CASE STUDY In your management teams, you will prepare and submit one (1) professional case analysis. (Specific case to be confirmed.) We will review in detail the proper process for analyzing and communicating a marketing case. Your analysis must incorporate the marketing principles from the course and that you have learned throughout your academic training. Your grade for this section of the course will be based on your ability to present a coherent and complete case.

Another reason for expanding beyond nursing services using paraprofessionals and relatively unskilled personnelis to offer a better service to present customers and make more effective use of the computer systems and organization structure that she has developed over the last two years. Carol estimates that the administrative and office capabilities could handle twice as many clients without straining the system. It would be necessary to add some clerical helpif the expansion were quite large. But this increase in overhead would be minor compared to the present proportion of total revenue that goes to covering overhead. In other words, additional clients or more work for some clients could increase revenue and ensure the survival of HNS, provide a cushion to cover the normal fluctuations in demand, and ensure more job security for the administrative personnel. Further, Carol thinks that if HNS were successful in expanding its servicesand therefore could generate some surplusit could extend services to those who arent now able to pay. Carol says one of the worst parts of her job is refusing service to clients whose third-party benefits have run out or for whatever reason can no longer afford to pay. She is uncomfortable about having to cut off service, but she must schedule her nurses to provide revenue-producing services if shes going to meet the payroll every two weeks. By expanding to provide more services, she might be able to keep serving more of these nonpaying clients. This possibility excites Carol because her nurses training has instilled a deep desire to serve people in need, whether they can pay or not. This continual pressure to cut off service because people cant pay has been at the root of many disagreements and even arguments between the nurses serving the clients and Carol, as executive director and representative of the board of directors. Carol knows that expanding into care and comfort services wont be easy. Some decisions would be needed about relative pay levels for nurses, paraprofessionals, and aides. HNS would also have to set prices for these different services and tell the present customers and referral agencies about the expanded services. These problems arent bothering Carol too much, howevershe thinks she can handle them. She is sure that care and comfort services are in demand and could be supplied at competitive prices. Her primary concern is whether this is the right thing for Home Nursing Servicesbasically a nursing organization to do. HNS whole history has been oriented to supplying nurses services. Nurses are dedicated professionals who bring high standards to any job they undertake. The question is whether HNS should offer less-professional services. Inevitably, some of the aides will not be as dedicated as the nurses might like them to be. And this could reflect unfavourably on the nurse image. At a minimum, she would need to set up some sort of training program for the aides. As Carol worries about the future of HNS, and her own future, it seems that there are no easy answers. Evaluate HNS present strategy. What should Carol Crane do? Explain. Alan Cooke is product manager for Guard Deodorant Soap. He was just transferred to Lever Ltd., a Canadian subsidiary of Lever Group Inc., from world headquarters in New York. Alan is anxious to make a good impression because he is hoping to transfer to Levers London office. He is working on developing and securing management approval of next years marketing plan for Guard. His first job is submitting a draft marketing plan to Wendy Lee, his recently appointed group product manager, who is responsible for several such plans from product managers like Alan. Alans marketing plan is the single most important document he will produce on this assignment. This annual marketing plan does three main things: 1. It reviews the brands performance in the past year, assesses the competitive situation, and highlights problems and opportunities for the brand. 2. It spells out marketing strategies and the plan for the coming year. 3. Finally, and most importantly, the marketing plan sets out the brands sales objectives and advertising/promotion budget requirements. In preparing this marketing plan, Alan gathered the information in Table 1. Alan was somewhat surprised at the significant regional differences in the bar soap market: 1. The underdevelopment of the deodorant bar segment in Quebec, with a corresponding overdevelopment of the beauty bar segment. But some past research suggested that this is due to cultural factorsEnglish-speaking people have been more interested than others in cleaning, deodorizing, and disinfecting. A similar pattern is seen in most European countries, where the adoption of deodorant soaps has been slower than in North America. For similar reasons, the perfumed soap share is highest in French-speaking Quebec. 2. The overdevelopment of synthetic bars in the Prairies. These bars, primarily in the deodorant segment, lather better in the hard water of the Prairies. Nonsynthetic bars lather very poorly in hard-water areas and leave a soap film. 3. The overdevelopment of the all-other segment in Quebec. This segment, consisting of smaller brands, fares better in Quebec, where 43 percent of the grocery trade is done by independent stores. Conversely, large chain grocery stores dominate in Ontario and the Prairies. Alans brand, Guard, is a highly perfumed deodorant bar. His business is relatively weak in the key Ontario market. To confirm this share data, Alan calculated consumption of Guard per thousand people in each region (see Table 2). 23. Lever Ltd.* Cases 23 *Adapted from a case prepared by Daniel Aronchick, who at the time of its preparation was marketing manager at Thomas J. Lipton, Limited. Guards present advertising/sales promotion budget is 20 percent of sales. With forecast sales of $4 million, this would amount to an $800,000 expenditure. Traditionally such funds have been allocated in proportion to population (see Table 4). Alan feels he should spend more heavily in Ontario where the grocery chain delisting problem exists. Last year, 36 percent of Guards budget was allocated to Ontario, which accounted for only 12 percent of Guards sales. Alan wants to increase Ontario spending to 48 percent of the total budget by taking funds evenly from all other areas. Alan expects this will increase business in the key Ontario market, which has over a third of Canadas population, because it is a big increase and will help Guard outshout the many other competitors who are promoting heavily. Alan presented this idea to Wendy, his newly appointed group product manager. Wendy strongly disagrees. She has also been reviewing Guards business and feels that promotion funds have historically been misallocated. It is her strong belief that, to use her words, A brand should spend where its business is. Wendy believes that the first priority in allocating funds regionally is to support the areas of strength. She suggested to Alan that there may be more business to be had in the brands strong areas, Quebec and the Prairies, than in chasing sales in Ontario. The needs and attitudes toward Guard, as well as competitive pressures, may vary a lot among the provinces. Therefore, Wendy suggested that spending for Guard in the coming year be proportional to the brands sales by region rather than to regional population. 24 Deodorant segment Zest 21.3% 14.2% 24.5% 31.2% 30.4% 25.5% Dial 10.4 5.1 12.8 16.1 17.2 14.3 Lifebuoy 4.2 3.1 1.2 6.4 5.8 4.2 Guard 2.1 5.6 1.0 4.2 4.2 2.1 Beauty bar segment Camay 6.2 12.3 7.0 4.1 4.0 5.1 Lux 6.1 11.2 7.7 5.0 6.9 5.0 Dove 5.5 8.0 6.6 6.3 6.2 4.2 Lower-priced bars Ivory 11.2 6.5 12.4 5.3 5.2 9.0 Sunlight 6.1 3.2 8.2 4.2 4.1 8.0 All others (including stores own brands) 26.9 30.8 18.6 17.2 16.0 22.6 Total bar soap market 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% Maritimes Quebec Ontario Manitoba/Saskatchewan Alberta British Columbia Table 1 Past 12-Month Share of Bar Soap Market (percent) Guard 4.1 10.9 1.9 8.1 4.1 6.2 Sales index 66 175 31 131 131 100 Manitoba/ British Maritimes Quebec Ontario Saskatchewan Alberta Columbia Table 2 Standard Cases of 3-Ounce Bars Consumed per 1,000 People in 12 Months These differences are especially interesting since per capita sales of all bar soap products are roughly equal in all provinces. A consumer attitude and usage research study was conducted approximately a year ago. This study revealed that consumer top-of-mind awareness of the Guard brand differed greatly across Canada. This was true despite the evenby populationexpenditure of advertising funds in past years. Also, trial of Guard was low in the Maritimes, Ontario, and British Columbia (see Table 3 on the next page). The attitude portion of the research revealed that consumers who had heard of Guard were aware that its deodorant protection came mainly from a high fragrance level. This was the main selling point in the copy, and it was well communicated by Guards advertising. The other important finding was that consumers who had tried Guard were satisfied with the product. About 70 percent of those trying Guard had repurchased the product at least twice. Alan has also discovered that bar soap competition is especially intense in Ontario. It is Canadas largest market, and many competitors want a share of it. The chain stores are also quite aggressive in promotion and pricingoffering specials, in-store coupons, and so on. They want to move goods. And because of this, two key Ontario chains have put Guard on their pending delisting sheets. These chains, which control about half the grocery volume in Ontario, are dissatisfied with how slowly Guard is moving off the shelves. Now Alan feels he is ready to set a key part of the brands marketing plan for next year: how to allocate the advertising/sales promotion budget by region. Alan is convinced this is wrong, particularly in light of the Ontario situation. He asked Wendy how the Ontario market should be handled. Wendy said that the conservative way to build business in Ontario is to invest incremental promotion funds. However, before these incremental funds are invested, a test of this Ontario investment proposition should be conducted. Wendy recommended that some of the Ontario money should be used to conduct an investment-spending market test in a small area or town in Ontario for 12 months. This will enable Alan to see if the incremental spending results in higher sales and profitsprofits large enough to justify higher spending. In other words, an investment payout should be assured before spending any extra money in Ontario. Similarly, Wendy would do the same kind of test in Quebecto see if more money should go there. After several e-mails back and forth, Alan feels this approach would be a waste of time and unduly cautious, given the importance of the Ontario market and the likely delistings in two key chains. Evaluate the present strategy for Guard and Alans and Wendys proposed strategies How should the promotion money be allocated? Should investment-spending market tests be run first? Why? Explain. Mark Parcells, newly hired VP of marketing for Alumco International, is reviewing the firms international distribution arrangements because they dont seem to be very well thought out. He is not sure if anything is wrong, but he feels that the company should follow a global strategy rather than continuing its current policies. 24. Alumco International* Alumco based in Atlanta, Georgia, produces finished aluminum products, such as aluminum ladders, umbrella-type clothes racks, scaffolding, and patio tables and chairs that fold flat. Sales in 2004 reached $25 million, primarily to U.S. customers. In 2000, Alumco decided to try foreign markets. The sales manager, Bonnie Pope, believed the growing affluence of European workers would help the companys products gain market acceptance quickly. Bonnies first step in investigating foreign markets was to join a trade mission to Europe, a tour organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce. This trade mission visited Italy, Germany, Denmark, Holland, France, and England. During this trip, Bonnie was officially introduced to leading buyers for department store chains, import houses, wholesalers, and buying groups. The two-week trip convinced Bonnie that there was ample buying power to make exporting a profitable opportunity. On her return to Atlanta, Bonnies next step was to obtain credit references for the firms she considered potential distributors. To those who were judged creditworthy, she sent letters expressing interest and samples, brochures, prices, and other relevant information. The first orders were from a French wholesaler. Sales in this market totaled $70,000 in 2001. Similar success was achieved in Germany and England. Italy, on the other hand, did not produce any sales. Bonnie felt the semiluxury nature of the companys products and the lower incomes in Italy encouraged a making do attitude rather than purchase of goods and services that would make life easier. In the United States, Alumco distributes through fairly aggressive and well-organized merchant hardware distributors and buying groups, such as cooperative and voluntary hardware chains, which have taken over much of the strategy planning for cooperating producers and retailers. In its foreign markets, however, there is no recognizable pattern. Channel systems vary from country to country. To avoid mixing channels of distribution, Alumco has only one account in each country. The chosen distributor is the exclusive distributor. Cases 25 Respondents aware of Guard 20% 58% 28% 30% 32% 16% Respondents ever trying Guard 3 18 2 8 6 4 Manitoba/ British Maritimes Quebec Ontario Saskatchewan Alberta Columbia Table 3 Usage Results (in percent) Percent of population 10% 27% 36% 8% 8% 11% 100% Possible allocation of budget based on population (in 000s) $80 $216 $288 $64 $64 $88 $800 Percent of Guard business at present 7% 51% 12% 11% 11% 8% 100