Teaching note for product 9B20A017.

Founded in 1899 by Shinjiro Torii in Osaka, Japan, Suntory Holdings (Suntory) boasted a rich history in Japan’s alcoholic beverage industry. It purchased US-based Beam in 2014 for $16 billion, renamed itself as Beam Suntory, and transformed into one of the world’s largest alcoholic beverage makers, reaching total global revenues of more than 2.5 trillion yen ($23 billion) by the end of fiscal year 2018. Now, in 2020, could the Suntory team pull off .....more

Founded in 1899 by Shinjiro Torii in Osaka, Japan, Suntory Holdings (Suntory) boasted a rich history in Japan’s alcoholic beverage industry. It purchased US-based Beam in 2014 for $16 billion, renamed itself as Beam Suntory, and transformed into one of the world’s largest alcoholic beverage makers, reaching total global revenues of more than 2.5 trillion yen ($23 billion) by the end of fiscal year 2018. Now, in 2020, could the Suntory team pull off .....more

Hosoo was a kimono and textile company, established in 1688 as a traditional Nishijin weaving company. The 11th generation president of the company, Masao Hosoo, had transformed the business from a producer of premium kimono fabrics and kimonos for the luxury market in Japan to a globally respected textile producer for some of the world’s top brands. A great deal of the company’s success in the global market could be attributed to the master craftspeople .....more

Teaching note for product 9B18A058.

Teaching note for products 9B17A037, 9B17A038, 9B17A039, 9B17A040.

In 2008, the marketing manager for Nestle Japan’s confectionery business and his team were struggling to redefine the KITKAT brand within the Japanese market. KITKAT as a brand faced a real threat as the retail environment rapidly shifted toward increasingly powerful convenience store chains and consumer preferences shifted toward more novel consumable products. With more than 200 companies competing within Japan’s crowded and relatively stable confectionery .....more

Supplement for product 9B17A037. The KITKAT team had experienced great success over the past few years by building a powerful and resonating brand and enhancing their production capabilities to enable them to adapt to changing demands from their channel partners. However, the harsh realities of a changing market demographic, and increasingly powerful convenience store chains, created a clear sense of urgency for creative solutions to continue their .....more

Supplement for product 9B17A037. In the spring of 2009, the KITKAT team was fresh from a successful marketing campaign targeting students. After reviewing recent figures however, they realized that they had a critical decision to make regarding the fate of the overall KITKAT brand portfolio: was KITKAT too sweet for some of their older customers? How could they address this issue of taste without undermining the overall brand that they had worked .....more

Supplement for product 9B17A037. It was 2017 and the KITKAT brand in Japan was at a critical juncture. The KITKAT marketing leaders sat down for a special meeting to review how Nestle Japan had been able to create meaning and value for their brand. However, as they began to discuss their options for future growth, they faced difficult decisions: Should they look to export the flavor variations that had become such big hits in Japan to overseas markets .....more