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Brim-case study in marketing strategies

I. CASE SUMMARY
The year is 1970 and the total coffee market has plateaued but the total decaffeinated segment is expected to double over the next 10 years. Furthermore, the decaffeinated coffee segment offers higher margins than the regular coffee segment making the decaffeinated coffee market a tempting target for competition. Given that Maxwell House’s Sanka held 92% of the decaffeinated market its position would have been reasonably secure except for one major weakness…its poor taste.
These factors prompted Maxwell House to launch Brim, a decaffeinated blend of high-quality beans with taste-oriented positioning. The introduction of Brim is a flank defensive maneuver designed to preempt competitors from entering the decaffeinated coffee market by further segmenting the overall coffee market and by providing a better tasting alternative to Sanka. Furthermore, management believed Sanka’s 4.4% hold of the Instant and Freeze-dried market was about to face a serious threat fr...

Posted by: Jason Pinsky

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