Search results

CEO Richard Gedman has suddenly found himself running two separate but potentially related businesses: the slot manufacturing and marketing business that he has been running for years, and a new online and mobile gaming business that has grown incredibly fast over the past couple of years. To sustain success in both businesses, it seems clear that each one will require significant R&D investments. Should he invest in only one or both?

After students analyze the case, they will have a greater appreciation for why successful marketing requires a true understanding of customers and their preferences, rather than (for example) merely examining competitor offerings. They will also have a clearer understanding of how to calculate some of the basic metrics needed to do a marketing analysis (e.g., market share, price per unit) and how these metrics can inform any marketing decisions significantly.

Marketing Management, Business Strategy and Promotion & Advertising.

Associated degree, undergraduate and graduate students as well as executives from profit-making organizations.

Groupon is the world's largest daily-deal Web site and a pioneer in the group-buying industry. The major feature of the company's business model is that merchants use Groupon as a platform to offer coupons with a discounted price, and the coupon buyers can then redeem these coupons. Groupon has done business in over 50 countries and, by 2012, had over 39.5 million subscribers received its daily news. It had a 59.1 per cent share of the daily-deals market in 2013. Groupon is a publicly listed company on the NASDAQ in the USA, trading under the ticker symbol of “GPRN”.

The students' business knowledge and skills will be sharpened by working through this case, and students will be challenged to identify solutions to the marketing concerns: specifically, how the driving approach of its daily-deal business model enabled the company to adopt a growth strategy that will confront the difficulties of the emergent “golden age” of the daily-deal industry in the twenty-first century. In addition, it will also be of help to the students to take the active roles of thinker, analyst, evaluator, decision-maker and implementer to evaluate the continuing changes in a competitive environment and consider how Groupon can seize available opportunities to predict future performance by comparing data from 2008 and 2012.

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

Encyclopædia Britannica was the leading provider of encyclopedias in the English language, but after sales declined rapidly in the early 1990s the company was forced to file for bankruptcy. Many different organizational and market factors contributed to this crisis, such as the diffusion of the PC, the invention of Encarta, the technical challenges of moving text to electronic formats, and the difficulties of inventing a new format while also operating the leading seller of books. Looking back, what could the company have done differently?

To illustrate important themes on a leading firm's response to technical opportunities and threats; teach students about technological waves, technological disruption, and different concepts of obsolescence; and examine strategic concepts such as attacker's advantages and skunk works.

As a new corporation, the Delhi Metro (DMRC) began its relationship with the media, with a clean slate, and its care with the public relations function made for the establishment of a very cordial relationship with the print media and led to positive image building in the public eye. However, with the rise of electronic media and the proliferating channels' greater emphasis on sensationalism, the warmth in the relations began to subside. A major standoff with the electronic media and the experience of accidents during construction of Phase II of the project, led to the restructuring of the approach to media relations as well as internal restructuring of the PR department. The challenges and major incidents turned out to be hard-learnt lessons in managing the media in a dynamic environment.

The case is meant to be used in an introductory course on Data Visualization or Analytics in either a business school or any other context where students have had some exposure to management topics. This case primarily focuses on introducing students to the basic philosophy and techniques of exploratory data analysis (EDA). The Steaming Mug, a US based hot beverage chain is provided as a context for engaging in a hands-on exploratory data analysis exercise to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the company's operations and performance. The learning from exploring this case will help students understand that many different insights can be drawn from the given data. The students will understand that there is no “one correct path” for this analysis. The values of getting multiple groups to present their findings is that students realise that there are many other angles that could have been explored, than the path they had gone down.

The Constitution of India guarantees freedom of speech and expression to its citizens. This freedom is not absolute and the State can impose reasonable restrictions. Of late, certain incidents have shown this freedom to be under threat. The case highlights some of such events. It makes the readers think about the importance of this right, reasonableness of restrictions, and the measures needed to protect it.

Cara Pils is the private label beer brand of Colruyt, the biggest supermarket retailer in Belgium. As a true private label brand, Cara Pils has never been advertised. In 2015, Colruyt undertook an initiative to reposition its numerous private label brands under two larger private label brands. Unexpectedly, customers were incensed by this initiative, came out in droves and took the matter to social media hoping to lament the demise of their beloved brand. This case study investigates the roots of this strong brand attachment and the consequences for its brand management.

This case is built on primary (one in-depth interview and two focus group) as well as secondary data sources (previous research and web information).

This case is designed to be used in a marketing management or brand strategy course for students that already followed an introduction to marketing course or for students at a master level.

This case should provide the basis of discussions on the topics of brand management, private-label brands, repositioning strategy, brand portfolio management, brand architecture, brand equity, brand elements, brand nostalgia, and consumers’ relationships with brands.

Family Business, Entrepreneurship, International Business and Marketing.

This case is intended for an undergraduate business student audience in courses dealing with Entrepreneurship, Family Business, International Business and Marketing.

TARA Trade, a Lebanese souvenir-item designer and distributor owned by two brothers, was facing hostile competition. The partners who operated the business from two different continents had to deal with multiple threats to maintain their market position in a region of the world riddled with political unrest, regulatory chaos and idiosyncratic (distinctive) socio-cultural business practices.

Students are challenged to identify solutions to the marketing concerns and analyse the partnership issues faced by the international ownership/management of the business.

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

Following discussion and analysis of the case, students should be able to explore how an individual’s background affects his/her perspective on entrepreneurial opportunities; analyse leadership behaviours that support an innovation process; and understand that constraints can enhance innovation.

This real-life case explores the main protagonist, Joni Brenner, an arts university professor at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, and how over the past 10 years she worked with a group of co-operative beaders in Zimbabwe who developed hand loomed necklaces that were sold locally and internationally, placed in the African section of museum stores.The case provides an opportunity to explore the evolution of the Marigold product, the characteristics of an entrepreneur and how innovation can come from a very focused and constrained approach. Brenner’s involvement with the co-operative involved the supply of materials, design innovation and product sales. Innovation had come through focusing on the evolution of the core product, through different designs and colour combinations, learning through mistakes and through other artistic collaborations. The case concludes with Brenner questioning whether the innovation approach should be adapted to meet the needs of a potential new customer.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate, MBA and executive education students focusing on entrepreneurship, small business development and/or innovation.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

In the light of the case study and the accompanying case study questions, the incumbent would be able to gain a comprehensive understanding on the theoretical underpinnings of retail store expansion, identify the challenges for expanding a brand into emerging markets such as India and apply various marketing strategies aimed at in-depth analysis retail expansion. Learners can further comprehend the importance of brand communication incorporated by the brand to attract its customer subset.

It was in December 2022, when Mason Chatterjee, the Indian brand head of Armani Exchange (A|X), was confronted with the managerial dilemma whether launching the second store in the city of Ahmedabad would be a right decision. Another issue that was troubling him was how to go about launching a second store in a city which was not a home to other luxury sublabels. The case study illustrates the decisional aspect of retail expansion adopted by Chatterjee, considering the distinct managerial perspectives. Chatterjee found potential in the city of Ahmedabad, owing to an increased number of high-net-worth individuals and other macro factors. The case study is primarily an outcome of research carried out at A|X store at Ahmedabad One mall, Ahmedabad, for over a fortnight in the month of February 2023. The expansion decision of Chatterjee proved to be a success in the city of Ahmedabad reaching a sales figure of INR 1 crore (US$130,344.11) in the very first month of its launch. However, he was confronted with the managerial dilemma of further expansion, just six months after the launch of the latest expansion.

The case study is intended for advanced undergraduates or postgraduate programs in management or electives such as marketing, retail management and strategic management. It has not only been specifically designed for teaching the concept of retail expansion but can also be used to integrate contexts on brand’s merchandise mix, retail positioning, visual merchandising and brand communication. The case study has an overview of each of these elements. The instructor may choose them into the context for a wider encompassing detailed lesson or particularly on the main aspect of the case.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS8: Marketing