Question

In this simulation, you are assigned the role of Senior Vice President for Marketing at Enhanced Analytics, Inc., a provider of marketing and consulting services, with headquarters in Austin, Texas. In this role, you report directly to the CEO of the company and are responsible for decision-making and marketing strategy. You oversee a department with 25 employees at the company. The CEO of the company has informed you at the weekly executive meeting that Premier Drinks of Sofia, Bulgaria - a key client of Enhanced Analytics, Inc. - has reported a drop in sales, despite an expensive and carefully managed marketing campaign produced by your department. The management of Premier Drinks reports increased competition in the soft drink market in Bulgaria. Two companies - one from Poland and one from Germany - have recently established operations in the country. You were already aware of the trends in the local competitive environment from the periodic reports received from your campaign manager in Bulgaria. You have also studied the marketing efforts of some of your client's competitors and continue to believe that your campaign, particularly the promotional and pricing strategy adopted, is superior. The managers of Premier Drinks suspect that their local competitors have made payments to some of the local officials in exchange for an opportunity to sell their products in local government buildings and at sporting events, many of which have been off-limits to Premier Drinks. This lack of access has put a dent in the sales figures of Premier Drinks, and the company is now seeking guidance from Enhanced Analytics as to how to proceed. The executive team of Enhanced Analytics, led by the CEO, will be meeting to review options, next week. In your own words, prepare a report for the company's executives, containing the following sections (do not worry about being right or wrong; simply offer your perspective on the company’s situation and your recommendation):

3. Decision Options - an outline of 4 specific courses of action / decisions that your client can make to solve the problem. The purpose of this section is to get a clear overview of the options available to management. Because the company has limited resources, management will have to pick the best option

4. Decision - a clear recommendation, outlining which one of the 4 options is the best

5. Justification - a clear, concise justification of your decision from #4

Answer 1

#3. The situation at hand looks tough for Premier Drinks. But the situation can be controlled through a well thought and properly executed plan.Below are the few actions that can be taken to improve the current situation:

1. Look out for partnerships: Premier Drinks should look out for partnerships to sale their products. Premier Drinks can tie up with:

• Retail Giants like Walmart, Amazon, etc. to increase their product availability and placement to boost sales. These tie will also help in bringing in supply chain operation efficiency eliminating redundant roles and positions thereby reducig costs
• Sponsor sport teams and local events
• Other manufacturers from different field like Nissin, Kissan to offer promotional products
• Restaurants for combo offers

2. Work on the business model and operations to look out for efficiencies that can be brought in. With decreasing revenues, costs can be controlled to improve the profit figures

3. Invest on the production line. What that mean is to include new flavors and variants of the existing products that are available in the market

4. Trust the campaign and wait for the results. The campaign was designed with the local competition in mind. So campaign will eventually take care of all the problems in hand. We just need to be little patient and wait for the campaign to yield results. Till then we further optimize and fine tune the campaign

#4. The first option to look out for new partnerships will help in enhancing the sales figures

#5. Since the major problem at hand is increasing local competition. New playere are entering into the market, payments being made to local officials, etc. New partnerships will definetly open new channels of sales, thus bringing in additional revenue. Also partnerships will protect Premier Drinks from future competion as well