Case Studies

Featured Case Studies

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Transforming LEDVANCE: Lighting for the Smart Home and Global IoT Marketplace Matthew Quint

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What strategic direction should LEDVANCE take to optimize the opportunities presented by the proliferation of Smart Home products and the prospect of integrating its lighting products to the Internet of Things?

LEDVANCE was a leader in general lighting, with $2 billion in annual revenue. It manufactured light-emitting diode (LED) lamps, LED luminaires, Smart Home and Smart Building products and related software, and traditional lighting products. The firm’s end customers included corporations, governments, professionals, and individual consumers around the globe. In June 2018, rapid technological changes were creating great opportunities as lighting products integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT). If the company was to achieve its ambitious re-branding goal to “redefine the role of light in a connected world,” an updated corporate strategy was needed. In this case, students will be introduced to the Smart Home and smart lighting category, its competitive landscape, the growth potential, and the anticipated trends and challenges… and asked to identify where LEDVANCE should invest, which tech firms to collaborate with, and how to develop the brand for future growth.

To order this case study, please visit the CaseWorks website.

SAP logo

Run Marketing as a Business: The Transformation of SAP Marketing Matthew Quint

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Like many businesses, technology-leader SAP faced major challenges at the turn of the last decade. Competition in the IT sector was evolving to be leaner and more targeted. Customers were becoming more knowledgeable, demanding, and price sensitive. SAP's image was quickly becoming outdated, and there was a growing rift between employees and upper management that threatened to pull the organization apart. This case study delves into how SAP's leadership worked to reinvigorate the company and how SAP Marketing evolved into a department focused on culture and ROI-driven results.
In order to bring SAP technology to 1 billion people, SAP Marketing needed to revamp the way SAP branded itself. CMO Jonathan Becher began driving a new platform that leveraged the art and science of marketing. "Think business first, marketing second. From that comes a mantra that marketing is a business, not just a division that supports a business."
>> DOWNLOAD Run Marketing as a Business Part I and Part II.

samsung 
 

Samsung's Next Frontier Bernd Schmitt

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Point-and-shoot cameras are wonderfully convenient, but they've always had a nagging issue: there is no way to tell whether you've framed yourself well when holding the camera for a self portrait.
In Samsung's Next Frontier, Bernd Schmitt examines the inspiration for and launch of the first camera in the world to tackle this problem: Samsung's 2View which has display screens on both the front and back of the camera. Written in a format "akin to a New Yorker article," Schmitt takes the reader through both the customer insight process that led to this innovative new camera, and Samsung's broader interest in transforming itself from a purely engineering-driven company to a consumer-driven company as well.
Download the case here.
To order this case study, please visit the CaseWorks website.

Woori Financial Group

Woori Financial Group:
Becoming a World-Class Organization through OneDo

Hun-Joon Park, Dong-il Jung and Bernd Schmitt

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The case describes the plans of Mr. Pal-Seung Lee, Chairman and CEO of Woori Finance Holdings, South Korea's largest financial group, to turn his organization into one of Asia's top 10 financial institutions. In response to the global financial crisis, Woori Finance Holdings had launched its OneDo program to transform the group into a low-cost, highly-efficient and innovative organization. What role could OneDo play now in Mr. Lee's goal of becoming a leader in financial services industry in Asia?

Download the case: Click here

All case studies

Kate Spade New York:
Will Expansion Deepen or Dilute the Brand?

Keith Wilcox and Eva Ascarza
In 2012 Kate Spade New York’s executive management believed that KSNY’s brand equity could be further leveraged to benefit from explosive growth in the global luxury accessories market. Tasked to provide input on how to achieve this goal, the marketing team considered both how to expand the demographics of their customer base and how to brand any new products designed to target these new customers. Based in part on the company’s own market research and interviews with President and Chief Marketing Officer Mary Beech, this case asks students to consider the course of action that would allow KSNY to preserve its established brand identity while continuing to grow sales among its loyal customer base. Order the case.


Woori Financial Group:
Becoming a World-Class Organization through OneDo

Hun-Joon Park, Dong-il Jung and Bernd Schmitt
The case describes the plans of Mr. Pal-Seung Lee, Chairman and CEO of Woori Finance Holdings, South Korea's largest financial group, to turn his organization into one of Asia's top 10 financial institutions. In response to the global financial crisis, Woori Finance Holdings had launched its OneDo program to transform the group into a low-cost, highly-efficient and innovative organization. What role could OneDo play now in Mr. Lee's goal of becoming a leader in financial services industry in Asia? Download the case.


Cheyef Halak: Driving Social Change in Lebanon
Asim Ansari, Kamel Jedidi, Ziad Naamani (MBA '12), Scott Shriver, and
Olivier Toubia
In 2011, Lebanese television station LBCI partnered with Impact BBDO to develop Cheyef Halak, a marketing and social media program that aimed to create meaningful social change in Lebanon. The first campaign, which targeted the chaos of road traffic in Lebanon, captured the imagination of Lebanese population. But how should the impact of the campaign be measured? And what were the linkages between the traditional advertising venues and the social media that were employed. Order the case at Columbia CaseWorks.


Samsung's Next Frontier
Bernd Schmitt
Point-and-shoot cameras are wonderfully convenient, but they've always had a nagging issue: there is no way to tell whether you've framed yourself well when holding the camera for a self portrait.
In Samsung's Next Frontier, Bernd Schmitt examines the inspiration for and launch of the first camera in the world to tackle this problem: Samsung's 2View which has display screens on both the front and back of the camera. Written in a format "akin to a New Yorker article," Schmitt takes the reader through both the customer insight process that led to this innovative new camera, and Samsung's broader interest in transforming itself from a purely engineering-driven company to a consumer-driven company as well. Download the case.
To order this case study please visit the CaseWorks website.


SAP: Building a Leading Technology Brand
Bernd Schmitt and David Rogers
In 2000, SAP hired Martin Homlish to transform marketing worldwide and spearhead a strategic branding initiative. Homlish's challenges were to align the organization and communicate the brand consistently, as well as to build a brand strong and flexible enough to continually support changing business objectives. Homlish established SAP Global Marketing, based in New York City, and launched a comprehensive effort to build a powerful global brand.
This effort has produced impressive results for SAP. According to BusinessWeek's annual brand rankings, the value of the brand rose $2.86 billion, or 46 percent, between 2000 and 2005, making SAP the only software company to gain brand value for five years in a row.
The complete case study is available for download here: Part A Part B.
 

The Rise of Switzerland's Oldest Bank
Bernd Schmitt
Founded in 1741, Wegelin & Co. is Switzerland's oldest bank and renowned today as a key player in the Swiss private banking market. In April 2009 Managing Partner Dr. Konrad Hummler reflected on Wegelin & Co.'s growth over the last 18 years and considered the opportunities and threats facing the bank in the midst of the financial crisis. To request copies for academic use contact: [email protected]


Yuhan-Kimberly: "Keep Korea Green"
Dae Ryun Chang and Bernd Schmitt
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, which at one time helped companies to differentiate themselves, are now expected practices, and distinguishing a company through "green initiatives" is a particularly high hurdle. A new case study, co-authored by our own Bernd Schmitt, examines how these challenges are impacting the Yuhan-Kimberly Corporation, and what strategies the company is considering in response.
Yuhan-Kimberly built a reputation for trailblazing CSR by instituting its "Keep Korea Green" tree planting initiative back in 1984. In today's world, however, this lone CSR effort feels tired, competitors have launched similar "green" programs and, as a paper products company, its very credibility as "green" has been called into question. To order this case study please visit the CaseWorks website.


Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
Bernd Schmitt
After many years of changing leadership, internal conflict, dismal reviews and organizational instability, by early 2008 the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) had transitioned into an independent foundation with new artistic and business leadership. The recently appointed CEO Pal-Seung Lee reflected on SPO's transition and pondered what the best next steps for the organization should be. Its artistic promise was no longer the question. Yet what could CEO Lee do to push the orchestra to reach its full potential so that SPO could shine for Korea, and for the world-wide artistic community? To order this case study please visit the CaseWorks website.


BRITE Case Series


The Launch of the Indian Premier League
Rajeev Kohli, Professor, Marketing
This case concerns a series of innovations in 20/20 cricket, culminating in the formation of the Indian Cricket League last year. The objective of the case is to present facts leading up to the proposal of the Indian Cricket League in response to an unheralded Indian team winning the 20/20 world cup in 2007. To order this case study please visit the CaseWorks website.


How Much are adidas's Three Stripes Worth?: adidas vs. Payless
and its $300 Million Verdict
Michel Tuan Pham, Kravis Professor of Business, Marketing
For years, Payless ShoeSource had sold millions of athletic shoes bearing two or four stripes that appeared to resemble the three stripes on adidas shoes. In 2006 adidas filed a lawsuit against Payless for trademark infringement and dilution. At the heart of the case was whether the Payless shoes were likely to be confused with adidas shoes. A long jury trial resulted in a $300 million verdict against Payless, the largest award in trademark litigation history. Did the jury make the right decision? To order this case study please visit the CaseWorks website.


How to Better Value Branded Businesses
Natalie Mizik, Gantcher Associate Professor of Business, Marketing
This research brief describes existing business valuation methodologies, explains why traditional valuation approaches perform poorly for highly branded businesses and in high technology and innovation focused industries, and presents a new method and a quantitative case study with step-by-step explanation of how to implement a better valuation for a branded business.


Scrabulous on Facebook
Rajeev Kohli, Professor, Marketing
In 2005, the Agarwalla brothers created the first major Facebook application, taking their online version of Scrabble to a social network. But when Facebook fans began to flock to Scrabulous, Hasbro, the board game's manufacturer, took notice and wondered if they should let Scrabulous alone, buy it, file a lawsuit for copyright infringement, or launch their own official version of Scrabble on Facebook. Meanwhile, across the oceans in Calcutta, the Agarwalla brothers pondered their next move. This case requires students to (1) examine the differences in business models for online versus standard board games (and Web 2.0 applications in general); (2) assess the outcome and consequences of the legal actions by Mattel and Hasbro; and (3) propose the appropriate branding and product development strategies for the Agarwallas, Mattel and Hasbro. To order this case study please visit the CaseWorks website.


Examining the need to reposition an advertising agency
Bernd Schmitt
This case will feature an examination of the changing world of the advertising business as exemplified by Japan's third largest ad agency, ADK, which is part of the WPP network. ADK's top management must consider how to positition the agency for the future given the rise of new media and social networks.

Featured White Papers

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Showrooming and the Rise of the Mobile-Assisted Shopper
Matthew Quint, David Rogers, and Rick Ferguson

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The Columbia Brand Center and Aimia surveyed 3,000 leading-edge consumers ("M-Shoppers") in 3 countries, who represent the "omni-channel" future of retail to discover how smartphones assist their in-store shopping:

  • 21% of consumers are M-Shoppers: using mobile devices to asisst in-store shopping
  • Mobile devices can actually improve the chances of an in-store purchase
  • Price isn’t always the most important factor in consumer decisions to "showroom"


Click here to download.

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Marketing ROI in the Era of Big Data
David Rogers and Prof. Don Saxton

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At the BRITE '12 conference the Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association (NYAMA)'s unveiled their BRITE-NYAMA Marketing Measurement in Transition Study entitled, Marketing ROI in the Era of Big Data.

The aim of the study was to gain a better understanding of changing practices among large corporate marketers in the following areas: data collection and usage, marketing measurement and ROI, and the integration of digital and traditional marketing.

In surveying 253 marketing executives from large corporations, the study found both widespread adoption of new digital tools, and support for the use of new data to drive marketing decisions and measure marketing ROI. However, significant gaps exist between desire and execution as companies strive to measure marketing ROI. The overall picture of marketing by large corporations revealed significant need for improvements in the use of data, the measurement of digital marketing, and the assessment of marketing ROI.
Click here to download the study.
Click here for the full press release.
Click here to read the coverage in AdAge (March 12, 2012).

Who Should Invest in a dotBRAND?

Who Should Invest in a dotBRAND?
Matthew Quint

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A new frontier in the internet is about to open. Website names will expand from mere .COMs and .NETs to full-fledged names like .WINE and .HOLLYWOOD, and brands like .CANON and .DELOITTE. In January 2012, organizations began applying for the chance to own a dotBRAND domain name instead of just registering for a dotCOM website.

Global brand owners, industry associations, and internet entrepreneurs faced an important decision about how they should react to this new opportunity. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) application process was only open for a four month window and the next opportunity to apply will be several years from now.

While critical discussions about the overall societal value and fairness of this program are viable and important discussions to have, this white paper focused on the fundamental attributes of the program as well as some of the strategic business and branding issues an applicant would need to consider. The goal was to help support companies in making a business case for owning a top-level domain name (TLD), and many elements of this paper are relevant as ICANN's new TLD program continues to move forward.
Click here to download the study (.pdf).

 The American Male's Evolving

The American Male's Evolving
Taste for Luxury Goods

Peter Skeadas '12 and Michael Ghory '12

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Until the late 1990s, the luxury goods market -- broadly referred to as the segment of goods that are non-essential but make life more enjoyable -- skewed towards women who accounted for 65% of the market. After a decade of social and economic change, this skew is gradually disappearing.

According to Bain & Company, men now account for 40% of the total luxury goods market and 50% of luxury apparel. In 2009, men spent as much as women on luxury leather goods (bags, luggage and small leather goods, and belts). Now, across all categories, the luxury men's market is outperforming women's. This change represents a shifting paradigm, a transformation that is rooted in the evolving sophistication of the American male consumer.

This paper addresses this change and offers strategic recommendations to retailers looking to adapt to a growing men's luxury apparel market.
Click here to download paper (.pdf).