Case Questions for Product and Brand Management

American Express 1. What explains the American Express card’s success over the past fifty years? 2. What challenges face the American Express card in 2008? 3. Delineate and rank in order the various growth options open to the American Express card. 4. How is an imminent economic recession likely to affect the revenues and profits of the American Express card? Red Bull 1. What created Red Bull’s success? What is the core franchise and benefit? Has the product’s positioning changed over time?
What is the role of alcohol mixing in Red Bull’s success? 2. What is Red Bull’s success formula? For which kind of product/beverage categories will this formula work? How does Red Bull know when to turn on the advertising? What metrics would you use to make this judgment? 3. Why did the first UK launch go awry? 4. What changes were made for the US market? Should other changes be considered? 5. Assume tough competition is coming. How can Red Bull affect its franchise? What actions would you recommend? 6. What should Coke’s competitors do?
Coke? Pepsi? Anheuser-Busch? 7. If you were an investor in Red Bull, would you take your money and run or wait for the long haul? Starbucks 1. What is Starbucks’ strategy? 2. Given your assessment of its competitive premise, how should it leverage its resources and capabilities to achieve its growth objective? 3. How will you respond to McDonald’s offer? 4. Now that Starbucks is entering India, what branding strategy would you recommend to the Starbucks management to establish the Starbucks brand in the Indian market?