Read about New Begium Brewing case ( i link the file in bellow) and all instruction in guideline bellow then follow step by step write about 8-10 pages long.

Marketing Problems & Policies Written Case Analysis Guidelines For Individual

Overview

The case analysis framework presented here is a synthesis of handouts/guidelines used by me and other marketing professors who use case analysis in their courses. I also included tips provided by the publisher for this and other case-based textbooks. It provides a comprehensive structure to guide you through the analysis of the individual and team written case analyses in this course.

Before you begin working through the framework, please consider the following tips for approaching your assigned case:

• No one can analyze a case after reading it only one time! Even worse, it trying to do an analysis during the first reading. You should read through the entire case once just to get a feel for the nature of the case. During the second reading, you can begin to classify the issues and identify key information. A truly comprehensive case analysis will probably require you to read the case at least three times.
• Don’t get trapped into thinking the “answer” to the case is hidden somewhere in the case. There is NEVER a single answer to a case, just as there is never a single marketing strategy that is appropriate for all situations. Each case is unique.
• Make an effort to put yourself in the shoes of the decision maker in the case. Use role-playing to help you gain some understanding of the perspective of the key parties at the time the case took place.

Step 1: Situation Analysis

The material presented in a case is much like the communications we have in our daily lives. Usually our conversations involve the selection of a topic and then the discussion of that topic, and so it is with cases. The problem is that we end up with bits and pieces of information that by themselves are not very useful, but once organized, can be quite valuable in our assessment of the situation. The first step in the case analysis framework helps you organize the pieces of information in the case into a structure to guide decision making.

The process of assessing a situation involves conducting a thorough SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). Examining an organization’s internal environment is the first half of Step 1. Internal analysis involves identifying strengths (those aspects of the internal environment that can help the firm address a present problem, issue, or opportunity) and weaknesses (negative factors or deficiencies that do not allow the firm to reach its full potential). Your internal analysis should include the firm’s current marketing plan (e.g., is it current, appropriate, well implemented) and financial condition (e.g., does it have adequate funds available for new opportunities, is it profitable). Other possible strengths and weaknesses might include managerial expertise, corporate culture, human resources, product reputation and customer loyalty, patents and trademarks, age and capacity of production facilities, channel relationships, and promotional programs (sales force, advertising program, publicity, and sales promotion efforts). These are all issues that we want to consider in terms of both the present state of the firm and identifiable trends.

The second half of step 1, external analysis, usually gives students the most difficulty. These are issues that exist outside the boundaries of the firm. All opportunities and threats will exist at their present levels even if the organization in question does not exist. Technology, competition, the macroeconomic environment, regulation, and social and cultural trends are all issues that affect the success of an organization’s strategies, but the organization has only limited influence on them.

Because the power to affect the external environment significantly is usually absent, management must view the factors and forces present in the external environment as issues to be considered, but not usually controlled. Managers should take steps to minimize the exposure to threats and to take full advantage of the opportunities. You might think of opportunities and threats as currents in a river. It is much easier to find a river whose currents will help take you where you are going than to try to make headway going against the force of the river.

Consider the following tips when conducting your SWOT analysis:

• While a factor will usually fall into only one of the four categories, this is not always the case. A factor can be both a strength and a weakness, or an opportunity and a threat. For example, excess capacity in a factory would be a weakness from a production efficiency standpoint. But, it could be a strength if the firm is looking to introduce a new product because it will not have to build a new factory.
• Students have a tendency to confuse opportunities with possibilities. Something the company might do, such as franchise its operations in an effort to expand, is not an opportunity. The mention of the organization’s name in the opportunity is a clear indication that it is not an issue from the external environment. Both threats and opportunities would be present even if the organization did not exist.
• You are accustomed to the material in a textbook containing accurate information; facts you can believe. However, in some cases, you will find statements of opinion that may be biased by a person’s motives and position in a firm. The organization’s CEO who has just recently given approval to the firm’s strategic plan might say, “This is an excellent mission statement that will effectively direct our firm’s efforts for the next decade.” Is this really true? It might be, but part of case “analysis” is assessing opinions to determine their accuracy.

Step 2: Assumptions and Missing Information

As with life, it is neither possible nor realistic for cases to contain all the information a decision maker might wish to have available. Usually a decision maker has only bits and pieces of information. He or she must either fill in the gaps, or make the decision that the information is not critical, fairly predictable, or simply too costly and time-consuming to justify collecting for the decision at hand. A marketing manager might want to know the history of competitive reactions to price cuts by his firm. This information may be present in company files. It also might be available from trade sources or other noncompetitive channel members.

In step two you will list important information not contained in the case, why that information might be useful, and how you might go about acquiring it. This is more than just a wish list. The list should contain pieces of information that would help shore up or fill gaps in your SWOT analysis.

In some cases, you’ll be able to find information using external sources; other missing information may require you to make assumptions. For example, if information about the firm’s advertising budget is not available, you might assume that it is equal to the industry average. It is critical that your assumptions be realistic and clearly identified before and during the case analysis. This list should contain only those items that will be truly useful in enhancing the quality of the decisions made.

Step 3: Problem Definition

The identification and clear presentation of the problem(s) or issue(s) facing the company is the most critical part of the analysis framework. Define the problem too narrowly, or miss the key problem all together, and all subsequent framework steps will be off the mark. Getting a clear picture of the problem is one major benefit derived from SWOT analysis.

The process of identifying problems is similar to the one people go through with their doctors. A nurse or assistant comes in to conduct a strength and weakness assessment on you. Your vital signs are taken and you are asked about any symptoms you may be experiencing. Symptoms are observable manifestations or indications that a problem may be present. Symptoms are not the problem themselves. If you have a temperature of 103 degrees, that is a symptom. If the medical staff were to pack you in ice for several minutes, that reading would probably approach 98.6 degrees. Would that make you well? It might make your condition worse! The doctor uses the information collected from you, with knowledge of the viruses and diseases that are present in the external environment, to identify what has led to your high fever. The doctor will attempt to diagnose the real problem, then prescribe treatment from a set of feasible alternatives (make recommendations about what steps will help solve the problem) and provide you with a prognosis (an indication of the things you can expect to occur as you are recovering).

The case analysis process is similar to the doctor’s analysis and treatment of a patient in several basic ways. First, symptoms are the most observable indication that a problem exists. Many students are very quick to start treating the symptoms found in a case, as opposed to digging deeper to find the underlying problem(s). A symptom may be that sales are down from previous periods. If this is how you define the problem, your answer might be to cut the price. This might be an appropriate step, but not based on the analysis to this point. Sales might pick up, but will this reaction make the company healthier? This is a clear case of prescription without adequate diagnosis.

The most important question in the identification of any problem is “Why?” The Why question should always be asked after a potential problem has been proposed. To illustrate, pinpointing the problem associated with the sales decline in our previous example might progress like this:

The problem is that sales have declined.

Why have sales declined?

Sales have declined because there are too many sales territories that are not assigned to a salesperson.

Why are so many sales territories unassigned?

Sales territories are unassigned because sales force turnover has doubled in the past year.

Why has sales force turnover doubled?

Turnover began to increase over a year ago when the sales force compensation plan was altered in order to reduced variable expenses.

When you can no longer devise a meaningful response to the Why? question, you have probably found the problem. In this instance, the problem statement might read:

The current sales force compensation plan at XYZ Company is inadequate to retain an acceptable percentage of the firm’s salespeople, resulting in lost customers and decreased sales.

A problem statement should be brief—almost always one or two sentences. It should be to the point, and it should provide a clear indication as to what must be addressed to improve the performance of the organization.

Given this problem statement, our first reaction, to work on the symptom of reduced sales by cutting prices, would clearly not solve the problem. When we work on symptoms, the symptom may go away, but the problem will always manifest itself again with the same symptom, or a related one. Cutting prices would enhance sales, but would it be profitable? And, with an understaffed sales force, could the firm serve customers at a level that would keep them satisfied?

Step 4: Development of Alternatives

Once we have a problem clearly and succinctly defined, we are in a position to develop a set of strategic alternatives that have a reasonable potential to solve the problem. A key problem students face in this step is that they generate a laundry list of a dozen fairly detail-oriented items. These items have a lot more to do with the tactics of implementing a strategy than with presenting alternative strategies from which we will make our selections. Going back to the sales force example above, the list may include ideas such as:

Take candidates through a more rigorous interview process

• Lengthen the training program
• Give every salesperson a company car
• Offer both individual and regional bonuses
• Increase company contribution to the retirement program for each year of employment
• Conduct an employee-evaluation training program for the firm’s sales managers

While these may all be good ideas, they are not strategic alternatives. The term alternative suggests an either/or situation. From the list above, you might include several items in your recommendation section. Strategic alternatives should identify basic directions the firm might go with the sales force support of its product.

One alternative is always “Do Nothing Different”. You must understand that this is not a means of avoiding a decision. If recommended as the next step, it is a conscious decision, based on a careful evaluation, that the status quo, perhaps with some minor tactical modifications, is the best course of action.

Besides the status quo, you should use creative thinking to come up with several truly strategic alternatives. For our present example, one option might be to eliminate the external sales force and start using a manufacturer’s representative network to sell to the firm’s customers. Another alternative would be to use direct marketing, with an inside sales force to market the product. Another possible option is to reemphasize the sales force with a more effective sales management program, including better selection, compensation, evaluation, and recognition of the sales force.

Frequently, the underlying problem facing the organization is the failure to have a current, widely used, well-developed marketing plan. If the analysis indicates this to be the case, conducting a comprehensive strategic market planning process should be one of the alternatives listed. This is one of the few options that might be selected in combination with some other alternative.

Step 5: Evaluation of Alternatives & Recommendations

Once you have developed a set of realistic alternatives, it is time to do a thorough evaluation of each of the options. Three major criteria should be used in this evaluation process. First, how well does the alternative address the problem or issue as stated in Step 3? Closely related to the first criterion is the consistency of the alternative with the organization’s mission, as well as its ability to assist in achieving the plan’s stated goals and objectives. Clearly, for an organization whose mission includes providing the most innovative health care products to doctors, nurses, and patients, a low cost/price competitive organization model would be inappropriate.

This does not mean alternatives that are not consistent with the present plan should never be selected. It does indicate that part of the evaluation for such alternatives must address the complete modification of the organization’s strategic plan. Likewise, an objective of increasing profit margins from 15% to 25% is not consistent with the alternative of becoming a low‑price provider. The deletion, or at the very least modification, of this aspect of the plan must be considered in evaluating this alternative.

For each alternative, you should make an effort to estimate and evaluate the triple bottom line implications of the option. Exhibit 1 provides an example of a financial assessment. To conclude simply that developing a new innovative product line for the organization, without any discussion of the costs and benefits involved, or in what year each is likely to occur, is an incomplete and unrealistic approach to case analysis. You should use what you have learned from your accounting and finance courses when you conduct case analyses. Look at any financial information you are given in the case, or that you can acquire, as a key resource in conducting your analysis.

The final criterion is an important one that relates to the feasibility and probable success of each alternative: How well do the alternatives coincide with the key findings from the SWOT Analysis you conducted in Step 1? In other words, how well does each alternative match up with the internal and external environments of the organization? Does the organization have, or can it realistically acquire, the human and financial resources required by each alternative? Building additional capacity to increase volume as the low-price provider is probably not a reasonable alternative for an organization in great financial difficulty. Conversely, for a firm with limited history and investment in research and development, becoming the innovative leader in the industry will not be possible in the near term.

The external environment, in terms of the economy, competition, regulation, and cultural trends, will have a major impact on the pro forma revenue projections you make in this step. Any alternative that adds pollution to the environment will not be well received today. Often, alternative analyses assume the competition is an inanimate object. Thinking that competitors will stand still while you steal their customers with a new marketing strategy is not at all realistic. Part of the evaluation of alternatives, and making projections about their potential success, is to use the assessment of the external environment to make assumptions about what key competitors will do. You must remember that as one company is setting a course for the future, most of its effective competitors are doing likewise.

The recommendation portion of this step is often included as a separate phase in the case analysis framework. We include evaluation with recommendation because, if the former is done well, the latter should be a natural continuation of the process. The alternative chosen is the one that stands up best in terms of all three criteria: consistency with mission, goals and objectives as stated or as modified, strongest probable financial performance, and harmony with the internal and external environments of the organization. With a thorough evaluation, the recommended alternative should be a natural move. This does not mean that two alternatives will never be close in terms of their attractiveness, but usually one will be a better match for the organization as a whole.

One more note: Become accustomed to making recommendations in the face of unknown economic or competitive conditions. While you will be able to know some things for certain (such as gross domestic product or consumer spending), no one can possibly predict all future events. As long as your evaluation is thorough, and your assumptions are clearly stated and reasonable, your recommendations will be justified.

Outline for Written Case Reports

Please follow this outline for all written case reports.

• Situation Analysis
• Assumptions and Missing Information
• Problem Definition
• Development of Alternatives
• Evaluation of Alternatives and Recommendation to Management
• Appendix – Used for exhibits such as pro-forma income statements and other detailed analyses.

Exhibit 1

Hypothetical Pro Forma Assessment

	Unfavorable Environment	Neutral Environment	Favorable Environment
Sales
Dollars	$2,000,000	$3,500,000	$7,000,000
Units ($5 per unit)	400,000	750,000	1,400,000
Costs
Product development	$250,000	$250,000	$250,000
Production costs	$1,200,000 ($3 per unit)	$2,062,500 ($2.75 per unit)	$3,500,000 ($2.50 per unit)
Advertising	$300,000	$300,000	$300,000
Sales commission (10%)	$200,000	$350,000	$700,000
Other selling expenses	$100,000	$135,000	$200,000
Earnings before taxes	$ -50,000	$402,500	$2,050,000

Conclusion

One final piece of advice: Like anything else, the learning benefits of case analysis are dependent on the amount of effort you put into the analysis. Learning to think critically and see the big picture are important lessons to be learned in a case course. Likewise, learning how business activities (not just marketing activities) can be strategically integrated to achieve superior results is the ultimate goal.