B2B Marketing - Case Questions

Business to Business Marketing, 2012
Case Questions

Office Tiger:

1. What has made Office Tiger successful to date?  
2. Who are its first customers and why do they buy from Office Tiger?  
3. How would you use Moore’s ideas to describe this process? 
4. What should Office Tiger anticipate in the process of “growing these first customers? 
5. Who will be office Tiger’s customers in the future and why will they buy? 
6. How can Office Tiger best exploit or, in some cases survive, the coming changes in the outsourcing business? 
7. What are the key challenges that entrepreneurs face in a rapidly evolving, globalizing market? 

Royal Corporation:

1. What three products/services are sold by the RCC?  Who is the decision maker for each of these product/services? 
2. What are the benefits to the user of each of these three product/services? 
3. Examine Mary Jones’ efforts at Acme Computers, Bickford Publishing and General Hospital.  What are the similarities of each of these situations? 
4. Should Mary Jones directly contact Tom Perry of Bickford Publishing?  Why or why not? 
5. Evaluate the General Hospital proposal. 
6. What could Mary Jones have done differently to sell the CCC to General Hospital? 
7. What actions should Tom Stein (Mary’s Sales Manager) take regarding Mary Jones? 
8. Tetra Pak (A):  The Challenge of Intimacy with a Key Customer 
9. What are the important features of the Italian milk market? 
10. What is Tetra Pak’s strategy towards this market? 
11. How well did Tetra Pak diagnose Pontero’s market share problems? 
12. How viable was Fortina’s “enriched milk” solution?  Why did Pontero reject it?   
13. What, if anything, should Tetra Pak propose to Pontero next?

ENSR International:

1. Which of the proposed solutions do you favor and why? 
2. What is the ideal client for ENSR?  
3. Are they getting “enough” of their ideal clients? 
4. What is the ideal client for a CSC Manager? 

Hewlett-Packard—Computer Systems Organization:  Selling to Enterprise Customers

1. Is this the time for HP-CSO to institute more changes? 
2. How is selling instruments (HP’s traditional business) different from selling computer systems?  
3. Why does HP treat its salesforce as a cost center?
4. What are the implications of such a structure?
5. What is HP-CSO’s approach to building relationships with Enterprise customers?
6. What are its strengths and weaknesses?  
7. Do you agree with the findings of the two audits?
8. What about the consultant’s recommendations?
9. How is the new approach different from the HP-CSO’s current approach to managing enterprise customers? 
10. Are you comfortable with the conclusions of the audit?
11. What are your recommendations to Diaz? 

The ITC eChoupal Initiative:

1. What was ITC’s motivation for creating the eChoupal? 
2. What were the old and new physical flows and information flows in the channel? 
3. What principles did it employ as it built the newly-fashioned supply chain? 
4. What barriers did ITC face in embarking on this project? 
5. How should ITC develop this platform for the future? 

Centra Software

1. We know what Centra is selling, but what exactly have its customers been buying?
2. What benefits have they been deriving from its three products?  
3. How should Centra segment its market? 
4. Does Centra need a strategy to tell it which customers to select, or should it fish where the fish are biting? 
5. Should all three channels sell all three products to all customers, or should Centra target some products and channels to some segments? 
6. How would you resolve the dispute between Reed and Lesser on how to deploy the telephone-based sales team?  
7. Would you expand telesales? 

Guidant:  Cardiac Rhythm Management Business (A)

1. How effective has CRMB management been in improving its stream of new products over the past 5 years?
2. Of the many things they did, which had the greatest impact? 
3. Looking ahead, what roles/focus would you recommend for product development in CRMB’s business strategy?  
4. What must management do to be successful in those efforts? 
5. What advice would you give senior management concerning their choices at the end of the (A) case
6. What should they do about pacemaker (Brady) developments?  How?  Why?
7. What are the consequences of your recommendations (both market and financial implications)?
8. What are the risks? 

Novo:
 

1. Why has competition in the insulin industry been on a nation by nation basis?
2. Will this change?  Why or Why not?
3. Compare the strategies and resources of the leading insulin firms.  Why has Novo been the leading international competitor to date? 
4. What challenges and opportunities does Novo face in 1982? 
5. What should Novo do? 

Du Pont Kevlar Aramid Industrial Fiber:

1. Develop a reverse income statement by starting with the desired profit and working back to revenue. Then consider the necessary pricing and DuPont’s required share of the market. What assumptions are necessary for achieving a desirable financial outcome?
2.  Is DuPont worrying about the most important things? 
3. Why do you think the executives of DuPont are targeting the tire cord market with this massive investment? 
4. If you were responsible for commercializing Kevlar, and knew only what Swank knew at the time of the case, what sort of project plan would you formulate and implement? 

Aqualisa Quartz:  Simply a Better Shower

1. What is the Quartz value proposition to plumbers? To consumers? 
2. Why is the Quartz shower not selling? 
3. Aqualisa spent three years and €5.8 million developing the Quartz? 
4. Was the product worth the investment? 
5. Is Quartz a niche product or a mainstream product? 
6. Aqualisa currently has three brands: Aqualisa, Gainsborough, and ShowerMax. 
7. What is the rationale behind this multiple brand strategy? Does it make sense? 
8. What should Rawlinson do to generate sales momentum for the Quartz product?
9. Should he change his marketing strategy to target consumers directly, target the DIY market, or target developers? Should he lower the price of the Quartz? Or should he do something different altogether? 

KONE:  The MonoSpace Launch in Germany

1. KONE has targeted MonoSpace directly at Europe’s largest new equipment market segment:  low-rise residential elevators.  Put yourself in Hatala’s shoes and develop a detailed marketing plan for launching the MonoSpace in Germany.  Set a price for the MonoSpace (to facilitate comparison with prices of existing products as given at the bottom of case page 4, price a low-rise, 4-floor elevator) and specify clearly ow it is to be positioned relative to the current product line (PH, PT, PU or PS).  Based on the pricing and positioning decisions, propose a marketing and sales effort.  Justify your decisions and investments with anticipated sales and the associated contribution relative to the amount you plan to spend.  How important is this product launch for KONE?  What are the implications of the success or failure of the MonoSpace launch? 
2. What can be learned from the test market and market launches in the other three countries?  How does the German market (and KONE’s position in and approach to it) differ from the other markets?  What are the implications of these differences for transferring experience gained in the other markets? 
3. How do you expect competitors to react to your launch plan?  How do you plan to manage competitors’ reactions?   
4. Where does the MonoSpace fit price- and performance-wise to KONE’s and its competitors’ current product lines?  Or, does it potentially change anything?  If yes, how?  
5. What are the short-term and long-term implications of your approach? 
6. What key weaknesses in KONE’s current capabilities will need to be managed to ensure the success of the product launch? 

Doosan Infracore International :  Portable Power Brand Transformation (A)

1. What are the driving forces behind Doosan’s acquisition of the three compact equipment businesses from Ingersoll Rand?  
2. Why does Doosan typically re-brand acquisitions to the “Doosan” brand name?   
3. What are the pros and cons of the four brand transformation scenarios?  
4. Which of the four scenarios would you recommend?  Why?