To: Global EMBA Office
Michael Xia Sheng
Student Name:
GE20241023
Student Code:
Date of Submission:
Mar. 05, 2025
4
Pages:
Marketing Management
Course Name:
Title of Assignment
Pre-Course Assignment
Statement of Academic Honor Code
This is to certify that this work is entirely and exclusively my own, except for
those cited and noted.
Student Signature__Michael Xia Sheng___
Comments:
Grader Signature ____________________________
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Case: 1 – Sony Aibo
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Sony advertises the AIBO as “a true companion”, “a friend for life”, Is Sony
serious? Why does Sony sell such a useless product?
I would like to emphasize the word “useless” in the question. This word heavily implies
that the practicality of the Sony AIBO is evaluated with higher importance than other
features offered. Despite its robotic nature and primitive intelligence level by modern
standards, the AIBO legitimately offered its consumers a sense of emotional attachment.
Sony is very serious when they advertised AIBO with words such as “companion” and
“friend”, because they wished AIBO to be recognized more than just a product, or a
tool that offers general useability. Instead, they wished to offer consumers a source of
mental fulfillment, an inorganic companion that offers organic attachment and affection
to its human owner. The value offered by Sony AIBO in this case is not measured in its
practical usage, but rather in the bond it constructs between an item perceived as a living
form and a human being.
Case 3: BMW Films
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Have a look at Exhibit 1. Do you expect the sales of BMW in North America
will continue to increase or there could be another downturn as it had
experienced in the late 1980s?
One cannot draw a confident conclusion to this question solely based on data provided
in the article and the graph in Exhibit 1. The difficulty experienced by BMW in the late
1980s were due to a combination of consumer preferences shift and effective market
competition. BMW recovered from this setback and greatly improved its market
performance through a combination of new product lines and creative marketing
strategies. As the market continues to evolve, if BMW can respond effectively and
swiftly to market demands, such as new products, innovative technologies, and creative
marketing campaigns, it could consistently enjoy an increase in sales. On the other hand,
if history repeats itself and BMW remains stagnant in an ever-shifting market and fails
to meet consumer demands, one can expect them to lose market shares and sales.
Current data showed that BMW expressed an overall increase in sales from 2002 to
2024, with intervals of decline in sales performance, followed by period of increase in
sales.
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Case 5: Arrow Electronics Inc.
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What is Arrow’s business model? What value does it add for the suppliers?
What value does it provide for its customers?
Arrow Electronics act as the intermediate channel distributor between its suppliers of
semiconductor products and customers. Most of its customers are small to medium in
size which were insufficient for suppliers to serve directly. Arrow thus consolidates the
smaller orders and allow suppliers to produce in batches to maintain their cost
advantage. The suppliers also enjoy the advantage of a single distribution line to Arrow,
which reduces their costs in communication, sales, and logistics. The channel
distributor would generate sales for suppliers that would be otherwise unavailable. The
customers would be able to order products in small quantities and have them delivered
in timely fashion through distributors, as they were often too small to be served by
suppliers directly. Arrow also provided additional benefits for customers, including
programming services, price protection and limited return policy, and supply chain
management for commoditized and customized products.
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What is your action plan? How should Arrow respond to the Express
proposal? Should they accept it or reject it? What other measures should
they take?
I would suggest Arrow accept the business proposal set by Express with a few follow
up action plans. What Express essentially offers is a new trading platform that is more
advanced and efficient than what Arrow currently offers. The transaction efficiency
would certainly increase by incorporating the internet platform to improve
communication efficiency, product selection and consolidation process, and transaction
recording. Arrow is mostly concerned with the potential loss of its transactional
customers, but even Arrow themselves recognize that such loss can be offset by gaining
additional new customers through the internet platform. Additional measures, however,
must be taken to protect Arrow’s own interest. Express Parts Inc. is just another channel
distributor at its core. The advantage offered by Express lies in its improved trading
platform structured via the internet. Arrow should utilize Express to build up
relationships with additional new customers. Furthermore, Arrow should either attempt
to construct its own internet trading platform with customer database or try to negotiate
and attempt to either form a long-term collaboration with Express, or purchase Express
through corporate merger or inquisition.
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Case 7: Soren Chemicals
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What is the addressable market size for Coracle? Is the first-year goal of
$1.5 million sales reasonable?
We will identify the residential pool clarifier market size using numbers found in the
article:
 ~9 million residential swimming pools, of which 80% was maintained = 7.2
million regularly maintained swimming pool (consumers)
 As per Exhibit 3, 25% of consumers understand and uses clarifiers regularly;
7.2 x 0.25 = 1.8 million
 As per Exhibit 3, annual average cost of clarifiers at retail price is $50.00
 The rough estimation of residential pool clarifier market would be $50.00 x
1.8 = $90 million
 As per Exhibit 2, the Soren Chemical (supplier) price for Coracle is $14.88,
which is roughly 60% of its retail price, thus the adjusted market size for Soren
Chemical would be $90 x 0.6 = $54 million
From information provided in the article, the 3 main competitors for Soren Chemical
each command between 15% to 20% of the residential pool clarifier market. Consider
the competitive advantages offered by Coracle, a first-year sales target of $1.5 million
is certainly reasonable considering the potential market size.
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Why is Soren Chemical struggling to sell Coracle?
Several reasons could be pinpointed from information provided in the article:
 Marketing strategies targeted at pool service professionals and specialty
retailers, but completely ignored the homeowner base who would be the
largest consumer base
 Inquiries from potential professional clients and retailers were only responded
with standardized document responses, which lacked any human connection
between the supplier and the end-users
 Free samples were not sent as promised after consumer inquiry
 Distributors did not carry the Coracle product, and no follow-ups were
performed by Soren Chemical to address the issue
 Incentives for distributors and retailers were insufficient for them to prioritize
Coracle over other brands
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Established market competitors already exists
Consumer base was not properly educated due to poor advertisement
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