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Primary and secondary data.

This case is set in the year 1987 when many parts in India were milk deficient. Seasonal and cyclical shortages were more of a norm. There were however early signals that the cooperative dairying model across the country was gaining momentum and the milk production in the country was poised for a sharp upswing.

Masuum baby food is a winning brand in Shalanda Milk Foods portfolio with a top-line revenue of Rs 300m per annum, contributing to 60% of the firm’s revenue and registering a healthy 14% annual growth.

The brand was used as an additive for tea and coffee, a purpose for which it was not intended, apart from it being used as a baby food, which of course was the intended purpose.

The World Health Organisation had proposed a code which among other things proscribed brand advertisement and promotion of baby food with a view to promote mother’s milk for infants.

Though the brand sales seemed to continue to grow, thanks to demand operating above supply, there was a realization that the brand could head into an identity crisis and the fact that it cannot speak for itself could be damning.

The protagonist in the case came up with a strategy to launch a new brand with the same composition as Masuum and in a controlled manner transfer volume from Masuum to new brand. Even while appreciating the protagonist’s recommendation, the Managing Director exhorts him to come up with a stronger rationale for launching a new product and review whether it constitutes a comprehensive solution.

This case can be used at the Master’s in business administration level in the Marketing Management course. This case should be scheduled after covering topics on segmentation, targeting, positioning and brand.

This case can also be used to introduce case methodology as it follows the framework of sharply defining a problem, explaining the relationships amongst variables, identifying and evaluating solution choices, and recommending the most effective.

The case is written based on general experience.

Zealvita is a challenger brand to NutriMalt in the white malted food drink (MFD) category. It has a product formula that compares favorably on taste and equally on nutrition. However, Zealvita is not able to translate the power product formula to a winning market formula. Drawing on its legacy and strong adoption route, NutriMalt built a dominant 88% market share in the White MFD category. The market rule of “disproportionate market share for the leading brand” applies with inexorable force in MFD. Smarting at the low market share, Zealvita is in search of a marketing strategy to create churn. Rajiv Product Manager of Zealvita believes that consumer sales promotion of a higher order and at a higher frequency than what is normal can tilt the scales. From Zealvita’s perspective is there a strategic advantage in operating consumer promotion? Is it safe to assume that NutriMalt will not retaliate with consumer promotion? Can consumer sales promotion be sustained at planned frequency? What is the logic in a continuous consumer promotion program?

This case can be used at the post-graduate level in the Marketing Strategy course or in a course that has a sales promotion management or competition management segment. This case is also appropriate for use in executive education programs.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of customer satisfaction during mortgage purchases. Mortgage demand in the USA has reached an all-time high because of an increase in housing demand after COVID-19. Nonetheless, several customers are dissatisfied with their service providers. Customers who actively search the market gain more information about mortgage providers and use this information to define expectations for lenders. The only way there will be customer satisfaction is if lenders meet these expectations. Therefore, it is economically significant for mortgage lenders to discover the antecedents of mortgage satisfaction.

In this study, the partial least squares approach was used to test the hypothesis that satisfaction was influenced by objective knowledge, familiarity and search intensity among a sample of customers (n = 4,512) from the National Survey of Mortgage Originations who had purchased a mortgage in the USA between 2019 and 2020.

The results of structural modelling showed that familiarity (β = 0.23 and p = 0.01) with and knowledge (β = 0.16 and p = 0.01) of mortgages significantly affected consumer satisfaction during mortgage purchase. Search intensity (p = 0.01) mediated the relationship between knowledge, familiarity and satisfaction.

The primary implication is that mortgage service providers should prioritise educating customers about the mortgage buying process on their websites and in person. So managers must actively assist clients in having realistic expectations. Second, mortgage companies should establish a presence on third-party mortgage comparison websites to ensure that customers actively consider alternatives, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.

This study is unique in being an exploratory study to examine the antecedents of mortgage satisfaction using a public data set. This study uniquely examines the National Survey of Mortgage Originations data set with partial least squares approach to examine underlying customer attitudes.