THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO BOOTH

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Marketing
Management BPS
Case
Professor Elizabeth Honka
AHMED GABRI

In this case, BARCO Projection Systems (BPS), a major competitor in the

international market for projectors was facing a problem which could erode a large
portion of their profits & market share for the future to come.
The source of the threat was the introduction of a new super data
projector by Sony a major BPS competitor at the Siggraph trade show in
Boston. The product was dubbed the Sony 1270. The dangers that arose from the
1270 came from multiple perspectives.
First and foremost, the 1270 had a significantly higher image quality,
brightness, and overall performance than that of any BPS product. Second, in
adding insult to injury, the 1270s price was quite cheap in comparison to BPSs
products. Its price tag was very close to BPS projectors which had much inferior
performance. For example: ($15,000-$20,000) for the 1270 which had a scan rate
of 75 KHz as opposed to ($12,000) for the BD600 which could only scan at 45 KHz.
BPSs issue rose from various sources. First is its failure to manufacture its
products in a user-friendly manner. Second was their failure to keep up with the
pace of the industry, as they were offered higher quality components by Sony but
refused them for cost saving reasons. Third, was their under estimation of Sonys
competitiveness, giving way to huge miscalculations in BPSs forecasts for the
market.
As BPS is forced into a corner, it was concerned towards its current project
in progress the BD700 for which it has already received orders. The product
itself, however, cannot compete with the 1270. The then possible solutions were:
Leave the BD 700 project unchanged, upgrade the BD 700 but delay delivery
time, or introduce a completely new product but freeze all other projects.
In my personal view, the best path for BPS would be eliminating all
operations and focusing on developing the new product, namely, the BG 800.
Such recommendation is based upon the fact that any other product would be
rendered obsolete by the 1270.

Also, BPS should start focusing on the image their products give about the
company. This could be established via tackling the user-friendly issue which most
of their customers face.
As for pricing, BPS should use a Penetration Pricing strategy, at which the
product would be offered at an initial lower price to create demand. Afterwards
prices could be bumped up a bit in the future.