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Marketing management, services marketing, customer relationship management and strategic marketing management.

This case can be taught effectively to MBA/MS students.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) commenced operations in India in 1996 and launched its first car in India – the Hyundai Santro – in 1998. Since then, there has been no looking back for the company. Its domestic and export sales figures have risen manifold each year and the car maker has gone on to become the second largest manufacturer in the Indian car market with a market share of 18.10 percent as of 2010-2011. By 2009-2010, most of the major international car makers were setting up production facilities in India. The market was set to become highly competitive and it became imperative for manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) and HMIL to retain their customers in order to maintain their market share. Nalin Kapoor, General Manager (Sales & Marketing) was contemplating the marketing strategies he could use to counter the stiff competition. Customer retention was one of the major problems in the automobile industry as the purchase time span varied between three and five years and the cost of brand switching was nil. HMIL had been pursuing customer relationship management activities but its customer retention ratio was declining. Kapoor and his team decided to study the loyalty programs of some companies in the automobile industry to ascertain whether launching a loyalty card could solve their problem of retention. The marketing strategy department with the help of a management intern extensively studied the existing loyalty program of Hero Honda, MSIL, and Ford to identify how those programs were designed and promoted to the customer. The reports also indicated the shortcomings of each program and the features which were highly accepted by the customer. The loyalty program also had cost implications as there was a need for a strong technical support team to run it successfully. With the reports in hand, Kapoor was in a dilemma on whether launching a loyalty card would be feasible or not. If yes, then how should it be structured to motivate the customers to stay loyal to the company? Also, how could the cost in terms of promotion, training, and technical support be justified? If not a loyalty program, then what marketing strategies should the company pursue to retain customers effectively? The problem demanded immediate attention and action and Kapoor was well aware of the implications that a delay in decision making would have for the market share of the company in the growing and dynamic automobile industry in India.

These include: the concept of customer relationship management; relationship marketing; customer retention; customer loyalty; customer profitability segments; relationship bonds; and designing loyalty programs.

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

This exercise is one in a series intended to help students learn how to perform financial calculations in marketing contexts.

Maru Keitou, a decorated former collegiate softball player with a PhD from Oxford University, ran Maru Batting Center in the Roppongi district of Tokyo's Minato ward. She had a deep knowledge of the game and of her customers, but she lacked a marketing background. She had recently signed up for a hosted customer relationship management service that would allow her to track the cost of acquiring and serving each of her four main customer segments. Using this data, she could determine which segments to target in the upcoming year.

The exercise describes the use of calculations of customer acquisition cost, retention rates, and customer lifetime value in picking between market segments and various options for activities to acquire customers.

Maru Keitou, a decorated former collegiate softball player with a PhD from Oxford University, ran Maru Batting Center in the Roppongi district of Tokyo's Minato ward. She had a deep knowledge of the game and of her customers, but she lacked a marketing background. She had recently signed up for a hosted customer relationship management service that would allow her to track the cost of acquiring and serving each of her four main customer segments. Using this data, she could determine which segments to target in the upcoming year.

The exercise describes the use of calculations of customer acquisition cost, retention rates, and customer lifetime value in picking between market segments and various options for activities to acquire customers.

After completing the exercise, students should be able to:

• Calculate customer acquisition cost

• Determine customer break-even

• Calculate and explain customer lifetime value

Calculate customer acquisition cost

Determine customer break-even

Calculate and explain customer lifetime value

In this return on investment (ROI) for customer relationship management (CRM) case scenario, students must calculate the ROI for analytic CRM enabled by an enterprise data warehouse. The case is based upon a real-life consulting engagement with a major Fortune 100 telecommunications company. In this case the executive management team's strategic objective is to grow the customer base by 5 percent annually by customer acquisition. The internal rate of return calculated from the data given in the case is more than 800 percent for one year, and sensitivity analysis shows this is a robust projection, suggesting it should be funded without question. However, the strategy of the firm is customer acquisition in an environment of high customer churn. As a result of these dynamics, the revenues and net income of the firm are actually decreasing by hundreds of millions of dollars each year. A better solution would realize that the executive team has the incorrect strategic objective. Customer acquisition is the wrong approach in an environment of high customer churn and executives should focus on customer retention and cross-sell and up-sell to high-value customers. The case discussion therefore takes students beyond CRM ROI to focuses on the key strategic concepts of customer relationship management.

Students learn how to calculate return on investment (ROI) for analytic customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives. The case also discusses in detail the difference between operational CRM and analytic CRM. The case solution is relatively straightforward with a very good ROI. However, the true learning of the case is for students to understand the strategic context of analytic CRM and to question assumptions in any ROI model.

Padmanabhan A. 2017 “Civilian drones and India’s regulatory response”. Moushami P. Joshi and Jennifer E. Trock (2016) “India Moving Forward with Unmanned Aircraft Systems Regulations for Civil and Commercial Use” www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6d596577-7a4a-4ecc-916e-83c4d37cc90c. www.indrones.com/2017/04/27/drone-industry-india/.Zeimpekis, Vasileios; Ichoua, Soumia; and Minis, Ioannis (2013), Humanitarian and Relief Logistics. Research Issues, Case Studies and Future Trends;Operations Research/Computer Sciences Interfaces Series. Springer Publications, www.springer.com/in/book/9781461470069.

The learning outcomes are to illustrate the concept and features of cost-effective and responsive supply chain, to explain the concept of hub and spoke and milk run methods used for delivery, to identify financial, operational and technological risks, to elaborate the importance of social dimension (behavioral dimension) in any technological change in an organization and to understand the concept of management of change in organizations.

The case deals with a typical challenge of periodical delivery systems, in this case specifically of The Topical, an Indian periodical. The service manager of the company, Sara Jindal, recognized a problem with customer retention. She explored the causes and found that The Topical, a 20-year-old company, was losing its popularity due to the untimely delivery of the magazines. To solve the problem Jindal, tried to gain an understanding of the operational processes and realized that there was no issue in the warehouse regarding inventory control, management or order pickup. However, she found that the magazines were parceled through book post and that there was no tracking policy in the company for the deliveries. Therefore, it was not possible to know whether the magazines got delivered on time. The matter was taken seriously and as a solution, the possibility of integrating drones into the delivery system came up.

Undergraduate and Postgraduate students.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics

“This case is an updated version of ““Netflix Inc.: DVD Wars”” (UVA-M-0763), and was written as a replacement for it.

A financial analyst is asked to appraise the value of Netflix's stock at a time of unprecedented turmoil for the company. This case introduces customer lifetime value (CLV) as a useful metric for subscription-based businesses.”

The concepts of customer lifetime value (CLV) and customer equity (CE).

BA, MBA, MSc courses: customer equity, marketing metrics, marketing plan, marketing research. Because students are asked to complete a customer lifetime value analysis based on a range of financial and non-financial data, students will need at least a modest level of proficiency in dealing with a few basic financial accounting concepts.

In Chile, a law passed in 2008 introduced a bidding process to be held every 24 months in the pension industry. The tender mechanism was introduced as part of a reform aimed at reducing the commissions charged by pension fund administrators and at making it easier for new players to enter the market. In early 2009, Daniel Ugarte wondered if it was finally the right time for his firm to enter the pension industry. Ugarte was asked by the board to help chart a direction for the firm. The winning criterion was the lowest management fee (commission) paid by the affiliates. The main focus of the case is a quantitative assignment that asks students to calculate how customer lifetime value (CLV) and customer equity (CE) would be affected by the commission offered.

These include: understanding the concepts of customer lifetime value (CLV) and customer equity (CE) and the importance of maximizing a customer's lifetime value for the firm by calculating the CLV and the CE based on a combination of financial and non-financial data.

Teaching notes are available. Consult the librarian for access.

Marketing, Banking.

Post Graduate Programme, MBA, BBA.

On 27 June 2011, Abhyudaya Bank, a leading urban cooperative bank, opened its 101 new branch at Diva, which is on the outskirts of Mumbai city in India. Diva area is populated but has less number of bank branches. The bank planned to surpass its earlier record of customer acquisition in branches which were newly opened at Marve Link Road and Jogeshwari in Mumbai. According to Mr Morye, Managing Director, Abhyudaya Bank, “With the expanding horizons, continuous developments and competition, the bank proposes to become full-fledged financial service provider, fulfilling requirements of customers and other stakeholders by providing all allied services, as permitted by the regulatory authorities. The Bank has adopted advanced technology for providing faster and convenient services to clients. These major long term proposals will enable the bank to increase its market share and better fulfillment of expectations of all the stakeholders.” The case introduces the structure of urban cooperative banks of which Abhyudaya Cooperative Bank is a part. The case provides the key highlights of the bank and discusses the catalyst role of planning and marketing department for branches to achieve its target and how the bank implemented unique and differentiated strategy involving employees of the banks. Employees form an important asset for banks, and banks need to utilize their potential in creating long-term and sustainable relationships with customers. The case examines how the branch can benefit from detail area-wise planning capturing the potential. Branch area planning is a unique exercise covering the branch potential analysis and a new branch manager must utilize it for acquiring higher number of customers. Regardless of the branching, a bank seeking to expand its branch operations faces a number of important decisions. As the area develops, a bank branch decides to take up appropriate strategy with an objective to move its base of operations to attract new customers in a new area and thereafter maintain its existing ones.

The case is suitable for students pursuing a post-graduate course in bank marketing, banking postgraduate and MBA course in strategic management and marketing management. The case presents an opportunity to assess the strategy adopted by the bank for new branch launch and evolving role by a marketing function in a bank.

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

This case exposes students to predictive analytics as applied to discrete events with logistic regression. The VP of customer services for a successful start-up wants to proactively identify customers most likely to cancel services or “churn.” He assigns the task to one of his associates and provides him with data on customer behavior and his intuition about what drives churn. The associate must generate a list of the customers most likely to churn and the top three reasons for that likelihood.

The case helps to understand: the working mechanisms of a digitized salon service, with a focus on the lower- and middle-income strata. The changing scenario of the service marketing model, with the growth in digital service models. To investigate the organisational challenges of a digitally facilitated/based start-up and find solutions to overcome the challenges.

“Yes Madam”-salon at home was a business enterprise, providing beauty and wellness services at the doorstep through a mobile application and web-based platform. The case describes the reason for opening the doorstep beauty services, its revenue model and aims to provide quality services to lower- and middle-income strata. The case will help students to understand the working mechanism of digitized salon services and associated challenges; prominent ones being attracting, selecting and retaining the beauticians and providing the standardised services. The case has examined the low-price services for the consumers delivered by the company. The case also discussed their plans for diversification and penetration into the untapped markets.

Graduates and postgraduates.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Cardagin, a new start-up in the increasingly competitive space of consumer/merchant apps for smartphones, is reaching an inflection point: decisions it makes at this stage can determine whether it becomes a national presence or an also-ran. The CEO needs to demonstrate the value of Cardagin's service to retailers and consumers in compelling ways. The case provides students an opportunity to analyze a new digital venture, explore expansion options, and evaluate the challenges in working with many small businesses, each with its own idiosyncrasies.