Search results

Target Corporation is concerned that the company might be left out of one of its most lucrative and attractive product categories, video games and game players, as these products increasingly migrate to digital distribution models. What steps should the company take to maintain its relevance and build sustainable competitive advantage as these trends play out? What are the implications for the company's multi-channel online and offline format portfolio going forward?

Students will develop a keen understanding of the challenges faced by contemporary retailers as consumer needs change, new product innovations emerge, market structures evolve, and format pressures escalate.

Retail marketing management.

Undergraduate management; MA; Master's in Business Administration and Master's in Strategic Marketing programs.

Opening of the “Dubai Mall” in November 2008 set a new benchmark in retail history. The mall is considered the largest in the world by space and 6th largest in the world in terms of gross leasable area. The Dubai Mall is the UAE's most ambitious retail launch to date. This case examines how in today's highly competitive retail environment, added-value retailing, experiential retailing, or retailtainment has become a major component of the retail strategy mix to establish a competitive advantage. The new phenomenon of “retailtainment” has caught the momentum worldwide and success of Dubai Mall is the live example of its strategic role in the retail mix. The case also highlights the importance of “good location” in the success of retail establishments, whilst examining primary retail location theories and there relation to the phenomenal success of Dubai Mall.

Through this case study students will be able to: understand the roles of “entertainment” and “location” in retail mix strategy; analyse the new trend of “retailtainment” and “quality location” in creating value-added services and gaining competitive advantage in global competitive retail environment; ascertain the importance and application of “retailtainment” and “strategic location” in the real world's successful example of “Dubai Mall”; and diagnose the role of these learnt concepts in the retailing strategies practiced by other retail establishments in their cities/country.

Teaching note.

Ann Taylor was founded in 1954, and its classic black dress and woman's power suit were staples for years. In 1995 Ann Taylor LOFT was launched to appeal to a more casual, costconscious consumer. Under Kay Krill's leadership, the division began to outperform the original flagship. When Krill was promoted to President/CEO of Ann Taylor Stores Corporation in 2005, she was challenged with rebuilding the Ann Taylor brand - (i.e., meeting the “wardrobing needs of the updated classic consumer”) while maintaining the image and market share of LOFT. By mid-2008, an additional problem appeared: the macroeconomic climate was posing considerable uncertainty, especially for retail businesses. Krill was firmly committed to long-term growth. However, given the 2008 situation, what could she do to unleash what she believed was the firm's “significant untapped potential”?

The case study outlines the strategic, marketing, and branding challenges faced by Gap, a brand within the Gap Inc. house of brands. The case contains a summary of Gap's history, which illustrates the driving forces behind Gap's previous growth, its status as an American iconic brand, and its struggle to stay relevant. This sets the stage for Gap's rebranding exercise, which included an attempt at changing their iconic logo. This case provides students with the opportunity to learn about brand life cycles and the implications of a logo change for brand equity, brand associations, and brand positioning.

This research is based on published sources.

The case can be used in courses in strategic brand management, retailing, fashion marketing, marketing communication, or corporate communication at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level. The case will be particularly useful for those who already understand branding and consumer behavior, but who may not have learned anything about rebranding or strategic brand management. It is not suitable for undergraduates who have not studied branding at all.

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.

In 2003, ITC responded to the high level of obsolete inventory by shifting risk from finished products to manufacturing and raw materials. This required that their supply chain be much more flexible and responsive than it was in the past. By 2006, changes in the supply chain that included moving manufacturing in-house improved flexibility and responsiveness. Obsolete inventory was significantly reduced and the company was much better at matching supply and demand. Cost, however, continued to be higher than that at third parties. The company had to decide on the appropriate tradeoff between cost and responsiveness when structuring its supply chain.

The case illustrates how Wills has changed its supply chain to become more flexible and responsive. This change, however, has come at a cost. The case requires the students to analyze the tradeoff between cost and responsiveness/flexibility to decide on an appropriate level of flexibility/responsiveness. The case also requires the student to understand the relative value of increased flexibility versus increased responsiveness.

After completion of the case study, students will be able to identify and discuss ways in which informal financing of the kind discussed in the case study can provide new or different opportunities for access to alternative financing schemes; assess the role of“social capital” in micro and small business development and to understand and apply the role of social capital for female entrepreneurs in the Global South; critically analyse and reflect on the new role of digital technologies in challenging traditional patriarchal social norms and exclusion and ultimately be able to evaluate the role of digital technologies in terms of its practical implications for female entrepreneurs; and understand the role played by socio-cultural and historical contexts in female-owned/managed businesses within informal sectors of the economy. Furthermore, the students should be able to discuss how these contexts provide opportunities or challenges for actionable/robust/relevant business plans for female entrepreneurs.

This case study aims to create a platform for classroom conversations around: context of entrepreneurship in informal economies, challenges of accessing finance, women entrepreneurship, opportunities of digital entrepreneurship and resource acquisition and social capital. Overall, this case study intends to inspire and cultivate additional voices to advance authentic understanding of informal business practices in the financial sector that go beyond traditional formal western settings. This case study is based on a true story relating to the “sou-sou” financing system – an informal financing scheme – originating from West Africa which has been transported to other parts of the world including Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and other parts of Africa. The characters involve Maria, the main protagonist; Eunice, from LAC; and Fidelia from West Africa. With first-hand information from Eunice and Fidelia, Maria learnt about the ideological principles and the offerings of flexibility, trust, mutual benefits and kinship of the sou-sou system and was inspired to integrate digital technologies as a sustainable game changer for accessing microfinance. This case study draws on the contextual understanding of the economy in the Global South as well as the gender-based aspects of entrepreneurship as key aspects of women entrepreneurship and digital entrepreneurship. The sou-sou system is presented as a practical solution to the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the Global South to access finances, and the integration of digital technologies is considered instrumental not only in reinforcing the traditional system but also in transforming the entrepreneurial prospects for these women.

This teaching activity is aimed at postgraduate students in Master of Management and Master of Business Administration programmes. It can also be used for short executive courses, specialised PhD seminars and advanced bachelor programmes. This case study could be taught in the field of entrepreneurship in areas related to technology, gender, women entrepreneurship and financing in the context of the Global South.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Retailing.

Undergraduate and Master's level business and management courses.

This case looks at the second largest oil company in India (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)) and examines an innovative services marketing concept that they introduced into the market in India for the first time, namely, one-stop truck shops. These new format truck-stops were targeted at the highway-based truckers in India who earlier had to stop off at multiple locations to eat and re-fuel increasing their on-road time and reducing their efficiency, much to the chagrin of their truck-fleet owners.

Students will be expected to build their knowledge of retailing in developing markets using the example of BPCL as a learning tool. The case examines differences in consumer behavior in developed vs developing markets, paying particular attention to the required need to differentiate the retail approach to suit the market.

Teaching note (with photographs).

A Confrontation of Mindsets: French Retailers Operating in Poland traces the history of French retailers setting up operations in Poland in the mid 90s. The case, however, is set in 2006 when a top retailing executive recalls the important watershed period of 1996-97 when the expatriate managers in charge of setting up the first hypermarkets encountered great difficulties with their new Polish recruits. The managers were not succeeding in transferring the practices and routines that were an essential part of their business model on the home market in France: their Polish employees displayed work attitudes that were the contrary of the initiative and responsibility for enlarged jobs that characterized employees back home. This situation called into question the very viability of their business model in Poland. The case poses very clearly the question of what actions the expatriate managers should decide to take to ensure the store launchings in Poland and future growth. The issues raised concern global versus multi-domestic internationalization strategies, business models, paradigms, corporate culture, management of expats, knowledge transfer and the link between strategic implementation and organizational behavior.

Strategic management.

Entry-level post-graduate management students at an MBA program; middle-level professionals in an executive management program.

Royal India Food Retail (RIFR) is an organized food retailer, head-quartered in Delhi, India. The firm has established 180 outlets across the three Indian states of Delhi, Chandigarh and Punjab, selling fruits and vegetables, full-range of staples, grocery items and essential non-food items and fast-moving consumer good products. Since its inception, RIFR has been making losses, owing to both unfavourable external conditions and poor strategic management. In 2014-2015, RIFR reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) loss of Rs 46m as against Rs 276m in 2013-2014 and Rs 346m in 2012-2013. This case examines the problems of RIFR, against the backdrop of an unfavourable industry structure and the need for astute decision making, and poses the question of what the next step for RIFR should be.

Developing a clear understanding of the business environment; understanding the challenges faced by businesses in emerging markets; highlighting the dynamics of a volume-driven vis-à-vis a margin-driven approach to business strategy; and the importance of resources as critical elements of strategy development.

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.