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The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:

1. comprehending foundational dimensions of brand equity and criteria to compare the use of traditional and new media in leading brand communication appropriateness and performance;

2. understanding and evaluating implications of leading brand communications during times of crises; and

3. creating recommendations for leading brand communication preparedness and response to crises.

On 16 August 2020, Dr Barbara Jensen Vorster, Senior Executive Manager, Communications and Marketing of the Gautrain Management Agency (GMA), in Midrand South Africa, considered her dilemma of adapting their communication approach during COVID-19 and beyond the current crisis. The GMA relied on traditional media and the crisis created an opportunity to rethink their entire communications approach. It was important to the GMA communications team to keep the Gautrain commuters connected even though they might not be using the Gautrain during the lockdown of COVID-19. Jensen Vorster believed that a brand should be adaptive and continue even when a service is not running. Jensen Vorster had to lead her communications team when they were all working from home, and they had to keep commuters informed of the requirements during the different levels of lockdown in South Africa. Their various campaigns during this time purposefully communicated with commuters and the various “staying home” initiatives with the intention of lifting spirits. The communication outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic switched over to social media communications out of necessity; however, was that ideal communication during a crisis? While most of the case focuses on this external communication, the case pays attention to some internal communication initiatives by Jensen Vorster with her own team and for the Gautrain’s staff. The question is whether brands should shift from traditional media to new media campaigns during the 21st-century crises? Students will get the opportunity to compare the use of traditional and new media during crisis times. How might they approach their brand communications during COVID-19 and in preparation for future crises?

Marketing and Business Communications and Leadership courses for MBA or executive education programs.

Masters level MBA.

The team of authors conducted face-to-face interviews prior to and during the lockdown in South Africa; the interviews were conducted online through Zoom. Interviews included Dr Barbara Jensen Vorster, Senior Executive Manager, Communications and Marketing of the Gautrain Management Agency and Kesagee Nayager, the Marketing and Communications Executive Manager at Bombela Concession Company. Viwe Mgedzi, Executive Manager for Knowledge Management, provided documents supporting the case. The researchers also conducted desktop research of secondary data, including media and press articles on the companies. The @Gautrain Twitter feed was very important for the researchers to investigate as part of the secondary data research, to triangulate the interview data.

For example, see one of the Twitter feeds on 17 March 2020, 5:37 pm.

The following Twitter feed on the Gautrain’s status confirmed the interview data: https://twitter.com/TheGautrain/status/1239938937885466633

The main resources of this case study were the interviews and the media articles to offer objective references. The authors used the following two newspaper articles to triangulate the information they gained from the interviews:

BusinessTech, March 18, 2020, accessed March 8, 2021 at https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/382707/south-african-coronavirus-cases-jumps-to-116-as-a-gautrain-exec-tests-positive/

Timeslive, www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-03-17-staff-in-self-isolation-after-executive-tests-positive-two-gautrain-stations-chemically-decontaminated/

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management science; CSS 8: Marketing.

This case allows students to engage with classical marketing tenets of branding, media and communications decisions and content marketing within a management framework.

This case is appropriate for an undergraduate or graduate-level programme in marketing management.

Suzanne Stevens was part of a group of four former senior employees of a large life insurance firm that decided to establish a new and innovative South African insurance company, BrightRock. They identified a gap in a large and highly competitive (albeit generic and opaque) insurance market and developed a distinctive positioning within the market. There was low consumer understanding of the technical aspects of life insurance products, and no existing life insurance product provided an individualized offering. Stevens developed the company’s brand and marketing strategy by drawing on reputation drivers, traditional advertising and a content marketing approach. BrightRock focused on change moments in consumers’ lives, including getting married, having children or getting a new job, and changed the standard insurance product model by launching an individualized flexible product that could adapt with the consumer through their various life stages. The case study documents the first three years of BrightRock’s operations, with a strong focus on brand and product development, distribution and communication. The case dilemma involves choices Stevens faced at the beginning of 2015 about marketing investments across paid, earned and owned media.

This study enables to critique the development of a services brand; integrate paid, owned and earned media to increase communication effectiveness and efficiency; and critique a content marketing strategy.

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.

Learning outcomes can only be achieved through using case-based pedagogy. Instructors must encourage students to dive deeply into the case dilemma, so they are able to engage with the case objectives and questions, applying the appropriate theory. By doing so, students can provide solutions based on five core objectives. These are the objectives that students should learn after completing the case discussion: ■ Critique the marketing activities for implications of global branding. ■ Understand the turnaround strategies in the context of the digital economy and COVID-19 crisis to build a global brand and drive B2C customers from awareness and advocacy. ■ Suggest a map of traditional and digital marketing strategies to enhance the company’s efficiency and effectiveness. ■ Discuss the three main sources of influence marketers can implement to drive customers from awareness to advocacy across the customers’ path. ■ Discuss the application of the UN 17 SDGs practices in today’s fashion industry.

In 2018, Ali El Nawawi and Mai Kassem decided to start up the Scarabaeus Sacer brand to take their passion for social and human development and create ethical fashion streetwear. Scarabaeus Sacer was an Egyptian brand that sold 100% organic Egyptian cotton fashionable streetwear, and the core mission of the fledgling company was “promoting Egyptian organic cotton textiles with a premium quality globally” (Al Nawawi, 2021). While Scarabaeus was mainly guided by the well-being, sustainability, and mental health goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) numbers 3, 8, 11 and 12 (good health and well-being; decent work and economic growth; sustainable cities and communities; and responsible consumption and production), their position as an advocacy brand was only beginning to be understood by their customers in Egypt. With the rapid increase of e-commerce during the COVID-19 crisis and their previous international experience, the co-founders wanted to achieve their mission of building a global brand that promotes Egyptian organic cotton and sustainability while offering unique designs of fashionable streetwear. To achieve this mission, the co-founders El Nawawi and Kassem faced major decisions related to marketing strategies at the beginning of 2020. These included how to build global brand awareness and brand advocacy for well-being, sustainability and mental health with a special focus on penetrating new markets (namely, Europe and the USA) to stock their products on e-commerce platforms and advocating their cause and increase their sales.

This case is suitable for graduate-level marketing courses in which it allows students to engage with classical marketing strategies, digital marketing, global branding, communication, media and sales within a management framework.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

John Caldwell, president of Kio-Tek (KT), presents his company's business plan to a group of 30 venture capitalists at the November 2001 annual meeting of the Portland Venture Group. John's presentation is included in the case as an exhibit. The case begins with a brief overview of the meeting and John's presentation. The body of the case describes the question and answer period immediately following John's presentation.

Included in the case is a set of exhibits that John has handed out to the audience as supplemental information. These exhibits provide additional information on marketing, management, and financial issues facing the company and John refers to them throughout the question and answer period. The VC's ask John a variety of questions in an effort to determine whether KT is an attractive investment opportunity

GiveIndia is an online donation platform that bridges the gap between the donors and credible Non-Governmental Organizations. The focus of GiveIndia has been on individual donations with a vision to create a culture of giving, where every Indian donates at least 2% of their income for the poor. In 2013, the Government of India introduced Corporate Social Responsibility Bill, which mandates corporates to invest at least 2% of their profits in CSR activities. At present, GiveIndia has not been seeking corporate, but now they find themselves at the right position to exploit this opportunity. Dhaval, the CEO faces a dilemma. Corporate donations could significantly increase his funding; however, it could also lead deviations from the mission to creating a giving culture. There were other problems to contend with, such as the question of investing in GiveIndia brand, how to pitch business reasons for philanthropy and employee compensation and retention issues.

This case is set in the midst of the attempted takeover of Walt Disney Productions by the raider Saul Steinberg in June 1984. Disney's chief executive officer ponders whether to fight the takeover or to pay “greenmail”. One significant influence on the decision is the “true” value of the firm. The case offers, either directly or through analysis of it, several estimates of value. The valuation question invites a review of Disney's past performance and current competitive position. Other significant influences on the decision are the ethics and economics of paying greenmail. The rich range of issues raised in the case (strategy, valuation, performance measurement, and ethics) makes it an effective first case, review case, or final exam in a corporate-finance course. A student worksheet file is available for use with this case.

For the design of this case study, the authors used primary sources of information from the shops visited by them in preparation of the case and website of Fred Perry and secondary sources of information from both academic and journalistic publications.

Fred Perry is a premium clothing brand, well-known for its polo shirts. It was created by Mr Fred Perry, a British tennis player. The brand’s stated values are integrity, personality and individuality. Throughout its history, the brand has been adopted by different British subcultures but recently it has faced a challenge because of the brand appropriation by the Proud Boys, a US far-right white supremacy group and other extremist groups as Antifa and hooligans. The nature and actions of the group mean that Fred Perry runs the risk of losing control over its brand equity. This brand hijack means that Fred Perry risks alienating some of its customers by openly opposing the group but also by embracing this subculture’s appropriation. Practically, the brand opposed the appropriation in a press release and by putting an end to the sale of the black and yellow polo shirts in the USA and Canada. Fred Perry has also made a lot of efforts to reposition the brand away from extremist groups while maintaining its strong historical and cultural roots. Through this case study, students will have the opportunity to discuss this topic and explore solutions for brands that face this type of dilemma.

This case is designed to be used in a marketing management, brand strategy or consumer behavior/culture course, especially in the subfield of market segmentation in the telecommunications sector. Specifically, this case is designed for college seniors or master students with basic strategic marketing training. This case will help students understand the difference between the brand identity that the brand owners intend and the brand image that consumers actually perceive. It provides the basis of discussions on the topics of brand management, consumer culture, consumers-brands relationships, brand architecture, brand equity, brand appropriation and repositioning strategy.

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.

This case provides detailed information about digital technologies and business practices that may help offline retailers catch up with the trend of new retail. After studying the case and working on the assignment questions, students will be able to:▪ Understand new features of smart cash registers, including facial-recognition payment, purchase-sales-inventory management, customer profile and store management, which all are important for the long-term development of the retail business in the age of “new retail”.▪ Identify opportunities, practices and impacts of digital technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence, on contemporary retail businesses.▪ Identify problems of traditional retail and suggest solutions by applying the concepts and tools learned above.▪ Apply digital marketing approaches and tools (e.g., social media, livestreaming and online word-of-mouth) to design marketing campaigns; students should include basic elements such as the 6Ms for effective marketing communications (market, mission, message, media, money and measure).

This case describes difficult situations facing Leo Shoudong Pan, the founder and CEO of Yun Dong Jia Technologies Co Ltd (YDJ), in marketing communications. With a motto of “Making it easy to open stores anywhere”, YDJ develops and sells smart cash registers, which provide a self-developed operating system and cloud computing services. Pan targets small and micro retailers, who are technology laggards when digital transitions had swept the world. His goal is to build a network of 100,000 pieces of smart cash registers across China, but he has only sold 8,000 pieces since he founded YDJ in 2016. He must make a breakthrough in the business. To drive leads and sales, he feels the urgency of conducting effective marketing communications with target customers and enhance their understanding on the value that YDJ creates for them. Monetary incentives are tangible but not yet fully demonstrated YDJ’s value. With the traditional retail approach, brick-and-mortar stores, especially those small-scaled ones, are not able to meet the market change; instead, they must adopt digital techniques to catch up with the trend of new retail, which is necessary for a long-term business development rather than just a temporary measure during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pan must craft more compelling messages. What customer value should be chosen as incentives to motivate the target market? How to conduct effective marketing communications correspondingly?

Senior undergraduate; Postgraduate; MBA; EMBA.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Services marketing.

This case can be taught effectively to MBA/MS students. The case provides students with an opportunity to closely examine various marketing activities and to understand how problems associated with intangible services can be dealt with by using effective integrated marketing communications.

On March 1, 2011, JustEat, the world's largest and premium online food ordering and table reservation portal, acquired a 60 per cent stake in India's premium online food ordering and table reservation portal – Hungryzone. Following this, Hungryzone was rebranded as www.justeat.in. Ritesh Kumar Dwivedy Founder and CEO of Hungryzone and now the CEO of www.justeat.in, soon faced some challenges that cropped up as a result of this new development. Rebranding and the scalability of operations with the existing resources were the major causes of concern. To overcome these problems, www.justeat.in undertook several marketing initiatives and in the process implemented innovative ideas like JustConnect Terminal; introduction of the global JustEast mascots Belly and Brain to replace the existing mascot Aloo Patel of Hungryzone; and various innovative promotional activities to promote www.justeat.in. The case highlights the issues and challenges faced by the management. Finally some significant challenges yet to be resolved are posed. What should be done to deal with the problem of poaching of customers by partnering restaurants? How should www.justeat.in ensure that the partnering restaurants do not perceive it as their competitor in spite of the fact that registering with www.justeat.in helps increase their revenues by 10-15 perx cent? How should www.justeat.in convince popular restaurant chains to register with it keeping in mind the fact that they are already facing excess demand situations?

The case is designed to enable students to understand: the concepts associated with delivering services through electronic channels; communications and the services marketing triangle; key serxvice communication challenges; the integrated services marketing communication mix; strategies to match service promises with delivery; and the services branding model.

Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.