UNIT III ENTREPRENEURIAL MARKETING

SYNOPSIS IV: SALES, PROMOTION, NEGOTIATION, EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT

C.R.M., VENDOR MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS FAILURE

Promotion
This refers to all the activities undertaken to make the product or service known to the user
and trade. This can include advertising, word of mouth, press reports, incentives,
commissions and awards to the trade. It can also include consumer schemes, direct
marketing, contests and prizes. This will be discussed in detail in promotion strategy.
C. Sales strategy
A sales strategy consists of a plan that positions a company’s brand or product to gain a
competitive advantage. Successful strategies help the sales force focus on target market
customers and communicate with them in relevant and meaningful ways. Sales
representatives need to know how their products or services can solve customer's problems.
A successful sales strategy conveys this so that the sales force spends time targeting the
correct customers at the right time.

Significance
Planning and creating an effective sales strategy requires looking at long-term sales goals
and analyzing the business sales cycle, as well as meeting with sales people about their
personal career goals. Going through these exercises helps business owners and managers
gain a more intimate knowledge of the sales intervals, seasonal changes and what motivates
the sales team.
After creating the long-term sales strategy based on long-term goals, sales managers should
create monthly and weekly sales strategies based on the long-term strategy. This allows for
short-term performance measurement of the sales team.
Types
Businesses employ one of two basic types of sales strategies to their overall plan: direct or
indirect. With the direct sales strategy, sales people attack the competition head on when
talking to the customer. They talk about each feature of the competition’s product and
compare it to theirs. The term "negative selling" refers to the direct sales approach.

Indirect sales approaches apply more subtle techniques by demonstrating features and
benefits not available with the competition’s products or services without ever mentioning
them by name. This more sophisticated, positive sales strategy requires research and
analysis of the competition.
Components
Product placement and promotion create brand awareness by using the various marketing
channels available today. Social media networks offer a free platform for increasing brand
awareness. Business owners can utilize these tools effectively by spending time each day to
communicate with fans and followers on their social network pages. Customer testimonials
readily available for prospects to read or watch lend authority to a small business and the
products and services it offers.

Function
Regardless of whether a business uses a direct or indirect sales strategy, or a combination of
the two, sales managers need to work with sales people on techniques. New customer
acquisition and customer retention require two approaches. A sales strategy lays out the
steps and methods necessary for customers in different stages. Potential customers need
communication that introduces the brand and product or service in ways that show how it
can solve his or her problems. Current customers require more personal communication
about new features or benefits to keep them engaged. Promotions and referral discounts
work to motivate current customers to spend their money and to spread the word to others.
Considerations
Creating an effective sales strategy requires market knowledge, awareness of competitor
activities, awareness of current trends and detailed business analysis. Small business owners
wishing to create and implement a sales strategy for the first time may want to hire a
professional business consultant to help guide the process.
D. Promotion strategy
Promotion is the method to spread the word about the product or service to customers,
stakeholders and the broader public.
There are various approaches a company can use to promote its products viz.,
1. Above-the-line
2. Below-the-line
3. Through-the-line

1. Above-the-line
Above-the-line promotions use mass media methods. This type of promotion focuses on
advertising to a large audience. It includes conventional media like print, online,
television and cinema advertising. Above-the-line activities include advertisements in the
press. They also produce online banner advertisements, place advertisements on billboards
and use their website to meet the needs of their consumers.
Making a message memorable to a large audience is not always easy. It is difficult to tailor
a promotion to a specific group of consumers through above-the-line promotions. This is
because it is viewed by a mass audience with different tastes and needs. Above-the-line
promotion is also very expensive.
2. Below-the-line
Below-the-line methods are very specific, memorable activities focused on targeted groups
of consumers. They are under the control of the organisation. The purpose of these
activities has been to develop the brand by creating awareness and building a brand
profile, which include:
– sponsorship – sales promotions – public relations – personal selling – direct marketing
3. Through-the-line
"Through the line" refers to an advertising strategy involving both above-and below-the line
communications in which one form of advertising points the target to another form of
advertising thereby crossing the "line".
Difference between above the line (ATL) and below the line (BTL)

Once we have identified the target market, we have to think of the best way to reach them,
but most businesses use a mix of advertising, personal selling, referrals, sales promotion and
public relations to promote their products or services.
PROMOTION MIX = 1. Advertising + 2. Personal Selling+ 3. Sales Promotion+ 4. Public
Relations
1. Advertising
Advertising is a paid form of communication designed to persuade potential customers to
choose the product or service over that of a competitor. Successful advertising involves
making the products or services positively known by that section of the public most likely to
purchase them. It should be a planned, consistent activity that keeps the name of the
business and the benefits of products or services uppermost in the mind of the consumer.
Objectives
The objective of advertising is to increase profit by increasing sales. Advertising aims to:
Make business and product name familiar to the public Create goodwill and build a
favourable image Educate and inform the public Offer specific products or services
Attract customers to find out more about your product or service
The rules (ATMC)
There are four rules to consider when planning any advertising activity – i.e. before we
prepare and book any form of advertising.
Aim - What is the primary purpose of the advertisement? Is it to inform, sell, produce
listings or improve the image of the business?
Target - Who is the target? From which sector of the public are we trying to achieve a
response? For example, is it male, female, adult, teenager, child, mother, father etc.
Media – Bearing the aim and target in mind, which are of the media available is the most
suitable – i.e. TV, radio, press or Internet?
Competitors – What are the competitors doing? Which media channel do they use? Are
they successful? Can you improve on their approach and beat them in competition?
Developing effective advertising (AIDA)
Good advertising generally elicits the following four responses:
Attention – It catches the eye or ear and stands out amid the clutter of competing
advertisements.
Interest – It arouses interest and delivers sufficient impact in the message or offering.
Desire – It creates a desire to learn more or crave ownership.
Action – It spurs an action which leads to achievement of the ad’s original objective – i.e. it
prompts potential customers to purchase or use your product or service.
Commonly used media
There are many media options open to advertisers. Which media we use will depend on
who we are trying to reach, what we want to say looking into the budget. Often a
combination of media (the media mix) can be used to good effect. Remember we have to
keep branding and message consistent across all media. This includes use of colours, logos,
design elements and fonts.
Stationary
Stationary, which includes letterheads, envelopes and business cards, is a means by which
the business image or ―name identification‖ is projected. Good quality stationery, used with
care and attention and with a high standard of presentation, is an everyday means of
presenting the business image.

Window display or office front

The external presentation of the business office or shop is one of the principal ways of
establishing the business image. An attractive, well maintained exterior with clear, bold sign
writing is an essential start. Windows should be bright, attractively presented, scrupulously
clean and well lit at night. The display should be arranged neatly and aimed at projecting an
attractive company image and providing a reason to buy your products or services. Above
all, it should have sufficient impact to attract attention.
Press advertising

This is a commonly used form of general advertising and includes advertising in all press
such as newspapers, magazines and journals. Press advertising is suitable for image
building, information dissemination and sales campaigns. It is also a very affordable option
for small businesses.
Radio
Radio is considered by many advertisers as an ideal medium due to its ability to reach
specific target groups for example teenagers, racing followers or grocery buyers. Radio
advertising covers spot adverts (usually 15 or 30 seconds), promotions or talkback/RJ
discussions. Most radio stations offer packages which include production and extension of
the radio campaign through their websites.
Television
Television is a powerful advertising medium because it creates impact through sight, sound
and movement. However, the cost of producing the advertisement and procuring sufficient
air time to allow the campaign to work often makes it prohibitive for small businesses.
Direct mail
This is a broad category covering direct communication with the consumer through email,
post or fax. It can include newsletters, catalogues and letters.
Outdoor

This is any type of advertising which is done outdoors, including static advertising such as
billboards, backs of street benches and bus shelters or mobile advertising displayed on
buses, trains, taxis or towed signage.
Ambient
Refers to any form of advertising that occurs in a non-standard medium outside the home,
and usually where your consumers are likely to be. It’s limited only by imagination and
includes things like advertising on the back of shopping receipts or toilet doors at the
cinema, placing branded coasters at the local clubs, projecting onto buildings, advertising
inside lifts or distributing branded cups.

Cinema

We can purchase cinema advertising by individual cinemas or screens for a set amount of
screenings or ―runs‖. Most providers offer packages which include production and
screening of your advertisement
Point of sale
Advertising at the point where the consumer makes a purchase decision eg: floor stickers,
in-store digital advertising, shopping trolley signage, shelf or counter posters or playing
interviews about your product in store
.

Online
The options for online advertising continue to grow rapidly. They include advertising on
your website, advertising on other websites, creating links to your website from other
websites, publishing blogs, offering online product games, social networks and forums.
Directory listings
Many consumers use business directories to find a supplier. Directories include the yellow
or white pages, union directories, trade directories or local business directories.
2. Personal selling
It means selling products personally. It involves oral presentation of message in the form of
conversation with one or more prospective customers for the purpose of making sales.
Companies appoint salesperson to contact prospective buyers and create awareness about
the company’s product. Thus a salesperson plays three different roles
Be persuasive A service provider Be informative
3. Sales promotion
Sales promotion relates to short–term incentives or activities that encourage the purchase or
sale of a product or service. Sales promotions initiatives are often referred to as ―below the
line‖ activities.
The major sales promotion activities
Sales promotion activities can be targeted towards final buyers (consumer promotions),
business customers (business promotions), retailers and wholesalers (trade promotions) and
members of the sales force (sales force promotions). Here are some typical sales promotion
activities:
Consumer promotions
Point of purchase display material In-store demonstrations, samplings and celebrity
appearances Competitions, coupons, sweepstakes and games On-pack offers, multi-packs
and bonuses Loyalty reward programmes
Business promotions

Seminars and workshops Conference presentations Trade show displays

Telemarketing and direct mail campaigns Newsletters Event sponsorship Capability
documents
Trade promotions
Reward incentives linked to purchases or sales Reseller staff incentives Competitions
Corporate entertainment Bonus stock
Sales force promotions

Commissions Sales competitions with prizes or awards Back to top

4. Public relations
It is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual
understanding between an organisation (or individual) and its (or their) public.
Put more simply, public relations is about building good relations with the stakeholders
(public) of the business by obtaining favourable publicity, building a good corporate image
and handling or heading off unfavourable rumours, stories and events.
By building good relationships with the stakeholders, particularly customers, we can
generate
positive word of mouth and referrals from satisfied customers.
A stakeholder
Stakeholders are the various groups in a society which can influence or pressure your
business decision making and have an impact on its marketing performance. These groups
include:
Clients/customers Staff Shareholders Strategic partners Media Government
Local community Financial institutions Community groups
The main public relations tools
Typical public relations tools include:
News creation and distribution (media releases)Special events such as news conferences,
grand openings and product launchesSpeeches and presentationsEducational programs
Annual reports, brochures, newsletters, magazines and Audio–visual presentations
Community activities and sponsorships
 E. Negotiation
Negotiation is a process where two or more parties with different needs and goals discuss
an issue to find a mutually acceptable solution. In business, negotiation skills are important
in both informal day-to-day interactions and formal transactions such as negotiating
conditions of sale, lease, service delivery, and other legal contracts.
Good negotiations contribute significantly to business success, as they:
help in building better relationships deliver lasting, quality solutions - rather than poor
short-term solutions that do not satisfy the needs of either party help in avoiding future
problems and conflicts. Negotiation can be categorized in different ways, such as:

Integrative
Integrative negotiations are commonly referred to as ―win-win.‖ In this type of negotiation,
each side is working towards a solution where everyone wins something. They can make
tradeoffs, look at multiple issues, and try to expand the pie rather than divide it. Integrative
negotiations foster trust and good working relationships.
Distributive
Distributive negotiations are referred to as ―win-lose.‖ One party gets what they want, and
the other party has to give something up. This can be the case when you negotiate a lease on
office space, for example. If you feel like you got a good deal and the property manager had
to give something up for you, you ―won.‖ If you feel like the property manager had the
upper hand and you got ripped off, you ―lost.‖ The parties’ interests often seem to be
opposed (although this may not be the case once you look at things creatively), and so this
type of negotiation does not lead to lasting or positive relationships.
Inductive
The inductive method involves starting on small details and working upward until a
settlement is reached. This can be the case where, for example, an employer and labour
union are negotiating the details of an employee pension and investment plan. Small details
are addressed one at a time.
Deductive
Deductive negotiations start with an agreed upon strategy. They rely on established
principles and a formula to frame the negotiation while the parties work out the details.
Mixed
Mixed negotiations are the most common, they are a blend of inductive and deductive
methods.
F. Customer relations
CRM is the abbreviation for customer relationship management. It entails all aspects of
interaction that a company has with its customer, whether it is sales or service-related. It is
the process of carefully managing detailed information about individual customers in order
to manage loyalty.
CRM is often thought of as a business strategy that enables businesses to:
understand the customer retain customers through better customer experience
attract new customer win new clients and contracts increase profitability
decrease customer management costs
How CRM is used today
Customer relationship management solutions enable companies to provide excellent real-
time customer service through the effective use of individual account information. Based on
what they know about each valued customer, companies can customize market offerings,
services, programs, messages and media. CRM is important because a major driver of
company profitability is the aggregate value of the company’s customer base.
The impact of technology on CRM
Technology and the Web has changed the way companies approach CRM strategies because
advancement in technology have also changed consumer buying behavior and offers new
ways for companies to communicate with customers and collect data about them. With each
new advancement in technology—especially the proliferation of self-service channels like
the Web and smartphones, customer relationship is being managed electronically.
Many aspects of CRM relies heavily on technology; however the strategies and processes of
a good CRM system will collect, manage and link information about the customer with the
goal of letting you market and sell services effectively.
The benefits of CRM
The biggest benefit most businesses realize when moving to a CRM system comes directly
from having all your business data stored and accessed from a single location. Before CRM
systems, customer data was spread out over office productivity suite documents, email
systems, mobile phone data and even paper note cards. Storing all the data from all
departments (For example, sales, marketing, customer service and HR) in a central location
gives management and employees immediate access to the most recent data when they need
it. Departments can collaborate with ease and it helps organization to develop efficient
automated process to improve business processes.
Other benefits include a 360-degree view of all customer information, knowledge of what
customers and the general market wants and integration with your existing applications to
consolidate all business information.
G. Employee management

Employee relationship management is a process that companies use to effectively manage

all interactions with employees, ultimately to achieve the goals of the organisation. The
human resources department can play a critical role in this process, both in terms of training
and coaching managers and executives on how to effectively establish and nurture
relationships with employees and in measuring and monitoring those relationships to
determine whether objectives are being met.
Factors which lead to effective employee relationship
1. Identifying objectives
Employee relationship management is a general term that means a lot of different things
to a lot of different people. At the outset, it is important to define what is meant by
employee relationship management and, specifically, what areas of the relationship will
be managed. For most companies, relationship management centers around items like
attracting and retaining employees. Common measures of the effectiveness of these
relationships include time to hire, turnover and employee satisfaction.
2. Determining employee needs
It is not enough to assume that a company or even its HR professionals know what is
important to employees. Needs vary greatly depending on employee characteristics--age,
gender, etc. as well as the type of job being performed. It is a good idea to find out directly
from employees what their needs are. This can be done on one-on-one conversations that
take place informally throughout the year, during formal employee evaluation meetings
and through surveys and polls that can provide a quantitative indication of employee needs.
3. Balancing work and life needs
There is a widespread recognition in the 21st century that effective employee relationship
management requires consideration of the whole employee. That means taking steps to
ensure that the employee's work-life needs are well balanced. This can occur through
creative staffing that might involve part-time, flex–time or even off-site work assignments.
4. Open and honest communication
Communication is critical to establishing strong employee relationships. Managers must
be committed to communicating regularly and honestly with employees about the issues
that impact their work. The more open organizations can be, the more likely they are to
establish strong relationships that lead to increased loyalty and productivity among
employees and decreased turnover and dissatisfaction.
5. Measuring and monitoring results
Effective employee relationship management requires ongoing attention. That means that
managers and their HR departments should be alert at all times for signs of discontent,
which can be subjective, as well as carefully monitoring the results of more formal
assessments. These results should also be shared with employees. Too often employees are
asked to complete surveys and are not informed of the results - or what will be done with
the results.

6. Relationships are interpersonal

Ultimately, employee relationship management requires the same skills and processes
required to manage any relationship; a clear understanding of employees' needs and a
desire to meet those needs is foundational. Then steps must be taken to interact effectively
with employees through a variety of communication channels, both interpersonal and
formal (For example, intranet site, employee newsletters, etc.). Finally, measurement of the
effectiveness of these efforts should be frequent and ongoing, with improvements and
adjustments made when results are not showing continual improvement or satisfactory
levels of performance.
H. Vendor management
Vendors are individuals or businesses that supply goods or services to other individuals or
businesses. Vendor management is a term used to describe the process of finding, qualifying
and doing business with vendors. Common activities include researching vendors,
negotiating contracts, obtaining quotes, evaluating performance, creating and updating
vendor files, and ensuring that payments are made properly.
Once a business determines that it has a need that must be outsourced, vendor management
begins. The company must find one or more vendors that can supply the good or service
needed and evaluate each vendor based on pricing, capabilities, turn-around time, quality of
work, and company reputation. This process often entails requesting pricing, checking
references, and researching the company through online resources. It may also include
checking on the potential vendor’s financial stability, insurance, and certifications.
After vendors are selected, vendor management is a matter of managing a pool of vendors,
assigning jobs or contracts as needs arise, monitoring vendor performance, and ensuring
that contract terms are followed. In large companies, a vendor manager often has more than
one vendor in the pool for each type of product of service. Certain vendors might be
preferred, means that they are the first choice when a project arises. Others might be backup
vendors, who will be called upon if the preferred vendor cannot accept a given project or
fails to perform.
Vendor management often involves a great deal of electronic or manual paperwork. Many
accounts payable systems require vendors to be set up in a database. This might require
collection of vendor contact information, certificates of insurance and taxpayer identification
numbers. If the vendor will have access to proprietary or private information, a non-
disclosure or other such agreement must usually be signed and placed in the vendor files.
Many companies require vendor files to be updated annually, so a vendor manager will
need to ensure that current documents are obtained each year.
The term vendor management is usually used within the context of business operations, but
individuals may also need to manage vendors from time to time. A homeowner, for
example, may need to contract with a roofer or an interior designer; in this situation, he/she
will need to obtain bids, choose a vendor, monitor quality of work, and process payment,
just as a business would. Hair salons, insurance agents, childcare facilities, and similar
personal services are also examples of vendors with whom an individual might work
frequently.

Quality, timeliness and customer satisfaction

Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its
ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. A company that satisfies most of its customer
needs most of the time is called a quality company.
Impact of quality:
Product and service quality, customer satisfaction and company profitability are intimately
connected. Higher level of quality results in higher level of customer satisfaction, which
supports higher prices and (often) lower costs. Companies that have lowered costs to cut
corners have paid the price when the quality of the customer experience suffers.
Quality is clearly the key to value creation and customer satisfaction.
I. Business failure
Business failure refers to a company ceasing operations following its inability to make
a profit or to bring in enough revenue to cover its expenses. A profitable business can fail if
it does not generate adequate cash flow to meet expenses.
1. Lack of industry experience
Every business has an environment in which it operates. The internal resources of a firm
must match the needs of the environment to which the firm caters. Lack of experience in
the industry will lead to poor organization of a firm and its resources. The structure of the
industry in which the organisation operates substantially influences small firm
performance outcomes.
2. Inadequate financing
Financing is the lifeblood for growing a business whether in the start up phase or in a later
stage. Many businesses fail due to lack of proper financing channels. It is not a matter of
unavailability of funding, but the lack of planning for funding to support opportunities for
growth. Planning in advance, rather than looking for financing just when needed, is a
good practice. Trouble results when entrepreneurs do not have sufficient awareness of the
costs involved in raising capital, are not prepared with alternative sources in case of
rejection from financiers, fail to consider using a combination of debt and equity to fund the
business or, in general, fail to plan for growing their business to avoid the crisis of financing.
3. Lack of adequate cash flow
Cash flow is the measure of a firm’s ability to maintain sufficient funding to meet its
expenses for the day-to-day activities of the business. Many small businesses fail because
owners have a difficult time projecting what cash will come in every month, and thus,
how much can go out. It is vitally important for an entrepreneur to learn some basic
accounting disciplines and be able to make cash flow projections that will help them
understand how much they can afford to spend every month.
4. Poor business planning
Nine out of ten business failures are caused by a lack of general business management
skills and planning. A good business plan helps identify the mission; cost structure;
market; external influences; and strengths and weaknesses of a business. The business
plan can separately include a marketing plan, operating plan, etc.
5. Management incompetence
Ninety percent of business failures are associated with "management inadequacy", which
consist of either management inexperience or incompetence. Good management efficiently
implements and monitors the strategic and operational plan of a business. .A good strategic
plan is only good as the management's ability to implement changes in day to day
operations.

6. Ignoring the competition

Customers are always looking for the best deal, or at least, a better deal. And if the
competition offers better products, services, or prices, the customers will succeed at the
expense of the business. Keeping an eye on competitors and positioning the products
accordingly is vital to staying in business.
7. Unworkable goals
It is one thing to set goals and another thing to set workable goals. Entrepreneurial
initiatives are fundamentally influenced by uncertainty. Setting realistic goals, within the
bounds of acceptable risk taking and optimism, is important.
8. Diminished customer base
Competition can cause the customer base to diminish. From a small business's perspective,
it is good to focus on a customer strategy that works well for their business. At the same
time it is also dangerous to focus only on one recipe for success. Diversifying the customer
base is an important factor in building the business. Being flexible enough to adapt to new
trends and ideas is important for staying in business.
9. Uncontrolled growth
Uncontrolled growth of the business can also cause it to fail if not handled appropriately.
Obesity is a problem in business as it is in an individual's health. Proper planning must be
in place even for business growth. Successful growth requires a professional management
team, flexible organization, and proper systems and controls.
10. Inappropriate location
The old real estate maxim - location, location, location - may be even truer in the small
business world. Even the best-run retail establishment will have a difficult time
succeeding if it is in a poor location. Location may not be applicable to all types of
businesses, but when it is, it may be critically important.

11. Poor system of control

While setting proper goals to manage the business, a system of controls is also needed to
measure performance. Checks and metrics help owners manage organizational activities.
A firm cannot control the external factors affecting its environment such as customers and
competitors but it can adapt its internal organizational activities. A lack of proper control
on internal activities can eventually lead to business failure. Controls can be implemented
in several aspects of the business. Controls can be set in place to measure the quality and
quantity of production. Certain financial controls are needed to measure the overall
financial performance of the business. A good control system will establish standards,
measure performance, compare performance against standards and then provide for a
way to correct procedures where needed.
12. Lack of entrepreneurial skills
Mostly during the start up phase of a new business, lack of entrepreneurial skills in an
owner can cause a business to fail. This may not be true during the later growth and
maturity periods of business where more administrative and management skills are
required. A small firm's performance outcome is a function of many variables, including
individual owner characteristics, owner behaviour, and environmental influences.
Entrepreneurs generally have a high need for achievement and social awareness, and they
are high risk takers. Consequently, the personal and personality characteristics of an
owner can be the cause of business failure.

Case Study-II
Subhiksha
Subhiksha was founded in 1997 by R. Subramanian, an IIT-IIM graduate. It
operated over 1600 outlets selling groceries, fruits, vegetables, medicines and
mobile phones and positioned itself as value retail chain. It adopted strategy to cut
price, focus on lower and upper middle class, and opened shops near catchment
area of customers. It started with one store in Chennai and within a short span the
count reached to 1600 outlets (2008).

Why did Subhiksha super market fail?

Rapid store expansion in various formats like groceries, medicines, mobiles,
electronics, consumer durables and IT without sufficient fund in hand.
Operated on very slim or zero margins resulting in higher cash outflow whereas
inflows were almost nil.
Not much attention to customer service resulted in bad quality service at store
level.
Downstream supply chain was not integrated resulting in lower fill rates and
customer dissatisfaction.
Expanded business through debt (` 7500million debt).
In October, 2008 the company did not have enough funds to manage its
operations.
Poor inventory management resulted in defective inventory, breakages, lower fill
days and pile up inventory.

The 12 broad causes that lead to a business failure are summarized below.
Case Study-III
[Link]
[Link] launched in the autumn of 1999 sold branded fashion apparel over the Internet.
The company spent $135 million of venture capital in just 18 months and it was placed into
receivership on 18 May 2000 and liquidated. The fundamental problem was that the
company was following an extremely aggressive growth plan, launching simultaneously in
multiple European countries. This plan was founded on the assumption of the ready
availability of venture capital money to see the company through the first few years of trading
until sales caught up with operating expenses. Such capital ceased to be available for all
practical purposes in the second quarter of 2000 following dramatic falls in the NASDAQ
presaging the ―dot crash‖ following the Dot-com bubble. [Link]‘s sales did not match
expectations, partly due to a higher-than-expected
rate of product returns (a service that was offered for free, but charged for by their logistics
supplier Deutsche Post)

Case Study-IV
Chrysler
Top management in all divisions overspent, especially in new product development, and
generous union contracts were continually signed year after year. Vehicle prices soared with
little consumer incentives and franchised dealers were placed in the position of moving
product which consumers didn‘t want.
The Chrysler Crossfire, when introduced was fine but had many mechanical problems, as
did the Sebring. When the PT Cruisers came out, the marketing was great but the assembly
lines couldn‘t keep up with the demand and many turned to other manufactures who were
tired of waiting for PT Cruisers to hit showroom floors. Too many product lines were dropped
or modified leaving Chrysler fans up in arms. Loyal Jeep owners weren‘t pleased with the
stoppage of the base Cherokee. Still, spending continued with little concern for regaining
profits to pay expenses. In the end, Chrysler, LLC was forced through a bankruptcy
restructuring and now ownership is very diverse including the entering Fiat. Still, brand
loyalty for Chrysler is at an all time low.

Case Study-V
Corfam Fake Leather
In the 1960s the company DuPont promoted Corfam, a fake leather substitute. They used
the material for women shoes but didn‘t take into account comfort. The product was although
cheaper but was very uncomfortable. Competitors responded by lowering the price of leather
and increasing the quality and so the need for a fake substitute was lost and Corfam failed.

Case Study-VI
Blockbuster
This case study also applies to lack of agility but it‘s essentially location that has led to the
downfall of Blockbuster. The company that delivers movies to 15 million doorsteps these
days isn‘t Blockbuster — the retail chain that once dominated the industry — but an upstart,
Netflix, that used little more than a website and knowledge of the postal service to topple a
far more powerful and wealthy rival.
The place for a video rental store these days is not on the high street but on the internet.
Some fundamental rules changed and Blockbuster didn‘t get it fast enough. Whatever
performance yardstick Blockbuster was using to measure business success and guide
strategic planning underestimated the impact of the change.
Case Study-VII
Google Wave
Google Wave started out with a bang. An Internet giant like Google doesn‘t need to market
its product, because a lot of influential internet users are willing to do that for them and that
too for free. The reason behind this is that Google has made a reputation of a company
which makes products and services that revolutionise the way we use the internet. Google
wanted to enter the booming social media market and wanted to compete with social media
giants like Facebook and Twitter.
The concept behind Google Wave was to start a social form of Gmail, where a group of
people can communicate with each other in a single thread and can post videos, images and
files in real time. It was the amalgamation of chat, file sharing and social networking.

Months before being launched, articles from sites like Techcrunch and Mashable gave us a
sneak peek to the new application and showed us what the application had in store for us. It
was such an interesting concept that Twitter was flooded with tweets minutes after the news
was out.
Google Wave was launched with a lot of speculation. It started out as an invite only
application and the first users who got an invitation were the ones using Sandbox. In the first
few weeks, everybody was dying to get their hands on the new product by Google. Many
weeks have gone by and Google Wave has opened their gates to everyone. But as the
mystery of the Google Wave has unfolded, it has turned out that Google Wave has failed
expectations. The reasons why Google Wave failed are manifold, and the major ones are:
1. Too much conversation: In Google Wave, any user can comment on any part of the
thread. The problem occurs when multiple users comment at the same time. And think of a
situation when you receive 5 chats in one second. For a normal human being, it is a really
difficult task to follow these many conversations in a very short span of time. And in the
end, it results into a heap of chats which resembles more like a trash bin. Yes, one can use
the playback feature to replay chats, but it would be an arduous task to read and follow all
these waves.
2. Prone to excessive spamming: If one has another person‘s Google Wave id, he/she can
easily add the other user and can wave at him/her. This feature makes it a heaven for
spammers. As one can wave at anybody, waving can become a spammer‘s paradise. Being
constantly waved by spammers makes the Google Wave experience even worse.
3. Real time chatting: A unique feature of Google Wave is to chat in real time. In this real
time chat, one user can see what other user is typing at that particular moment and it is not
clear why this feature is required. It has no usefulness, but yes it just increases the chances
of getting noticed for making spelling mistakes.
4. Applications affect load time: Gmail is known for its light design and fast loading
capability. But Google Wave works the other way around. The ability to add applications
and extensions to Google Wave, instead of being a useful feature, acts as a hindrance in the
overall loading of the Waves.