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Marketing Management
Case Studies
Case (20 Marks)
Eureka Forbes successfully introduced
and sold for many years few models of vacuum cleaners through door–to door
marketing. During the initial few years Eureka Forbes vacuum cleaners were not
available at any dealer channel. These were sold only by direct marketing. Some
experts attribute the success of Eureka Forbes to two factors: one,
implementation of an effective sales management system & two, elimination
of channel conflict by adopting only door to door selling even at a stage when
durables were sold only through dealers. Scene1 It has been a common experience
that well advertised & well organized trade fairs generate huge sales.
Experts believe that people visit such trade fairs with a frame of mind that is
favorably predisposed to making purchase decisions. Deriving a cue from the
trade fairs, way back in 1980, a small & upstart computer manufacturer
arranged “Road Shows” in metros & mini metros. It was a period when foreign
computer vendors were asked to leave India; indigenous makes of computers were
few; perception of people about computers were – highly expensive, complex to
use, needed trained manpower to operate that was scarce & performance of
the hardware was unreliable. Those were the early days of computer marketing
when there were no dealers & manufacturers had to sell through their own
sales team. Scene2 In the year 1999 Compaq Corp declared that its objective for
the year is to become the Internet leader in the InfoTech industry. But for
some strange reasons the rival company Dell took the lead in sale of PC’s over
the Internet. They take just over three days to deliver a built to specs PC
ordered via the net in the USA. Compaq, in the meanwhile, has behaved all
muddled up in its Internet plan. The company made a tentative start, but
recently announced that it has stopped selling its computers to internet only
retailers worldwide. Such a move had a drastic effect on major players such as
Siberian Outpost & Shopping.com, which derive much of their revenue from
the sale of Compaq PC’s through their websites. On the other hand Compaq plans
to purchase Shopping.com and merge it with the Alta Vista search engine on the
net. Compaq also declared that its move to stop retailing on the net is not
permanent & it will reexamine this policy after three months. So what
exactly prompted Compaq to move away from what is apparently the direction in
which all others are headed? Industry watchers say that Compaq’s regular stores
were being hurt through online sales. Many online retailers sell items at just
above the procurement cost, since they maintain low inventories and have hardly
any overheads to take care of. This was turning out to be the competition to
Compaq’s brick and mortar retailers, who cannot simply match those prices
because of slow operations and high overheads. As against this Dell, who sold
only through direct marketing, could derive immense advantage from Internet
retailing. This was supplemented by a highly rated online customer support
service.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Explain channel conflicts. What
lesson do you learn about selection of channel from the above scenes?
Q2. Compare the merits & demerits
of selling by company’s own sales team, Dealer Channel & Direct Marketing?
Case (20 Marks)
Till the dawn of the 21st century, lamp
makers concentrated on the quantity of light, and the growth has been from
incandescent to fluorescent, to high and low pressure gas discharge, to compact
fluorescent lamps, etc. The main aim of lamp makers has been to maximize the use
of energy, focusing on not cutting the lighting levels. Prakash lamps ltd (PRL)
plans to introduce electronic ballast with a view to minimize energy loss in
conventional fluorescent lighting. In conventional lighting, a ballast and a
starter are essential for starting and running fluorescent lamps. The
electronic ballast virtually eliminates this loss. Whereas the normal blast
consumes 12 watts of power in the case of the electronic blast, it is as low as
2 to 3 watts. The lamp’s efficiency goes up by 7 to 8 per cent. The life of the
tube goes up by 2000 to 3000 hours. There is also no need for a flicker star.
PRL estimates a resultant saving of at least Rs.400 during the life of the
tube. In addition, the electronic ballast is particularly useful in areas
facing frequent fluctuations of voltage. The organized sector accounts for 75
million fluorescent lamp production. Industry sources estimate that, in the
next 5 years, about 30 to 40 per cent of the lamps will have electronic
ballast. A potential threat however is offered by the advent of compact
fluorescent tubes. Nevertheless, PRL feels the compact tube’s high installation
cost is a plus point for the electronic ballast fitted fluorescent tube, which
will only entail an additional cost of Rs.200
Answer the following question.
Q1. What marketing information will PRL
need to decide whether the consumer will opt for the new product?
Q2. What should be the appropriate
research technique that should be adapted to the required information? Explain.
Case (20 Marks)
When HLL introduced Lifebuoy in the
Indian market in 1895 (110 years ago) it was positioned as the soap that would
destroy germs and keep the body healthy. The brand found the going tough
especially in rural markets where most people were accustomed to without any
soap. HLL then decided to project lifebuoy as soap for hand wash. The approach
seemed is pay off. By 1900 Lifebuoy had established itself as soap for hand
wash. At this stage, the brand’s inherent properties were expanded and lifebuoy
was repositioned as bath soap. Health remained the benefit proposition. “Where
there is lifebuoy, there is health”, become a popular jingle in rural India.
The brand was also projected on the plank of economy. Much later, in 1964, the
brand was relaunched with a change in shape and wrapper design. Lifebuoy
started associated with sports. The health and body fitness dimension got
reinforced HLL had many requirements to meet. It had to tap same of the
emergency market needs. It had to play down the image of lifebuoy as villagers
soap and it had to embrace to earnings from lifebuoy brand in the long term.
HLL decided to meet these needs through line extensions such as: Lifebuoy
personal, Lifebuoy plus, Lifebuoy gold, liquid lifebuoy and lifebuoy active.
Answer the following question.
Q1. How did HLL Position lifebuoy in
the beginning?
Q2. What was the geographical focus and
why?
Q3. Explain why the brand was going
tough in the market?
Q4. What are your views about HLL’s
building line extensions?
Case (20 Marks)
Sunshine Lumieres was established in
1992 in Bangalore, India to manufacture lamps mainly for household use. The
company was established by Dr. Srinath Kashyap who had extensive experience in
the lamp industry with the major multinational manufacturers in India and
overseas. Sunshine was involved till now in manufacturing and supplying lamps
for consumer and household use under various brands for the leading lamp
companies. Dr. Kashyap was involved in looking after the manufacturing and
marketing functions while his wife looked after the Finances and the HR
functions. The Company had a total of 50 employees and grossed revenue of Rs.9
crores in 2005. The market in India was large and growing due to the increasing
affluence and the massive rural electrification programmes of the Government.
Post liberalization in 1992; the market dynamics slowly started changing due to
increased competition from leading brands looking to capture larger market
shares. Dr Kashyap felt it was time to diversify this business and get into
newer product segments. The lamp industry can be classified into various
segments like: Consumer household Lamps Industrial & Commercial lamps
Specialty lamps like high intensity lamps used in Medical & Office
Equipment Automotive lamps Miniature lamps Energy efficient lamps like CFL
lamps, LED lamps etc. While the large MNCs were present in all segments, most
local manufacturers were involved in the consumer and household lighting.
Typically, household lamps sold at around US$0.25 per piece at the retail level
while the Industrial and commercial lamps sold at prices upwards of US$25 per
piece retail. Sunshine lumeries hired Dr. Mohan Das, a bright Engineer from IIT
and MBA from a leading Business school. After working in some leading
companies, Mohan felt it was time for him to exploit his innovative skills and
create world class products. In a very short span of time after joining
Sunshine, Dr. Das was able to produce some very interesting and technologically
advanced products. Dr. Kashyap felt that over time , in low value products like
lamps, the large MNC’s would be forced to give way to players from developing
countries like China and India, who would over time establish the products
under their own brands. Establishing the Sunshine brand over time was therefore
vital for the future. Meanwhile, Mohan had designed a slew of new and
innovative products – comparable with the best in their class in the world, in
the energy efficient and Industrial lamp categories. Given suitable financial
investments, these could take the company’s revenues to over Rs.100 crores by
2008 between the domestic and export markets. As he looked out of his office
window, enjoying the light drizzle and cool breeze of Bangalore, Dr. Kashyap’s
realized that he was at a point of inflexion. If the current opportunities were
exploited fully, it could lead to great fortunes for himself and his family. He
could even take the company public and unlock the value of his holdings.
However, it would also mean that Sunshine would have to evolve into a
professionally managed company and have a larger number of employees. He
wondered how he should go about structuring his Sales and Distribution
organization so as to grow manifold both domestically and overseas within the
next three years before taking the company public. Dr. Kashyap was convinced
that he needed to seek professional advice. He invited Dr. Vasant Rao, an old
friend and leading Management expert in Bangalore to visit his office for a
discussion on a broad game plan.
Answer the following question.
Q1. How Dr. Kashyap should go about
professionalizing & restructuring his organization?
Q2. Should the sales be organized on
geographic or product basis?
Q3. Should be distribution be common
for all products?
Q4. Should he have his own Sales and
Distribution organizations in some countries?
Assignment Solutions, Case study Answer sheets
Project Report and Thesis contact
ARAVIND – 09901366442 – 09902787224
