My marketing course made use of an online simulation which allowed students to form groups and operate a digital camera business. The inputs that were available to students included product parameters, marketing parameters, financial parameters and so on. My co-manager and I decided we would adopt a high quality, high margin strategy and go for low market share but focus on the high end customers. Unfortunately the algorithm didn’t accommodate this approach. It should have been obvious by year 8 in the simulation, but we persisted to see if there would be a cumulative effect that would reward the high quality approach. After year eight we could see that the simulation algorithm would not work with our strategy. We also noticed that the groups in the lead were focused almost exclusively on increasing market share. Despite low margins, they were making good profits based on large volume of sales. We changed our strategy in year nine. In the following three years we focused much more on market share by reducing our margins, especially in the entry level camera market. In year 11 we returned some focus to our camera quality, which slowed our growth somewhat. By this time our competitor’s growth had stagnated. Trending for the last three years showed that we would surpass the leader within another four years. Here’s a presentation that walks through our strategy and some key metrics from the...

Corporate Social Responsibility and ethical questions of stakeholder vs. stockholder analysis affect many businesses. For businesses that trade in limited natural resources, these issues have increased significance. In the analysis below, I explore how Fiji Water both profited from and suffered under environmental influences. There are many stakeholders who have interest in Fiji Water and its operations, both internal and external to Fiji. These include local residents, vendors external to Fiji and government. Each of these facets represents a cost benefit analysis for those who intend to put up the capital to fund the venture. It also represents potentially complicated issues from various points of view, including local residents, government officials, environmentalists and even regional and global participants. Download Fiji Water case...

The latest case study for my marketing class was a review of Netflix. It discusses trends in delivery of entertainment content, starting with video cassette through to their streaming service. I highlight some of the strategic business choices that Netflix is making to remain relevant among competitors. Download Netflix Case...

The first case study assigned for marketing focuses on the Canadian Company CardSwap. The case mentions pay-per-click advertising and some traditional offline media as possible customer acquisition methods. After a careful review of the company, its profit potential and the complexity of forecasting given the unpredictable nature of the the target market, I didn’t endorse either approach. One proposal I did make in my analysis was that CardSwap should offer their own open loop gift card, which I later found out that they do. From my paper: Continued investment in automation technologies for verifying the current balance of existing cards, social media integration and fine tuning of analytics technology are likely to bring the most long term benefit and growth to CardSwap. You can read or download the complete paper below. Download the CardSwap case study...