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Marketing.

This case is suitable for MBA/MS courses for students of services marketing; courses such as sustainable development of business and integrated marketing communications.

Cordlife Limited entered the Indian market for cord blood banking in 2006 and by 2011 held third place in market share. However, the management of Cordlife had identified a major problem as a lack of awareness of the potential of cord blood banking among the Indian middle class, and the lack of a proper infrastructure for transportation of biological packages. Cordlife undertook several marketing initiatives to spread awareness. Marketing such a sophisticated service like cord blood banking called for heavy investments. The case provides an opportunity to closely examine various marketing activities in detail and understand how problems associated with intangible services can be managed. In addition to marketing of services the case highlights the existence of several gaps in designing a delivery in a service. The scope of the case can also be extended to the concept of service pricing and also integrated services marketing communications.

The case is designed for class discussions and in understanding the following concepts: the service gaps model; service pricing; and integrated service marketing communications.

Teaching notes are available. Consult your librarian for access.

Pricing, digital marketing, marketing management and strategic marketing.

The case can be used for pricing or digital marketing courses as well as marketing management courses to MBA students and/or for management development programmes.

Goldfinch Mobile Solutions, a Hong-Kong based value added services (VAS) and gaming platform provider, had an exclusive tie up with Bharti Airtel in India for providing value added voice applications on an interactive voice response system (IVRS) platform. The Goldfinch flagship service is “Guru Ki Bani” which may be subscribed to by dialing the short code 58282. This “58282” service has a repository of all Sikh religion daily prayers, religious songs, teachings, stories from Guru's life and similar information that is derived from the Sikh Holy book Guru Granth Sahib Ji. As per mutual agreement between Goldfinch Mobile Solutions and Bharti Airtel, the telecom operator had the responsibility to promote Goldfinch's Guru Ki Bani service amongst its subscriber base through its below the line (BTL) promotional channels such as short messaging service (SMS), outbound calls, cell information, notification SMS after call and above the line (ATL) activities such as posters, leaflets, print, promoters, regional TV, outdoors, etc. The revenue sharing arrangement between Airtel and Golfinch was in the ratio of 75 percent and 25 percent. However, with recent changes in the policies of Telephone Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), promotional marketing used by telecom operators has been constrained. Declining customer share, decreasing profits (after Bharti Airtel halted promotions) and increasing organization cost per customer have made MD and CEO Mr Newton Bubber think of various options including low-cost marketing initiatives besides digital marketing to promote Guru Ki Bani services. Value communication to its huge potential customer base, i.e. 184.19 million Bharti Airtel subscribers was another challenge facing Mr Newton and his marketing team at Goldfinch.

The case enables students to learn the concepts and application of value creation, effective value communication, price waterfall analysis, importance of costing parameters in pricing decisions, low-cost marketing strategies and digital marketing.

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: New Service Launch; Relationship Marketing; Direct Marketing.

This case could be taught in marketing management, services marketing or strategy courses, in the product development or service launch modules at the graduate level; alternatively it could also be used in the promotion module for the illustration of direct marketing (DM) tool application; and it could also be used as a capstone case for the introductory Principles of Marketing course at the undergraduate level.

The case examines the launch of a new air ambulance service in Karachi, Pakistan; a venture of Akbar Group Jet services; Princely Jets (Pvt) Ltd. The case describes the first mover advantage of the service and the marketing strategy recommended by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Ghouse Akbar. The major concern is whether the strategy is forceful and compelling enough to secure approval from the board. The major issues include the role of DM processes and relationship marketing tools to encourage a value-added premium service which had no precedence of demand and practice. Concepts to thrash out in class also include customer profiling and segmentation along with how best to create awareness and generate a sustainable basket of customers for the high-price value-added low-use service.

Discuss and illustrate the importance and benefit of market research information for making a decision; how to create awareness and customer recognition and cultivate demand for a new and unsolicited service; identify appropriate and effective promotion tools to achieve required customer demand, brand recognition and customer value; how to launch a premium priced unsolicited service in a niche market?; and exhibit the synthesis of the four P's in a new product launch 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.

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.

Marketing strategy, Decision making, After sales servicing.

As part of a core marketing course; at post graduate level; marketing strategy courses where competition and co-operation business models are explored.

The case focuses on HCL Care, which had the service competence and reach, but no marketing set up for attracting customers to its ICT products service facilities. The case explores the decision choices faced by the company in deciding its market strategy. The main challenge was the out of warranty offer planned by HCL Care. It was aimed at providing a one stop solution for consumers who owned various ICT devices of different brands that could not be serviced at one point. There was no specific validation of whether this proposed, more convenient and comprehensive offer was compelling enough for the consumer to switch from the service offered by the original equipment manufacturer or from the plethora of low priced offers from independent service providers in the Indian marketplace.

These include: how to organize the different types of market and company information available to segment the market and selecting the target market; developing a positioning platform and developing the market strategy; and choosing between competition versus cooperative business models.

Teaching notes are available. Consult the librarian for access.

Retailing, services marketing, marketing strategy.

Undergraduate Business and Management, MBA, MA Marketing/International Business.

Giordano is one of Asia's most successful retailers, with operations in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. With a strong emphasis on customer service and value-for-money, Giordano was able to differentiate itself from its competitors. The question is: how can Giordano maintain its competitive advantage in the future? Amid increasingly stronger competitors and changing industry conditions, Giordano had to critically evaluate its sources of competitive advantage and key success factors, and perhaps consider repositioning itself in current and new markets.

This case is suited for a retailing or services marketing/management course. It demonstrates the power of a tight integration of marketing, operations, and human resource management to deliver value-for-money. Specifically, it can be used for the following teaching objectives: from a marketing perspective, this case can be used to demonstrate the successful integration of a strategy based on service orientation, value-for-money positioning, and aggressive advertising and promotions; and from a management perspective, the case can be used to highlight how the marketing strategy is being delivered through a clear focus on service staff (selection, training, and motivation) and operations (logistics, IT, and communications), combined with an organizational culture that encourages staff to try new things (and accept errors as a consequence).

Teaching notes.

Learning objectives of this case is to understand the hairdressing industry and develop the sub-branding strategy. After reading this case and practicing in class, students should be able to understand this business and marketing terminology and apply them in the real world. Students will learn the branding strategies: brand extension, brand architecture and brand portfolio. Students will design (DS) the brand name for the new store.

Case synopsis Mr. Tai-Hua Teng (aka TR) was a hair artist and opened his first hair salon, vis-à-vis (VS), in 1989 using a high-end positioning strategy. VS focused on offering superb and diverse services to keep ahead of the competition rather than trying to undercut prices. VS hair salon had a solid foundation based mainly on the elite, celebrities and high-salary customers. In 2017, TR owned 16 stores (including one in Canada and two intern salons), 1 academy, 265 employees and 3 brand names. The three brand names were VS, DS and concept (CC). DS and CC were less known to the public, so now these two brands had been carried the parent name and were known as VS DS and VS CC. Quick cut hairdressing businesses were thriving because customers needed quick and cheap hairdressing services. Acknowledging the benefits of entering the highly competitive quick haircut market, TR began to contemplate the new brand name and services to offer. VS had adopted the brand house strategy but TR wondered if it was better to have an individual brand name when entering the quick haircut market. The sub-branding strategy carried the established quality assurance of VS but there was possible brand overlap. An individual new brand name might lack the well-established values from VS but it also showed the potential to reach different segments of customers. TR’s decision to make: a branded house or hybrid? This case showed a high-end hair salon facing the need for simplicity in the market and considered how to expand its business to the lower-end market. Keywords: hairdressing, brand extension and sub-branding strategy.

Level of difficulty: easy/middle level to undergraduate courses specific prerequisites: it is not necessary for students to prepare or read any marketing theory or chapters of the textbook. However, it would help a more in-depth discussion if students know the CCs of brand architecture, brand portfolio, brand extension and line extension.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The learning outcome of this paper are as follows: enabling students to learn about business and marketing issues of the natural gas distribution industry. To expose students to organizational processes aimed at finding solutions to customer issues. To make them appreciate the aspects of service quality and SERVQUAL model. To make the students aware of the significance of market research for problem-solving. How to use market research findings to address the customer issues? Enabling the students to learn how cross-functional teams contribute to addressing marketing and customer issues. Students should appreciate how to study towards creating a customer-centric organization with an organization-wide commitment including that from the top leadership.

Abhay Shankar, Sr. Manager-Customer Service at Reliable Gas Company Limited a state government piped natural gas (PNG) distribution utility whose customer service department is concerned about the provision of best service to its PNG domestic customers. Domestic customers are low volume but largest in numbers and are considered to be a tough, demanding customer segment. A general opinion among the marketing team of the company is that they are trying their best to serve its customers and that their efforts are no less than their private sector counterpart global gas customer service efforts. Abhay is in dilemma on what to do to improve customer services?

Masters students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 8 Marketing.

The learning outcomes are as follows: assessing the changing trend in the needs of the customer, leading to evolution of new types of businesses in the urban areas. Deep understanding of household service industry and its future. Assessing the skills and capabilities required to become an entrepreneur and follow entrepreneurship. Understanding the aggregator, two-sided business model prevailing in the market. Understand the concept of business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) business model in household industry.

This case study is about two first-generation entrepreneurs from India who started a new innovative service delivery platform, UrbanKare with a vision to organize the household maintenance services industry. The company was founded in 2016 with a seed capital support of the State Government. The idea behind this initiative was to provide customers a professional, reliable and convenient household repair and maintenance services at their fingertips. The biggest challenge they were facing was that of aggregation of service providers (skilled workforce) and maintaining the service quality in the context of B2B and B2C service provision.

PG level courses – Industrial Marketing Startup and Business Entrepreneurship.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Financial Services Marketing, Financial Inclusion, Emerging Market Studies.

The case is suitable for graduate management students in courses such as general management and marketing courses. It is also suitable for a specialised rural marketing course and marketing of financial services. In business schools outside India, the case can be used in a course on marketing strategies for emerging economies. The case is suitable for executive development programmes for the areas pertaining to rural banking, marketing of banking services and financial inclusion programmes.

The case analyses the financial inclusion initiative by Odisha Gramya Bank, a regional rural bank set up after amalgamation of three banks in the state of Orissa, India. The topic of financial inclusion has been the attraction from bankers, policymakers and academia in light of linkage between formal financial system and inclusive growth. To harness the fortunes at the bottom of pyramid, the case looks into the development of financial inclusion, business strategies and strategies for various customer segments.

To introduce students to analyse and compare various financial inclusion options. The case is useful to comprehend the various methods of financial inclusion. To analyse the evolution of regional rural banks and Odisha Gramya Bank after its amalgamation. To appreciate the issues faced by Odisha Gramya Bank. To understand various market segment and to evaluate its potential. To suggest appropriate strategies for each market segment. To appreciate how technology can be harnessed for business correspondents. To recommend the roadmap for financial inclusion to Mr Sidharthan, Chairman, Odisha Gramya 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.

CSS 8: Marketing.