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Launched in 2005, Aava natural mineral water is one of the key brands in the natural mineral water market in India. It had sales of over Rs. 15 crore (150 million) in 2012 and it is the second largest brand and a volume leader in the natural mineral water category. The case discusses the dilemma faced by its Managing Director and his team in light of the emerging competition. The company needs to take important decisions related to customer segment selection, product mix and introduction of new product offerings.

This study aims to examine whether citizens of non-Muslim countries accept products with a “halal” logo. In the era of globalization, one of the most crucial issues for Muslim travelers is reliable halal foods when visiting non-Muslim countries. If people in non-Muslim countries accept imported products containing halal certification logos, and such products are readily available in shops, this issue could be substantially improved.

Malaysia and Japan were selected as Muslim and non-Muslim countries, respectively, to conduct a choice experiment (CE) for 656 non-Muslim subjects, and estimated willingness to pay (WTP) for mineral water with and without the halal logo. A random parameter logit model was used for estimation.

The difference between the WTP for mineral water with and without the halal logo was ¥5; however, the associated coefficient is not statistically significant. This implies that the halal logo has no impact on non-Muslim subjects’ purchasing behavior. From this, we can infer that the halal products with certification logo would be accepted in Japanese shops, which may foster foreign Muslim visits.

As the results are based on a couple of countries (Malaysia and Japan) and only one product (mineral water), further investigation using other products in different countries would be necessary. However, as suggested in the main text, the results enjoy a degree of generalizability.

The results of this study support the possibility of circulating halal products in non-Muslim countries and thus promoting Muslim travel abroad. No such study has examined this issue using CE.

Imported bottled waters have been commercially available in the UK since 1861 and long before that the famous spa towns like Bath, Harrogate and Leamington Spa were fashionable places to visit in order to recuperate, usually from food and drink excesses which were common among the wealthy people in those days. In spite of the unpleasant taste of many of these heavily mineralised waters, they were 'taken' in liberal quantities, probably in the belief that anything which tasted so horrid was bound to be good for one.

The present field-based case study is related to topics in marketing area, more specifically brand management, strategic marketing and business strategy.

This case is primarily meant for second-year students in a postgraduate program in business management (MBA). The case could also be discussed in an executive development program on marketing/business strategy.

The present case is based on Aava natural mineral water, the brainchild of Mr Behram Mehta, Chairman of Shelpee Enterprises. The case explores at the various marketing strategies adopted by Aava in India. The case traces the brand's foray into the Indian bottled water market as a regional players and its growth as a pan Indian brand. However, in early 2012, the majority of Aava's sales were coming through institutional sales. The brand was facing a challenge of trying to find a foothold in the retail market. The balance between becoming a mass and a premium brand was also looming large. The major question that Aava needed to answer is whether it should restrict itself to the B2B market or whether it should try to penetrate the retail market. Given the latter is more beneficial for the company, the issues of product, pricing and brand communication needed to be revisited since these are not similar for B2B and B2C brands.

The various learning outcomes of the case include: understanding the differences between B2B and B2C marketing and the need for different strategies for both, apply marketing research findings to introduce a product in a market, evaluate and execute marketing communication strategies based on human behaviour for more effectiveness, evaluate alternatives leading to the right choice of branding/marketing strategy, understand the role of 4Ps of marketing for successful business and industry analysis.

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

Launched in 2005, Aava natural mineral water is the second largest brand in the Indian natural mineral water market. Over the years brand has established its volume leadership in its product category. The case discusses the dilemma faced by the top management in dealing with the issues related to brand positioning of Aava. The company's top management has to decide on how to position Aava in the market so as to create premium image and aspirational appeal for the brand.

We tend to take water for granted in Britain: we automatically assume that we can drink any water from a tap. In general there seems little doubt that our mains water is of an adequate standard despite much press speculation about our ageing system of water mains and the crumbling sewers. There are, however, a few points to be made.

If additional evidence were needed of the connection between food supply and the spread of infectious disease, it would be found in a report recently presented to the Finsbury Borough Council by its Medical Officer of Health, Dr. GEORGE NEWMAN. It appears that in the early part of May a number of cases of scarlet fever were notified to Dr. NEWMAN, and upon inquiry being made it was ascertained that nearly the whole of these cases had partaken of milk from a particular dairy. A most pains‐taking investigation was at once instituted, and the source of the supply was traced to a farm in the Midlands, where two or three persons were found recovering from scarlet fever. The wholesale man in London, to whom the milk was consigned, at first denied that any of this particular supply had been sent to shops in the Finsbury district, but it was eventually discovered that one, or possibly two, churns had been delivered one morning, with the result that a number of persons contracted the disease. One of the most interesting points in Dr. NEWMAN'S report is that three of these cases, occurring in one family, received milk from a person who was not a customer of the wholesale dealer mentioned above. It transpired on the examination of this last retailer's servants that on the particular morning on which the infected churn of milk had been sent into Finsbury, one of them, running short, had borrowed a quart from another milkman, and had immediately delivered it at the house in which these three cases subsequently developed. The quantity he happened to borrow was a portion of the contents of the infected churn.

This case has been tested twice in the classroom of 40 students in two leading Indian institutions, IIM Ahmedabad (among a group of 40 faculty development programme participants) and Central University of Kashmir (among a group of 40 MBA marketing students). The teaching note has been well prepared and all modifications in both the main case as well as teaching note stand updated.

The data for the case was collected using both primary and secondary sources. The author managed to have a face-to-face interview with the company's Vice President, Mr Sheroy Mehta at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and get the preliminary data for the case. The author could also manage to carry out personal interactions with PureMax mineral water owners, a leading brand in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Some of the supplementary data were sourced from secondary sources and properly referenced.

The discussion questions invite students to consider several environmental challenges often faced by entrepreneurs. Students are encouraged to demonstrate their practical and theoretical knowledge by addressing genuine challenges across a typically broad entrepreneurial management spectrum, including product design, positioning and sustainability. This case was written following extensive interaction with the founding entrepreneurs at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, using a critical marketing perspective and the author's primary research. This case is targeted at postgraduate and undergraduate management students taking a marketing, strategic management or entrepreneurship course.

This case study is relevant for marketing management and brand management courses and could also be used for strategic management classes. This case was written to view the general requirement of the MBA marketing syllabus in most Asian universities in general and Indian universities in particular. This case can also be used for undergraduate students of business management and commerce.

This paper aims to characterize the mineral composition of Martian surfaces based on Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES; Mars Global Surveyor) as measured in the infrared thermal range. It presents modeling and interpreting of TES spectral data from selected Martian regions from which the atmospheric influences had been removed using radiative transfer algorithm and deconvolution algorithm. The spectra from the dark area of Cimmeria Terra and the bright Isidis Planitia were developed in Philip Christensen’s and Joshua Bandfield’s publications, where these spectra were subjected to spectral deconvolution to estimate the mineral composition of the Martian surface. The results of the analyses of these spectra were used for the modeling of dusty and non-dusty surface of Mars. As an additional source, the mineral compositions of Polish basalts and mafic rocks were used for these surfaces as well as for modeling Martian meteorites Shergottites, Nakhlites and Chassignites. Finally, the spectra for the modeling of the Hellas region were obtained from the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) – (Mars Express) and the mineralogical compositions of basalts from the southern part of Poland were used for this purpose. The Hellas region was modeled also using simulated Martian soil samples Phyllosilicatic Mars Regolith Simulant and Sulfatic Mars Regolith Simulant, showing as a result that the composition of this selected area has a high content of sulfates. Linear spectral combination was chosen as the best modeling method. The modeling was performed using PFSLook software written in the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Additional measurements were made with an infrared spectrometer in thermal infrared spectroscopy, for comparison with the measurements of PFS and TES. The research uses a kind of modeling that successfully matches mineralogical composition to the measured spectrum from the surface of Mars, which is the main goal of the publication. This method is used for areas where sample collection is not yet possible. The areas have been chosen based on public availability of the data.

The infrared spectra of the Martian surface were modeled by applying the linear combination of the spectra of selected minerals, which then are normalized against the measured surface area with previously separated atmosphere. The minerals for modeling are selected based on the expected composition of the Martian rocks, such as basalt. The software used for this purpose was PFSLook, a program written in C++ at the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which is based on adding the spectra of minerals in the relevant percentage, resulting in a final spectrum containing 100 per cent of the minerals.

The results of this work confirmed that there is a relationship between the modeled, altered and unaltered, basaltic surface and the measured spectrum from Martian instruments. Spectral deconvolution makes it possible to interpret the measured spectra from areas that are potentially difficult to explore or to choose interesting areas to explore on site. The method is described for mid-infrared because of software availability, but it can be successfully applied to shortwave spectra in near-infrared (NIR) band for data from the currently functioning Martian spectroscopes.

This work is the only one attempting modeling the spectra of the surface of Mars with a separated atmosphere and to determine the mineralogical composition.