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Marketing, retail management and new product launch.

BBA final year students, MBA first year students.

The case is about the decision that needs to be taken for breakfast launch by McDonald's Pakistan. It was mid July 2011, when Jamil Husain, marketing manager, Atif Abbass and Ali Raza. Marketing executives were sitting in the meeting room of Lakson Square building, Karachi, in order to discuss the fate of breakfast menu. It was Jamil's idea to launch the breakfast menu in the Pakistani market. He, however, was unable to convince his team members who thought that the market was not ready to accept the breakfast option since there was a huge difference between Pakistani lifestyle and western lifestyle. Jamil presented his arguments before them but all in vain. Somehow he knew that the same arguments if presented in front of the top management would lead to a “No” situation. Just then the phone rang; it was Caroline, company secretary, confirming the meeting date and venue which was supposed to take place after two days.

The learning outcomes should be: organizations need to understand the cultural differences and decide about the product launches; based on the class discussion the instructor can conclude whether launching would be a good option or not – apart from culture what are the other important considerations; and preference of glocal vs global – in what situations might a glocal strategy be more suitable as compared with global.

Teaching notes are available, please consult your librarian to access.

Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Marketing and Services Marketing.

The New Wella Salon case (B) is suitable for teaching at MBA level and last-year students of undergraduate-level courses in services marketing and entrepreneurship.

This case discusses the challenges faced by a young entrepreneur Mr Meer, who has successfully brought a new trend in the salon industry of Sukkur City. The new trend focuses on trendier and sophisticated services keeping in mind the changing mindset of consumer and services provided by leading salons of Pakistan. Though, the new salon has proved to be a great success. But recent developments have badly shaken the well-established brand. The most challenging issue was the loss of customers to competition, showing a negative sign for the future of this leading brand of local salon industry. He was confused and upset about the future of the leading salon brand of the local industry. He knew that he has to make some strategic decisions to secure his career and family business but appeared to be confused about how to operationalize these. He soon realized that word-of-mouth publicity and running a Facebook page would not be enough to promote his business effectively; so, he has to explore some new ways to promote his unique and nascent service other than advertising. But what should those be? To capture the growing demand of trendy services and scattered populations as a result of growing competition from similar salons, Meer has chalked down two different options: open another salon at a promising avenue and/or offer more services.

To identify and differentiate between traits of an entrepreneur and traditional businessman. To discuss how services companies can create and sustain competitive advantage. To understand the various strategic aspects of the small businesses that lever their decision-making. To work out strategic choices available to a new entrepreneurial firm, evaluate the alternatives and devise strategies for successful expansion of the business. To assess the usefulness of traditional and non-traditional marketing channels for promoting a small business.

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.

The case chronicles the development of Lumni, Inc., an international start-up offering innovative mechanisms for financing higher education. It focuses on: the details of decision making required to transform an idea into a viable business; building partnerships; the challenge associated with raising venture capital; and the challenges of creating a new market where human capital can be traded to finance higher education.

The paper has the following learning outcomes: to understand the historical and geographical aspect of Pakistan vis-à-vis other countries of South East Asia and the world; to be able to understand the different marketing strategies of the tourism company; to gather the knowledge of many unknown facts which remain out of sight and hardly surface; to boost economy if its facts and figures are given due weight age and followed with true letter and spirit; and to give a big boost to an industry which remains mostly dormant for many decades. The ratio analysis of service sector is explained. How finances can be arranged in shortest time and generates profitability for the company is also discussed.

The study provides an overview on the following topics: lack of interest by the Government in promotion; training of tour operators and guide; and managing the expected income from this industry. This study makes the masses aware that how much potential exist in the field of tourism in Pakistan. How the tour operators find huge potential in all segments of tourism and how the big force of trained manpower can be formed and creates employment. Service sector mostly run on equity finances because of lack of collateral, how efficiently they manage the finance for the business year. It gives details of extensive marketing strategy, the huge profit margin in foreign currency and cost volume profit systems of tourism companies.

BBA, MBA and MS.

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 1: Accounting and Finance.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to analyze the multidimensional and complex crises, and market stature of a company that was a market and industry leader in a developing country; to evaluate and interpret the outcomes of decisions pertaining declining profits, outstanding receivables, branding, marketing and radical reforms to overcome the challenges of sustainable growth, customers and employees’ loyalty, market stature and leadership crises; and to design strategic solutions for sustaining its leadership position and combating severe challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to ponder upon various crises that Pakistan State Oil (PSO) was facing, so that learners can critically analyze, assess and design strategic solutions for it. PSO was the state-run market leader in the petroleum industry. The company had been struggling to combat multiple types of turmoil at a time. Its huge fund of receivables was blocked in circular debt that caused the company budget constraints and deficits. Due to a government policy shift, the demand for its furnace oil substantially reduced and profits plummeted. The countless internal and external crises posed severe menace to its competitive position vis-a-vis its rivals. This qualitative case study garners data from eight interviews from senior managers in the petroleum industry and adds content analysis technique to acquire pertinent data from renowned media sources and subsequent analysis. The drastic crises left PSO with dearth of funds and declining profitability. Consequently, due to limited marketing budget, creativity of its marketing team for devising effective marketing programs to raise market share was compromised. PSO underwent the issues of brand sustainability, sustainable growth, customers and employees’ loyalty, and market stature to financial and leadership crises. However, despite limitations, it still enjoyed a market leadership position among its rivals in the industry by occupying more than half of the chunk of market in the petroleum industry. This is a unique case study of a state-owned giant company facing multidimensional menaces. It offers tremendous learning opportunities for students who can devise creative strategic solutions and link theories and models with practice.

Graduate (MBA), MS, PhD (management and administrative sciences); Suitable for teaching in chapters: Anywhere but ideally near the middle or end of the above courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 11: Strategy.