Nice post Jas

Let me Google some and then reply

Cereal bars have become a common replacement for breakfast in the west. This case study is about Company A which launched its cereal bar in late 90s and soon went to gain almost half of total market share within just two years. The brand awareness is high and Company A itself has a strong brand value. Looking at the success of the product, Company A decided to develop new flavors and formats and changes the positioning from a missed breakfast product to an all-day healthy snack so as to increase the consumption.

Soon the market was filled with 2-3 more successful players and many regional private labels which ate into the share of Company A. The market has grown at 15% while Company A's market share of all these related products has decreased.

Company A has to make a key business decision. Sales are falling, the product is in decline and losing its position. Should Company A let the product die, i.e. withdraw it from the market, or should it try to extend its life?

Even if it tries to extend life, it can do so by increasing market penetration, develop the market itself, develop the product or diversify the product. What do you suggest to Company A?

i am still a engg student so
am asking questions out of curiosity
out of all the cricket boards in the world

the most wealthiest is the BCCI of course
but really very ineterstd to know what kind of plan do they have in amassing such income?????????

Plan? I guess there is only one plan - earn more moolah!!

Er... were u asking for biz plan? in that case there is none, u think they can think that ?

Lol... I thought most of the questions you asked were to provoke us to think and not necessarily answer them... read you blog... seems that some of what I had penned match with your thoughts...
When is the next one coming?

Ah i read it after almost an year! it should come in few days...

i am still a engg student so
am asking questions out of curiosity
out of all the cricket boards in the world

the most wealthiest is the BCCI of course
but really very ineterstd to know what kind of plan do they have in amassing such income?????????

this is out of curiosity
what has been the success or rather the strategy of the indian railways as they are one of the few who are running on profit........ thanks to our railway minister
this comes at a time when many european railway companies are not doing that good
or is it the fact that the two things mentioned above are just not comparable because of huge differences ..... llike population,geography,etc.......

why is the toyota case study considered important
can anybody give me more info on this
was it that they beat the americans at their own market at the time where no body dared to enter their market
or was it the pricing brilliance which boosted toyota ahead of the other automakers
or was it simply because of the "the toyota way".......

Here is a reality case study right between us.

Each person in pagalguy.com is connected to MBA, either as an aspirant or as an MBA student. Since the most important part of MBA is the case study, it is pretty obvious that case studies should be very popular in this forum. But somehow, we have had very lukewarm response.

So here is the ultimate case study.

What do you think should be done so that this thread is popular ?

I have some ideas too, but will post them after getting a few responses.

Found this thread, and started reading from scratch... Got really excited with this case study, albeit was posted in 2006... but i think its still relevant...

Here goes my analysis...

Reasons for less popularity for this thread :
1) Visibility : We have a gr8 concept at hand. Everybody who has come on this thr8d even once would vouch for that. Still, we can't attract more ppl... Why? Simply bcos we are not visible ! The thr8d is inside the chitchat section, which is not appropriate at all ! This should be hosted somewhere in the "For B-schoolers section" as case studies is wot somebody normally encounters after getting into a B-skool.(agreed, some institutes use it as a filtration tool at the time of GD/PI... but they are very few and most puys are not concerned with that... everybody's still fidgety abt their CAT/GMAT scores and calls !
Another reason why I think this thread shud be in that section is bcos the kind of discussions being promoted and the knowledge level needed is a notch higher... so... b-skoolers wud be more interested and wud find it beneficial too...

2)Catering to a Niche segment- according to point 1 above, the thread is a niche product. It has a limited market. Not everybody will post here... so this fact shud be agreed upon that generally traffic over here wud be low - peaceful, hill station like settings... :rockedov:

3)Competition - Maybe there's olready competition present on PG in form of another thread dealing with the same content ! Have we done the fatal error of thinking that we r the only producers of this product ? (haven't researched whether competition truly exists, or not)

Wow! A great thread here..
Many from FMS and MDI too here

Now I have to sit through this today!

Meanwhile, a small query to my seniors...
FMS and MDI have case studies in their selection process?

Cheers

jas_maverick Says

I have never understood it; when am regular to thread there is no activity. The moment i go off, people post asking for activity ! ;)

Lol... I thought most of the questions you asked were to provoke us to think and not necessarily answer them... read you blog... seems that some of what I had penned match with your thoughts...
When is the next one coming?

hey puys
i hope i am posting in the right thread....i just wanted to ask are icfai case studies good and used across all premire institutes in india....and is icfai one of the largest case studies writer in india...thanx

look at GE in another context, these firms are mammoths and not even elephants. So "Can mammoths dance?"

GE is known for pursuing only those businesses where it is among the top few in the world. Otherwise it exits the business asap.

I think, irrespective of the size of the company,it is its ability in adopting to change that creates the difference. A greater size allows economies of scale and a greater opportunity to tap into future opportunities. Infact, a company with dominant market share can influence the direction in which the product development would move, atleast in the near future.

Motorola is a six-sigma process company but to the end user nokia is as reliable and in more cases than not it is more reliable than a motorola.

A common man walking down the road would not think much of 6-sigma,etc as long as he recognises the brand as reliable based on his own experience.

While it may appear that processes make mammoths bad dancers n less agile, i think this happens only if the ppl fail to understand the real reason for being process oriented.

Processes are laid down to ease the day to day activitites and create a uniform work culture in the organisation that operates across the world.

But when a change is required, it should be as easy for big company as it is for a small company. The only difference would be in the manner the message is conveyed to the organisation.

I think IBM is an example of a Mammoth that can dance. Its strategy of tapping the indian market and the restructuring that it did within the organisation ensured that it is the top IT services company in india within a short span of time.

I have never understood it; when am regular to thread there is no activity. The moment i go off, people post asking for activity !

Wow, after mufasa's reply, the replies just getting more and more critic for Motorola! I don't think many of you like it ; but ya, i would like to know how many of you are actually using a Motorola!

I wont be that harsh on Moto. I would like to point it out that some of you here had mixed the international and Indian reviews, which is not a right way here as the market is very different today.

Moto is known as the excellent engineering innovation company, with strong and consistent process, all highly focussed and efficient thanks to six sigma initiatives, Moto is known for it. It got the mobile technology to world, but thats exactly from where Nokia takes over. Idea and implementation are so different, aren't they?

I agree that Nokia has so large a range, it has features that are easy to use. But that is mass marketer strategy, and Motorola never wanted to be there. Its earliest phones were from Motorola only - the bulky ones weighing in 100 of grams. Then it lost on the track and focussed on the corporate sales only. And all this while Nokia was doing something else, but what?

Ever thought how Nokia launches so many phones one after another? and it replies to comptt so fast! I had a talk with Motorola marketing guy, and he was all praise for Nokia, saying that when Moto launches a low end phone, Nokia launches a one of similar features and similar price tag soon as flange attack, and then it does the thing only the big daddy can do - it decreases the price by big margin! But then again how can they launch a similar set so fast? the answer to both the questions lies in the strategic far sightedness of Nokia. While everybody was crying innovation, Nokia set its eyes on mass scale and to achieve success there you need standardization across production lines, across line extensions. And thats exactly what Nokia has done, it has a framework ready for designs. Just remember, is one of the strong reason of buying a Nokia was because you could charge your phone anywhere and borrow just practically anybody's phone charger! Or was it because you were accustomed to the interface of Nokia phone and you were just too glad that the interface dint change much with your new phone? There you get me!

So guys, I will say its a great lesson for strategy guys. The long term focus pays a lot more than a short term aggression. What Moto needs right now is to clear up its huge huge processes, when a company becomes too process oriented it loses the agility. If Moto was to come up with a competitor of Walkman, it will have to do a complete delivery cycle thoroughly, and in the end the world may have gone forward. This is another question I have been having in head since last few weeks in my head, is it that all process oriented companies who implement a complete and thorough processes, weaken with age? So do we need agile processes? look at GE in another context, these firms are mammoths and not even elephants. So "Can mammoths dance?"

PS: I had covered the Motorola announcement of split news at my blog in this post:
Marketing Confetti by Jasginder Singh

Oh, dint know ppl still bump into this thread :)
Cool!

With almost an year in post MBA corporate life, here is a garma garam fast case:
Motorola !!

1. Being a brand manager, what do you think Motorola has been doing wrong, esp in Indian market?
   
2. Should it keep in premium market segment like Razor, or should it flood market with Moto Yuva kind 2-5K handsets; or what else? (remember big daddy Nokia)

All the best!

First things first - Motorola knew it was nowhere close to the leader Nokia - hence it was clear cut product differentiation strategy to be adopted AND compete to be the 2nd in the market

First the compeititor analysis

Samsung - amazing features and amazing range - but lacking clear cut branding initiative.. still managed to capture a slice of market

LG - No clear strategy but yes trying to get as much mileage from whatever market it was

Sony Ericcson (wondering how couple of guys above me missed this key player in the market ) - Clearly 2nd in the market according to me- Excellent Campaigns for its W and K series - who offers 3.2MP camera wid phone??? Hrithik Roshan used quite effectively (not entirely but much than better Moto's Aby Baby) !!!

Moto did generate some interest by its Razr campaign - but the product let down very very badly... all the ppl i knw were not satisfied... it looked good and it just stopped there... very difficult to navigate and worse was the battery life... when you knw that its a multimedia phone, you have to have support the features... the battery hardly lasted 6-8 hours...

It again tried to mileage using Rockr campaign... I dunno why it wasnt really hit.. (My guess is that bad experience from Razr - if battery would not last enough to be able to listen to music no use to spend so much on the phone)

However full marks to Moto on launching the touch screen phone - who gets a touch screen phone in 12K? Awesom looking and the touch screen is really cool and stylish.. This is a clear hit! This is where product differentiation came in picture and took away entire mid market from Nokia! And I knw ppl who are very happy with the performance!

Hence acc to me they shld continue wid some great innovative ideas where Nokia is not present! Tech markets always have first mover advantage - hence acc to me they shld stick to new product development and offer them as an alternative to Nokia! No use competing wid Nokia on other fronts like lower segments or multimedia phones...

Jaimin

Current Problems :

1) Motorola does not have a brand image in the market.

2) They don't have products that would appeal to specific segment of market.

3) Motorola's low end products are very pathetic. They can't compete with any of the other player's product.

4) They are losing on the side of innovation to Sony & Nokia.

5) There products don't stand for any special purpose. e.g. Nokia's music edition/ Sony's Walkman series/ Nokia's high end photographic cell-phones with 8GB space.

Analysis :

Nokia was (& still is) the biggest player in India. Because of there simplicity of softwares & service provided after the sell of products. Motorola was managing to compete with Samsung,Sony but then Sony suddenly took a lea forward with Walkman series & ate a large market share of Samsung, Motorola. Even Nokia lost some of the market, but it was less. They roped in Hrithik as brand ambassador for new product range.

Motorola did not (still has not) tried to change it's products to suit the market. The only product was doing good is Razor, the only reason people are using it is the Style, which people like to change every now & then.

Nokia has a wide range of products & each cellphone is embedded with the features that, that particular segment would care about. Low end segment eyed products contained features like Radio, Colors, Polyphonic Ringtones & these are the features that are advertised & not the style. Costly cell phones are advertised for their Style, high end music system, cameras & all that, that segment would care about. None the less, the biggest of Nokia remains is - User Friendly Interface.

Sony had the same problems as Motorola, but there products were better in terms of Style & then came the Walkman series, it was the biggest hot of the time.


Solutions : (other than appointing me as a Brand Manager)

1) Revitalize the brand. Roping in Abhishek Bachhan has certainly not helped. The advertises are too funny to be of technology product. And, yes, other adds like Yuva, are seriously torture.

2) Study the market, introduce the products that are aimed at certain segment of customers.

3) Introduce technology driven products - like Music, Photography more additional services. Take one of all aspects, & advertise accordingly instead of general advertises.

4) Change the brand manager. (In case if some one hears :detective:about recruitment of Motorola's Brand Manager, PM me:new_terminator::new_terminator::new_terminator:)

Being a brand manager, what do you think Motorola has been doing wrong, esp in Indian market?

1. Should it keep in premium market segment like Razor, or should it flood market with Moto Yuva kind 2-5K handsets; or what else? (remember big daddy Nokia)

My thoughts:
As a brand manager, i would be worried that Motorola as a brand is almost non-existent in a lot of consumers minds. Atleast in my mind.

Being a brand manager, i wud focus first on getting the brand right. What does it stand for?
Reliability or style?
The moto-rokr ad campaign was pretty good and stood out. But some of the other ad campaigns like moto-yuva are a pain to watch.
The communication strategy needs to be looked at first thing.
Nokia on the other hand has a very polished communication strategy that doesnt make a consumer feel that he is buying a low cost mobile.
The har jeb mein rang advert was well received and so were the 1100 campaigns.
The basic idea was conveyed properly and whoever wanted to buy dint have to worry abt the silly ad campaign that others around him wud associate the product with.

Also, from my own experience of buying a mobile phone, samsung doesnt have very strong and continuous ad campaigns, but it makes its presence felt in the stores.
Store-keepers have an idea abt the product and are willing to sell it hard. Maybe bcoz of the margins they earn with samsung are more.
Distribution and visibility in the shopping place is another thing to look at.

So, most important thing would be to re-think the branding strategy and make it uniform across the product range.
The one area where moto needs to concentrate is giving confidence in terms of reliability of its products.
Indian consumers are always conscious of quality, durablility and cost.

will post more later. Hurrying home now.

Motorola !!

1. Being a brand manager, what do you think Motorola has been doing wrong, esp in Indian market?
   
2. Should it keep in premium market segment like Razor, or should it flood market with Moto Yuva kind 2-5K handsets; or what else? (remember big daddy Nokia)

Doesnt get more current than this... should be a great discussion...
Moi 2 cents:
The problem with Motorola goes deeper than the branding issue. Sure the brand does not still create a unique identity. But then a more serious issue is with the kind of product innovation that goes on at Motorola. Any discussion would be incomplete without talking about Nokia. So let's see what Nokia does and Motorola does not.
Nokia is lightning fast in coming out with new sets and replacing the existing ones on the shelf... It understands what the Indian "value for money" and "money for value" consumers want.. So it has products that cover the entire range...and it is able to do so effectively... It has a lot winner sets....
On the other hand Motorola has but one to speak of , the Razr... It has tried to move up from the less expensive to higher priced sets..but it has seen it market share drop from 23% to 6-7%..Samsung is now the second largest player... There was a move to differentiate itself by associating with music..but then these were value adds that were easily copied..Because this was not innovation..it was more of a design than an engineering feat....
Nokia set is a durable and easy to maintain set... thats the position for Nokia..also it's much easy to get used to and easy to sms... What does Motorola stand for?
Some other related facts:
When the semiconductor business was not doing well, it was spun-off to Freescale...
The index of Motorola actually rose when it announced that the mobile business would be seperated... surely the market had given its verdict...
too much bureaucracy in the company.. no independence.... consequently no one was ready to head the Mobile business.....

kya thread hai bahi. hats off to pg. everday i come across something new. and i have already been here for like a year. wow puys, you people are something.

Oh, dint know ppl still bump into this thread :)
Cool!

With almost an year in post MBA corporate life, here is a garma garam fast case:
Motorola !!
The company had all it could ask for a decade back. Strong reaping on innovation and technology front, best employer reputation and best of minds in world ready to work for it. Then it founded mobile telephony and built a huge huge futuristic shift, and then.... *silence*
Yr 2009, company is in loss, that too millions, its fallen 3rd on mobile handsets as it could never capture on its own invention whilst an unheard place in Finland produces the greatest telecom company - Nokia; which understands users and their behavior. The day Motorola says, it may split, its stock roar (bad omen); and then it finally says that it actually is!

1. Being a brand manager, what do you think Motorola has been doing wrong, esp in Indian market?
   
2. Should it keep in premium market segment like Razor, or should it flood market with Moto Yuva kind 2-5K handsets; or what else? (remember big daddy Nokia)

All the best!

simply superb:D:D:D:D

Hi,

Can someone advise me how can I prepare for CASE Studies.....I've a GD/PI scheduled within next 15 days.......where Case Studies are asked/discussed.

Please advise me some online links, material through which I can brush up & be well prepared in-time for it ?

Any advise/tips would be really helpful for me.....

Thanx in advance !!!

Great thread guys

*bump*

Jas, where are you?

well, i looked up the Nestle website for their new launches.. looks like the Funshakes are targeted at young kids rather than teens. & the idea is to cash on to the flavoured milk drinking trend (& if its already not a trend in homes with young kids, then hoping that it will soon be). given this additional context, would now change my reponse for FunShakes category from 'No' to can't say.

Interesting Marketing case Jas_maverick... as someone said .. such a problem would require a full fledged research & analysis of the brand/category & its consumers. But we dont have anything to lose (atleast from the comfort of my sofa here). So, lemme take a wild shot at it..

One angle to think about brand extension of Milkmaid is - who are the actual buyers the traditional Milkmaid product in India thus far - Moms. Right? Or people who shop for groceries - family members. Given the traditional brand positioning of Milkmaid - which is taste, healthy, dairy product - to be used for making desserts for the entire family, extending the brand to Flavoured Yogurts is a reasonable idea. Becase fruit flavoured yogurt is something which you consume before/after a meal in India (as a snack or as a dessert itself sometimes). So, the Moms would feel comfortable in buying a Milkmaid branded yogurt for their family. However, there is a strong challenger in this category - which is Amul. & thats why I said, it requires much more exhaustive thinking than I can do after a junk dinner now.

As for Fun Shakes - I think its a clear No. Given the customer segment towards which Funshakes is targeted (Teens/Young Folks, College Goers, People on the move, Party drink) Milkmaid's brand equity wont sell. Coke's/Pepsi's would. So, taking a Minute Maid or a monster of a brand head on is not a good idea.

So, my answer is a Yes & a No.. What say.

Its a real dangerous situation to be in coz the public has accepted the brand, they know about it, attaching some words in their mind. As cryptic said, being a iconic bike manufacturer, if you make a cake decoration kit; be doubly sure the ppl will suddenly buy it, maybe only for curiousty. But only for a limited time, then the product will die but people will be confused now what Harley stands for! So final brand value is compromised.
Lets see how the sales of the new product come through. Six months should be ideal time to guage the impact i guess.

I would not call it a dangerous situation... that's stretching it a little... it's actually an opportunity....
Awesome analysis by cryptic and jas as usual.... Now moi 2 cents...
using the Harley example, the difference here is that Harley went into a totally unrelated product line - shoes and cake decorations... it was assured of a trial consumer segment because of the curiosity that it would have risen.... harley is out of reach for most, so when it came out with an affordable shoe or decoration line, people who surely want to have the "harley" experience...but soon they would compare it with other alternatives,and find that they are better off without the harley... guess harely was able to sustain the shoe consumers and not the cake ones... to me both the extensions sound illogical....
which brings us to Milkmaid..... as had been pointed out, it has been in the market for a long time,and has created a space in the consumer's mind....is not 90 years time enough to carry a company's values to newer related products...? Flavoured milk surely is related to Milkmaid and yogurt too is a perceived health food.... Traditionally in India milk is assumed to be a symbol of purity..and Nestle through Milkmaid has promised to maintain that purity... and I see both the new extensions as complentary products to the existing Milkmaid.... Nestle and Milkmaid are well known and admired barnds across the country.. so rather than trying to maintain the status quo, it becomes imperative that the company leverages on its brand and comes out with more products...In addition to this, when you look at the macro environment, you see that the consumer is moving to a healthier product... Amul flavoured milk, Tropicana from Pepsi, Minute Maid from Coke... now given a choice of Neslte Milkmaid flavoured Milk VS Minute Main from Coca Cola, which one would you choose???
If we say that this is a bad idea, then we would never have had Maggi Tomato Sauce, and the only product under the Maggi brand would have been the 2 minute noodles....:wow:

Jas thanks for the note.. and thanks for pointing out the mistake ..:) I meant 90 yrs but instead ended up writing 1990....my bad...

Cheers

Rosh

ok.
If I've inderstood the concept right, then it is obviously a good idea to launch milkmaid fruit drinks or whatever..
because milkmaid is very well known quality brand. & it has been successful since long time. But condensed milk may not be the product that everyone buys frequently. where as fruit drink or yoghurt is sumthing that will catch attention & willl be consumed faster. & having brand name of milkmaid will only boost the sales of their new products. SO acc to me its definitely not a wrong step!
correct me if I am wrong..
oh! and @ jas_maverik gr8 thread!!

As has been confirmed by Cryptic Thunder in post just above, i agree what you suggest is a very short term gain strategy. Accoring to this strategy, you may say that having a prior brand name to be used as a thrust is always a welcome idea. but beware, you are also changing the mental associations of Milkmaid here. When we are using the brand name, we essentially see that after about the period of 3-4 years two things should have happened for sure, the new product should have leveraged positively from the brand name present in market and secondly the final sale revenue of all products under brand name should be more than what would have been individually, had a new brand name been taken.
Its a real dangerous situation to be in coz the public has accepted the brand, they know about it, attaching some words in their mind. As cryptic said, being a iconic bike manufacturer, if you make a cake decoration kit; be doubly sure the ppl will suddenly buy it, maybe only for curiousty. But only for a limited time, then the product will die but people will be confused now what Harley stands for! So final brand value is compromised.
Lets see how the sales of the new product come through. Six months should be ideal time to guage the impact i guess.

and Cryptic, Milmaid came 90 yrs ago, not in 1990 Hence it surely has a strong cementing in Indian mind :)

And am interested in that ROCKR story, can u elaborate it for me in pvt post?

This is an interesting case which sounds more like a bread and butter story for FMCG marketers. Im sure they have their own views. Me being a marketer/sales person and strategist in the professional services industry, Im going to observe past brand extension cases spanning a few industries, to try and analyze whether a Brand Extension of the good old Milk Maid brand, would do good for the new products being sold under the brand name. This critique is biased towards the brand and not sales figures; helping zone in on the theme of Brand Extension.
The Milkmaid Brand
To the general public in India, it is probably right to assume that, the Milk Maid Brand is synonymous with tasty and sweet, partly skimmed, milk that they could use not only for their coffee and tea but also in the kitchen to whip up some sumptuous desserts. Well know throughout the Indian household and priced right, it would be fair to say that Nestle has promoted its product well. This fact is reaffirmed considering the product was launched in 1990 along with Nestle and it is still going strong. 17 going on 18, it is almost evident that the product Milk Maid has been cemented in the Indian mind for close to two decades.
Brand Extension Past Cases is there a possible trend?
A two pronged question arises:
Would launching a yoghurt and fruit juice under the Milkmaid brand deter or enhance the Milkmaid brand? and
(Assuming the products are launched) Would launching it under the brand do justice to the products both in the short-term and long-term?
To answer these questions lets take a look at a few examples across various sectors to understand Brand Extension. Harley Davidson a few years back was awarded the worst Brand Extension they decided to come out with a cake-decorating kit and had associated with bakeries all over as distribution centers. This ended in disaster. However, they won best brand extension a few years prior for developing the footwear line extension. Cake - decorating kit from Harley Davidson? The cake decorating kit we all agree was a no-brainer. However surprisingly there are a large number of cases where there was a high probability of success for a product launched as a brand extension that in the long term fell very short of expectation. A good example would be the Motorola ROKR phone. Motorola predicted a smashing success of the phone on its launch but what ended up happening was that RAZR, its other popular model, saw soars in sales at the launch of ROKR. Observing these trends clearly indicates that success of Brand Extension depend on several tangible and intangible factors (I will not be discussing these factors for fear of this explanation turning into a book J).
The Indian Market Place and the Milkmaid Identity

The Indian market place today is thronged by similar goods competing for a share of the ever growing market place. Some would argue that launching a yoghurt and fruit juice under the Milkmaid brand would help the products leverage of the brand popularity and thereby increase sales. While this is true to some extent the view is short sighted. The question to be asked here is whether or not this approach is sustainable and if this approach is adopted could it lead to the deterioration of the Milkmaid brand in the long run, thus resulting in the Brand losing its exclusivity. It is probably worthwhile to note that whether a brand extension makes sense or not doesnt necessarily translate into the product doing well in the market. An initial soar in sales volumes need not imply that it is good for a brand in the long term. Another point to note is that a product launched under a Brand extension need not necessarily cater to the same target market as that of the main brand. This means a thorough study of the market needs to be carried out which involves a cause-effect study (Cause: Launching a product under specific brand Effect: What effect will the cause have on the market place). This would give insights into how the particular product would do.
Advantages/ Disadvantages of launching the yoghurt and juice under the Milk Maid Brand
So lets boil this down to the possible evident advantages and disadvantages of releasing the products under the Milkmaid name:
Advantages:
Instant brand recognition leveraging off the already strong Milkmaid brand.
Strong likely hood of high sales volumes upon release provided an effective advertising campaign is/has been implemented.
Disadvantages:
Long term damage to the Brand
Deterioration of sales volumes in the long run
Loss of Milkmaid exclusivity.
Is it the best choice?
So is the launch of the two products under the Milkmaid brand the best choice? In my opinion, as outlined by my supporting arguments above, the possibility of the long term deterioration of the brand far by outweighs the benefit of short term financial gain. In my opinion the launch might not be very successful. However, savvy advertising based on specific strategic goals to protect the overall Milkmaid brand could help the successful co-existence of all products.

Looking forward to your comments.

Regards,

Rosh

ok.
If I've inderstood the concept right, then it is obviously a good idea to launch milkmaid fruit drinks or whatever..
because milkmaid is very well known quality brand. & it has been successful since long time. But condensed milk may not be the product that everyone buys frequently. where as fruit drink or yoghurt is sumthing that will catch attention & willl be consumed faster. & having brand name of milkmaid will only boost the sales of their new products. SO acc to me its definitely not a wrong step!
correct me if I am wrong..
oh! and @ jas_maverik gr8 thread!!

hey pguys,
sorry for late response; but I have just discovered this thread, rather PG !
As a strategy architect I wud first see to it that it gets proper reception at most of places.. learned it frm everyday train travel exp!!:satisfie:

-> station must provide full entertainment package, frm news to reviews, gossip etc.
->it must have many competitions where people have to revert back.. have contests like listen our program & answer simple qs etc. so they cant switch channels etc.
->channel may launch music of movies, invite celebrities etc. basically to get TRP, which in turn will create revenue via more advertisements.
-> We may give it personnel touch with agony aunt type programs.
-> we may have RJ s frm diff communities who wud speak in diff language abt diff traditions, festivals etc. which wud provide variety
-> As youth is probably the target audiance it might organise youth events, or sponser coll festivals etc.
cant think anythin perticular more than this so thats it as of now..
ur opinion is awaited

4m where did u search this one its really old question, try with the last question asked

Ok one more case, a small one. Will get back after exams with both the cases, Camel as well as this one.

Case Study:
Recently Anil Ambani's Adlabs decided to jump in the FM radio clutter by launching Big 92.7 FM . Now if you were the strategy architect, how would you see the new channel going forward? You may answer in trends, product or service offering or the marketing decisions to be taken. Ads may be a good idea.

PS: Try guerilla marketing :)

hey pguys,
sorry for late response; but I have just discovered this thread, rather PG !
As a strategy architect I wud first see to it that it gets proper reception at most of places.. learned it frm everyday train travel exp!!:satisfie:

-> station must provide full entertainment package, frm news to reviews, gossip etc.
->it must have many competitions where people have to revert back.. have contests like listen our program & answer simple qs etc. so they cant switch channels etc.
->channel may launch music of movies, invite celebrities etc. basically to get TRP, which in turn will create revenue via more advertisements.
-> We may give it personnel touch with agony aunt type programs.
-> we may have RJ s frm diff communities who wud speak in diff language abt diff traditions, festivals etc. which wud provide variety
-> As youth is probably the target audiance it might organise youth events, or sponser coll festivals etc.
cant think anythin perticular more than this so thats it as of now..
ur opinion is awaited

It will soon be time to stress on GD/PI interview for ppl appearing for CAT or alike as well as ppl who had just got an entry in MBA colleges (they will be having summers now). In both the scenarios, the case studies come quite handy, so here i post it, hope it helps you to rub off some gyan of actual markets.

Brand - Milkmaid
Focus - Launch of differnt products under Milkmaid brand aka Brand Extension (click here to read definition of brand extension)

Note: Understand the concept of brand extension but don't use it as jargon, the interviewer may rip you apart thinking you are showing off, don't use any jargon unless u sure what it means and you can cite examples for same

Now just go through the profile of Milkmaid products in India. It used to give 'Partly Skimmed Sweetened Condensed Milk', basically condensed milk. It has been in India since nestle came to India abt 90 yrs back. The product has been decently successful.

Now it has launched two new products leveraging its popular name, namely MILKMAID Fruit yoghurt and MILKMAID Funshakes. Question is do you think it is a right move or should they have had launched it under different name all together (like NesTea, Milo etc)

Hints: Try to weigh how customers perceive MilkMaid and do the same set of consumers share the product consumption of new products?

I repeat, ans is not in yes or No, ans is in Why yes or why no.

a wait for few weeks to have another person reply but in vain, so let me just go along with discussion and also give you the account of what happened.

Thing is that the company has been having too many old employees, that brings experience and hence caution. Every organization needs a stable caution base and a significant younger base to feed in the newer ideas. But for any company which has been too much into the caution the newcomers will have a hard time esp if the older lot has done a lot in their time, coz then the caution increases and so does the attitude - youngsteres have urge but not the composure

So even if the new guy gets the things approved from CEO the next line of mgmt ppl will oppose it, coz they need it to be discussed. Isn't it better now that CEO lets the guy recommend the plan to this mgmt line rather than CEO himself? lest it will come with a stamp of his approval which may not be that comprehensively analyzed and at same time may cause heartburn.

Actual - wat happened actually was that Mr X, as you know was more on action side, had a talk with few media ppl who got him challenge his boss on camera. So one day he along with some media ppl stormed into the room of boss and threw a rotten fish on his desk and started rolling the camera asking to justify his actions as his firm was polluting the water and killing fish. (Disclaimer - all this has been told by our teacher and he confirmed its not story but fact that this happened)
The boss, now hold it, looked at the camera and said, No! he was against all this and had infact one i=of his employees working on a waste mgmt project, the perplexed media guys had to stop the camera few mins later!!

our teacher told that after few months Mr.X got fired.

So i guess the CEO may also have wanted Mr X to make his way slowly. This wud serve 2 purposes -
1. The top league's ego will be massaged, they will feel a part of final decision
2. The ppl like Mr X are the future of any company. Forget IT, how many ppl do u think switch jobs in full life? So its a way to promote the skills of right ppl. Good managers always do that

Well the explanation sounds fine...but to me it seems that this approach will depend on things happening rather than trying to get things done.. I understand that the CEO cannot completely be partisan to Mr X and annoy the management by making an overruling decision..but then he's just playing it safe, isnt he? and there might be a chance that by the time the management acknowledges another firm would have come out with the same product...wouldnt that be an opportunity passing by? just some questions to which I know there arent black and white answers... and that's where a CEO's vision makes a difference.... does he back an initiative or plays to the management... guess I am back to square one..... :neutral:

1st yr or second? u will get right by fourth semester or 5th trimester

1st year... by the time 4th sem arrives , I ought to be clear about moi choice :satisfie:

there is also a possibility that the CEO is promising to talk to the upper management without any intentions of keeping the promise. Mr X is a young, exuberent guy and maybe the CEO doesnt want to lose him. So he promises Mr X just to put the issue into a backburner and let the issue die a natural death. Mr X would find it terribly difficult to keep it going by himself.
Am I any closer to the solution or have I drifted way?

wat i have learnt is that there is no right or wrong way, its just some are bad ones rationally. its a possibility i dint think of, i thot he actualy told him to amke out his way. But think even if the guy is given a ahead by the CEO will it translate to a success? The big bosses in upper mgmt will try to oppose it or ques it, see left challenging UPA on nuke issue; its ego and prior exp that puts the pressure on them to question the things, required but not always right ques. So i guess the CEO may also have wanted Mr X to make his way slowly. This wud serve 2 purposes -
1. The top league's ego will be massaged, they will feel a part of final decision
2. The ppl like Mr X are the future of any company. Forget IT, how many ppl do u think switch jobs in full life? So its a way to promote the skills of right ppl. Good managers always do that

I have a background in IT and am totally confused what I want to specialise in.. :satisfie:

1st yr or second? u will get right by fourth semester or 5th trimester:):thumbsup:

I would give you a thot, do you think CEO here is thinking abt Mr X and the benefit his organisation can get or is he also thinking about his own? Think a bit on it

u r bang on the problems of Indian IT btw, real estate prices have pushed some companies to force Indian vendors to move to cheaper 3rd world countries abroad. so u from ITES

there is also a possibility that the CEO is promising to talk to the upper management without any intentions of keeping the promise. Mr X is a young, exuberent guy and maybe the CEO doesnt want to lose him. So he promises Mr X just to put the issue into a backburner and let the issue die a natural death. Mr X would find it terribly difficult to keep it going by himself.
Am I any closer to the solution or have I drifted way?
I have a background in IT and am totally confused what I want to specialise in.. :satisfie:

mufasa Says

I agree wholeheartedly. But I think the CEO is not as inflexible as the other guys in the upper management. The very fact that he is considering the idea and is willing to get the upper management to come around to the view made me feel that he would be the person most receptive to the idea. Ultimately he would be the best judge of opportunities because of his experience. But he can also be the best supporter if he believes in it.

I would give you a thot, do you think CEO here is thinking abt Mr X and the benefit his organisation can get or is he also thinking about his own? Think a bit on it

I can't help but draw a parallel with the leading Indian IT cos who are happy doing low end work only because their strength lies in cost advantage. But now they are not sure that they will be a favored destination due to increasing prices of real estate and s/w professionals. Thus there is a deliberate attempt to move to high end services like consulting. Infy has set up a consulting arm, though it's not very profitable.. TCS also now has a consulting vertical.
(PS: me too a workex guy , 3 years )u r bang on the problems of Indian IT btw, real estate prices have pushed some companies to force Indian vendors to move to cheaper 3rd world countries abroad. so u from ITES

Cmmon two more comments and I will give u the OB model we studied on this:rolleyes:

Hate the subject will give it another try... guess OB is not as worthless as I think it is when I am sitting in class.. ;)

Mufasa, here lies the paradox that you have quoted by self, the management is risk averse, old; this must also be characteristic of the CEO then; and a risk averse wont be innovation savvy. But then do we remove the CEO and get a new one? He must b having huge exp to run such a company, no? Someone who has good knowledge on bird's eye view. plus he hasn't faulted on revenues or that the case points of any.

I agree wholeheartedly. But I think the CEO is not as inflexible as the other guys in the upper management. The very fact that he is considering the idea and is willing to get the upper management to come around to the view made me feel that he would be the person most receptive to the idea. Ultimately he would be the best judge of opportunities because of his experience. But he can also be the best supporter if he believes in it.

umm. i will say that these points need to be reserached by our Mr X, he is the one who has a nice proposal but nobody is ready to take it. i dnt think they will be too happy to even give it that good a coverage, for them he is just a kid with fresh but unpractical ideas (the guys with workex here will understand me better)

Yup, after your comment even I feel Mr. X should be the one who should do the research as he is the one who has an idea to sell.....
But on the other hand the management should not think of him as a green-horn. Most of the tech companies have done well, only because of the BIG ideas they had even though they were young. It is about what you want your identity to be and if you are sure that the current market you are serving will last. I can't help but draw a parallel with the leading Indian IT cos who are happy doing low end work only because their strength lies in cost advantage. But now they are not sure that they will be a favoured destination due to increasing prices of real estate and s/w professionals. Thus there is a delibrate attempt to move to high end services like consulting. Infy has set up a consulting arm, though it's not very profitable.. TCS also now has a consulting vertical.
(PS: me too a workex guy , 3 years )

u confirm the paradox , the most comforting part for company is that its doing well, there is no financial problem or crunch; not sales one. So do u think that its still justified? u may say that innovation is key but then this is a process oriented company and it believes that new innovation may bring in few $ more but that wud be insignificant as they can earn better money by focusing on present.

No doubt there is a paradox, that's the crux of the case. But it becomes clearer when the company draws a vision where it would want to be in the global scenario.


Must say that I really appreciate your effort. It's one of the best threads on PG, and I came to know about it only a few days back.