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Strategic Management, Strategic Marketing Management.

Bachelors, Masters.

Shaheen Ballpoints is a project of Shaheen Group of Industries who, apart from manufacturing and marketing writing instruments, are engaged in diversified businesses of sanitary fittings, sanitary tiles, baby diapers and plastic films. Launched in 2001-2002, Shaheen Ballpoints had to compete against established ballpoint pen brands in a growing market. Shaheen Ballpoints believed that by setting out new standards for technology and packaging being used in the writing instruments industry, they would be able to compete with these giants. Shaheen Ballpoints experienced a mega launch of its ballpoint pens range in 2002. The wholesale market of Pakistan welcomed Shaheen Ballpoints quite generously and they paid in advance for their stocks which, generally, was not a norm of the writing instruments industry of Pakistan. However, soon after its launching, Shaheen Ballpoints realized some of the technical and marketing issues in its systems and had to pull all its stock back from the market just after six months of its launch. All the major resellers avoided Shaheen's stocks which was a major setback for the Shaheen Group. They re-launched the ballpoints in early 2004.

It is expected that the students will be able to understand the: issues associated with using the diversification strategy to grow the business; strategic implications of challenging the established industry norms and practices; and channel relationships within the industry and the need to tune-up the channel relationship strategy according to the varied nature of diversified businesses.

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

International wine marketing, focusing on the emerging importance of Hong Kong as a wine business hub in the Asia Pacific region.

MBA or year 3/4 undergraduate business course. Some prior knowledge of organisational structure, management decision–making, marketing principles and consumer behaviour will be helpful.

Sinolink is a small family business that successfully made the transition to become one of the largest local wine dealers in Hong Kong, trading internationally and growing phenomenally through a combination of management and marketing savvy. Its story is worth telling at a time when Hong Kong is emerging as an important wine business hub in the Asia Pacific region. It faces new opportunities and challenges in such a dynamic environment.

Some learning points are: how vision and leadership affects business strategy; international supplier relationship and product knowledge as critical foundations for the wine business; customer relationship management and marketing as competitive strategies; and flexibility in response to operational considerations and challenges is vital to success

Teaching notes.

Strategic Management and Marketing.

Management students (MBA).

In the present times of global competition and busy schedules of individuals, it is expected that companies provide service with security, sincerity and flexibility keeping pace with changing global scenario of marketing. Service receiver expects competitive and optimum facilities with ease while sitting in any corner of the world at any time of the day. It implies that the service provider should be available at all times/all places for satisfying the needs of the customers. A daunting task ahead of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was to change its conventional approach and work toward a newer, user-friendly one. The top management, i.e. the Board of Directors, took up the task of identifying a quicker but securer approach to provide optimum facilities to the policyholders.

Achieving customer satisfaction through alternate collection channels and retaining market share, role of customer servicing in creating competitive advantage, challenges for a large public sector enterprise – traditional approach or modern approach, role of private companies in development of insurance industry, creating awareness about the product/service through different distribution channels and use of information and telecommunication technologies to reach remote places, are the expected learning outcomes.

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

Marketing Strategy and Marketing Management. It can also be used to illustrate the application of specific concepts and frameworks, such as “revenue (demand/Capacity) management” in services marketing and “Integrated Marketing Communication” under marketing communication.

Postgraduate and Final Year Marketing Majors.

The case describes how the Ghana Premier League (GPL), the flagship football product of the Ghana Football Association, continues to record low attendances at various league centres since the turn of the new millennium. The case highlights the effects of global forces (both macro and micro factors) on the patronage of GPL matches. It also brings into focus the effects of professionalization and commercialization of the league, especially, on traditional football clubs. It presents discussions on the need for football clubs to adopt sound management principles, such as market-orientation in response to the dynamic global forces. Apart from illustrating the effects of globalization on football, the case can also be used for teaching topics on integrated marketing communication/brand management and revenue management for perishable services.

To enable students to appreciate how the forces of globalization affect businesses in developing countries; to enable students to apply strategic marketing frameworks (PEST, Porter's five forces Model, SWOT, etc.) to analyse business situations; to enable candidates/students to understand the use of services management principles to address problems relating to perishable demand and unused capacity; students should understand the importance of quality products/services and branding to an organization's ability to deliver exceptional customer experience; to enable students apply the elements of integrated marketing communication to address organizational problems; andto sharpen students' critical thinking and innovative problem-solving skills.

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

Marketing management, digital marketing, advertising and promotion management, and technology management.

The case is suitable for BBA and MBA students. It can also be considered in executive education programs.

Venkatesh Kothapalli, the marketing head at Reebok India headquarters at Gurgaon, was in a decision dilemma about the effectiveness of using social media marketing and its employment in the current scheme of marketing strategy being planned. He had been able to generate a fair amount of awareness and excitement amongst potential users on Reebok's social media sites. However, these often fail to convert into topline sales. In addition, Alex his superior had given clear instructions that no separate budget would be earmarked for this type of medium. So Venkatesh had to divert some parts of his existing budgets (which he did from the PR budget and the DM budget) and channel these into the new area of social media marketing. This had also created concerns in Venkatesh's mind about the possibility of the new media not showing favourable results while budgets of the traditional and tried and tested media like PR and direct marketing were being chopped.

These include: understanding the dilemma of an organization's adoption of newer marketing tools as opposed to traditional marketing practices; evaluating the role of newer mediums like social media marketing and its long term and short term relevance; understanding the origins and development of social media marketing to grasp the full scale of its usefulness; and appreciating the complexities of measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing initiatives.

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

The case throws light on the unforeseen challenges new entrepreneurs confront. It highlights how the challenges of manpower, sales and operations are intertwined. It also put emphasis on holistic planning prior to initiating a business.

This case can be used in the introductory courses on entrepreneurship and sales and distribution for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Business Schools.

This case revolves around the pursuit of an entrepreneur to develop and service sweetcorn vending kiosks in an Indian State. It narrates the dilemma faced by the entrepreneur when she discovered a notional loss of revenue as a result of her selecting a particular distribution channel. The entrepreneur realized that the entire range of products sold through the dealer was fetching her far less revenue in comparison to the only product she retailed herself. She also realized that the retail though paid better dividends, but also brought along host of manpower and operative issues. With the day of signing a firm contract with the dealer coming close, the entrepreneur must decide quickly her future course of action.

The students will be able to gain understanding of the unforeseen challenges confronted by small entrepreneurs, interconnection of various functions of business and the significance of holistic planning.

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

Strategic Marketing, Marketing Management, Services Marketing.

MBA and Executive MBA.

The case talks about the inception and growth of OYO Rooms, a company that originally started as ORAVEL Stays Ltd. in 2012, as a platform for booking budget and premium accommodations, but graduated to become OYO Rooms, an online aggregator of hotels, with a unique business model of “managing the partial inventory of rooms” in hotels and offering a proposition of affordable, consistent, quality experience to business, leisure and pilgrim travellers. The company received rounds of funding from Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, Sequoia Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. Moreover, unlike its competitors, OYO adapted itself to the fast-changing consumer preference and grew at an enviable pace and by 2016, was present across 190 cities through a network of 6,500 hotels. However, OYO Rooms had to face a multitude of challenges both from the consumer and hotel owners’ ends, primarily service quality concerns from the customers and majorly concerns out of payment irregularities or non-abidance to written contracts from the hoteliers’ end. The dissatisfaction levels increased to an extent that experts started raising questions on the viability of the business. OYO was growing at an aggressive rate but breakeven point was yet to be achieved. Moreover, growing dissatisfaction and switching amongst its customers as well as hoteliers threatened the very existence of the model. The case allows the students to critically analyse the strategies of OYO for deliberation on whether the business model was sustainable in the long run. It also encourages the students to deliberate on the possible growth strategies for OYO as also on the service recovery strategies for OYO.

The case has been positioned around the following modules: industry analysis; value of a two-sided business model to both parties; sustainability of a unique business model, against the challenges that it faces; applying the VRIO framework (resource-based view); complaint handling and service recovery strategies; applying the Ansoff’s grid for possible growth options.

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 11: Strategy.

Marketing.

The case is aimed at Business Administration students.

Udaipur based Aavaran – the echos of rural India – is a concept by COS-V, a leading non-governmental organization (NGO), which aims at connecting the tribal women of rural India with the mainstream. The NGO, set up in 1988 by Smt. Girija Vyas, was initially involved in imparting vocational training to the rural poor. Later, COS-V was taken up by Alka Sharma, a graduate from the Indian Institute of Crafts and Design, Jaipur, who completely changed the direction of the NGO. Her interest in textiles and crafts led to the genesis of the concept “Aavaran”. Aavaran is a retail outlet which was opened with a vision to provide the Indian market with traditional yet contemporary textiles and clothing. It offers a collection of women's and children's clothing and home textiles using a variety of traditional textiles and crafts. It is an artisan driven concept where the supply chain incorporates the essence of Indian textiles and crafts at every level. From the dyeing, printing, sampling and assembly of garments everything is done by the local women trained by COS-V with the support of DC-Handicrafts. The raw materials – the textiles, grey fabrics, etc. – are sourced directly from the rural weavers and artisans across India. The case study discusses how Aavaran developed the unique positioning of a retail platform for contemporary products made from traditional techniques, skills and hand-based processes; how it could revive the diminishing arts of Dabu and Phetia and how it carved a niche through its channelized marketing efforts.

The case will familiarize management students with the concept of niche marketing with Udaipur based firm Aavaran as an example which developed a unique positioning through its traditionally developed products. It will also acquaint students with a basic understanding of a supply chain with a cooperative firm in focus.

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

To write this case, several research methods were used. Most importantly, field interviews were conducted with employees at Banati foundation. The interviews were held with three different employees at different points in time, including the marketing manager, the executive manager and the head teacher working with the girls at the foundation. These interviews helped provide details regarding the foundation’s culture which is hard to get from secondary sources. In addition to this, one of the researchers was a volunteer at the foundation for 6 months before starting this research and so had strong background knowledge on the workings of the entity. Finally, secondary sources were used to provide accurate historical information and numerical statistics. These sources included the foundation’s website and annual reports as well as newspaper interviews with the Banati’s Chairperson.

This case poses the marketing dilemma faced by Banati Foundation, a non-profit organization (NPO) based in Egypt. Banati has offered child protection services to girls at risk since its establishment in 2009. In particular, the case focuses on the foundation’s strategy and operations in 2020. Since its inception, the foundation has been led by the main founder, Dr Hanna Abulghar. Under her leadership, the foundation flourished and won several international awards. The foundation became a home, a school and a support system to the girls who were once homeless. Yet even though Banati succeeded in improving the lives of many girls at risk, the foundation still sought ways to sustain its funds and to empower the girls to thrive after they left the foundation. As the key person responsible for setting the foundation’s direction and strategy, Dr Hanna faced marketing challenges that include overcoming social stigma, diversifying the donor base and increasing fundraising.

This case is suitable for undergraduate and Master’s students who already have an understanding of the basic marketing principles such as the marketing mix (4Ps)/market segmentation and have taken an introductory marketing course previously. Furthermore, the case presents an opportunity to apply marketing concepts such as segmentation, targeting, positioning and promotion within the context of social and NPO marketing. It is ideal for students studying social marketing, NPO marketing strategy, cause marketing, fundraising techniques and social inclusion.

After the successful release of the first Hunger Games film in 2012, the film's distributor, Lionsgate, was preparing to release the next movie in the series, Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Fan expectations had grown after the success of the first film, and Lionsgate faced the challenge of keeping moviegoers interested and engaged in another Hunger Games movie. In an era marked by the rising popularity of digital and social media, Lionsgate knew that attracting fans to a sequel meant pushing the boundaries of traditional marketing tactics.

Digital brand storytelling is about using digital media in a holistic way to tell a brand story and build excitement for an audience. Brand storytelling seeks to make a connection with the audience by giving them an emotional experience that resonates with them. While Lionsgate was aware that traditional marketing would need to be blended with a digital campaign to bring in moviegoers, it also needed to strike a careful balance between the two and choose the appropriate platforms to tell a cohesive story. Should Lionsgate launch a brand storytelling campaign to appeal to fans? Lionsgate's comparatively small marketing team gathered to brainstorm about how to execute such a campaign and position the film for another big success.