A district manager of a retail drug store chain wonders what action he should take to take address insubordination. He feels that a store manager has acted in an insubordinate fashion towards him. The conflict arose over a recent customer complaint.

A district manager feels that a store manager, has acted in an insubordinate fashion towards him. It definitely shows his theory "X" management, where he believes people are motivated by money, threats and security. The situation is presented in the (A) case, 9A89J002.

The owner of Cherished Scrapbooks (CS) had just decided to go ahead with the development of an industry-level marketing program. In January 2006, the chief executive officer of SMART Group (SMART), a scrapbook trade group based in California, advised the owner of CS that the next step in the evolution of her business was to co-operate with her direct competitors. Initially the CS owner had rejected the idea out-right: "The retailers in my area .....more

This note describes many aspects of secondary and primary market research from the retailer's perspective. The value of information in making marketing decisions does not distinguish the retailer from other marketers; however, the retailer is in an enviable position to gather information directly from customers. Increasingly, retailers are considering their stores as "laboratories" for understanding the consumer marketplace.

Management at a large gas company wonder how to decrease opposition to a new gas storage facility. They want to increase the company's chance of getting regulatory approval for a new liquefied natural gas storage facility however, with increasing opposition to the proposed facility from local residents management wonders if it makes sense to continue an expensive public participation program.

A company using bulk mailing to generate sales leads has seen a market drop-off in its "pull" (leads per 1,000 mailings). The company must analyze data on different types of mailings to try to identify the cause of the decline in pull, and to plan future mailings to restore the numbers of leads obtained to more normal levels. (A Microsoft Excel data file is available for use with this case, product 7A83E002.)

This supplement to Liquor Control Board of Ontario (A): Market Segmentation, product 9B00A020 looks at the decisions the project manager must make on store layout and merchandising.

The entrepreneur who founded Flowers by Sears Canada faces pressure from management at Sears Canada to significantly increase sales. The case deals with the role of information technology in achieving this objective, specifically, the nature and extent of interactive voice response (IVR) systems in the organization. Flowers by Sears is a virtual company, and a forerunner to today's Internet businesses. Like FTD, it has no physical stores. It relies .....more

One of the business partners of Advanced Book Exchange, Inc. was reviewing the company's revenue projections. He knew that the company left money on the table every time it dealt with a bookseller - the prices just didn't reflect the value his database service provided. He had little doubt the fees could be raised. He just wondered how much, and how fast. He and his three partners were still debating how many different categories they should .....more

This abridged version of the Advanced Book Exchange, Inc.: Pricing as an Infomediator (B) case, 9B00A001, can be used in conjunction with the Advanced Book Exchange, Inc.: The Barnesandnoble.com Partnership case, 9B00E001. It explores the decision to raise prices at Advanced Book Exchange, Inc. in the wake of the successful conclusion of the Barnesandnoble.com negotiations.