Marketing case studies; a guide
Category: Marketing
Typically, a marketing case study is a record of a marketing issue which has actually been faced by business executives, together with relevant facts, opinions and prejudices upon which the executives had to depend in making decisions. Case studies are presented to students for considered analysis, open discussion, and final decision as to the type of action which should be taken.
Marketing is an exciting and dynamic discipline. Unfortunately, much of the excitement is hidden among the definitions and descriptions of concepts that are a necessary part of marketing training. I believe that one way to make the study of marketing exciting and dynamic is to use cases. Cases allow the trainee to work on real marketing problems, to develop an appreciation of the types of problems that exist in the real world of marketing, and to develop the skills of analysis and decision-making so necessary for success in marketing and other areas of business. A case enables the trainee to bridge the gap between concepts and the «real business world», and it represents as close an approximation to the realities of working’ in marketing as is possible, without actually taking a job in the field.
The whole process involved in preparing a case analysis will benefit trainees in other ways. They will develop their communication skills as they write, and perhaps verbally present, their final report. Working in groups will develop student’s abilities in working with other people — a crucial skill in today’s business world.
The case study method causes a great deal of insecurity on he part of trainees who are required to make decisions often with very little information, and limited time. Often there is no single correct answer to a case, an additional source of insecurity. However, the goal is not to develop a rigidly «correct» set of answers, but to learn to reason and argue competently with the data given. The process of case analysis truly represents «learning by doing».
Trainees who have not studied marketing before, nor experienced active adult training, may have had no exposure to case studies. This paper is intended as a guide for such trainees in the use of case studies.
In analysing a case, the participant should first read the case quickly, with a view to gaining a feel for the type of problem presented in the case, and the type of organisation and market which are involved. Next, the participant should read the case more thoroughly and slowly to learn all the key facts in the case. Often trainees cannot believe the low level of information -available for decision-making in a case, but this is all too often the situation in the «real business world». What is
required in such situations is the making of reasonable assumptions and learning to make decisions under uncertainty. There is often strong reluctance on the part of trainees to do this, but the ability to make decisions based on well-reasoned assumptions is a skill that must be developed for a manager to be truly effective.
Once the trainee has mastered the facts in the case, the next step is to identify and specify the issues and problems which the executive involved has to solve. Often the issues may be very obscure. Learning to separate problems from symptoms is an important skill to learn. Often there will be a number of subissues involved and it will be necessary to break the problem down into component parts.
The next step is to develop alternative courses of action. Usually there are a number of possible solutions to the problems in the case, and the trainee should be careful not to lock in on only one alternative before several possible alternatives have been thoroughly evaluated. Next, each of the alternative plans of action should be evaluated. Particularly important at this stage is an evaluation of the financial implications of each alternative.
After all the alternatives have been thoroughly analysed, the trainee must make a final decision concerning which specific course of action should be taken. Once this overall strategy has been selected, it is important that some consideration be given to the implementation of strategy ie: who is to do what, when and how? Improper implementation of an excellent plan is often the cause of business failure, so it is important to follow the analysis and strategy — selection phases through with an appropriate implementation plan.
The diagram below summarises the proposed framework for case analysis
In considering whether their case analysis and report are complete, the following points may be useful to participants:
1. Avoid simply reorganising case facts
Every case has a lot of factual information. A good analysis uses facts that are relevant to the situation at hand to make points of analysis. A poor analysis just restates or rehashes these facts without analysing or commenting upon them.
2. Make reasonable assumptions:
Every case is incomplete in terms of some piece of information which the trainee would like to have. We would, of course, like to have all the necessary information available to us. However, this is not possible for two reasons. First, it would make the cases unmanageably long, and impossible to analyse. Secondly, and more importantly, incomplete information is an accurate reflection of the real world. All marketing decisions are made on the basis of incomplete information. Often it just costs too much or takes too long to collect the desired information. It is better to make your assumptions explicit and incorporate them in your analysis than to use them implicitly or not use them at all.
3. Don’t confuse symptoms with problems
In summarizing a firm’s problems a poor analysis confuses the symptoms with real problems. For example, one might list two problems as (i) sales are down, (ii) sales force turnover is high. This would not be correct. These are symptoms. The real problems are identified by answering the question: why are sales down and why is salesforce turnover high? For example, salesforce turnover may be high due to inadequate sales training. But this may not yet be the root problem. You still need to ask: why is sales training inadequate? It may be that the sales manager has ignored this area through his or her lack of knowledge of how to train people. What you need to do is keep asking «why» until you are satisfied that you have identified the root problem.
4. Recognise alternatives:
A good analysis explicitly recognises and discusses alternative action plans. In some cases, these alternatives are stated in the case. In other cases, the student must develop alternatives beyond those stated in the case. A poor analysis explicitly recognises only one or two alternatives or only takes the ones explicitly stated in the case.
5. Don’t be pre-emptive:
In some case reports, it is evident that the strategy decision was taken in about the first sentence of the situation analysis. The whole rest of the analysis is then just a justification of this solution. This type of analysis is very poor. It has, in effect, been pre-emptive, and has asserted an answer before completing a full situation analysis. Usually, other alternatives are ignored or treated as all bad, and the desired solution is treated as all good. You must do a full situation analysis, and recognise alternatives, before evaluating them and reaching a decision
6. Reach a clear decision
You must reach a clear decision. You might like to hedge your bets and say «maybe this, maybe that». However, part of the skill of decision making is to be forced to reach a decision, and then to defend this decision. This does not mean that you do not recognise the limitations of your position or the positive aspects of other positions it just means that despite all that, you have reached a definite decision.
7. Make good use of evidence developed in your situation analysis:
In reaching a decision, a good analysis reaches a decision that is logically consistent with the situation analysis that was done. This is the ultimate test of an analysis.
So, enjoy your case studies