Marketing Management
Discuss the brand rebuilding and positioning strategies of Portugal.
Case Studies
Case Study (20 Marks)
Portugal, (the Portuguese Republic officially) one of the oldest countries of Europe located at Southwest of Europe started attracting investors and foreign tourists through its liberalization policies and economic reforms after its independence. But, due to its negative image among the European countries following safety issues, the tourist flow and the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) were decreasing considerably. The low cost producer countries from central Europe and Asia further aggravated this situation by
providing stiff competition to Portugal in attracting FDI. In 2007, a coalition government decided to launch a new promotional campaign called ‘West Coast of Europe’ to rebuild its brand image among investing community and tourists. The case discusses whether such an image rebuilding campaign would help countries to attract investors and foreign tourists.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Discuss the brand rebuilding and positioning strategies of Portugal.
Q2. Debate the challenges faced by Portugal while implementing new image rebuilding campaign.
CASE STUDY (20 Marks)
In the late 1990s, Gillette, best known for its razors and blades grabbed 15% market share in the US market by launching its Mach 3 brand. Mach 3 was a three bladed shaving system that allowed a shave with less pressure and fewer strokes and thus reduced skin irritation. In 2005, Mach 3 with Mach 3 Turbo and battery powered version M3Power captured 34% share in the US market. In the same year P&G acquired Gillette to make its market position stronger overseas. In January 2006, P&G – Gillette merger launched the manual and power versions of a five bladed razor shaving system named as “Fusion” in the US, UK and Canada. Gillette charged $12 to $13 for a pack of four Fusion cartridges and the same number of Fusion Power cartridges was priced at $13 to $14. However analysts estimated that Fusion’s marketshare had been far weaker than what Gillette saw after Mach 3 and Mach 3 Power launches and the reason behind this was the price structure of Fusion. Analysts predicted that the price of the Fusion manual was 80% higher than Mach 3 manual and that of Fusion Power was 30% higher than Mach 3 Power cartridges. Though Gillette argued that, since Fusion was a luxury brand it was costlier than the previous Gillette razors and blades but when the sales of its razors and blades fell by 5% in 2006, the company planned to cut the price of its Fusion brand. This decision was however, not taken for Brands and Branding unilaterally by Gillette but the company asked its retailers to help it make a decision. The company at the same time paid more attention to the promotional activities of Fusion. Despite this industry observers were skeptical about the success of Fusion.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Give the comparison between the three bladed shaving system.
Q2. Debate the obstacles for the promotion of Gillette Fusion, a five bladed shaving system, to gain the same popularity like Mach
3/14/2017 Aeren Foundation 2/2
Case Study (20 Marks)
In June 2002, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry of India ordered leading television (TV) broadcasters to ban the telecast of two surrogate ads of liquor brands, McDowell’s No. 1 and Gilbey’s Green Label. The Ministry also put some other brands Smirnoff Vodka, Hayward’s 5000, Royal Challenge Whiskey and Kingfisher beer on a ‘watch list.’ The surrogates used by these advertisements ranged from audiocassettes, CDs and perfumes to golf accessories and mineral water. By August 2002, the I&B Ministry had banned 12 advertisements. Leading satellite TV channels, including Zee, Sony, STAR and Aaj Tak were issued showcause notices asking them to explain their reason for carrying surrogate liquor advertisements. The channels were asked to adhere strictly to the Cable Television Regulation Act 1995 (Cable TV Act, 1995).2As a result, Zee and STAR stopped telecasting the advertisements; Aaj Tak and Sony soon followed suit. In addition, the I&B Ministry hired a private monitoring agency to keep a watch on all advertisements for violations of the Act. These developments led to heated debates over the issue of surrogate advertising by liquor companies. Though the liquor companies involved protested strongly against the I&B Ministry’s decision, they had no choice, but to comply with the regulations. Analysts remarked that the government’s policy was hypocritical. One said, “On the one hand they allow these ‘socially bad’ products to be manufactured and sold (in order to garner revenues) and then they deny the manufacturers the right to propagate knowledge of their products in order to drive sales. If something is bad and cannot be advertised, why allow it to be sold at all?” Meanwhile, the government also seemed to be in dilemma. On the one hand, it had to encourage the sales of liquor and tobacco because they were the highest taxed sectors of the Indian economy. On the other hand, there was also the need to take the high moral ground and reduce the consumption of such products
Answer the following question.
Q1. Give an overview of the case.
Q2. Why the government was in dilemma for banning the liquor advertisements?
CASE STUDY (20 Marks)
In early 2004, Alberto Alessi, general manager of Alessi S.p.A the Italian, familyrun,
kitchen and tableware factory famous for its playful and innovative design is absorbed about how to manage Alessi’s brand equity. Alberto needs to optimise a set of bjectives,
subject to certain constraints. The objectives are: (1) To bring Alessi’s range to masses or in other words, how to enhance and build more luxury into their brand at very price point it offers; and (2) To find new typologies into which Alessi can expand. The constraints are: (a) to sustain the aura of quality and innovation surrounding Alessi; (b) to provide Alessi’s designers with the opportunity to take risks and innovate, staying close to the borderline. The main objectives of the case are to grasp the key issues involved in managing brand equity and thus the focus is on various issues, faced by a luxury goods firm, like Chinese counterfeits, branding strategy problems, production planning problems and so on. The case also provides various possible options such as 1)
whether to engage the Chinese manufacturers 2) extending brand both lineand category wise 3) going for patenting actively 4) consider a change in the business model and so on. The case prepares a rich ground to discuss critical issues in the strategic brand
management of fashion and luxury goods. In particular, it illustrates how Alessi has managed to grow, without losing its core identity and its customer value. It is also meant to evaluate Alessi’s brand strategy using the brand equity approach.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Suggest issues for strategic brand management, in the case.
Q2. How should brand equity be leveraged and protected in the face of various threats.
Discuss the brand rebuilding and positioning strategies of Portugal.
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