The Case Interviewing Companion

1
The Case Interviewing Companion

• Presented by
• The Michigan Business School
• Marketing Club
• January 2004

2
Agenda

• Why Case Questions?
• General Tips Marketing Knowledge
• What Types of Questions Will You Encounter?
• New Product Launch
• Pricing
• New Competitor / Private Label
• Declining Sales

3
Why case questions?

• Case questions provide companies an opportunity
  to evaluate your
• Strategic thinking / analytical skills
• Creativity
• General understanding of marketing principles
• Communication skills
• Ability to think on your feet

4
General Tips

• There is no right answer - but there are some
  frameworks that you can use
• Think before you speak
• Ask questions and state assumptions
• Follow the other 3 Cs Clear, Concise,
  Complete
• Go beyond the textbook answers
• Be able to explain why/how you came to your
  answer
• Key success factors are good marketing intuition,
  quick thinking, creativity and preparation!

5
General Marketing Knowledge

• Best ways to prepare
• Read industry magazines and books (Ad Age
  BrandWeek)
• Pay attention to advertising (TV magazines)
• Walk the aisles of various trade outlets (Target,
  Kroger, CVS)
• Review current news on the Companys web site
  (Acquisitions, new product launches, alliances,
  earnings)
• Reflect on current trends (health, convenience,
  innovation)
• Research the companys product portfolio in
  what categories does the company compete? Whats
  their strategy?
• Pick one or two of the companys brands and
  explore them in greater depth

6
General Marketing Knowledge

• Sample Questions
• Whats a good/bad new/existing
  product/launch/promotion/ad/package Why?
• Name the 3 most unique brands you can think of
  and tell me why you think they are unique.
• Whats an innovative product? What would you do
  to improve it?
• How would change the way brand XYZ is marketed?
• Give me 5 line extensions for brand XYZ. Give me
  another 5.
• When you walk down the supermarket aisle, what
  product jumps out and says buy me and why?
• What brand/color/car/animal would you be? Why?
• If you were going to design your own
  website/billboard, what would it look like?
• What would the title of your autobiography be?

7
New Product Launch

• Always start with the consumer. Do consumers
  want/need this product?
• Assess the opportunity (Think 5 Cs)
• Size of the marketHow big is the consumer need?
• CompetitionHave they entered? Are they likely
  to?
• Estimate of your market shareWill this product
  have a fast adoption rate?
• Cost/ease of entry (capital investment and
  manufacturing, branding, distribution, company
  skills, etc.)
• Identify consumer segments, and choose your
  target (Think STP)
• Determine your positioning Choose one singular
  benefit that you intend to deliver to your target
  consumers. Positioning should be differentiating
  versus competition.
• Determine marketing strategy for new product
  (Think 4Ps)
• Price set to reflect positioning (premium,
  popular, or value) and drive profit
• Product which attributes to offer (flavor,
  size, etc.)
• Promotion how will you create awareness and
  trial of product (advertising, coupons, sampling,
  product demos, etc.)
• Placement where will consumers buy product
  (grocery, mass, drug, club, convenience, etc.)

8
New Product Launch

• Sample Questions
• You are a BM at General Mills, and the company is
  considering launching a new chocolate-flavored
  Wheaties product. What factors/issues would you
  consider to make the decision to launch and
  subsequently introduce the product?
• You are charged with marketing a candy bar in the
  US which has been very successful in the UK.
  What things should you consider in bringing the
  product to the US market?
• You are the BM of Kingsford Charcoal and you are
  launching a new type of charcoal. Should you use
  the Kingsford brand name? What issues would you
  consider in making this decision?
• You are the BM at Nabisco and your boss stops by
  your office to tell you his kids were going crazy
  at a weekend picnic over beets. He wants to know
  if Nabisco should enter the beet market.
• Give me an example of a recent new product launch
  that was well done.

9
Pricing

• Positioning Always choose a price that reflect
  your brands positioning.
• Premium vs. Popular vs. Value/Fighter brand
  (private label)
• Elasticity Elasticity tells you how
  responsive/sensitive your brands sales are to
  changes in price. Use elasticity to analyze how
  pricing changes will impact your brands volume
  and profit.
• Elastic (commodity products) vs. Inelastic
  (differentiated products)
• Cost Structure Always consider costs when
  analyzing pricing. Clearly, revenues should
  exceed costs and the brand should be profitable.
• Profits Revenue Costs
• Pricing Strategies/Considerations Keep your
  brand plan goals in mind when determining your
  pricing strategy!
• Perceived customer value, markup, going
  rate/comparative, discriminatory, bundling

10
Pricing

• Sample Questions
• You are launching a new product and you have to
  determine its pricing strategy. How will you do
  this?
• Each year you evaluate whether to increase the
  price of your product. How would you do this and
  what do you need to consider?
• You are the BM of Formula 409. Your boss tells
  you he wants to increase the profitability of
  your business via a price increase. Should you
  do it?
• You are the BM of Tide. Your boss asks you to
  evaluate a price decrease, as he wants to
  increase volume. Should you do it?

11
New Competitor

• How viable is this threat? Assess the threat to
  determine whether or not you need to defend
• Does the new product meet a consumer need? Will
  anyone buy this product?
• How strong is the competitor? Will they spend to
  support the launch are they smart marketers?
• Where will they take volume from? Are they
  targeting you or your competitors?
• Should you decide it is necessary to defend,
  there are some strategies to consider (Think
  4Ps)
• Reinforce equity with advertising/promotion
  remind consumers why your product is better than
  new competitor dont give them a reason to try.
• Product upgrade to provide new benefit never
  give consumers a product-based reason to switch.
• Load consumers provide price incentives so
  consumers will be stocked up with your product
  when a competitor launches (aka Pantry Loading).
• Track new competitors performance after launch
  to see if it is successful.

12
New Competitor

• Sample Questions
• You are the BM of Fresh Step Cat Litter. You
  learn that 2 new competitors are entering your
  category Arm Hammer Cat Litter and EverFresh
  Activated Charcoal Cat Litter. What should you
  do?
• You are the BM of Kingsford Charcoal. Gas grill
  usage is substantially increasing which is
  causing charcoal usage to decline. What should
  you do?

13
New Competitor - Private Label

• Build your equity Use advertising to communicate
  quality/image of branded products to consumers.
  Establish a point of difference versus private
  label. Customers must understand the enhanced
  value of the brand.
• Innovate Increase product quality or innovate by
  introducing new flavors, scents or choices.
• Manage the price gap Consider a price
  sensitivity analysis. Determine how much of a
  premium you can afford to charge before your
  brand starts losing volume to private label (in
  essence, quantify the value of your brand to
  consumers).
• Introduce a value brand Larger companies that
  have more than one brand competing in a given
  category could position one brand as a value
  brand to compete against the private label. This
  offers consumers a branded option at a lower
  price.

14
New Competitor - Private Label

• Sample Questions
• You are the BM of SpaghettiOs, and you have
  learned that one of the major grocery chains has
  launched its own brand of kids canned pasta.
  What strategies should you consider to defend
  against this competition?

15
Declining Sales

• Is the decline driven by a general category
  decline or a share decline on my brand? These
  drivers lead to very different strategies for
  reversing the decline
• Why is my category declining?
• Changing consumer needs/habits/trends (health,
  convenience), macroeconomic factors
• Why is my share declining?
• You changed something or your competitors changed
  something (new product substitute e.g. bleach
  usage declined when Tide w/ bleach was launched)
• If category is declining, determine strategy to
  increase category usage
• Increase frequency brush after every meal
  instead of in the morning/evening
• Use more per usage occasion for whiter whites
  use a full cup instead of half
• New product uses e.g. recipes
• Expand across categories
• If share is declining, determine why. Explore 4
  Ps for yourself and your competitors
• Price Changes? Temporary or permanent? Reason
  lower costs, inventory, steal share, etc?
• Product Has the quality changed? Any new
  products/upgrades? SKU rationalization?
• Promotion Have promos/advertising changed?
  Message?
• Placement Have I lost distribution? Have
  competitors gained distribution?

16
Declining Sales

• Sample Questions
• You have just been named BM of Pine Sol. Your
  sales are declining considerably. What questions
  should you ask to understand what is going on?
• What would you do to reverse the above decline?
• What would you do to reverse the above decline if
  you could not increase your promotional budget?
• You are the BM on a product whose sales have been
  flat for the last 5 years. However, the brands
  market share has been growing at about 3 a year.
  What is going on with the brand and what should
  you do about it?

17
Case Interviewing

• Questions?