the company to prosper in the highly competitive digital space.

After reading and discussing the case, the participant would be able to: comprehend the ethics in marketing strategies that were displayed by an entrepreneur in the challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic; appreciate how the marketing was executed in a socially responsible manner through digital means when there was a conflict between the business and the social interest; and understand how the innovative services or products can be developed that turn the trouble into an opportunity. The case shall also enlighten the students on how to create suitable marketing messages in digital times. The purpose of this paper is to let the students appreciate how they can carry out marketing efforts for a business while keeping customer needs and aspirations at the core, how the marketing campaigns can be designed and executed in a socially responsible manner and how the product portfolio can be suitably altered to make it more valued to the customer. After reading and discussing this case, the students will also be able to appreciate that it is important to identify and address the customer’s pain which may be stated or unstated by the customer. The case intends to teach students how to identify and reap the opportunities that get created from time to time and to make them appreciate that businesses can contribute significantly towards societal gains by committing minimal resources.

The mainstream marketing discipline focuses on excessive consumerism as opposed to the concept of “socially responsible marketing” which advocates that business initiatives should be supported by ethical considerations. The coworking industry was one of the worst affected industries by the pandemic since their customers started working from their homes during and post the lockdowns, leading to a loss in revenues. The protagonist in the case had a strong belief that the business interests would be secondary to the overall interest of society, and therefore, he advised the customers on how they could work productively, safely and stress-free from their homes. As the lockdown was un-eased, the marketing campaigns were launched and executed in a very ethical manner, while designing innovative service offerings were designed.

The case is relevant for the students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies in the field of business and management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

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By working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to conduct a marketing environmental analysis to aid strategic decisions; analyse the first-mover advantages of a retail firm and how these can be sustained; comprehend online retail business models and the challenges therein; understand the trade-offs of online/offline retail experiences specific to an emerging market’s beauty and personal care sector; conceptualize and formulate actionable growth strategies that balance the individual and collective requirements of brick and mortar and retail e-commerce environments.

The case is set in 2022, right after Nykaa – the pioneer of beauty and wellness e-commerce platforms in India makes a blockbuster stock market debut in 2021. Starting in 2012 with a disruptive online model for selling beauty and wellness products online in India, Nykaa had come a long way with expansions in physical retail and other segments such as fashion. The firm, which initially aimed to be a virtual store, is now thinking of aggressively expanding in the brick-and-mortar retail space as it opens its 85th retail outlet.

Falguni S. Nayar, founder and CEO of Nykaa, wanted to roll out 300 physical stores targeting 100 cities in India in the next couple of years. She aspired to establish Nykaa as a category leader as the “Indian Sephora” in the beauty and personal care market. Nykaa’s first-mover advantage in the online beauty and personal care marketplace worked well to establish it as a brand with positive endorsements by digital shoppers that enhanced the investment potential with potential financiers. However, the pandemic had brought every physical retailer to the online platform. Most e-commerce platforms dealing in grocery to lifestyle had added personal care products to their existing merchandise.

Additionally, several start-ups had ventured into the online marketplace. Online was a cluttered marketplace with little to no differentiation. In this bloodbath, would the first-mover advantage for Nykaa in the online space still count as a competitive advantage? Nayar was all set to expand Nykaa’s physical presence aggressively. The concern was that the beauty and personal care segment had also moved online as a function of long stay-at-home periods. In the post-pandemic times, would the customer indeed revert to brick and mortar once again? Nykaa was also into product formulations, but so was every big and small player in the space. What was the differentiated winning formula for the consumer’s heart and mind?

The case can be effectively used in foundation courses in marketing and a wide range of specialized courses on marketing management (core/foundation course), retail marketing and e-commerce/digital marketing and e-commerce for B-school learners. The complex decision points faced by an innovative e-commerce start-up firm on its road to market expansion make the case suitable for niche courses such as Marketing for Start-ups. Moreover, learners in executive MBA programs with considerable experience can benefit from the case analysis that balances a growing retail company’s long- and short-run objectives.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

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Four years into a five-year contract with General Motors to be the exclusive website vendor to its U.S. network of more than 4,000 dealers, CDK Digital faced a crucial contract renewal at the end of 2012. The case follows Melissa McCann, director of strategic marketing, and Chris Reed, CMO, as they prepared for a critical meeting in July 2011: a presentation to the customer relationship management (CRM) subcommittee of the Chevrolet dealer council. Although GM dealers, like all auto dealers in the United States, were independent franchisees, GM saw the renewal of CDK Digital's exclusive contract as a collaborative decision between dealers and GM. According to Ed Vogt, GM's executive in charge of the renewal, if the dealer councils said no, the contract would not be renewed.

This case challenges students to use CDK's big data and analytics capabilities to address the inherent conflict between dealers and manufacturers: when marketing to potential customers, manufacturers wanted consistency across dealer websites to maximize sales of their targeted brands, while dealers wanted flexibility to sell what they had in inventory.

After analyzing the case, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate how big data and analytics can be used to solve channel conflict

• Explain how franchisors and franchisees have different perspectives on the value of data on retail operations

• Recognize benefits of big data and analytics beyond the obvious potential improvements to marketing and operational effectiveness

• Articulate the value of data analytics for channel management

• Appraise the benefits of real-time website customization

Demonstrate how big data and analytics can be used to solve channel conflict

Explain how franchisors and franchisees have different perspectives on the value of data on retail operations

Recognize benefits of big data and analytics beyond the obvious potential improvements to marketing and operational effectiveness

Articulate the value of data analytics for channel management

Appraise the benefits of real-time website customization

Marketing.

The courses in which this case can be used include e-business, e-commerce, digital marketing, retailing and marketing strategy. This case can be used to teach MBA students. This case is also having the equal relevance for the executive programmes.

AaramShop is digitizing the Grocery General Trade ecosystem. There are of millions of neighbourhood kirana stores spread across all the cities of India. AaramShop is bringing these neighbourhood kirana stores online, and making them not only e-commerce-ready but also capable of using technology to take their stores to the next level in terms of service and delivery. The case lists out the issues and challenges faced by AaramShop.

This case challenges the participants to understand the new business model in the e-commerce space. The participants can look at the different angles of the business model proposition, namely, how AaramShop approach delivers on the retailer proposition, consumer proposition and the brands proposition. The participants can also be sensitized about the obstacles in making the business model more successful. These obstacles can be posed by the retailers, consumers or brands. The case will lead to a discussion about the logistics model opportunity available to Aaramshop.com.

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

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The learning outcomes are as follows: first, identify the characteristics of born-global SMEs, and how these characteristics facilitate their global expansion shortly after the company’s inception. Second, demonstrate that companies work with limited resources, typically and notably newly established companies, and that these resources should be allocated according to a carefully determined strategy. The resources focussed on in this case pertain to marketing. Third, examine entrepreneurial marketing and its various manifestations. An understanding of how this type of marketing is used by companies for international expansion is expected. Fourth, assess the role of digital marketing and how social media forms an important part of digital marketing. Particular attention is paid to the use of digital marketing, notably social media, in international expansion. Fifth, develop critical thinking skills with respect to strategic business decisions, such as whether to expand a business into foreign markets or to consolidate locally; and how best to penetrate foreign markets, given the nuances and complexities specific to these markets.

This teaching case is about The Duchess, a recently developed and launched virgin alcohol-free and sugar-free gin and tonic beverage. The adult soft drink was originally launched in South Africa, and just 18 months later became available in international markets (the UK and Belgium). The founders and protagonists of the case, Johannes le Roux and Inus Smuts, face the dilemmas of creating a competitive local brand while also looking to access new markets and internationalise as a born-global firm.

The target audience for this case comprises students enrolled in tertiary business education programmes who have already had some sort of work experience and hands-on exposure to real-world business. MBA and EMBA students, as well as those enrolled in post-graduate studies specific to marketing, international commerce and entrepreneurship, would be suitable candidates.

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

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Discussion of the case will enable students to identify the cornerstones of industry development using simple frameworks like PESTLE and five forces that shape strategy. They will be able to identify critical success factors and evaluate how a firm gets competitive advantage. They will also be able to assess whether the advantage is sustainable for the firms and along which dimensions they have only competitive parity. The issues of contemporary firms growing through the use of network strategies is also highlighted and students will learn to appreciate the role of platforms and connectivity for gaining sustainable advantage.

This case describes the growth strategy of NoPaperForms, a start-up in the domain of enrolment automation for higher education in India. Naveen Goyal, the founder CEO sensed an opportunity in this growing industry segment and acquired it from the founder, Vishal Shah in 2017. The ultimate objective of an educational institute was to attract talent, Goyal evolved a comprehensive enrolment solution starting with the time a prospective student made an inquiry for enrolment till the time he/she paid for enrolment. It was a complete panel, bundled and packaged in a single system taking care of lead management, lead nurturing, application management, fee payment, post-application management and enrolment. He developed it into a unique blend of a customer relationship management (CRM), which was unique in the country. At this juncture, Goyal was exploring growth avenues. On the client side, he had the alternatives of focusing on the B2C segment or diversifying from B2B to B2C. Geographically, he had the options of expanding to tier II and tier III cities, which were the next growth hubs. The option of growing internationally was also on the cards. The purpose of the case is to analyse the opportunities in the education technology sector, specific to student enrolment and leverage the competencies of the firm to detail the future strategy of the firm.

The case can be used in a MBA program for a course in Strategic Management in the module of strategy formulation after fundamental concepts and theories of Strategic Management have been discussed.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

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Amongst others, these are that students should be able to: identify key components of corporate entrepreneurship; assess the role of technology innovation in terms of creating a competitive advantage; appreciate how an entrepreneurial orientation is related to innovation and growth; and make an informed decision regarding key success factors in influencing growth and sustainability.

TymeBank became the first fully branchless, digital bank in South Africa when it launched in February 2019. Since then, the bank’s customer base had grown beyond expectation, but the market had also become more competitive, as new digital banks opened for business and traditional banks expanded their range of digital offerings. The case situates the chief executive officer, Tauriq Keeran, in November 2019, considering how whether the bank was doing enough to grow, in the face of this competition.

Master’s level business students, as well as entrepreneurship, innovation and digital business at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

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