This Case Study introduces students to KFC and its franchise operations. It considers the employment brand, U+KFC and its alignment with KFC’s strong company culture. The Case Study examines the way human resource management has been adapted to meet the changing needs of KFC.
As a result of reading this Case Study students should be able to:
The fast food revolution commenced in Australia in April 196Since launching the first restaurant in Sydney, with a staff of just 25, KFC has grown to 600 stores in Australia and New Zealand.
A company culture describes the way a company’s owners and employees think, feel and act. KFC company culture is a direct result of the company’s vision and values.
In 2007 the U + KFC brand was launched. This is a specific employment brand used for recruitment, training and careers.
KFC has developed an e-recruitment tool which gives potential employees the ability to apply for a job online.
KFC, like the YUM! parent organisation, has a strong focus on building people capability.
KFC has elevated ‘the power of its people’ as its secret ingredient for success.
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From: | Edition 6 |
This Case Study will profile how the Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has established four principles that provide the basis for a successful, sustainable business and benefits to the wider society. As a result of reading this Case Study, the student should be able to:
How much do you know about insurance? Insurance is a financial safeguard against the unexpected.
The easiest way to understand the basic elements of insurance and risk management is to look at a particular area of insurance.
IAG has developed a socially responsible business around the four principles identified.
Insurance Australia Group Limited is a successful Australasian public company.
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From: | Edition 1 |
This Case Study highlights the development process of a leading telecommunications and Internet company that has resulted in a range of successful and innovative products.
As a result of reading this Case Study, students should be able to:
What's new in Internet and telephones? How fast can broadband go as a technology?
Before we begin to examine the process of managing and developing product ideas we need to understand certain factors in iiNet's external environment.
Let us examine three major products to highlight how iiNet's objective to develop innovative communication solutions is met: broadband, VoIP and phone.
iiNet's website www.iinet.net.au plays a vital role in the marketing of its products.
The development of innovative products is the key ingredient in the success of companies in the telecommunications and technology sector.
Heinz Wattie's is one of the most recognised and successful brands in New Zealand. Product innovation and understanding consumer trends are at the heart of the company's success in an increasingly competitive market.
As a result of reading this Case Study, students should be able to:
There are few aisles in a New Zealand supermarket that do not contain a Heinz Wattie's product. It has 30 brands in its stable, including Wattie's, Heinz, Lea & Perrins, Chef, Champ, Eta, HP, Farex, Nurture, Greenseas, Weight Watchers, Praise, Oak and Craig's.
Wattie's has been manufacturing high quality food products in New Zealand since 1934.
Currently, the split between domestic and export sales of products produced by Heinz Wattie's is around 45:55 - a huge increase since 2000 when it was 85:15.
To remain in touch with what New Zealanders want from their food suppliers, Heinz Wattie's continues to conduct in-depth market research.
Innovation is at the heart of Wattie's growth and success.
Over the years Heinz Wattie's has continued to produce innovative and successful marketing strategies.
Heinz Wattie's has always taken a long-term view of innovation.
Heinz Wattie's is a highly successful company in the food sector.
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This Case Study looks at one of New Zealand's largest energy companies, Genesis Energy. It reviews the firm's diverse portfolio and the legal requirements that affect the business.
As a result of carefully reading this Case Study, students should be able to:
Did you wake up this morning and turn on your bedroom light, listen to the radio, have a hot shower or make a cup of tea? If the answer is yes, chances are you used electricity from one of Genesis Energy's power schemes to do it.
Genesis Energy is a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE). It operates under the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986.
The founding of the new company in 1999 was a time of challenge for staff. They had new workers to get to know and a new brand to build.
Risk management is the task of reducing the risk a company faces and developing ways to manage it.
The Resource Management Act 1991 is a law that sets out how to control impacts on the environment.
Genesis Energy is a large employer. It has a current staff of around 500 in the North Island.
Genesis Energy states that its goal is to strive to make a positive impact on the environment and to contribute to New Zealand's long-term energy supply and international and national climate change obligations.
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From: | Edition 3 |
his Case Study investigates the importance of companies demonstrating a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Stakeholders expect companies to take the needs of the environment and community into account when formulating business practice. An investigation on how to measure the effectiveness of a CSR strategy occurs. Examples of Genesis’s commitment to CSR programs and initiatives are illustrated.
As a result of carefully reading this Case Study, students should be able to:
Genesis Energy, a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE), is New Zealand's largest energy retailer and third largest electricity generator.
Corporate social responsibility has become more important to employees and stakeholders of all organisations.
Climate change has become an issue of importance to all members of the community.
If Genesis Energy was to reduce its environmental footprint, change was required.
One of the key values that drive Genesis Energy is how they treat their customers and respective communities.
Many businesses claim to be strong supporters of corporate social responsibility.
Genesis Energy is a big resource user. Fortunately, they are also a leader in corporate social responsibility strategies.
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From: | Edition 4 |
Fujitsu General is one of the leading suppliers of air conditioning and plasma display technology products within Australia. With the company's slogan "Australia's Favourite Air", Fujitsu has recently rapidly expanded its air conditioning range, with products to suit the domestic and commercial market. This Case Study examines how Fujitsu has achieved its business objectives with a promotional strategy using former Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor.
As a result of reading the Case Study, students should be able to:
The company, which later became Fujitsu General (Aust.) Pty Limited (Fujitsu), entered the Australian market in the early 1970's as a supplier of a range of consumer electronics products including air conditioners, televisions and refrigerators.
Fujitsu planned a strategy based on using a personality, a well-known Australian sportsperson. Using a personality is a modern marketing technique that involves much more than the use of the person's physical image.
Fujitsu along with McNabb, then planned the campaign and the advertising and public relations tactics.
An objective with the Mark Taylor campaign was to build greater awareness of the Fujitsu brand among the target audience.
The key to any marketing campaign lies in the results. The results Fujitsu planned to achieve were to increase brand awareness, build market share and achieve market leadership. So, just what did the Mark Taylor campaign achieve?
As more and more competitors copied Fujitsu's winter cashback initiative, it looked to again differentiate itself from its competitors.
In a market continuing to experience growth, as well as dealing with the continuing pressure coming from cheaper brands and products from Korea and China, the Fujitsu brand, endorsed by Mark Taylor, is maintaining its dominance as the market leader in air conditioning products.
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The company, which later became Fujitsu General (Aust.) Pty Limited (Fujitsu), entered the Australian market in the early 1970's as a supplier of a range of consumer electronics products including air conditioners, televisions and refrigerators.
In the late 1980's, Fujitsu's parent company changed its business objectives and refocused these around its research and manufacturing strengths in two main product categories - Air Conditioning and Plasma Display Devices. Fujitsu is now one of the leading suppliers of air conditioning and plasma display technology products within Australia.
With an emphasis on one product, air conditioning, this Case Study examines how Fujitsu has focused its business objectives on:
Fujitsu used a carefully planned and executed strategy. This Case Study looks at how developing a marketing strategy based on promotion helped Fujitsu achieve its business objectives. The promotional strategy was built around advertising and public relations, using the well-known Australian cricket personality, Mark 'Tubby' Taylor. We also explore the important role partnerships have played in the company's brand success since 1998, when it introduced the Mark Taylor/Fujitsu campaign for the home air conditioning market.
In 1998 the company looked closely at a range of factors specific to the air conditioning marketplace to help develop its marketing strategy.
To develop the marketing strategy, Fujitsu answered these questions:
The strategy created to achieve these objectives was to:
Two tactics were selected to put this strategy into action:
The celebration of individuals and the concept of individual fame has been a part of society since ancient times. Today, a celebrity is a person regarded as a well-known public figure - a person whose distinctive identity becomes a marketable commodity in its own right. These distinctions include such things as personal style, name, and reputation.
Fujitsu decided to use the celebrity in personality endorsement, or using the person to inform the public that he approved of their product and was happy to be associated with it, rather than personality merchandising which uses the person's name on their product.
The personality approach was used to build the brand. To measure how well this happens, companies measure brand recall, or how well consumers remember advertising and other messages they have seen about a brand. Fujitsu considered that using Mark Taylor would create links between their products and his appeal in the marketplace, thus building brand recognition. They could measure their success with this through measuring consumer brand recall of the Fujitsu brand and how well consumers associated Mark Taylor with the brand. They also believed that using him would spark renewed interest from the media in their product, thus creating public relations opportunities.
Fujitsu chose Mark Taylor as the appropriate celebrity for two reasons:
Diagram 2
Extensive market research conducted by Fujitsu resulted in the following profile of its target market:
Source: Roy Morgan research.
The next step, having identified Mark Taylor as the appropriate celebrity (and signing him up!) was to effectively use his endorsement in the campaign.
Diagram 3: Using Mark Taylor in the campaign
So far, we've looked at how Fujitsu identified its business objectives and its corresponding marketing objectives. We then examined why it selected personality endorsement as appropriate to its aims, and how it selected a marketing mix using advertising, public relations, publicity, and sales as its major tactics.
Do you sometimes confuse the meanings of advertising, promotion, publicity, public relations, and sales? This story may make these concepts clearer:
Diagram 4:'The Circus Comes to Town'.
Source: Promoting issues and ideas' by M. Booth and Associates
The tactical challenge for Fujitsu was to plan and coordinate these elements to help build brand awareness and sales, and to select the most appropriate media to make this happen.
Fujitsu selected television as the most effective communication medium to reach the target audience on a large scale, and to then support this with radio and press advertising. The three mediums were used together, particularly when Fujitsu planned promotions based around educating consumers and encouraging winter sales.
As the target audience included homeowners, Fujitsu also advertised through lifestyle and homemaker magazines - a tactic specifically designed to reach people when they were thinking about doing something to their home.
POS material was designed to remind consumers of the Fujitsu brand and its link with Mark Taylor at that important time just prior to purchase. This POS material, particularly the life-size images, was also constantly in front of floor sales staff in retail premises reminding them of the links between the products and Mark Taylor.
Objective - to build market share and become the market leader
Fujitsu has built market share and become the market leader since 1998, a result reflected in the Fujitsu company slogan, 'Australia's Favourite Air'.
Diagram 5: Market share (non-ducted air conditioning)
Objective - to increase brand awareness
To measure brand recall, Fujitsu commissioned specialist ongoing research into consumer perceptions of the product. This research asked these questions of a sample of consumers:
The results clearly demonstrated how awareness of the Fujitsu brand changed over the period. A national figure of 32% (unprompted) brand recall and a 39% national recall of Fujitsu advertising are regarded as good evidence that consumer perception of the brand was positively influenced by Mark Taylor's endorsement.
Objective - use personality endorsement to support business objectives
The air conditioning market uses a specialist research firm to collect data to measure brand awareness. Fujitsu also uses this specific research study (described as an 'omnibus' study) to determine the level of Mark Taylor's acceptance in the marketplace. National data asking whether people had seen the Fujitsu advertising campaign featuring Mark Taylor, as well as whether they thought he was a good representative for Fujitsu were collected. This was then compared with similar data gathered in the Sydney market in 1999 and 2000.
The results were impressive for Fujitsu. 75% of men and 68% of women reported that Mark Taylor was a good representative for the company.
Branding
In an effort to further enhance its brand awareness, Fujitsu entered into a motorsport sponsorship arrangement. There were a number of sponsorship avenues explored, but ultimately V8 Supercar racing was decided as the best medium to achieve this. It offered a truly national platform to promote the Fujitsu brand name over an extended season when compared to more traditional avenues such as football, cricket, etc. The sponsorship initially started with a privateer in the V8 Development Series and has evolved into the creation of the 'Fujitsu Racing' team, competing in both the main V8 Supercar Championship and the V8 Development Series.
This sponsorship serves a dual purpose for Fujitsu - brand exposure to a very wide consumer demographic and the ability to develop much closer customer relationships through on-track experiences and corporate hospitality at the various race meets around Australia. The Fujitsu Racing truck, V8 Supercars and promotional road car are all utilised for various store based promotions throughout the year, aimed at bringing further impact to customers localised advertising activities.
Seasonal Promotional Activity
Fujitsu, like most other air conditioning suppliers, was traditionally affected by a considerable drop in sales at the completion of summer and throughout the winter months. Whilst its specialist air conditioning customers continued to focus on sales on a year round basis, its retailers tended to treat the product as purely a cooling product for summer, ignoring the benefits of reverse cycle air conditioners as viable heating alternative to traditional sources.
In an effort to change this mentality and bring greater consistency to its sales across the entire year, 12 years ago Fujitsu became the first supplier to introduce a winter consumer cashback incentive scheme. A $150 consumer installation bonus was offered by redemption for consumers who purchased and installed a reverse cycle split system air conditioner in the designated period. This promotion was heavily promoted with advertising and point of sales material featuring Mark Taylor. This initiative proved hugely successful for Fujitsu with an increase in sales of over 40% compared with the same period the prior year.
Fujitsu partnered with energy company Shell. In this partnership customers were rewarded with the other company's product for buying air conditioning products during the winter months. For example, Fujitsu joined with Shell to promote a 'free petrol offer' where purchasers of specific Fujitsu products were offered up to $500 of Shell petrol during the months of May to August. The joint promotion successfully used Mark Taylor as the presenter to increase sales during this period and extended the campaign with his image and quotes appearing on the Shell website.
A similar winter promotion offered 'free phone air time' in partnership with Motorola where purchasers of a specific air conditioner get a mobile phone plus airtime.
Both these types of promotions (fuel and mobile phone with airtime) have been designed to appeal to a wider audience as an alternative to other promotional activities such as 'cashback'.
Fujitsu also partners with its retailers and dealers using Mark Taylor images and short audio/visual vignettes for them to use. The aim here is to encourage them to use these in their own advertising using Mark Taylor with Fujitsu branding. This has not only extended the Fujitsu campaign, but also helped to create extra impact for the brand when, for example, retailers show a series of competing brands in catalogues.
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This Case Study examines how sponsorship is used a key marketing activity in Fujitsu's corporate and marketing strategies. As a winner itself in the air conditioning market, and an industry leader in plasma technology, Fujitsu sees good sense in being associated with other winners. Activities such as V8 Supercar racing provide a buzz and sense of adventure while meeting the business objectives of Fujitsu.
As a result of reading this Case Study, students should be able to:
Imagine the noise as a V8 Supercar hurtles along travelling at over 230 kmh!
Having a clear corporate strategy is about being different, about differentiating your products and services in the eyes of consumers.
Sponsorship is an increasingly popular marketing activity. The main business idea behind using sponsorship as part of the marketing mix is quite simple.
Fujitsu began its initial involvement with V8 Supercar racing through supporting an independent entrant - a privateer - in the Development series.
Marketing activities, like other business activities, must be spent effectively and their effectiveness must be measurable.
A key sponsorship benefit relates to the positive public relations that can be generated through sponsoring high profile not-for-profit organisations.
Intelligent sponsorship for Fujitsu involves far more than putting its name on V8 Supercars or becoming associated with the Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation.
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This Case Study looks at New Zealand's largest company, Fonterra. It discusses its importance as a producer, manufacturer and marketer of dairy products. It reviews the firm's response to shifts in both global and domestic markets.
As a result of carefully reading this Case Study, students should be able to:
Fonterra is New Zealand's largest company and a leading international dairy company. It is responsible for 20 percent of everything New Zealand exports.
A supply chain traces the production of a good or service through its various stages.
If you've ever enjoyed a Tip Top ice cream or a glass of Anchor milk or a slice of Mainland cheese then you have enjoyed a Fonterra product.
To meet these trends Fonterra has developed products that will meet the diets of both the West and developing countries.
Today we shop in a global environment. Around the world large retail chains or supermarkets dominate the marketplace.
Demand for dairy is growing so fast that a whole New Zealand dairy industry would have to start up every 10 years to meet it.
In order to meet the rapid changes in the dairy market Fonterra has a four-platform approach.
Fonterra is one of the most successful co-operatives in the world. It is the sixth largest dairy company by turnover. It is the largest supplier to the globally traded dairy market and New Zealand's largest company.
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This Case Study looks at one of the most impressive achievements of Fletcher Construction Ltd - the Auckland Sky Tower. It discusses the importance of sound project management in making a complex construction a reality.
As a result of carefully reading this Case Study, students should be able to:
What is the first thing you picture when you think of Auckland?
In 1996, the first part of Sky City in Auckland opened with much excitement and media frenzy.
For such a vast construction job, a huge range of materials is required.
Project management is used for almost any type of project.
The project manager has some key responsibilities.
If the initial planning of a project is thorough, then many potential obstacles will already be identified. This allows alternative solutions to be found in advance.
Creating an icon as unique as the Sky Tower required the ability to respond to challenging situations. Many demands were made on the builders, architects and engineers.
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