1. Chen BeiBei Chooses A Franchise
From a franchisor’s point of view, why might you want to grow by franchising your business as opposed to owning and operating your own units??
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of buying a franchise as opposed to starting your own business?
What are the pros and cons of the YiWei and HaFo opportunities?
As Chen BeiBei, what are your options, and what would you do?

2. Dupont Teflon: China Brand Strategy
How attractive is the Chinese domestic cookware market? How attractive is the non-stick cookware portion of the market?
What are Dupont’s options? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
What should Lin recommend regarding Dupont’s further participation in the non-stick cookware market?

3. Strategic Planning at Apple Inc
What are Apple’s competitive advantages in retailing?
Conduct a SWOT analysis for Apple.
Imagine that you are Steve Jobs. What new products or markets, if any, should Apple focus on in the future?
As Steve Jobs, how would you allocate corporate resources between Apple’s more traditional products (i.e. computers) and its newer products (i.e. iPods, iPhones, etc.)?

4. Eden Creations
As an external consultant to Melissa Jean, do whatever analysis you deem necessary to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for Eden Creations.
What are the major marketing challenges facing Melissa Jean?
Assess the company’s internal capabilities and external operating environment.
Perform a customer and competitive analysis for Eden Creations. What implications can be drawn?
Design a marketing plan for Eden Creations that includes a target market choice, pricing and product line recommendations, and a distribution and promotional plan. Justify your plan both qualitatively and quantitatively.
How will you measure the success of your plan?

5. Trouble Brews at Starbucks
When Howard Schultz launched Starbucks, who was the target market, how was Starbucks positioned, and what decisions about product, price, distribution and promotion supported this positioning?
Wall Street and Starbucks management placed great emphasis on the company’s ability to continue its impressive growth rate. What were some of the growth initiates untaken by Starbucks and how they fuel company growth?
It’s clear that, in general, the company’s growth initiatives were sound in terms of generating the growth expected by Wall Street. But which of Starbucks’ initiatives, in retrospect, were sound decision for the brand, and which were inconsistent with brand positioning?
What role should foreign expansion play in Starbucks’ strategy?
How should Starbucks define its target market and positioning after its decline in 2007?
Evaluate the actions taken to reinvigorate Starbucks.

6. Levi Strauss Canada Holding an Ember: The GWG Brand
Why do consumers buy jeans? What is the buying decision based on? How do you segment these consumers?
What are the leading attributes of the competitors? How does this match or not match the consumer buying decision?
What is happening in the overall market place? What is happening with channels?
What is the context in which Klee needs to make a decision?
Is there enough of an “ember” to bring back the brand? Does the brand have strong enough cache? What are the channel considerations? What are the financial considerations?

7. Best Buy Inc—Dual Branding in China
What are the conceptual underpinnings of a dual brand strategy?
What did Best Buy learn from its experience with dual brand strategy in Canada?
How does the Best Buy situation in China differ from its situation in Canada?
Does a dual brand strategy provide Best Buy a core competitive advantage as it expands into new global markets?

8. Synnex International: Transforming Distribution of High-tech Product
Why do foreign manufacturers of electronic products use external distributor in Taiwan rather than establishing their own internal sales forces?
How do you make sense of the three conventional practices (i.e. catering to big clients, pushing for volume sales and reimbursing price drops for unsold stock) observed in electronic products distribution in Taiwan?
Why did Synnex break away from these traditional practices? What is the company’s economic rationale for adopting its unconventional practices?
Can the operational model of Synnex be extended to foreign markets? Or, if it works only in Taiwan, what modifications must be made in foreign countries?
Can the operation model be extended to cover other products? If yes, which products can be most easily uploaded to its logistic system?
How easy or difficult will it be for Synnex to get into internet marketing? Can it become “ Amazon of high-tech industries”?

9. Jindi Enterprises: Finding a New Sales Manager
Describe the sales process in the each market (low-end residential, high-end residential and industrial). Assess the effectiveness of the sales and sales management practices at Jindi in relation to these markets.
Evaluate the pros and cons of each candidate. If you were Ma, who would you select? Why? What would be your criteria?

10. Financial Analysis for Marketing Decision Making
Contribution per unit=
selling price-variable costs
Break-even point in units=
total fixed costs/contribution per unit
Market share=
company sales level/total market sales

11. Financial Analysis for Marketing Decision Making
Units to cover profit target=
profit/contribution per unit
margin=selling price-cost price