Seems like gud ol days of case studies are things of past

Will wait for few days more and then give solution

For a change, lets discuss a case here, and not some case study that had happened, but smthing that is still a case :)

Case: Positioning of ITC's detergent brand

Now that ITC has decided to come up with its detergent brands, lets analyze it. ITC is not supposed to have a great marketing setup, but yes it does have a distribution channel set right. A closer look will take u to fact that most of the distributors are connected with bidiwaalas, kiosks, and some bigger places, not the one of FMCG grade. But it does have a rural presence with e-Choupal. So now how does ITC strategise to take on the tough competitors of the grade HLL and P&G;?
I look forward the solution in terms of the strategy ITC needs to take for Sales and distribution, the model it will implement in same and where exactly does it position itself in the mind of consumer and how will it differntiate its product if it does.

hey guyz...

wud someone post a new case study here.......

hey prassu, maybe u cud....

its been more than a week now... and no case study....

One more real life scenario -

You are working as Sales Manager in a Jebel Ali free zone based mobile phone trading company which is part of one the foremost electronics retail company in the Middle East.

Due to the inherent instability of the mobile phone market the company has a strict policy of 100% pre-payment before shipment.

You have been approached by the one of the biggest companies in Europe (say Germany) with an order for 60,000 pieces of a mid-range model. Their only condition being, since they are dealing with you for the first time they do not want to send you full payment in advance. They want you to ship the goods to the Frankfurt airport where they will inspect the goods and only after satisfactory inspection they would transfer the payment.

You are very eager to go-ahead with the deal since the model being sold is not a fast moving model in Dubai and you want to get rid of the slow-moving stock. But the senior management is not ready to to take the risk as the amount involved is huge.

How will you convert the deal?

Hi fellow pagals. am new to this forum......

Two very straitfwd suggestions hav already been posted vis-a-vis : Video conferencing and sending samples.
Like Jaz I too do not find the time constraint a major problem.

The major problem for the Dubai firm is in case of rejection of the goods. If the transaction is approved there would be no problem per se. A third solution that occurred to me is to negotiate a satisfactory initial payment fee that would include the price of transportation. this would work to the benefit of both firms and indeed would actually help push the case forward in favour of the sales. Also the Dubai firms backside would be covered as incase of rejection the downpayment would cover the transportation costs. Also since the Dubai firm seem to be confident about the satisfactoriness of the product in question, the German firm also should not have too bear any loss in case of approval.


This scenario does seem a little too idealistic to me but fior want of a better option.... am sending this. Waitng for the solution.


Edited:: another posible solution : Perhaps instead of transporting the goods it would be cheaper to get the German engineers hu wud be inspecting the goods to Dubai. once theyre satisfied and give the thumbs up, then the deal can proceed to both firms liking.
seems a much more realistic solution to me.

guys whts up????no comments or anything else.its been a few days now.i dont have any case study to review right now.if anyone of you has it please post it.

studying case study is my birth right.

c u guys
sameer

One more real life scenario -

You are working as Sales Manager in a Jebel Ali free zone based mobile phone trading company which is part of one the foremost electronics retail company in the Middle East.

Due to the inherent instability of the mobile phone market the company has a strict policy of 100% pre-payment before shipment.

You have been approached by the one of the biggest companies in Europe (say Germany) with an order for 60,000 pieces of a mid-range model. Their only condition being, since they are dealing with you for the first time they do not want to send you full payment in advance. They want you to ship the goods to the Frankfurt airport where they will inspect the goods and only after satisfactory inspection they would transfer the payment.

You are very eager to go-ahead with the deal since the model being sold is not a fast moving model in Dubai and you want to get rid of the slow-moving stock. But the senior management is not ready to to take the risk as the amount involved is huge.

How will you convert the deal?

there can be quiet a few ways to go bout tis kind of problem but according to me the following can n will provide a decent solution.
well we al know we r in the world where information is everything so i wud just fix a meeting between the two parties i.e the top managment n the german company .obviously tis they can do while sitting in thr offices comfortably over the internet.it will make sure tht the topmost managment also gets indulged n will present perspectives of both the parties to each other widout being u as a middle men.often in business thr is tis kind of communication gap evident due to wich deals can not materialize.these problems can be solved by direct conversations n meetings.it is very probable tht the two parties develop a common concensus among them.
i know tis cant be the perfect answer cuz it doesnt satisfy me as it shud.so waiting for others to respond.
regards
sameer

One more real life scenario -
...................
How will you convert the deal?

Hmm.... cudnt find time factor as a constraint per se In that case i will send the people the sample with guarantee that the final delivery will b of the quality of sample only.

One more real life scenario -

You are working as Sales Manager in a Jebel Ali free zone based mobile phone trading company which is part of one the foremost electronics retail company in the Middle East.

Due to the inherent instability of the mobile phone market the company has a strict policy of 100% pre-payment before shipment.

You have been approached by the one of the biggest companies in Europe (say Germany) with an order for 60,000 pieces of a mid-range model. Their only condition being, since they are dealing with you for the first time they do not want to send you full payment in advance. They want you to ship the goods to the Frankfurt airport where they will inspect the goods and only after satisfactory inspection they would transfer the payment.

You are very eager to go-ahead with the deal since the model being sold is not a fast moving model in Dubai and you want to get rid of the slow-moving stock. But the senior management is not ready to to take the risk as the amount involved is huge.

How will you convert the deal?

:shock:

kaunsa rigour, jas bro ??

Ahem... the initial rigour, oks mana ki its not there now but then i got lethargic by the time it was over
Jo bhi ho, when it was there, i was well than only some stray tomcats:whatthat:
And pyare, abhi jaldi hi phir hoga, atleast for me, as i gotta sit in all FMCGs that m allowed

jas_maverick Says

Sorry guys, the initial rigour of a bschool got me offline. will b back in this thread soon

kaunsa rigour, jas bro ??

Sorry guys, the initial rigour of a bschool got me offline. will b back in this thread soon

no activity on this thread for a long time...

Come on jas u should post case studies frequently so tht this thread would move and really ppl would enjoy it...

Case -II : There was a time when no airline wud give decent service to City A in US. There were 4 flights in a month from there and charged good money but less services. Plus the flights were notorious to be cancelled in the last min, as pilot decided to bypass City A. Now a guy introduces flights from there and gives quality and get ladies all dressed in eye catching attire, cost is decent and way less than those charged by other players. Went okay for few months untill the big players decide to lower the prices to damn cheap level in order to wash out the new player. What is the way out if u are the manager of this new airline? remember u dnt have enuf cash.

Must say, this case study got better analyzation. You guys are very right in saying that its not by cash that the smaller player can win the race, its by the tactical thinking & infact thats why its not a story but a case study
I esp liked the idea of creating a preference market on one's reppo. Well actually that was what they did. Frankly without asking for patronage, one needs a very dynamic tactical idea, i guess many may use some wrong methods too, as they say, its biz.
Well the City A was infact Texas (!!!) and it dates back to the time whn not much traffic was generated over there. So what this guy did was that he did lower the price a bit, but not that much as big players. Plus he came up with a spl Thank You flight, where the guy availaing it wud pay the original fare, and wud get a thank you momento and likewise cozy treatment. He said it was upon the passengers to avail whatever offer out of two, but if they felt that his airlines really made an impact to get big players also serve better, if they felt it was coz of this airline that they got better and effective service, then they cud give original fare and he wud thank those ppl and give them a momento for their benignity. And he was succesful and later the original player took away the low rates after incurring huge losses and not much customer base gain.

Gr8 thread...

The best way is to appeal to local public, now u can make it by making
passengers feel homely, like serve the local delicacies in flight, have hostesses to wear traditional dresses, have local name to airlines as "Vidarbha Air" or "Royal Rajasthan", have local leaders or celebrities to do ur marketing (they would most of times do it for free),
In short attach local sentiments to ur airline, create goodwill and tht will help u to get regular customers.

Also as mentioned big players had irregular service which must have hurt regular fliers, so have reliability as ur marketing theme some line like : 'We would fly
come what may'

A local airline can't afford free gifts, US trip, nor can it manage frequent flier programe so attaching local sentiments to ur bussiness would be the best solution

I understand that we are not supposed to make this sound like a Group Discussion, but just a few points to clarify my stand:

The point of reserving more gates at the airport
With more gates reserved for your airlines, you give the feel to the customer that you are one of the largest service provider for that city. The customer doesnt realize that you have reserved more gates to keep the competition at bay. Infact having access to more gates gives you the chance to better serve your passengers and reduce delays. So I dint quite understand how this would give you negative publicity.

I understand that I have made a big assumption in the fact that the new airline operates only out of city A, thanks for correcting me on that Sandy. Even though the new airlines might not just operate out of City A, the solution suggested could still work.

I also feel that offers like frequent flier points and online check-ins are something all airlines offer, and the bigger airline would have better deals than a smaller airline. So this might just work in the bigger airlines favour as a small airline cannot match-up to the deals offered by the bigger one. I do not mean to say we shouldnt offer these deals but we shouldnt bank on them, to win us new customers. Infact apart from just having special offers for customer of local banks and employees of local business institutions (which I had mentioned previously) the airline should also tie-up deals with Hotels in locations where their flights fly in to. The deals would give their passenger special fares at their destinations.

Another way of earning good brownie points with the customer is by using the local press and asking them to have articles and news items about this new airlines. How the new airlines offered them sevices while the bigger airlines ignored them. This is a point Sandy had mentioned already and is valid I would just wanna add that a aggressive ad -campaign is something the smaller airlines might not be able to afford but using the local press could be a good and cheaper way of getting publicity.

Hey Sandy , no offense dude, just wanted to be a bit more clear on my perspective I could be wrong waiting for some brickbats :-)

Schivam

Nice thread wonder what ppl are doing by not posting here , wud copy it down and come bac wid my analysis. but the simple ans wud be that it should sell off the unit to the older staff.

Only prob will be abt the hostesses u talked abt

Hi Jas, gr8 thread man....keep it going.

Coming to the case, this is my slution.

Well, according to me, reduction of prices would,should and could only be the last option(anybody's guess)as it wud only lead to a price war,in which the smaller player cant cope up with the bigger players.
The immediate objective of the airlines must be to maintain its customer base,if not increase.This is because, the bigger players can afford to reduce prices in a small sector, as their aim would only be to eat into the customer base of the new airlines,which would start a price war, which the smaller player cannot sustain in the long run and so are compelled to shut shop and then the whole sector would be in their pocket.This way, the bottom line of the bigger player even if it gets affected for a couple of quarters, would be made up by the increase in the long run.Now, what if the bigger player cant eat into the smaller airlines customer base, the bottom line of the bigger player would be affected for a longer time and the most plausible solution for them would be to discontinue services in the sector.
So the smaller player should target the weaknesses of the bigger player,which are lack of reliability of the bigger player,evident from past record.
Also, the airline should go all out on an aggressive campaign and let its patrons know that they were and always,are here only for them , i.e the smaller centres and that that was their niche market and so the question of last minute cancellation of flights etc. would just not arise.In order to build and increase the confidence of their customers, they can give bookings much in advance,offer things like flying miles,specifically for that sector.Give the customers priority status if they fly more than a certain number of times in that sector.Offer free pickups for these priority customers,telephonic check-ins to them(this was stopped after 9/11).
Also, since customer perception becomes the key to sucess here, i think they shouldnt do anythng in panic,that gets them bad publicity(i think schivam's 1st point may lead to this).

Also, if the airline operates only from city A(which is not specified in the case) , schivam's solution may hve an impact.

Hi Jas,

The response to this thread may be poor but please keep it going. It is a great way to test your business acumen.

Based on the description you put out, I believe City A is a small city and does not generate much traffic. This would mean that this city would not have the biggest of airports, which would in-turn mean that the number of gates available at the airport are limited. Since this new airline operates only from this city, all its aircrafts fly from this airport. This would allow the new airline to reserve a majority of the gates at the airport. What this would mean is, the bigger airlines now have fewer gates for the their operation, which would lead to increased delays. In order to get access to more gates the bigger airlines would have to use gates reserved for the new airlines. The new airlines can now give rights for these gates at a very high premium to the bigger airlines. This not only will increase their cash flow but will also force the bigger airlines to increase their fares.

The fact that city A is a small city might be a disadvantge to the bigger airlines but it will be the new airlines biggest advantage. Since the new airlines is small and operates only out of city A it can concentrate all its offers,benefits and services just to city A, this is something the bigger airlines cannot afford to do as it would severly impact their other markets. The new airlines can increase their customer loyality by offering special deals for customers of the local banks and business institutions. This would ensure that most of the local market would prefer the new airline. Technically the bigger airlines could use the same marketing strategy but it would not make sense financially as city A is not a priority market for the big airlines. They would not want to waste their resources and efforts on a city which does not generate high traffic.
Schivam

Okay guys, long time, but am back. Next case syudy is abt an airline -

There was a time when no airline wud give decent service to City A in US. There were 4 flights in a month from there and charged good money but less services. Plus the flights were notorious to be cancelled in the last min, as pilot decided to bypass City A. Now a guy introduces flights from there and gives quality and get ladies all dressed in eye catching attire, cost is decent and way less than those charged by other players. Went okay for few months untill the big players decide to lower the prices to damn cheap level in order to wash out the new player. What is the way out if u are the manager of this new airline? remember u dnt have enuf cash. This one has in reality nice and different ending:)

hmmmm...gee our taste and preferances can sometimes be so complex-ly simple.......
but i dun see much of pringles in market des days though...but the chips is sure yum:)

sorry, ppl posted on the wrong thread

Hmmmm.. well i expected more participation, but chalega

Case I - P&G; found out that main problem the ppl had while taking chips on picnics/outings or having them for long storage for long distance market catering was that they would 'perish'. And hence chips manufacturers catered to only local customers. There was no big brand. So it decided to make them with a speacial coating so that they remain fresh for long time and packaged them in a strong cylindrical box to bear transportation jerks. Thinking it'd soon make itself as the first real chip brand, P&G; was saddened to find that the sales were very low, and only few ppl that too many of them old were buying it.

Well all i can wringle out from u guys' analysis is that the advertising is wrong and you want it to be hep, right? Now guys before u advertise, u need to be very sure abt the kind of ppl u are gonna advertise for. Abhi got a very strong point there that if old ppl like it, find from them ki bhai jab no one else is buying, how come they are, i.e. whats the selling point for them. What else was discussed was marketing strategy, but dear first we need to analyze the market and the cause, then go for rectification. Theres this subtle difference between cause and the effect, sales are low, okay. u can push sales up by advertising. but what if low sales is just an effect and not cause??
So i wont discuss the sales strategies for now and get to the problem. P&G; did teh surveying part and found out that not many ppl really WANTED this long lasting chips !! They wanted it be just as simple as a crunchy potato chip, with salty taste and that crackling sound:), the sound that is now shown many a times to impact upon the crispiness. Oldies were buying it coz they had it stored for longer times, as they wud go for vacations to their different kids and hence spent less time at home. So Pringles was nice option for longer storage and travel. The high price and different taste dint look nice patron pullers.
So what P&G; did was that it changed teh product's image as a simple potato chips who longed last to that of a premium brand in itself. Thats how it started to be regarded as a premium brand, elite brand and of course long lasting one :)

Abt the advertising, of course there were nice ideas from geek and soochi:), and nice 'P' break up, soochi. I will discuss another case tmmrw, till then comments n critiques are welcome, we can discuss what else cud have P&G; done. Waise this one is regarded as one of the entry in the list of Big Mistakes of P&G;

very good thread started JAS!!!!

well for a product to click well in the market it has to go about wit a good and perfect marketing mix...thats the 4P's:razz:RODUCT,PRICE,PROMOTION and PLACE!!!!!!!
in case of pringles...the product thats the potatoe chips is real good and have like in diff flavours and also as fat-free i guess..but they didnt come up wit an impressive promotion that is actuallie needed for a new product in market and also when the product was launched by P&G...we; all rem the ad the chip poping out of the chip case and a gal stacking up chips in her hand and eating it...well that was not impressive enough!!!!!And the price was also high compared to its compinent competitors....

we have lays which is as in today one of the leading potatoe chips in india...well they had der perfect market survey done as wats the eating lots taste and preferances and came out real impresive ads and had der set of eminent showbiz personalities bein the brand ambassdor!!!!and came up wit real good punch lines..for eg.uncle chips..real old brand and still has some loyal customer munching it on..dey had this real cool punchline..bole mere lips i love uncle chips...

pringles i guess as u mentioned was or is popular amoung the elder lot and the NRI's..well my aunts kids used to make big fuss abt pringles !!!!the company should do a market research to click well..

and like today we get lays at diff price range and for the price of pringles one can get half kg local potatoe chips which is good quality, nice and chrispy enough...

as mentioned above by the other PG's promotion,awareness n price is were the pringles went all boomed up!!!!!!!!!

if there is not other major brand there then we should capitilize on that as we can make our market there.regarding low sales of the chips inspite of good packing .it should be encountered by making an advertisement showing the advantages of these new packed chips over its old counterpart.that will definitely make an impression advertisement should be made such that it catches the attention of the audience.like that of fevicol it should leave its impression on the peoples mind.it is very important.another way to go about it is to conduct a feed back by the company in a particular colony of that area where sales are very low.we can get some points from there.another impoetant point made was that only old peaople buy them .so we should ask then also why r they buying these chips they will definitely give some good points to support there decision.we can also give something free with two buy of that packet that will definitely increase its sale.we should know wht the children eat in that particular area as they are the most important of all buyers .

Nice Thread.

Basically the situation could have arrived due to lack of proper awareness as to what is causing the lack of sales.

Here go my solutions.

Advertise & Publicize
Basically any new product that is released needs a huge amount of publicity to signify its uniqueness. The ads used should not be something like another brick in the wall. See the fellow advertisers and learn from them. For example, Hutch has created a kind of interest among the customers before it actually revealed its name and telling that its actually a cellphone network service. The ad should be in scuh a way that it should create an awareness in the public regarding the potential disadvantages if the normal, low-quality chips are consumed after storing then in a long trip.

Making this as our positive point, we should project the new packing, the anti-breaking chips kind of a thing (*during the transportation*).

During rising period of the product, quote unbeleivable price for the product, say some 4/- per pack (which actually should have been put somewhere near Rs.10/-). Advertise near the schools, and malls with attractive colours and stuff.

Free Stuff
Give off free posters of the brand ambassdors if 3 or 4 packets are bought. Offer free autographed keychains, shirts, pens, coffee mugs etc... in exchange for empty chips packets.

Contests
Arrange contests and offer winners free trips to Europe or Watch-the-World Cup-Final kind of prizes. Offer lunch with celebrities if a person wins a draw or something.

Ofcourse, Preity and Juhi are always there to work for us!!!

Reverse Strategy
Ask the customers to send in entries for advertising strategies. The best advertising strategy shall get a grand prize .

More to come...