CASE ONE
In 2014, Twitter, the online messaging platform, was face to face with some difficult choices. Share value had halved in the past year and many believed that the social network had peaked at around 20 percent of the size of Facebook. Twitter has been trying to find ways to boost the amount of time that users spend on the platform. It was actively looking to acquire online music services and, according to many, had set its sights on both SoundCloud, valued at $700 million, and Spotify, valued at $4 billion. In acquiring new and successful businesses such as those that offer music streaming services, Twitter would not only be enjoying its largest acquisition to date, but would also be securing new areas for growth. Acquisitions are, however, not new for Twitter. It bought the start-up Vine, a video-clip sharing service, in 2012, and recently acquired Gnip, a provider of social data. The problem is that Twitter is not profitable and may not have large sums of cash to acquire a music service. Explain which product/market expansion grid strategy Twitter is using in order to keep up with competitors like Apple and Facebook.
Discuss whether organic growth is more sustainable or whether companies should keep pushing their growth by acquiring other companies.
CASE TWO
Every second of every day, personal information is being indexed and processed. Every device we use has a unique address that is being broadcast if wireless networking is switched on. Many of us do not even realize that programs exist to find every picture you have ever posted online. Such programs can also pinpoint exactly where you were when you uploaded them. If you haven’t set the right privacy settings, it is fairly easy to find out exactly where you live, your habits, and when you are at home and when you are out. Some services are specifically designed to scare people about the information they are unintentionally leaking to the world, such as pleaserobme.com. This shows you whether you are sharing your location and prompts you to change your privacy settings. Make a detailed list of all the websites, online forums, social networks, and other web pages you have visited this week. What data have you left that could be of value to marketers? Monetizing relevant data is the key to revealing its true value. Should marketers have access to the personal information of billions of people who use the Internet? Discuss how you would use data trails left by individuals on the Internet if you ran a business.
CASE THREE
As a delivery company, no one delivers better than Domino’s. Its reputation for hot pizza in 30 minutes or less is ingrained in customers’ minds. But not long ago, Domino’s began hearing its customers talking about how its pizza was horrible. As a company that has long focused on solid marketing intelligence to make decisions, Domino’s went to work on how it could change consumer perceptions about its pizza. Through marketing research techniques, Domino’s soon realized that it had to take a very risky step and completely recreate the pizza that it had been selling for over 40 years. delivery service.
Explain the role that marketing research played in the creation and launch of Domino’s new pizza. Are there more effective ways that Domino’s could have gone about its research process?
Why did it take so long for Domino’s to realize that customers didn’t like its pizza? Was it an accident that it made this realization?
