Book Review: Rajiv Joshi,Cases in Marketing and Strategy

This is a collection of nine management teaching/decision cases spanning a range of industries, which is aimed at strategy or marketing management educators in universities/institutes or executive education programmes. All the cases, except one, are from India and are of recent origin. All the cases seem to have been compiled from secondary data with the necessary acknowledgements.

Dr Rajiv Joshi is a faculty member with expertise and teaching experience in Marketing, Strategy, Entrepreneurship and General Management at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI), Ahmedabad. He is a member of various professional bodies, according to the blurb on the back cover of the book.

As mentioned before, the cases are from various sectors in the economy: banking, aviation, coffee retail (two), two-wheeler manufacturing, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) (two), executive education and mobile services. The cases vary widely in length: the first two occupy 40 and 32 pages, respectively, whereas the last two are only eight pages long. Each case is mapped to one or more academic/vocational programme(s) and concepts/teaching points. A list of questions for discussion for each case has also been appended by the author. It is not very clear from where the teaching notes to the cases would be available to educators.

The first case is on IndusInd Bank, a new-generation non-institution-promoted private sector bank, which was under a turnaround attempt starting in 2007–2008. The bank had suffered reverses earlier and a team was appointed to turn the bank around. Around 2010–2011, these attempts had borne fruit, but there were new challenges on the horizon. The case demands a reasonable understanding of financial management and the banking industry and can be used profitably in executive education programmes aimed at practicing bankers.

The second case is about the successful low-cost Indian carrier in the aviation sector, Indigo, as it was contemplating its initial public offering (IPO) in 2010. There were also questions on Indigo’s global expansion as a low-cost carrier, and venturing into related areas such as hospitality. Not surprisingly, this has been identified by the author as predominantly a strategy case (with marketing concepts such as service quality playing a role), where concepts such as Porter’s generic strategies, value chain, low-cost strategy and service operations would constitute teaching points. The case is very detailed and well written. The success of Indigo has been attributed to certain factors, one of them being service quality. It would probably be apt for educators to introduce service quality concepts and scales, such as SERVQUAL, to students before the case is discussed to understand this aspect of Indigo.

Coffee retail forms the subject of the third case. The case is set around 2011, when coffee retailing in India was attracting a number of players, including international big names, such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, along with established national ones, such as Café Coffee Day. Again, this is primarily a strategy case, with a bit of marketing (retail management) thrown in. Some of the challenges identified in the case are whether to pursue a low-cost (‘mass’) or differentiation (‘class’) strategy (Porter’s generic strategies), negotiating the global economic downturn and procuring real estate. Although the case expresses the hope towards the end of the case that there is likely to be a place for every player, obviously they need to cater to various segments of the market. In this regard, a section on the prospective client’s psychographics and demographics that would help in the segmentation and targeting exercise would have been helpful. Otherwise, the case is well written.

Royal Enfield, the iconic motorbike brand forms the subject of the fourth case. This is predominantly a marketing case with consumer behaviour including branding as its theme. Enfield was not a utilitarian (‘commuter’) bike—the dominant segment in India. Instead, it offered the rider a biking experience similar to a Harley Davidson in the West at a comparatively lesser cost. But this segment was a very small one in India. The case is set around 2010 when Enfield had to take decisions regarding exports vis-à-vis serving the domestic market, reengineering existing products to suit contemporary tastes and sizeable segments and marketing communications. This can be used as a strategy case as well since the basic dilemma here is the question on remaining a ‘differentiated’ product at a somewhat higher price or becoming a ‘cost’ player, and also geographical focus—dilemmas that Porter’s generic strategies and Ansoff’s Product Market Diversification Matrix address.

The fifth case discusses the introduction of the hand sanitizer, an alternative to soaps, that was a new product category in India around 2010–2011. The category was valued at about a measly ₹250 million but was growing rapidly. Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) taking advantage of the dormant demand had introduced a hand sanitizer called ‘Godrej Protekt’. The case has broadly been positioned as a consumer behaviour case with an emphasis on branding and promotional strategies. However, there is an opportunity to use this case to illustrate new product diffusion using the diffusion of innovation theory. It would be apt for instructors to introduce the concept of product ‘innovators’ and ‘imitators’ in the context of diffusion of innovative products. The fact that Himalaya Healthcare used physicians to influence potential users (an instance of word-of-mouth promotion from an opinion leader) would be more meaningful to students in such a case. It would also be instructive for students to engage in a discussion on diffusion of this product in the West vis-à-vis India and the socio-economic and cultural variables that influence the process.

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), an Indian business conglomerate that had grown briskly in the first decade of the twenty-first century through diversifications, international acquisitions and joint ventures, is the subject of the sixth case. Consequently, it needed competent managers with cross-cultural and cross-functional skills. The Mahindra Management Development Centre (MMDC) was set up with a view to develop and promote such skills. The case outlines the strategic challenges before M&M and the role of MMDC in that regard. However, this case could probably have used more details in terms of certain metrics—for instance, the exact way to compute customer promoter and employee promoter score (p. 158) could have been illustrated with an example. That would have been interesting.

According to the most popular text on marketing management at the masters level, a symbol (a logo is a symbol) is an inalienable component of a brand. Hence, changing a logo can be seen as akin to changing the brand identity, and for obvious reasons can have unexpected effects. This is the subject of the seventh case (the only one that is not an Indian case) and deals with the attempt of the iconic coffee retail chain Starbucks’ attempt at unveiling a new logo in January 2011. The firm had taken into cognizance unsuccessful attempts in the past, for instance, by Gap, to change logos but nonetheless went ahead with the plan. The case exhorts learners to mull on the possible consequences of this. Educators can introduce a concept such as Jennifer Aaker’s brand personality here and explain the logo change in terms of a brand’s changing requirements.

The eighth case is on the flagship soap brand of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCLG), Santoor, aimed at Indian women aspiring to look younger. The management was contemplating brand extension. This has clearly been positioned as a consumer behaviour/brand management case. However, the case can have important lessons for students of strategy as well. Wipro follows a strategic business unit (SBU) format. Further, it has been mentioned that Santoor grew by 29 per cent by value in fiscal year 2008–2009 against an industry growth rate of 10 per cent (p. 191). Clearly, Santoor was gnawing at the market share of competitors. One can use a strategic tool such as the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix to strategize for the consumer goods’ SBU of Wipro vis-à-vis other SBUs of Wipro (admittedly, Santoor is only one consumer good among others), provided such data are available.

The last case discusses the fourth of the 4 P’s of marketing that is often neglected in marketing literature, pricing. Uninor, a mobile service provider in 13 telecom circles in India, in June 2010 was a joint venture between Telenor, Norway and Unitech, India. It had hit upon an idea called ‘Dynamic Pricing Plan’ wherein customers calling from less-congested tower areas got ‘discounts’. This was a differentiation strategy; but would it sustainable if it became the industry standard? (Uninor hoped that it would.) The case could have discussed pricing strategies of Uninor’s competitors in some detail, thus providing more background to discussion points.

The case method of teaching is now widely used in postgraduate management education, including in India. However, there are two points that need to be emphasized. An MBA participant has to come prepared with a reading of cases prior to discussion, and on many occasions the total reading far exceeds what is reasonably possible. The present author can say from personal and peer experience that it is almost impossible to complete 100-odd pages of reading in a single evening, but occasionally the reading list demands that. Hence, it is desirable that teaching cases be written within word limits, and some journals do have such limits. Hence, there is a need to optimize between case facts and parsimony. Second, the author could have developed a few cases from the non-traditional sectors of the economy, such as the voluntary sector, that is often neglected. Future editions can incorporate such cases. Overall, one can say that the book provides a reasonable reference to marketing and strategy educators for recent Indian cases.