Creativity and Value Creation in Marketing

Creativity and Value Creation in Marketing

Muma College of Business

University of South Florida

 

 

Question 1.

You work for Aventurier, a mid-sized company specializing in two related fields: (1) manufacturing and marketing elite, high-end snowboards, and (2) organizing and booking adventure vacations, especially those involving winter sports. The vacation side is new and quite small, but you work on the snowboard side. Next week, you and your boss are flying to Dick’s Sporting Goods’ national headquarters to make a pitch for Dick’s to carry Aventurier’s products in its stores.This will be challenging given that most people resist innovations, in this case Dick’s resisting a new line. Although Dick’sis talking with various other brands for possible adoption, that competition reduces your chances, and the word on the street is that Dick’s is more interested in learning about different boards than actually adopting one at this time. Nonetheless, Aventurier boards are slightly different and have some “European cache” as your boss likes to call it, which has prompted her to try.You willbe making your pitch to three people of Dick’ssix-person buying team. Roughly two weeks after your pitch, Dick’s buying team will meet to decide which, if any, new snowboard brands to add.

 

1. What is the Common Knowledge Effect (definition)?

 

 

b.Now that you’re back at the office after meeting with meeting with Dick’s team, it occurs to you that you may be able to leverage the common knowledge effect to maximize the chances that Dick’s will adopt Aventurier’sboards, possibly instead of competitors’ boards. Based on that, what would you suggest that your boss consider doing and why?

 

 

 

 

Question 2.

Recently, a number of snowboard competitors have entered your market. Over lunch one day, your boss confesses she feels like her creativity is suffering from too much stress at work and at home. To help, you suggest morning pages. Explain to her the process of morning pages and why they might help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question 3.

Your team of new product developers at Aventurier has been asked to generate new product ideas for snowboards to help the company remain competitive. Please (1) define and illustrate empathic design using the shopping mall example from class, (2) describe the first phase of the problem-detection method, and (3) describe the second phase and how it helps identify two different types of product dimensions/attributes (be sure to identify and define each type of dimension/attribute). [This question should be answered in the abstract with no applications specific to Aventurier.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question 4.

Your boss is considering adopting a new positioning strategy in which all Aventurier boards would come with a snow rudder (which was his idea), such that “snow rudders” would be a defining feature of the Aventurier product line. Apply the lessons learned from the article, Why Consumer’s Don’t Buy, which we discussed in class (we did not read the article itself). List two reasons why your boss might value the snow rudder more than consumers do.

 

 

 

 

Question 5.

In Aventurier’s current (elite) market, shares across competitors are 25% (Brand X), 20% (Aventurier), 15% (Brand Y), and the rest of the shares are spread across numerous other smaller players. A recent study provided additional market share information by estimating how consumers would evaluate Aventurier products offered within the mainstream market. Assume that the following share estimates in the mainstream market are accurate: 60% (Brand J), 30% (Aventurier), and 10% (Brand K). To simplify further, assume that the differences in shares translate directly into differences in sales and profits (i.e., the two markets are equal in size and equal in our products’ profit margins). 

Over lunch one day, your boss expresses her belief that Aventurier will expand into the mainstream market only if it leaves the elite market. The question, then, is which market is best for Aventurier in the long run. Your boss realizes that leaving the elite market and entering the mainstream market might dilute brand image and would surely alienate existing customers, but she wants you to assess other issues as well. Specifically, she asks you to provide an assessment ofthe sales/share data above and their implications for the decision to remain in the elite market or to leave the elite market and move into the mainstream market. Please provide your response below:

Note that your boss may not be asking for your opinion (conclusion) about what should be done given that she says she wants only your analysis with implications. She may or may not want your overall opinion, but to be safe, do not provide an overall opinion unless you know one is desired (be careful about offering opinions when they are not requested). Also, this is not a branding question or even a general marketing question, but rather is a question asking you only to assess some fairly specific sales/share data. So what do you tell your boss (i.e., what are the pros and cons revealed by the sales/share data)?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question 6.

After years of careful study, Aventurier’s board and CEO have decided that Aventurier will remain in the elite (higher-quality) market but that it will expand slowly into the mainstream (lower-quality) market with the help of a stock split that will provide much needed capital. Your team was considering calling the new mainstream products, Aventurier Thrasher, but because your boss was concerned about diluting the Aventurier image, she has decided to give it its own brand name, Thrasher.

Please give your boss (1) one reason to believe that Aventurier Thrasher would not dilute the Aventurier image much (not an example finding of limited dilution, but rather an underlying reason for why dilution might be limited), (2) an alternative sub-branded name, and (3) the primary advantage the sub-branded option would have over the Aventurier Thrasher option

 

 

 

 

 

Question 7.

 

Three years ago, Aventurier developed a line of winter gloves tailored to snowboarder needs. The gloves include (1) Kevlar-coated fingers that allow snowboarders to scrape the ground when crouching during turns without wearing down the gloves much, and (2) especially thick insulation to keep hands warm in severely cold temperatures. Aventurier’s primary competitor offers gloves that are less durable and less warm (though are still fairly warm), but are more comfortable and convenient by way of being thinner (lighter weight and easier to put in pockets when not on the slopes). At the moment, you and your leading competitor each have roughly 45% of the European market. Your boss is thinking of increasing Aventurier’s share by stealing some of the competitor’s share by developing a thinner version of the Aventurier glove version that retains its advantages in durability and possibly warmth, which the company will then promote aggressively. Identify two reasons for expecting this approach to work in the short-run, as well as the primary long-run threat.

 

 

 

 

 

Question 8.

Imagine that your boss decides to enter a new motorized snowboard market in Scandinavia. Only two competitors exist and are distinguished as follows:

BRAND       RANGE/QUALITY   PRICE/USD

Cross Country       20 Miles                 $5,000

Snow Cruiser        10 Miles                  $2,500

Aventurier is considering creating one of the following two boards:

    Aventurier Pathbreaker: 15-mile range priced at $3,750

    Aventurier Rocket:          7-mile range priced at $1,750

Generally speaking, which product is likely to steal the most share from the existing competitors and why (two reasons to support your answer)?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question 9.

Aventurier’s engineers have developed a motorized snowboard primarily for transportation across flat land. The new board has two small tracks on its side, similar to a military tank. It is not very fast or agile, but it is strong and reliable. Management is considering calling this model either the Gimmel or Gommel based on a study your boss found in an academic journal that tested these two names. Consumers were asked which of the two names they preferred for two types of vehicle and two types of utensil/tool, with the following results. The percentages are the percentages of consumers who preferred each name for each product:

VEHICLES						UTENSILS/TOOLS
CONVERTIBLE/ CABRIOLET			SUV			KNIFE			HAMMER
Gimmel	Gommel		Gimmel	Gommel		Gimmel	Gommel		Gimmel	Gommel
63%	37%		30%	70%		66%	34%		34%	66%

Recommend one name to your boss and provide one reason based on what you know about psycholinguistics and another reason based on the data above (the empirical reason).

Recommended Name:

Psycholinguistics Reason(s):

Empirical Reason (from the Results Above):