Full-Color Workbook
This full color workbook contains all of the 17 worksheets included in Section 3 of Building Value through Marketing. Each file can be printed multiple times or shared with team members in order to help make sure that you get the most out of the Building Value through Marketing process.
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Companion Case studies
Each of these case studies has been written to compliment the concepts explained throughout Building Value through Marketing. Each comes with its own separate teaching note to help you integrate these cases into your syllabus or just to help you gain a new perspective on how companies are actively creating value across various value actors.
Suntory:
Rebranding the Japanese Whisky Highball
by Philip Sugai
Founded in 1899 by Shinjiro Torii in Osaka, Japan, Suntory Holdings (Suntory) boasted a rich history in Japan’s alcoholic beverage industry. It purchased US-based Beam in 2014 for $16 billion, renamed itself as Beam Suntory, and transformed into one of the world’s largest alcoholic beverage makers, reaching total global revenues of more than 2.5 trillion yen ($23 billion) by the end of fiscal year 2018. Now, in 2020, could the Suntory team pull off a third miracle and successfully bring Japan’s highball culture to the extremely competitive global marketplace?
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Learning Objective:
The case was designed for a graduate-level course on marketing or innovation. The lessons can be applied to any company focused on rebuilding, reviving, or reinvigorating a brand that has gone stale or out of fashion. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:
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Discover what a “Lightning Rod Target Customer” (LRTC) is, how to identify them, and how to align the capabilities of a company with solving a shared “problem worth solving” for long-term success.
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Analyze how the partnership between companies and their customers can be further developed when co-creating a brand that deeply resonates.
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Explore possible elements of brand equity that companies can implement to spark brand renovation, and examine how these can be received by customers and other stakeholders to revise the brand image of a product and an entire category.
Published: March, 2020
Issues: branding, marketing, value
Disciplines: Marketing, International
Industries: Accommodation & Food Services
Setting: Japan, Large, 2020
Intended Audience: MBA/Postgraduate
Price:
$4.25 USD Printed Copy
$3.75 USD Permissions
$3.75 USD Digital Download
Issues: marketing strategy, brand management, value creation, distribution strategy, consumer behaviour, innovation
Disciplines: Marketing, Entrepreneurship, International
Industries: Accommodation & Food Services
Setting: Japan, Large, 2008
Intended Audience: MBA/Postgradua
Price (Per Case) through Ivey
$4.25 USD Printed Copy
$3.75 USD Permissions
$3.75 USD Digital Download
Nestle KITKAT in Japan Case Series
by Philip Sugai and Adrian Sossna
In 2008, the marketing manager for Nestlé Japan's confectionery business and his team were struggling to redefine the KITKAT brand within the Japanese market. KITKAT as a brand faced a real threat as the retail environment rapidly shifted toward increasingly powerful convenience store chains and consumer preferences shifted toward more novel consumable products. With more than 200 companies competing within Japan's crowded and relatively stable confectionery market, Nestlé Japan was facing the harsh realities of Japan's famed position as the world's toughest consumer market. To address these challenges, Nestlé Japan worked over 15 years to instill deep meaning in the KITKAT brand and then, based upon this foundation, created a comprehensive product portfolio. How can KITKAT capitalize on its past success as it moves forward?
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Learning Objectives:
This case series is designed for introductory marketing courses at the MBA level in order to help focus students on the process of marketing strategy development. Because it explores issues related to brands and the concept of premiumization, it is also appropriate for courses on brand management, marketing strategy, new product development, innovation, consumer behaviour, and general strategy. Finally, as this case series introduces a number of insights about Japanese consumer behaviour, it is also appropriate for courses focused on Japan, business in Japan, or business in Asia. This case series outlines effective solutions for brands struggling to re-focus and instill deep meaning into a consumer product brand. Students will learn The use of marketing research to identify the most important problems faced by a specific target customer group (or lightning rod target customer segment); How to leverage these insights to develop a clear and compelling story that resonates with this target customer group; How to assemble a comprehensive ecosystem of partners to reinforce this story and ensure that it is consistently delivered with the highest possible value to all members; How to identify scarce resources within the delivery of products or services and leverage these for competitive advantage; How to infuse meaning into a brand during a time of crisis (in this case, during one of the worst earthquakes ever experienced); and How to build premiumization efforts upon an existing product line or category.
Innovating Tradition at HOSOO:
by Philip Sugai
Hosoo was a kimono and textile company, established in 1688 as a traditional Nishijin weaving company. The 11th generation president of the company, Masao Hosoo, had transformed the business from a producer of premium kimono fabrics and kimonos for the luxury market in Japan to a globally respected textile producer for some of the world’s top brands. A great deal of the company’s success in the global market could be attributed to the master craftspeople of Japan. This innovative spirit guided endless improvements to weaving and textile development, allowing the highly specialized Nishijin textiles to be woven for use beyond the kimono market. Inspired by the results of their innovation and their global success, and driven by the collapsing kimono market in Japan, Masao and his son, Masataka, set a goal in 2018 to establish Hosoo as an iconic, international house of kimono, relying on innovation to reinterpret what a kimono was, how it was used, and what it meant within a global fashion market.
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Learning Objective:
The case was designed for an introductory course on marketing or innovation at the graduate level. Because the case involves issues related to fashion brands, the case can be used in courses on brand management, global fashion, and new product development. The case is also appropriate for executive education courses dealing with innovation and brand management. Finally, because the case introduces a number of insights into Japanese consumer behaviour, the case can be used in courses or modules dealing with business in Japan or Asia. The case provides students with the opportunity to consider three concepts critical to effective marketing and innovation management today:
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The nature of a heritage business and the role of innovation in a business plan that sustains an enduring business
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The importance of a value system in creating innovative products and services and an ecosystem of partners who work together to ideate, create, sell, and service the innovations
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The merits of a non-Western, holistic spirit of innovation, and how to leverage this spirit of innovation to rewrite how business is done within a specific industry and recreate fundamental techniques and systems used to create traditional products and services
Published: November, 2019
Issues: innovation, fashion, textile
Disciplines: Marketing, Entrepreneurship, International
Industries: Manufacturing
Setting: Japan, Small, 2018
Intended Audience: MBA/Postgraduate
Price:
$5.00 USD Printed Copy
$4.25 USD Permissions
$4.25 USD Digital Download
Issues: utilities, disruptive business
Disciplines: Marketing, International
Industries: Utilities
Setting: Australia, Large, 2016
Intended Audience: MBA/Postgradua
Price (Per Case) through Ivey
$5.00 USD Printed Copy
$4.25 USD Permissions
$4.25 USD Digital Download
AGL: An Electric Company Dealing with Disruptive Innovation
by Tom Houghton & Philip Sugai
AGL Energy, a long-time traditional energy supply company in Australia, was facing competition as alternative sources of energy, such as solar power and batteries, were taking root in both the marketplace and with energy-conscious homeowners. The trend of homeowners who opted to supply their own energy needs and go off the grid was described as a “death spiral” for utility companies. In response, AGL Energy appointed a new chief executive officer in 2015 to address concerns related to falling demand, customer retention, and unpredictable energy prices. With climate change issues pushing so-called green energy sources into the forefront, what were the strategic options that would ensure AGL Energy's continued presence as a leader in the energy industry?
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Learning Objective:
This case is suitable for use in MBA and other graduate-level programs in advanced marketing or strategy-related courses that include management, energy, and innovation. After completion of the case, students will be able to
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explore the trade-offs that emerge when shifting from goods-dominant logic to service-dominant logic and its requisite value mindset;
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understand the utility industry, especially the enormous challenges that renewables and storage pose for established players;
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examine the management of a core business when faced with disruptive and systemic changes enabled by the development of new technologies or through the evolution of customer attitudes and behaviours; and
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identify the benefits and challenges for market participants and industry regulators of disruptive business models.
Hatsune Miku:
Japanese Virtual Idol Ignites Global Value Co-Creation
by Tim Craig, Philip Sugai &Lukman Aroean
Crypton Future Media, a music software company based in Sapporo, Japan, developed Hatsune Miku (HM), a singing voice synthesizer software program (Vocaloid). Users entered lyrics and melodies to create songs, which were then sung by Hatsune Miku, a 16-year-old female virtual singer featured on the software packaging.
Initially targeting professionals, HM unexpectedly caught on among amateurs who produced music, lyrics, artwork and videos, which they shared via websites such as YouTube, Nico Nico Douga and Crypton’s Piapro. Users often worked collaboratively, and by March 2014, Miku had over 110,000 released songs, 170,000 uploaded videos, 1,000,000 created artworks and nearly two million Facebook “likes.” Miku’s popularity led to international media coverage and numerous new business opportunities for Crypton. She held sold out “live” concerts worldwide, starred in her own video game series produced by SEGA Games and was “hired” to advertise for companies including Toyota, Google and Domino’s Pizza.
Six years after the initial launch, Crypton and its chief executive officer were faced with a series of challenges related to the future development of their virtual idol and the businesses that grew around her.
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Learning Objective:
In a marketing setting, the case exposes students to issues of brand management, consumer behaviour, customer relationships and product development and to the principles and practices of value co-creation. In a strategy setting, the case challenges students to consider how to manage the relationship between a firm’s core business and skills and an unexpected success that changes the firm’s direction and requires new skills and strategic thinking. Another strategy-related theme that can be explored is the influence of the personal values of the firm’s leadership on firm strategy.
Intellectual property rights and Creative Commons License issues and value co-creation as open innovation make the case appropriate for courses on innovation. As HM and Crypton faced many of the same opportunities and challenges that other celebrities faced — career/image management, sponsorship and licensing opportunities, etc. — the case can be used in courses on the creative and cultural industries. Taking place in Japan, the case can also be used in courses on international business and is useful for exploring cultural differences and the role they played in Miku’s creation and her potential market appeal outside her home country.
Published: March, 2020
Issues: Pop culture, co-creation, innovation, music, Japan
Disciplines: General Management/Strategy, International
Industries: Arts, Entertainment, Sports & Recreation
Setting: Japan, Small, 2014
Intended Audience: MBA/Postgraduate
Price:
$5.00 USD Printed Copy
$4.25 USD Permissions
$4.25 USD Digital Download