Case Study Description of Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case)
When students have the English-language PDF of this Brief Case in a coursepack, they will also have the option to purchase an audio version.This case provides students with an opportunity to become familiar with some major strategic issues that firms face when formulating and implementing a sales promotion, including: cannibalization, brand equity erosion, forward-buying, pass-through, and consumer stockpiling. It also provides them an opportunity to utilize retail scanner purchase data in order to evaluate the historical performance of sales promotions. Based on calculating top-line revenue, marketing margin, and return on marketing investment (ROMI) for prior promotions, students can recommend the most financially and strategically defensible initiative from a choice of several competing sales promotions. The setting is the frozen foods category in the consumer packaged goods industry.
Swot Analysis of "Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case)" written by Neeraj Bharadwaj, Phillip D. Delurgio includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Promotions Sales facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Budgeting, Pricing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Promotions Sales, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Promotions Sales operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Promotions Sales
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Promotions Sales
Strengths Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Promotions Sales in Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Promotions Sales in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Promotions Sales is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Neeraj Bharadwaj, Phillip D. Delurgio can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Diverse revenue streams
– Promotions Sales is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Promotions Sales in the sector have low bargaining power. Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Promotions Sales to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Promotions Sales to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Promotions Sales to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Promotions Sales has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Promotions Sales has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Promotions Sales is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Promotions Sales is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Promotions Sales digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Promotions Sales has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Promotions Sales is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Promotions Sales has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Promotions Sales has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Weaknesses Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Promotions Sales has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Promotions Sales is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Promotions Sales has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Promotions Sales is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Promotions Sales needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Promotions Sales to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Promotions Sales is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Promotions Sales, firm in the HBR case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Promotions Sales supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Promotions Sales vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case), is just above the industry average. Promotions Sales needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Need for greater diversity
– Promotions Sales has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Promotions Sales needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Opportunities Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Promotions Sales can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Promotions Sales can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Developing new processes and practices
– Promotions Sales can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Promotions Sales in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Promotions Sales to increase its market reach. Promotions Sales will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Promotions Sales in the consumer business. Now Promotions Sales can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Promotions Sales to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Promotions Sales to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Promotions Sales can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Promotions Sales has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Promotions Sales to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Promotions Sales has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Promotions Sales to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) case study. Promotions Sales can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Promotions Sales can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Promotions Sales has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Promotions Sales is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Promotions Sales can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Promotions Sales operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Threats Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) are -
Increasing wage structure of Promotions Sales
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Promotions Sales.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Promotions Sales high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Promotions Sales with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Promotions Sales can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Promotions Sales is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Promotions Sales business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Promotions Sales.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Promotions Sales demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Promotions Sales can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Promotions Sales will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Promotions Sales in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Promotions Sales needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Giant Consumer Products: The Sales Promotion Resource Allocation Decision (Brief Case) is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Promotions Sales needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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