Case Study 1

Marketing Concept: MAR ltd founded in 1993 was a high technology product,
company. The company specialized in making electronic measuring devices for
process control, communications and instrumentation industries. It was largely an
owner managed company. The president of the company, who himself was an
inventor, has raised enough capital to finance expanding operations. A major oil
company had recently supplied capital in exchange for a minority share in the
company. The growth in business was enormous in the last four years. The
shipments grew from $15 million in 1997 to over $50 million in 2000. The
companys R and D had made several innovative changes to give MAR an excellent
reputation in the industry.
The business growth however was good because of MARs new technical advance.
The company essentially responded to the customer demand. In 1998, several other
companies entered the field with similar products. One of them, 100 per cent owned
subsidiary owned by a major multi-national oil company, was especially aggressive
in marketing the devices. It had spent capital in automating production line and
essentially met or beat the prices of MAR in the market place acquiring a
considerable market share within two years.
In 2001, it was estimated that MAR and its major competitor each held 30 per cent
market, while 10 smaller companies had the rest of the market. Recently, it was
rumored that Japanese had come up with a major technological breakthrough that
would lower the prices of the electronic measuring devices in half.
Marketing Concept: The executive vice-president of the company was alarmed by
the recent trends in the marketplace. In spite of the number of competitors, he was
confident that the technological capabilities of MAR would enable it to maintain the
necessary edge to continue the growth at 30 per cent each year. The market for the
devices itself was growing between 30 and 40 per cent each year. He was also
convinced that his current sales department was incapable of marketing the
products as aggressively as the competitors. There was virtually no market analysis,
product planning was in coordinated and market intelligence was poor.
He made several recommendations to the President of the company.
1. The director of sales be given early retirement or should be reassigned to
staff function.
2. The sales department should be replaced by full-fledged marketing
department, composed of four divisions: sales, technical services, marketing
planning, and product management.
3. Marketing planning should survey the market constantly, recommend
innovations and coordinate long-range planning.
4. Technical services should assist Engineering Department in new product
development and render technical support to sales.

5. Product Managers should monitor their products and competitor

introductions, look for increased penetration of old products, foster markets
growth with new products.
6. Sales department should concentrate on enlarging sales in present markets
in coordination with other divisions.
To implement the recommendations, MAR hired a new director of marketing.
The new director interviewed all the personnel in the sales department and found
that sales managers more or less ran independent operation making their own
pricing decisions in many cases. They constantly came up to the executive vicepresident for reducing price levels complaining that competitor prices were low. The
exceptional low price approval became more of a norm. The advertising budget was
$500000, one per cent of sales. Most of the budget was spent on advertising aimed
at enhancing corporate image in various trade magazines. The company offered
numerous products with almost no standardization every order required special
design and production considerations. Sales managers insisted on broad product
line to keep customers satisfied. The competitors, on the other hand, had
rationalized their production line and offered only a few standard products.
Questions:
1. What actions should the Director of Marketing take to implement the
marketing concept? How long would it take to implement these actions?
2. Evaluate each one of the six recommendations made by the executive vicepresident?
3. What are MARs most pressing problems? Assign priorities for resolution?

Case Study 2
End of All Work and No Play Culture?
Every year, about 100 million Japanese spend about $75 to see Mickey Mouse and
wit two hours in line to rocket through Space Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland. They
flock to hear Aron Narikiyo Elvis-san, a widely popular Elvis impersonator. They
ski, attend cultural events, go bowling, take juggling lessons, and play pachinko, a
vertical version of pinball. What they also do in great numbers is shop. One hundred
and twenty million Japanese consumers with rising disposable incomes translate
into lots of buying power. Long considered a society of all work and no play, Japan
finds both its culture and its consumer changing.

In the conventional picture of modern Japan, men work most of the time and
women are relegated to background positions of stay-athome wives and
mothers. Indeed, many older Japanese accept without complaint endless,
unquestionable hard work. But the old ways are changing. Japanese men are
discovering that fun is sometimes more important than earnest dedication to
the workplace. And Japanese men are discovering that fun is sometimes more
important than earnest dedication to the workplace. And Japanese women are
assuming professional roles outside the home. Declaring that its citizens
should start enjoying life, the government officially shortened the workweek
from forty-eight hours to forty and funded the Leisure Research and
Development Centre to teach its citizens the value of leisure time. With more
money to spend and more time in which to spend it, the Japanese are
becoming active and experienced consumers, dedicated to make their
country a seikatsu taikoku-a life style superpower.

Two of the most powerful groups of Japanese consumers are the more than 8
million Dankai juniors, children of Japans post-war baby boom, and women,
whose status and affluence continues to grow, Raised during a prosperous
time in an affluent society, young Japanese spend a lot of money on spots,
audiovisual equipment, entertainment, and fashion. Although looking for
value more than they did in the 1980s, these young consumers still splurge
on new products that improve the Quality of their leisure time. One of their
favourite places to go for fun is Namcos Wonder Eggs, an arcade specializing
in virtual reality games. As for tastes in fashion, this group prefers American
and European styles and colours. To attract these trendy customers, some
small shops in areas frequented by young people carry only imported
clothing.

In todays Japan, women comprise about 40 per cent of the countrys 64.5
million-person work force, and more than 50 per cent of mothers work
outside the home. Following the Equal Employment Law of 1986, women
began to pursue more education, entered a variety of professions, began
earning their own salaries, and became champion consumers. Besides

attending concerts and plays, travelling, engaging in sports, and frequenting

relaxation parlours, where the sounds of birds singing or waves crashing on
the shore relieve stress, Japanese women shop. Choosy about labels, many
Japanese women favour distinctive brands, such as Armani suits, Yves St.
Laurent Towels, and $1600 Gucci handbags.

Benefiting from Japans growing appetite for consumption, retailing both

upscale and value- oriented is booming. To attract consumers by providing
more spacious and attractive surroundings, venerable department stores and
such as Mitsukoshi and Takashima are remodeling and modernizing their
interiors. New specialty shops are springing up, as large shopping centres
with avenues of stores and abundant parking space. Although many Japanese
equate a good product with a high price tag, many others are becoming
increasingly value-conscious, looking for high quality at low prices. Retailers
are responding by opening giant discount stores. One of them, I world, is
recording annual sales of over $180 million on discounted top-of-the-line
brands such as Nordica and Sony. What the Japanese call roadside chains,
freestanding retail buildings, are springing up in the suburbs. Two such
competing chains, Aoyama and Aoki, sell name brand mens clothing at
lower-than-department-store prices.

When Japanese leaders commanded the country to relax, the leisure industry
rushed to provide place to do it. Just as retailing is profiting from larger
numbers of Japanese shoppers, the leisure industry is profiting from the
greater amount of time that Japanese are spending on recreation. In one year
alone, two hundred companies applied for permits to develop new theme
parks. To enable ski enthusiasts to make one-day trips from Tokyo, a bullet
train station opened at a popular ski resort, Gala Yuzawa. For those who
prefer to schuss in climate controlled comfort, indoor ski slopes are available
within city limits. Built on top of one of Tokyos numerous skyscrapers, the
International Aquarium gives city dwellers a chance to escape temporarily to
an undersea world. Having discovered the pleasures of camping, Japanese
are pursuing this pastime in record numbers. American commercial
campground developer KOA recently opened its first Japanese compound in
Okayama. Vacationers can swim play tennis, visit the mini zoo, or join in
recreational group singing at the Karoake Kabin.

With all these choices and more, people dont have trouble deciding how to
have fun on a day off or a week-long break, but the Japanese are still novices
at hanging out. A Leisure Development Centre survey revealed that 40 per
cent of respondents wouldnt know what to do with a month off. To help them,
the National Recreation Association offers a one-year course on how to enjoy
life. Many Japanese, however, are convinced that the art of having fun is
Made in the U.S.A.

Questions:
1. What are the significant issues in this case?
2. The changing role of Japanese women has influenced their buying behavior.
Discuss this statement in the light of what you have learned in this case.

3. To market leisure facilities in Japan, what aspects of Japanese consumers

behavior is of interest?