Subgroup A

In an e-mail sent out to its previous customers YourGrocer.com stated "we received hundreds of calls and e-mails from customers when deliveries were suspended in December. All urged us to get back into business as soon as possible". Then Brand-Equity Ventures, otherwise known as BEV Capital, provided the necessary start-up capital to YourGrocer.com so that they could bring back their online business. The original company began as a 10-person operation in 1998 with ambitious plans to compete with the likes of Peapod.com, Webvan.com, HomeGrocer.com and other high-profile grocery delivery companies.

Investors believed the company could grab a share of the NYC market by implementing a bulk-buying strategy and adding an online spin to the warehouse-shopping model. The plan was for customers to buy products in large, economical quantities from the Web site, and then the company's trucks would lumber along with the door-to-door deliveries. It even acquired another online grocery, NYCGrocery.com, along the way. The company is now trying to use word of mouth for marketing its service by asking readers to "please tell your friends about the service. This will greatly help the new YourGrocer.com can grow and expand its services." It also thanks customers for their support, signing off with: "We love you, YourGrocer The Warehouse Club that Delivers!"

1.       There are 3 basic types of retailers, what are they and what types of grocer retailers did you find at these Web sites?

2.       What types of service do they offer and what is their competitive advantage over storefront grocers?

3.       Visit one of the grocers and find out what specifically they offer to consumers.

Subgroup C

Creating Global Business Intelligence with the Assistance of the CIA

Successful global marketing requires firms to collect and analyze a vast amount of data on the countries they are seeking to serve. This information is used to direct the firm's marketing mix and to determine the likely success of its marketing efforts. An unexpected provider of such information is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA publishes the World Factbook, which contains an extensive data collection on virtually every county on this globe.

The CIA Internet site allows its visitors to search by country and by information topic. For each country, the site provides detailed information on geography, people, government, economy, communication, transportation, military, and transnational issues.

The geography section includes information on the location, geographic coordinates, area, area - comparative, land boundaries, coastline, maritime claims, climate, terrain, elevation extremes, natural resources, land use, irrigated land, natural hazards, environment - current issues, and environment - international agreements.

The people section includes information on the population, age structure, population growth rate, birth rate, death rate, net migration rate, sex ratio, infant mortality rate, life expectancy at birth, total fertility rate, nationality, ethnic groups, religions, languages, and literacy. The government section provides information on such things as country name, government type, capital, national holiday, legal system, political parties and leaders, political pressure groups and leaders, and international organization participation.

The economy section provides data on the GDP, GDP - real growth rate, GDP - per capita, GDP - composition by sector, population below poverty line, household income or consumption by percentage share, inflation rate (consumer prices), labor force, labor force - by occupation, unemployment rate, budget, industries, industrial production growth rate, electricity - production, agriculture - products, exports, exports - commodities, exports - partners, imports, imports - commodities, imports - partners, debt - external, economic aid - donor, economic aid - recipient, currency, exchange rates, and fiscal year.

The communication section provides details on the telephones - main lines in use, telephones - mobile cellular, telephone system, radio broadcast stations, radios, television broadcast stations, televisions, and Internet service providers.

The transportation section gives information on such things as railways, highways, waterways, pipelines, ports and harbors, merchant marine, airports, airports - with paved runways, airports - with unpaved runways, and heliports.

The transnational disputes data include international disputes and illicit drugs.

1. Why is it necessary for companies to obtain information from the global external environment?
    
2. RetireHomes, a real estate development company, is planning to expand their business of building retirement communities (65 and older) into foreign countries. These upscale retirement homes come with golf course, tennis court, fitness club, swimming pool, and a variety of other amenities. Inspired by the climate, management believes that Kenya would be a good country for the expansion. Based upon your assessment of income related economic and age related population data would you recommend to the developer to build these communities?
    

3. Compare Germany and Brazil on the "age" population characteristics. Can you explain the difference?
    

4. Contrast the "religion" population data of the U.S. and India? What are the implications for marketing food items in both countries?
    

5. Contrast the "per capita GDP" economic data of the U.S. with those of Angola? What are the implications for the marketing of high-tech consumer products in these two countries?
    

Subgroup D

Whose Name Is It?

Given the vast number of products and services available on the Net, brand identity has become very important to Internet sellers. As many of these sellers also have brick and mortar operations, they want to leverage their existing brand names (from the pre-Net era) to do business on the Net. Thus, there is a strong desire among click-and-mortar retailers to have domain names based on their brand names. For example, P&G would like to own the domain name www.tide.com for its Tide detergent. Often, companies are able to register their brand names as their domain names as well. However, every once in a while, companies discover that the domain name related to their brand name has already been taken up by some other company. Let us look at an interesting example. What would you type to go to the Nissan Motors web site? Most of us would type www.nissan.com. Type this domain name and see what comes up! Now type www.nissandriven.com to go to Nissan Motor's website. After visiting these websites, answer the following questions:

1.        Discuss the different options available to a company that finds the domain name related to its brand name registered by someone else?

2.        Nissan is not the only auto company to not own the domain name related to its brand. Go to http://www.ncchelp.org/The_Story/Other_Domains/other_domains.htm to read a list of auto brand domains that are not owned by auto manufacturers. See if any of the domains have since been "won" back by auto manufacturers.

3.        Assume that you are the product manager for a new product. You want to come up with a brand name for your product. How would you find out if the domain name related to your brand were available for registration or not?