Marketing Management Team Decision Making

The setting

STILLPOINT COFFEE runs a points programme across its cafes. Finance is certain it costs a great deal; marketing cannot show that members behave any differently from anyone else; and neither side has ever agreed on what the programme was supposed to do.

Your role

You and your partner are to assume the roles of marketing associates at STILLPOINT COFFEE.

Your task

STILLPOINT COFFEE is a regional chain of cafes with a points-based loyalty programme that awards a free drink after a set number of purchases. The programme has run for several years and has a very large membership.

Finance believes the programme is one of the company's biggest costs. Marketing believes it keeps regulars coming back but has never been able to show that members visit more often or spend more than anyone else. Neither department has ever agreed on what the programme was supposed to achieve, and the chief marketing officer wants that settled before deciding its future.

The chief marketing officer (judge) wants you to recommend what happens to the programme. Describe the need for marketing data before a decision like this, identify the data the company should be monitoring, explain the marketing strategy the programme was meant to serve, discuss what customer relationship management should look like for a chain this size, and explain how the company should maintain its relationship with regulars if the programme changes.

Performance indicators

• Describe the need for marketing data.
• Identify data monitored for marketing decision making.
• Explain the concept of marketing strategies.
• Discuss the nature of customer relationship management.
• Build and maintain relationships with customers.

The judge will ask

1. 1.What would you need to see to recommend keeping it unchanged?
2. 2.If you change it, how do you tell the members?

The setting

ALDERGROVE has acquired a rival kitchenware brand. The two ranges overlap heavily, sit at much the same price, and differ mainly in the logo on the box. Customers of each brand chose it deliberately.

Your role

You and your partner are to assume the roles of marketing associates at ALDERGROVE.

Your task

ALDERGROVE, a kitchenware company, has just acquired a rival brand. The two ranges overlap heavily: similar pans, utensils and bakeware at much the same prices, sold in many of the same stores, and often sitting side by side on the shelf.

Each brand has a loyal following. ALDERGROVE customers tend to describe the brand as dependable, while the acquired brand's customers describe it as stylish. The company now runs two design teams, two marketing budgets and two packaging lines for products that differ mainly in the logo on the box.

The vice president of brand (judge) wants you to recommend what happens to the two brands. Explain the concept of product mix across the combined range, explain the nature of corporate branding when one company owns both, describe the factors used to position corporate brands against one another, explain what the product management function has to resolve, and explain what each brand's promise means to the customers who chose it.

Performance indicators

• Explain the concept of product mix.
• Explain the nature of corporate branding.
• Describe factors used by businesses to position corporate brands.
• Explain the nature and scope of the product/service management function.
• Identify company's brand promise.

The judge will ask

1. 1.Which brand would you retire, and how would you handle its customers?
2. 2.What is the argument for keeping both permanently?

The setting

FIELDCREST sells gardening tools through independent hardware stores that have carried the brand for decades. Selling directly to customers online would change the company's economics and would put it in competition with the stores that built it.

Your role

You and your partner are to assume the roles of marketing associates at FIELDCREST.

Your task

FIELDCREST makes gardening tools and has sold them exclusively through independent hardware stores for decades. Those stores built the brand; their staff recommend FIELDCREST tools by name, and many store owners have personal relationships with the company's sales representatives.

More and more customers are asking where they can buy FIELDCREST tools online, and a direct website would give the company a much larger share of each sale. The owners of several of the largest independent stores have already heard the rumour and have asked their representatives directly whether FIELDCREST intends to compete with them.

The chief executive (judge) wants you to recommend whether FIELDCREST sells direct. Explain the marketing strategy that would make direct selling work alongside the retailers, explain the role of situation analysis in reaching that view, explain the factors that should affect how the company prices online against the stores, explain how FIELDCREST maintains its relationships with the retailers either way, and explain what the product management function has to reconcile.

Performance indicators

• Explain the concept of marketing strategies.
• Explain the role of situation analysis in the marketing planning process.
• Explain factors affecting pricing decisions.
• Build and maintain relationships with customers.
• Explain the nature and scope of the product/service management function.

The judge will ask

1. 1.What do you tell the retailers, and when?
2. 2.Could you launch direct without competing on price? How?

The setting

A widely read product testing organisation has rated NORTHSTAR's water filter poorly, citing a result the company's own laboratory cannot reproduce under any condition it has tried. Retailers have seen the rating.

Your role

You and your partner are to assume the roles of marketing associates at NORTHSTAR.

Your task

NORTHSTAR makes household water filters and has always marketed them on independent test results. A widely read product-testing organisation has just published a comparison that rates NORTHSTAR's filter near the bottom, citing a flow-rate result that the company's own laboratory cannot reproduce under any condition it has tried.

Retail buyers have seen the rating, and two have asked NORTHSTAR for an explanation before their next order. The company is confident in its product but knows that publicly disputing a respected reviewer can easily make the story bigger.

The director of marketing (judge) wants you to recommend how NORTHSTAR responds. Explain the nature of the marketing research that would establish what happened, describe the need for marketing data before the company says anything publicly, discuss the nature of the research problem the discrepancy represents, identify the public relations activities you would undertake, and explain what the company's brand promise requires of it here.

Performance indicators

• Explain the nature of marketing research.
• Describe the need for marketing data.
• Discuss the nature of marketing research problems/issues.
• Identify types of public-relations activities.
• Identify company's brand promise.

The judge will ask

1. 1.Do you contact the reviewer? What do you ask for?
2. 2.What do you say to retailers who have seen the rating?