Each case presents a unique set of problems, opportunities and circumstances. As
a result no two case presentations will be the same or even follow the exact same
solution approach. You are encouraged to be as creative in your presentations as
you are in your analyses. Although approaches will vary, there should be some
similarity in the form of the presentation. Additionally each presentation will be
evaluated using a general guideline. That guideline partitions your grade into three
distinct components. These are:
Presentation Quality.............30%
Conceptual Foundation........35%
Methodology.......................35%
PRESENTATION QUALITY refers to the effectiveness of the delivery of your case solution. This includes how adequately you cover the appropriate aspects of the case and how understandable and convincing you are in your solution. As a general rule you may think of your presentation as consisting of three areas - (1) your introduction, (2) the body of your presentation, and (3) your summary and conclusions. Many successful speakers follow the military decate of "First tell them what you are going to tell them (Introduction), then tell them (Body), then tell them what you have told them (Summary)." Obvious care must be taken to avoid too much redundancy, but this three step approach seems to work. The following outline is offered as a rough starting point for a structure for your case presentation. Be cautioned, however that this is not inclusive of every important consideration nor is it required for all cases. This is not a simple 'fill- in-the-blank" format that will guarantee excellent results in every situation.
Potential Items for Case Presentation Consideration/Coverage
The list above describes a partial set of potential items to cover in your presentation. Care must be taken in the manner in which you present this material. Remember everyone in the class has already read the case and has subjected the material to their own analysis. The task of your presentation is not to restate the facts of the case but to interpret those shared facts into a logical argument in support of your position. For example, don't tell everyone the the case said the product was made of spit and wire, take the given descriptions and state that "...since the product is a basic comodity, made of undifferentiated, readily available components, we can expect purchase to be primarily motivated by...". This approach forces you to establish a conceptual frame and it also focuses your entire presentation, even the summary of background material, on your position/solution.
Most cases require you to answer several basic questions. How would you characterize the industry or market and/or product category? What is the likely future for this industry, market and/or product/service? What is your current position within this industry and market? Who are the other players and what are their relative sizes (market and/or brand shares), relative strengths, and potentials? How/why have these industry positions evolved? What is the current and future consumer base for this product/service? What are the primary aspects of consumer behavior as it applies to this product/service? What are the strategic concerns for you, your competitors and the industry? What tactical options are available to you? What are the probable consequences of each option that you have considered? What are you recommending? How sure are you of your position?
Your answers to these, and other relevant questions, makes up the basic content of your presentation. The content is the what you are going to say. Your delivery, or the "how you say it" is your presentation. The quality of that presentation is determined by how clear you are and by how convincing you are in stating your position. The most important concern is to have a solid, well documented, accurately supported solution to an insightful, well defined problem. Nailing the problem is a function of proper problem definition and of your conceptual and methodological skills. The second most important concern is in presenting that solution in such a fashion that everyone becomes commited to your solution. This requires logic, demonstration and a little showmanship.
The vehicle used for your presentation will depend on your expertise in the various presentation platforms, the resources at hand, and to some degree the nature of the case. A computer-driven hypertext presentation with interactive video is an excellent goal but oftentimes less high powered technologies are as effective. You have access to the departmental liquid gel-cell for overhead projection of Power Point, or similar, programs if you wish to use these. Also the department has a portable computer that is available to drive these programs. These must be reserved and checked-out by the instructor from the departmental secretary. Please give the instructor at least one week notice of your needs. You are strongly encouraged to check these out early and attempt a couple of "dry run-throughs" before your scheduled presentation time. Also most past students have found it to be easier to bring in their own computer rather than rely on departmental property. Many student groups have elected to remain with basic overhead technology and have had success equal to or even better than computer-driven shows.
Regardless of the vehicle used, you must provide a hard copy of all of your visuals to the instructor and provide at least an outline to all the other students in the class. Some student teams find that the presentation is more effective when they use role playing. You might opt to take on characterizations of one or more of the case's principles. Others might choose to present themselves as consultants and ask that the class take on the role of the Board of Directors. Whatever works is ok, but you should clearly state the setting at the beginning of your presentation. Also at the beginning establish the rules for the class - will you take questions only at the end, or would you prefer to be interupted as questions arise?
Some other suggestions to improve your presentations include do's and don't's about the format and stlye of your introduction, delivery and speaker transition. Always introduce yourselves. Your lead-off speaker should (in addition to establishing the setting and game rules) introduce him/herself and each other member of the team along with what they will be doing in the presentation. All members of the team are to be introduced, even those not presenting. As speakers change, the first introduces the second, and as the second begins, he/she thanks the first by name. All speakers should demonstrate a high degree of ease and confort with the material they are presenting. This means that your presentation must be practiced to assure familarity with the data, concepts or whatever. Practiced, but not scripted. Do not read your presentation - certainly not from notes and not with your back to the audience while you read your projected overhead. To keep on track, glance at your slide on the projector or on the computer screen. All your "public speaking course" stuff applies here - eye contact, empathy, enunciation.
Since your presentation must convince others, you will want to use lots of visuals. Visuals to direct attention, to sequence thoughts, and present analytical information in an easy to follow manner. Avoid clutter and overburdened "busy" graphics. Develop a coordinating frame/border or character to tie visuals together. Avoid color combinations or type scripts that are difficult to read. Be certain of lighting and other things that affect visibility. Avoid having any unplanned blank screens in your presentation. Allow for flexibility, but let your visuals lead the flow of the presentation. Go over technical or analytic visuals extra slowly to be sure everyone follows your reasoning and your calculations.
CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION refers to the theoretic support given to your interpretation
of the case situation and to your problem solution. At this point in your college career, you
have been subjected to numerous, and sometimes conflicting, "textbook" depictions of the world.
The cases that you must prepare allow (require) you to apply these "textbook" theories
to numerous simulations of that world. Although you are expected to use the language of your
discipline,this means more than "talking the talk". Marketing is
not simply jargon and abstractions. Your formal education must be more than recalling
unrelated facts. Your prerequsite texts described various models and theories from which you must
develop a mental structure, or scaffolding, for you to connect to and relate to the real world.
Within a professional discipline your education must be applicable to every aspect of the
practice of that discipline. The case studies that you will be involved in offer you
practice for your chosen profession.
So much for the philosophising, as for the practicalities of this class you must be certain to couch each case and its solution within the accepted frameworks that define marketing practice. To start with you will want to be able to categorize correctly each aspect of a case within this framework. First answer the question "what kind of case is this?" The table of contents divides the cases into sections such as "Opportunity Analysis" or "Pricing Strategy." It is doubtful that such a simple and obvious classification will be sufficient. As a matter of fact each case in your current text could be placed in several sections of the table of contents. That is because, like the real world each case has several plots and sub-plots. So the initial question becomes "what is this case really about?" If you decide that given the evidence the case is really about distributional issues, then pull from your prerequisite understanding everything that you have learned about distribution and attack the case from that perspective.
As already stated most of these cases have multiple levels and this tends to complicate the situation. Also you will learn that case writers often deliberately disguise the true problems or concerns. Some rather tried and true solution approaches prevail however. Before you dig into the advanced levels of problems within the marketing program (the 4 P's), be certain that you have established an understanding of the correct classification of the good. If it is a homogeneous shopping good, declare it as such and then use your conceptual understanding of homogeneous shopping goods to attack the pricing issues. Similarly, if the good is obviously a specialty good, theory tells you what to do regarding distribution.
Another good conceptual base is the PLC. Many of your cases will provide sales data so that you can offer an educated guess about the correct PLC stage. If you can accomplish this, then turn to the literature of your own discipline and many of the more appropriate tactical issues are already resolved. Of course the granddaddy of all your conceptual frameworks is the Consumer Behavior model that seems appropriate for the given product/service and/or market segment. For example, if you can offer arguments that are based on the case material that a basic compensatory model applies and you can derive product attributes and weights, then you have a hard lock on at least part of the case. The task is to identify the best conceptual frames, declare/justify these in your presentation, and then let what you already have learned lead your solutions. In this regard, often the best graphic used in a case presentation is not from data given in the case, but adapted from a good Princples text to demonstrate what theory has to contribute to the particular problem encountered in the case.
METHODOLOGY refers to the systematic procedure, technique, or mode of inquiry utilized to analyze the problem and derive a preferred course of action. For most of the cases the methods that are employed will involve some form of quantitaive analysis. A few cases will not have the data necessary for a satisfactory numeric analysis. A qualitative approach is required in these incidences. When you are forced to base your argument on non-quantitative support you will need to use rational thought. Here you must be careful to develop a clear causal sequence by using a series of "if this, then that" statements. Be careful to avoid circlular reasoning and all of the basic pitfalls of deductive logic.
Very early in the analysis section of your case presentation, you must be certain to declare the general form (qualitative/quantitative) of methodology that you are going to use. Since the case problems vary considerably, the procedures of inquiry will differ from one case to the next. There are some general guidelines and these are introduced in your text (see chapters 1-3). Many problems can be structurally represented using either a decision matrix or a decision tree. Both of these processes force you to match your proposed courses of action with potential external influences. For marketing students this should echo a controllable vs. uncontrollables basic Principles of Marketing type of lecture. Since they require you to consider all the options, either of these approaches (decision trees or matricies) offer you a good starting position for your analysis.
Most marketing case problems will be outcome bound. Data will be available for you to infer some set of causal relationship. In nearly everyone of these cases you will want to calculate the expected consequences of a host of different alternative actions so that you may select the one that provides the clear "best choice." Since these are projected outcomes they need to be consistent in their rules of measurement. Most case situations will provide enough basic accounting information for you to develop pro-forma income statements, projected market shares and/or penetration rates. At the very least, you should be able to access technical feasibility of any given alternative by computing BEPs. Some of the cases provide spreadsheets to simplify these calculations. Be forewarned however that complete dependence on these computer algorithmns can be costly since unless the input is correct, they are as apt to project an incorrect answer as a correct one. Be certain that you completely understand where the numbers come from in any text exhibit or spreadsheet.
Occasionally you will want to extrapolate some series on observations to project a future state or establish a trend. Given the limited data that is available in most cases, it is difficult to support these projections with "goodness-of-fit" statistics alone. Be certain to document any such progression with graphic evidence. Similarily, data restrictions often limit your ability to develop sufficient support for probabilities for the Expected Value calculations that are required for many case solutions. It is especially necessary that you offer a clear justification of any fundamental assumptions that you must make to derive these assessments of probable outcomes.
Revised June 1997