Product & Brand Management
MKMR 421 Course Syllabus
Fall 2007
Professor Gary K. Hunter, MBA, Ph.D.
Faculty Profile: http://weatherhead.case.edu/faculty/faculty.cfm?id=21710
224 Peter B. Lewis Building: 216-368-2847
Email: Gary.Hunter@case.edu
Department of Marketing and Policy Studies
Weatherhead School of Management
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH 44106
Marketing Office Staff Assistant: Ms. Retta Holdorf: 216-368-2144
Class Meeting Times: Thursdays, 8/30 thru 12/7/2007 from 6:00-8:00 PM
Class Location: PBL Room # 05
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM and by appointment
Course Objective
The major objective of this course is to give you a solid foundation for applying the concepts and
tools of marketing to effectively manage brands and/or products.
More specifically, by the end of the semester you will have: (i) become acquainted with the role of
brand and product management within the marketing function, (ii) developed an understanding of
the role of marketing in the business firm, and (iii) developed an ability to make marketing strategy
decisions. As the core course in the marketing area, the material covered is very broad. We discuss
all facets of marketing from a manager’s perspective in the consumer, industrial, and service
sectors.
Teaching Vehicles
This course will provide you with a mix of: (i) critical analysis and tools, (ii) applications, and (iii)
communication skills. Much of the learning is expected to occur by participation. In particular, we
will rely heavily on both the case method and on experiential learning. Case studies provide one of
the major vehicles for applying branding concepts and theories. As you may have learned in
previous courses, case analysis requires critical evaluation (including interpretation) of both facts
and logic to allow effective case discussions. Cases also require that you be prepared and actively
involved (communication) in class discussions. Cases allow us to learn, from written scenarios,
about company situations and predicaments. These scenarios and predicaments are very well
defined and focused by the case writer and/or by the preparation questions provided for the case.
To get some hands-on experience with brand management decisions, we will engage in a group
marketing simulation game (PharmaSim) and a fieldwork assignment in which you will visit local
retail outlets and report on observable brand activity at the point of purchase. This simulation
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
1
experience will provide another opportunity for you to critically analyze marketing situations and
exercise your decision-making skills. Please see below for more details.
Course Readings
(a) Packet of cases and readings.
You can purchase the CoursePack www.Xanedu.com. If you haven’t used their service previously, you’ll need
to register on their site and then you can purchase access to a paper copy that will be shipped to you and/or a
digital copy that you can print.
Here are the specific steps you need to follow to access your CoursePack:
1. Open the XanEdu "Login/Register" page at: http://www.xanedu.com/login.shtml?PackId=271577
2. If you have previously registered for another CoursePack, log in. If not, click the "Student
Registration" button under the "New Users Register Here" banner. Complete the registration page, and
click Continue.
3. Confirm your CoursePack Selection, and complete the purchase form.
Choose one of these options for your CoursePack delivery:
Option 1: Digital access plus packaged print copy
Price: $87.15 (price does not include shipping)
You will have immediate access to your Digital CoursePack. Your personal print copy will be
shipped to you within five business days from purchase of your CoursePack. Shipping of a print copy is
for valid U.S. addresses only. If you are outside the U.S., choose Option 2 below.
Option 2: Digital access with desktop printing
Price: $68.65
You will have immediate access to your Digital CoursePack. You will not receive a printed
copy of the CoursePack. You can print your CoursePack yourself, if your system hardware and
connectivity supports downloading and printing very large files from the Internet. If you are not sure if
your system supports this, Xanedu recommends that you select option #1 above.
4. After completing the purchase, you will be taken directly to "My XanEdu" where you can access your
digital CoursePack.
If you have any problems, please contact XanEdu Customer Service at 1-800-218-5971.
(b) PharmaSim: A Brand Management Simulation, Stuart W. James, Thomas C. Kinnear,
and Michael Deighan, Interpretive Software. (Each student must purchase a license online at
www.interpretive.com/students, but more details will follow on when you’ll need to
purchase it during class. You should wait until about the third class session to purchase this
software). This is the simulation that you will be using as a group later on in the semester.
(c) Class discussion notes (to be posted periodically throughout the semester on
BlackBoard) contain slides that outline many of the fundamental frameworks, concepts, and
theories relevant to brand management. Use them to help prepare for class discussion and as
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
2
a means of structuring your knowledge about brand management and to facilitate your
approach to brand management decision-making in the course simulation (...and beyond!).
The readings are intended as resources for you to build upon what you’ve already learned about
marketing. There will be application-oriented questions on the midterm exam, which require you to
apply concepts and frameworks from the required readings—and the idea on the project work is to
apply the learning to both PharmaSim and the fieldwork.
Grades
Group case write-up (peer-indexed)
Midterm exam (note… there is no final exam)
PharmaSim strategy write-up (4 pages, peer-indexed)
Overall Write-up of PharmaSim project (10 pages, peer-indexed)
Fieldwork & Class Presentation (peer-indexed)
In-class contribution
10%
20%
10%
25%
20%
15%
For all written and oral work, doing good work earns you a B. That means doing the assignments at
the 80 - 89 percent level for high potential students such as those who are in this class. Clearly
exceptional work is deserving of an A. A-level work must exhibit exceptional insight, excellent
organization, and have some other qualities that merit special note. For project work (the
simulation), I expect you to present to me and to your classmates with projects that are of the same
quality or better than you would present at work. Clarity and coverage are attributes that are valued
in the workplace (also grammar, spelling, etc. count in the business world). You may have the best
ideas in the world, but if you cannot communicate them effectively, it is unlikely that people will
take you seriously. Your ideas should be clearly explained and coherently presented. Good
communication, whether written or oral, includes presenting your ideas logically and providing
rationale to support your ideas. Your assignments should also look good. To get an A on the
project, you have to have excellent content and excellent presentation of your ideas. As you know,
this is what you need to do well in your career as well.
Midterm exam
The midterm exam will assess your ability to integrate course material and to apply concepts and
models to marketing problems. Exams will consist of individual work. The exam will be open
book and open notes. It will consist of application-oriented questions that focus on the readings,
required chapters from the textbook, and the cases covered in class. Additionally, I may distribute
an exam case one week before each exam, and then provide questions particular to that case during
the exam. You will be able to use your laptop to complete the exam. The better you know the
material, the less time the exam will take (e.g. you won’t have time to learn everything you need to
know during the exam period).
Case write-up
For the L’Oreal of Paris case, your team will be required to submit a three-page (maximum, please
do not go over this limit, but you can go under the limit) write-up that summarizes your responses
to the case questions provided in this syllabus. Your team case write-ups should include any
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
3
underlying assumptions associated with your analysis. You may use 3 additional pages to include
any supporting materials such as charts, tables, and figures following the 3-page (single-spaced, 12
point font) text summary, but all inclusive, the submission should be less than 6 pages.
Peer Evaluation Form
Toward the end of the trimester, you will evaluate each member of your team. Evaluations are due
on the last day of class. These evaluations will be used to adjust grades for the team projects if
necessary. Evaluations are strictly confidential.
Team Simulation (PharmaSim)
PharmaSim is a computer simulation based on the over-the-counter cold medicine industry. The
exercise focuses primarily on brand management activities and is designed to teach concepts in an
active and stimulating environment. As a member of a brand management team, you will make
decisions regarding product mix, pricing, distribution, advertising, and promotion. These decisions
will then be incorporated into a computer-simulated market to reveal how both you and your
competition performed. Decisions cover a time-span of 10 simulated years, allowing you to
observe both the short-term and long-term effects of your decisions.
Competing in the PharmaSim market place will require complex analysis and decision-making. As
you work through the simulation and become familiar with the program, new issues and problems
will arise to challenge you. These will include reformulating your product and introducing new
brands. The level at which you play the simulation is held constant—you are appointed at the brand
manager level (no time is given for you to work your way up through assistant brand management
levels). I did this to give you maximum flexibility in decision making from the start of the game
(i.e., as MBAs you are more advanced than the introductory levels). You will cover issues such as
targeting advertising and consumer promotion to particular customer segments, offering trade
promotion and sales force to different distribution channels, and using volume pricing discounts. Of
course, the competition will be following their own strategies and reacting to your decisions.
Although the simulation always starts from the same position, each game will proceed on a unique
course depending on the strategy each team chooses and the inputs provided for each period. This
will allow competitive comparisons and illustrate how markets can evolve differently. Thus, while
you do not compete directly with your classmates, many of the outcomes you obtain (e.g. profits
and stock price) may be compared—and clearly will provide ample opportunity for teams to earn
“bragging rights”—and potentially higher grades on the simulation.
Using PharmaSim is an exciting and rewarding experience. From the exercise, you will gain a
practical understanding of brand management decisions at the highest level of the organization and
you’ll experience how various factors interact and affect one another. By analyzing information,
making decisions, and observing the results, you will experience first hand the challenges and
rewards of marketing.
The PharmaSim manual. The manual is the case itself and it provides details about the market that
you will need to thoroughly understand to develop your brand management strategy and the inputs
to the simulation represented therein. Section 1 describes the case. Section 2 describes how to play
the simulation, and the last half of section 2 (pages 32-73) describes all of the available information
that can be accessed either free or for some fee. Note that all of the reports are free in the first
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
4
period, but after that you will need to decide if you want to purchase the research reports that
require a fee. Sections 3-4 provide tips and concepts that will help you develop a framework for
decision-making and aid in analysis.
PharmaSim. After the in-class discussion of the case, students will be given the opportunity to run
the simulation individually through period 3 with as many replays as desired. After groups are
formed, teams will work independently per their own schedules to complete the overall
assignments. Keep in mind that material covered during the class may be helpful to your success in
the simulation, so you might benefit from considering how different learnings from the cases and
class discussions could apply to the PharmaSim simulation—and, of course, revise your strategy
accordingly.
Before you or your group makes any decisions, it is important that you carefully consider the
available information and analyze the case just as you would for any case. The decisions to be made
are described in the case and include: a manufacturer’s suggested retail price and the level of any
volume discounts as well as the discounts you give to wholesalers; an advertising budget, selected
advertising agency, and the relative emphasis on four types of ad messages; a promotions budget
with allocations to cooperative advertising and three types of consumer promotions; and the sales
force, including how many sales people allocated to five different types of retail stores as well as to
wholesale and indirect support functions. As in subsequent periods, your total budget across
advertising, promotions, and sales will be constrained by a total available budget. (This annual
budget may change in subsequent years, and any unspent budget will be added to profits.)
For the PharmaSim written assignment #1, your group will need to provide a written description
of what your initial strategy will be and your rationale for those decisions. For each of the decisions,
including the ones about price, indicate your reasons based on your analysis of the current strengths
and weaknesses of Allstar and its brand Allaround, the case, and your overall strategy. In effect, this
is a brief version of the type of paper you would write if you were analyzing Allstar like other cases
in the course. One purpose of the assignment is to force you to think critically about the case,
carefully consider and analyze the available information, and commit yourselves to an initial plan
before you get caught up in the details of making and inputting decisions and getting your results. It
is easy to lose one’s perspective once one begins to make the various decisions and confront the
results. In this assignment, you should also consider what measures of effectiveness you consider
important and why they are important. The measures may be included in various company reports,
market results (both free reports and those for which a fee must be paid), and the consumer survey.
For each, describe your theory, rule of thumb, and/or hypothesis about what marketing tactics
influence the measure and the nature of the relationship. The paper should be no more than 4 pages
long (double spaced, 12 font, 1” margins). The paper is due per the attached schedule.
Once you have run the first three periods and written your 4-page summary, you are ready to run
the rest of the simulation. Each team will identify a team leader who will then be the only person
who can enter decisions for the team on the PharmaSim site. Choose your leader wisely because
whatever s/he inputs represents the team’s final decision for each period you advance! Some teams
have made this a ‘pizza party’ weekend event in past classes as you will be able to advance through
the simulation to its conclusion. Others, like to space out the decisions and set up a schedule for
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
5
team meetings that occur throughout the semester. You have the flexibility to manage your brand
however you see fit—it’s the results you produce that matters most in the end. Process is up to you!
For PharmaSim written assignment #2, your group will describe your decisions over the 10 years
and how they changed over that period. While it is not necessary to describe every change you
made in each period (in fact, it gets very boring if you do!), you should give an adequate description
of what you tried to accomplish, why you did what you did, what results you found, and how you
then reacted, etc. What happened that confirmed what you thought? What surprised you? What
worked and what did not? What variables did you monitor that proved useful; what was not useful?
Be sure to describe what information you used and how it helped, along with the details of any
analyses you did.
In this paper, you will also discuss what you learned from the PharmaSim exercise. Aside from your
decisions and strategy for your brands for this company and why you did what you did (above),
what would you do differently if you could replay the simulation? More important, what
conclusions have you learned about marketing from all of this? Thus, some of these lessons may
focus on this simulation, and others focus on generalizations about marketing and marketing
decision making in general. The best papers will offer an analysis of what happened and why based
on specific principles learned in this (and/or other business courses).
The PharmaSim written assignment #2 is due the last day of class. The maximum length for the
group paper is 10 pages inclusive of text and appendices/exhibits (double spaced, 12 font, 1”
margins). Graphs and tables should be large enough that someone over 40 (the consensus age at
which eyesight declines) can read them! Feel free to use a few bullet points, but the paper should
not look like an outline.
For the results component of the PharmaSim grade, group results will be assessed in terms of net
income (cumulative) and stock price. We all know higher is better, but the objective of the
simulation and the course (and business school itself) is to help you discern what drives them (hint:
marketing decisions are a major component).
Some Miscellaneous Things to Consider When Working on the PharmaSim Exercise
1. Students will need to be online when you use the software.
2. Remember that each period is an entire year. Thus, many things can and will happen
during that year (e.g., inflation, consumer attitudes, changes in competitors’ actions and
success, distribution results).
3. Be sure to print out any information you’ll want to refer to in the future. While the
Performance Summaries and some other screens have “history” buttons, not all screens have
this option.
4. This simulation is not meant to be an exercise in which you try a whole bunch of different
things and finally optimize in a final run. You replay periods 1-3, but do not replay the group
simulation, periods 4-10. For the group assignment, each period input is meant to be a oneProduct & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
6
time activity in which you try to figure out strategy and tactics ahead of time, make your
decisions, learn from your results, and react to them in the next period.
5. Do not buy any research reports in Period 0 when you are practicing running the
simulation prior to your group effort. These reports are free and paid for by previous
management. When playing Period 1-3, the simulation is set up to automatically purchase
reports and this expense is charged to your budget. Once you advance to Period 4 (and
replays are no longer allowed), you will have the option to purchase reports or not.
6. I recommend that you do buy a lot of research information. Assess each piece of
information for how helpful it is (or could be), how to use this information, and how often
you should buy the information. If you buy the survey, remember that you can segment the
data in many ways each time you buy the survey information. My recommendation is to err
on buying too much too often. Although purchasing the reports is a budget expense, making
decisions without information can be far more costly in the long run.
7. Make a plan about what information to use and how to make various decisions. These
theories, hypotheses, and rules of thumb can help you to structure a very complex task. These
theories can come from textbooks, class, your own experience, the case description, etc. Be
flexible in your plan and adapt it as you advance through the 10 periods.
8. For each period, keep track of not only what you did but also your rationale and what you
concluded from the results. Perhaps one member of the group should be responsible for this.
Adopt specific goals and monitor them to construct and flesh out a theory of what works and
why. This will help you when you finish and have to re-construct all this for the final paper.
9. Some students have not realized that, if sales increase beyond production capacity, you
will automatically add some fixed amount of capacity that will more than cover sales.
10. Many of us have trouble remembering what type of product and what benefits are offered
by each of Allstar's brands and which competitor brands do what and compete with each of
Allstar's brands. I recommend that you write this out and keep it on a card or piece of paper
so that you do not have to keep checking up on this as you ponder decisions.
11. It is easy to generate a lot of paper with this exercise. Be prepared if you are working at
home on your own computer and printer.
Fieldwork Assignments.
For the fieldwork assignment, each group will join forces with another group and will be given
two local channels of distribution for OTC cold medicine (independent drug store, chain drug store,
grocery, convenience, mass merchandiser) to compare in terms of product mix, pricing, shelf space,
promotions, etc. Groups will choose a representative store from each channel assigned. In their
presentation, students should explain how the experience at the channel may change the purchase
decision of the consumer. The fieldwork assignment will result in a presentation in class. If (and
only if) store managers give permission (and why not, we’re just studying markets, right?),
photographs should be taken of shelves, promotional materials, etc. to include in the presentation.
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
7
Otherwise drawings or other representations can be used. Presentations will take place per the
schedule.
In-class contribution
You are neither expected to have all the right answers in every class nor to dominate every in-class
discussion. However, you are required to be prepared and contribute regularly to our class
discussion. Learning depends heavily upon thorough and lively participation. The primary
emphasis should be on quality participation, not quantity. The quality of participation, as reflected
in careful reading of cases and assigned material, thoughtful reflection, and clear and concise
comments, is extremely important. However, one cannot make quality contributions without some
quantity. It is particularly important that your comments fit into and build on previous comments.
This requires that we all listen carefully to each other. Therefore, from time to time it may be
necessary for your classmates or me to keep the discussion moving (i.e., please don’t take our
moving the conversation along or keeping it on track personally).
Your class participation should demonstrate:
1. evidence of careful preparation of cases and readings;
2. clarity and conciseness of your comments and recommendations;
3. convincing analysis to support your recommendations.
The quality of the discussion in class will depend on how well prepared you are, and how willing
you are to share the results of your preparation with the class.
Class contribution will be assessed based on quality and consistency of effort on a weekly basis.
Attendance alone is not making a contribution. Each student can ascertain the adequacy of her/his
contribution by occasional discussion with the instructor. However, careful self monitoring using
the following criteria for effective classroom contribution may be useful:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do comments generate discussion, or do they tend to be ignored by others?
Do others appear confused when the participant makes a point?
Are others left with a "so what" feeling, or does the discussant reach a conclusion that is
clearly understood and appreciated?
Do comments develop on evidence from the assignment, or do they just relate what
everyone already knows?
Are participants able to clarify important aspects of previous comments and relate them to
the problems and topics under discussion?
Do comments distinguish among different kinds of data, facts, opinions, beliefs, and
theories—in their construction?
You are expected to be prepared (actively involved) for every class. Since I may from time to time
call on individuals even when their hands are not raised, you should let me know before the start of
class if some emergency has made it impossible for you to be prepared adequately for that class.
Naturally, there are students who do not feel comfortable contributing verbally in the classroom.
We should all try to make the classroom atmosphere as congenial as possible to assist all of our
colleagues in the class participation process. This does not, however, mean that you must agree
with every comment offered by your classmates (i.e., it’s ok to disagree). Students are also
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
8
encouraged to meet regularly outside of class to discuss assignments before the scheduled class
activity. This will help students in the overall preparation of class material and give students more
confidence in contributing in class.
Class Room Policies
While class is in session (e.g. case discussion and lecture), please refrain from using you laptops
other than to take notes or research related topics (i.e., no ‘random’ web surfing, e-mail, etc.).
Additionally, you should display your name cards provided throughout the semester. These actions
will allow for optimal participation for each student. Failure to do this may result in a reduced
grade for class participation.
Honor Code
All students in this course are expected to adhere to university standards of academic integrity. You
are responsible for familiarizing yourself with the University Honor Policy. All students in this
course are expected to adhere to university standards of academic integrity. Cheating, plagiarism,
and other forms of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in this course. This includes, but is
not limited to, consulting with another person during an exam, turning in written work that was
prepared by someone other than you, and making minor modifications to the work of someone else
and turning it in as your own. Ignorance will not be permitted as an excuse. If you are not sure
whether something you plan to submit would be considered either cheating or plagiarism, please do
not hesitate to ask me. Any cheating, plagiarism, or other forms of academic dishonesty will result
in a grade of “F” for this course, as well as the notification of the appropriate Weatherhead School
of Management authority.
About your instructor
Gary Hunter is an assistant professor of marketing at the Weatherhead School of Management.
Previously he was on the marketing faculties at Arizona State University and Florida International
University. He has taught marketing and sales management courses for several years at both the
graduate and undergraduate levels. He holds a B.S. (life sciences/chemistry and engineering cores)
from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, an M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee, and a
PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Hunter has over 10 years of
management experience including customer business development and sales technology
management at Procter & Gamble; region management and marketing consulting for KFC-PepsiCo;
and leadership, tactical, and strategic planning responsibilities in the U.S. Army. His current
research focuses on marketing management concerns with a particular focus on buyer-seller
relationships, relationship marketing, and sales technology and has been published in the Journal of
Marketing, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Journal of Personal Selling
and Sales Management.
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
9
Course Outline—Brand & Product Management, MKMR 421
Session# Date
1
8/30
Topic
Cases &
Assignments
Introduction to the
course
Required Readings:
“Marketing myopia”
“Brands and branding”
2
9/6
Discuss
PharmaSim project
Segmentation, targeting,
positioning, and
differentiation
“Market segmentation, target market
selection, and positioning”
“ See your brands through your
customer’s eyes,”
Understanding how
customers make tradeoffs among
brand/product choices
(Choice analysis)
3
4
9/13
9/20
“Analyzing consumer
preferences”(conjoint)
Omnitel Pronto Italia
Positioning analysis
5
9/27
6
7
10/4
10/11
L’Oreal of Paris
“Analyzing consumer perceptions”
(concept testing and perceptual
mapping)
“Optimal marketing”
Group case write-up due
8
9
10/18
10/25
10
11/1
11
11/8
12
11/15
MIDTERM EXAM
Global brands
PharmaSim:
4-page strategy summary
due
(one per team)
Teams can advance
beyond period 3
Lenovo
Promotion strategies
Category reviews: local
retail outlets
Customer lifetime value
and brand equity
“The globalization of markets”
“How global brands compete”
Look carefully at the PharmaSim
manual to help you with the project
“If brands are built over years, why are
they managed over quarters?”
Launching the BMW Z3
roadster
Team fieldwork
presentations due
“Customer-centered brand
management”
“Building a strong brand: Lessons from
the Mayo Clinic”
NO CLASS
13
11/22
11/29
14
12/6
Discuss PharmaSim
simulation results
Thanksgiving Break
HEB Own Brands
Nectar
PharmaSim:
Overall report due
(one per team)
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
10
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
11
Omnitel Pronto Italia
Focus of the case
One of the primary responsibilities of brand management is to create and sustain value. This case
illustrates a market-driven process for creating value and identifies the marketing challenges in
doing so. The case also provides an opportunity to analyze customer preferences (trade-offs) using
conjoint analysis (see the reading on “Analyzing consumer preferences” and the McKinsey article
for more details about this tool). The case highlights the importance of understanding and
responding to customer needs, which is the fundamental charge of effective brand management.
Discussion Questions
1. What was Omnitel’s competitive advantage when the service was launched in December 1995
(how did it differentiate itself from TIM)?
2. Why did the launch not perform to expectations (was Omnitel targeting the correct segments)?
3. How much revenue can be generated per user with the new (LIBERO) plan? How much revenue
is being generated with the current plan? To calculate this, look at pages 1 and 4. Think about
the peak and off-peak minutes that are used, and the prices that are charged for peak and off-peak
calls. What do these calculations tell us about the LIBERO plan?
4. Why is the churn rate so high for many European countries? What can be done to reduce the
churn rate? Is the churn rate the same for every European country? Why or why not? Do you
expect the churn rate to increase or decrease with the launch of LIBERO?
5. What do you learn from the consumer research? What do you learn from the results of the
Conjoint Analysis presented in Exhibits 5 to 8?
6. Will LIBERO lead to a price war? If yes, what could Omnitel do to avoid one?
7. If you were Fabrizio Bona, what changes would you make to LIBERO and why?
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
12
L’Oreal of Paris
Focus of the case
This case focuses on segmentation, differentiation, and positioning, some of the core concepts in
marketing. Positioning is the process of creating a unique space for the product or service (with
respect to competing brands) in the mind of the customer. Good positioning involves making clear
the core benefits of the product and its point of differences from the competition. The case also
discusses how positioning is reflected in and built through the 4 P’s (marketing mix). It also
discusses how a niche brand might grow into a major brand, as well as issues of global marketing.
Discussion Questions
======================================================================
For the case write-up, please answer only question 1 (parts a, b, and c).
1. Segmentation, targeting, differentiation, and positioning.
a. Plenitude competes in the three segments of (1) daily moisturizers, (2) treatment
moisturizers, and (3) cleansers in the French and U.S. markets. How successful or unsuccessful
have they been in each of these three segments? To help you answer this question, please
calculate the market share for these three main product lines (treatment moisturizer, daily
moisturizer, and cleansers) for L’Oreal and its main competitors. In other words, how much
market share does L’Oreal have in each of the three product lines, and how do they fare against
their competitors? Why are they successful or unsuccessful in each line?
b. How is Plenitude positioned and how is it differentiated from its competitors? Is it
successful in this regard? What could be done to improve on this?
c. What exactly do you learn from the marketing research results, especially Exhibits 9-10,
that can help you with these questions? Is all of the marketing research data consistently
pointing in the same direction? If there is inconsistency, how would you resolve it?
======================================================================
2. The 4 P’s
How is Plenitude implementing its positioning through the 4 P’s (product, place, promotion, and
price)? Is it successful in each of the P’s? What recommendations can you make here? Consider
each of the P’s below:
a. product
b. pricing
c. place
d. promotion
3. What should Carol Hamilton do? What results to you expect?
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
13
Lenovo
Focus of the case
This case focuses on how China’s largest personal computer (PC) maker, acquired IBM’s PC
division—including brand rights to the successful Think line of notebook and desktop computers.
The case review’s Lenovo’s branding and new product moves since the acquisition setting up the
Chief Marketing Officer’s (CMO’s) consideration of the appropriate strategic roles and positioning
of the Lenovo and Think brands. The case also outlines the choices of whether and how to continue
leveraging an established logo (IBM).
Discussion Questions
1. Why did IBM want to sell its PC business? Why did IBM sell to Lenovo?
2. What explains Lenovo’s success prior to the acquisition?
3. What challenges did Lenovo face after the acquisition?
4. How should Lenovo handle the brand management challenges associated with the
acquisition?
5. In trying to become a global brand, does Lenovo have a problem coming from China?
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
14
Launching the BMW Z3 Roadster
Focus of the case
This case focuses on alternative means for brand managers to promote their brands.
Promotions encompass a wide range of activities, such as advertising, sales
promotions, public relations, sales force, and word of mouth. Many people think of
marketing as just promotions, when in fact the marketing function is broader than
this.
We can either think of promotions in a traditional manner, or in a nontraditional (NT)
manner. PharmaSim focuses on the traditional view of promotions. This case focuses
more on the NT view, where the goal is to create a buzz, and generate word of mouth.
It is more difficult to successfully develop an NT strategy, but it can also be more
powerful.
This case focuses on how BMW used the NT approach to create buzz and to sell the Z3
Roadster. Not all industries or brands can use the NT approach, but in this case it is
used successfully. Furthermore, lessons from this case can apply to start-ups that are
short on cash, and need to generate awareness on a limited budget.
Discussion Questions
1. What is the strategic significance of the Z3 launch to the BMW franchise? In
other words, why did BMW launch the Z3?
2. What specific NT tools did BMW use when launching the Z3? What specific
traditional tools were used?
3. What factors underline BMW’s desire to shift to a “non-traditional” marketing
venue for the Z3 launch?
4. McDowell claims that he will never go back to traditional marketing after
getting a taste of non-traditional venue. Do you agree?
5. Was the Z3 launch successful (in terms of sales, amount spent on advertising,
amount spent on NT methods)? How do you know?
6. Helmut Panke has engaged you as a consultant on design of the Phase II plan.
What would you do next? What specific objective(s) would you set? What budget
and media plan would you propose?
7. Do you agree with McDowell the Z3 launch qualifies as a “paradigm shift in
marketing for BMW”? For marketers in general? What is the future of the NT
approach?
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
15
H-E-B Own Brands
Focus of the case
This case focuses on branding issues and concerns associated with retailers who offer brands
(private labels) which compete directly with those of its suppliers. Competitive dynamics with
horizontal organizations often prompt strategic brand management issues with vertical suppliers—
and the continuing competition within grocery/mass merchandising channels highlights the multidimensionality of such branding decisions.
Discussion Questions
1. What is your recommendation on Glacia?
2. How should Own Brands respond to competitive price promotions? When should they
follow? What about national promotions?
3. What is the role of H-E-B and Hill Country Fare as Own Brand labels? How should these
be positioned with respect to other brands in the category?
4. What is the role of Own Brands in H-E-B’s overall corporate strategy? Why is it important?
Should it be scaled up? Or dialed down? If so, in what products or in what product
categories?
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
16
Nectar: Making Loyalty Pay
Focus of the case
This case focuses on the customer profitability by looking at customer relationship
management in retail organizations in the UK supermarket industry. The case
highlights the fit among a firm’s business strategy, the structure of the organization,
and the system of estimating customer potential.
Discussion Questions
If you were hired as a marketing consultant, what marketing strategy would you
recommend to Justin King for execution at Sainsbury’s?
Be prepared to provide consultative advice on the strategy for Justin that he can
deliver in support of his upcoming meeting with City analysts. Use the course
framework to outline the entire marketing plan and to demonstrate how the major
elements of the marketing plan (4P’s plus target market(s)) are coherently integrated
with branding decisions. Since Nectar has been a major component of Sainsbury’s
marketing effort (and thus represents a critical component of the analyst’s evaluation
of the firm’s strategy), you need to be explicit in addressing your recommendations
concerning whether Sainsbury should retain a loyalty program, go solo like Tesco, or
remain a part of Nectar’s plan.
Make and justify any necessary assumptions in developing your recommendations.
Product & Brand Management, MKMR 421, CWRU, Professor Hunter
17