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Case Discussion Questions See
my notes for preparing a case for an
overview of how to prepare a case.
For ALL CASES,
students should be prepared to discuss:
 | What service marketing
concepts are illustrated in the case? |
| Based upon what is presented
in the case, what is the key marketing problem/issue? Explain the
issue, and defend your selection. |
| What alternatives are
available to the firm? What recommendation(s) would you make? |
|
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EuroDisney Case Questions
| What is the (American) Disney experience like? What makes Disney’s traditional service concept so successful? |
| Why has Tokyo Disneyland been prosperous? |
| How does the experience differ between Tokyo
Disneyland and EuroDisney? |
| What is EuroDisney’s target market, and what are the implications for
the development and organization of the park? |
| What do you think of Disney’s decision to build a theme park in Europe?
To locate in France? |
| What are some of the questionable tactics that
EuroDisney employed? |
| Was EuroDisney successful in its first 100 days?
Why or why not? (Provide some support/evidence to substantiate
your claim.) |
| What, if anything, should be changed at Euro Disney?
|
Custom
Research Inc.
|
How does a company like Custom Research serve its clients and make a profit? |
|
What trends in the industry at the time
the case was written are important to note? |
| What are the pros and cons of
having the same person both selling a research project to a customer and
actually carrying out the research? |
|
Are all their clients equally
profitable? Evaluate the procedure used by Jeff Pope in dividing customers into
categories of profitability. What are the problems in the way the analysis has been done? |
|
Why not keep all clients that cover direct costs?
On the other hand, what are the problems associated with serving clients based on their
profitability? |
|
Should Custom Research continue to
serve all of its customers? If not, which customers would you
suggest keeping? (How should Customer Research decide which
customers to serve and which to neglect?) What criteria would
you use in making this decision? |
|
In general, how would you deal with customers
you don't want to keep? |
Shouldice Case Questions
| How does the Shouldice Hospital experience differ
from a "normal" hospital experience? |
| What is the bundle of benefits purchased by the consumers? |
| Who is the target group of customers and what do they have in common,
apart from a hernia? Be prepared to describe them (in terms of their
common characteristics). |
| How are the benefits delivered to those customers? |
| How efficient is its "production process"? Do you see any problem areas,
bottlenecks, or fail points? |
| What are Shouldice Hospital’s major strengths and weaknesses? Which of these are
the most important? |
| How successful is Shouldice Hospital? How do you account for its performance? |
| What growth opportunities are available to Shouldice? Which, if any, would you
recommend? Why? |
Bugs Burger Case Questions
|
Who is BBBK's target market and what is
BBBK's positioning strategy? |
|
Describe the service guarantee developed by this firm and consider whether or not it
is an effective service guarantee (using
the criteria suggested in the text and/or in class discussion). |
|
How does the guarantee support the role of service standards
for BBBK? |
|
How does the company involve the customer in the guarantee?
How does it gain compliance from customers in preparing for the service? |
|
What role do the "front-line" people play in the delivery of the service? |
|
What major problems/issues do you see confronting this organization?
How would you
address them? |
GE Medical Systems Case Questions
|
Why is GE shifting into Services?
|
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What types of services is GE focusing
on, and where do the growth opportunities appear to be?
|
|
What are the services offered by GE Medical
Systems (GEMS)? Who are their customers? What trends in the industry will affect
their future growth?
|
|
Describe TiP and the
philosophy/strategy behind it. What are the goals of TiP? How does it
fit GEMS’ overall strategy?
|
|
Why has TiP TV been so successful? What
are the benefits to customers? Does GEMS have a sustainable
competitive advantage in TiP TV?
|
|
The GEMS is moving from
"free" to "fee" services. What are the
arguments for and against "free" vs. "fee"?
|
|
Should GEMS consider moving the TiP
customer education organization from a cost center (with the primary
goal of customer satisfaction) to a P&L center? What are the
implications and challenges?
|
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Analyze the effectiveness and benefits
of GEMS’ service guarantee for on-site applications training.
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Northwest
Airlines and the Detroit
Snowstorm
|
What exactly went wrong? Why did
it go wrong?
|
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Who, or what, was responsible?
|
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What could have NWA done in
response to this situation? What should have NWA done?
|
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Could this situation have been avoided? If
so, how? If not, could it have been mitigated (and if so, how)?
|
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Why did this situation create such a
fuss?
|
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What are the potential negative
consequences for NWA resulting from this situation?
|
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What should NWA (or other airlines)
learn from this situation?
|
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What should other service providers
learn from this situation?
|
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Starbucks: Delivering
Customer Service
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What factors accounted for the extraordinary
success of Starbucks in the early 1990s? What was so compelling about the
Starbucks value proposition? What brand image did Starbucks develop during
this period?
|
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Why have Starbucks' customer satisfaction scores
declined? Has the company's service declined, or is it simply measuring
satisfaction the wrong way? |
|
How does the Starbucks of 2002 differ
from the Starbucks of 1992? |
|
Describe the ideal Starbucks customer
from a profitability standpoint. What would it take to ensure
that this customer is highly satisfied? How valuable is a highly
satisfied customer to Starbucks? |
|
Should Starbucks make the $40 million
investment in labor in the stores? What is the goal of this
investment? Is it possible for a mega-brand to deliver customer
intimacy?
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