International Business - Kitkat

SVKM's NMIMS UNIVERSITY

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

DATE: MARKS : 100

TIME:

QUESTION NO 1: I.E. CASE STUDY IS COMPULSARY. CARRIES 25 MARKS.

ANSWER ANY 5 OUT OF THE REMAINING 8 QUESTIONS, EACH OF 15 MARKS.

TOTAL MARKS = 100

Break up:

5 questions x 15 marks = 75 marks +

1 case study x 25 marks

DURATION = 3 HOURS.

QUESTION NO 1) CASE STUDY:

Introduction

All products have a life-cycle. It starts with preparations for the product's launch, followed by the launch itself.

Some products are an immediate success; they capture public imagination. Often this results from well targeted, exciting promotional and advertising activity and from careful market research that has identified a genuine gap in the market. Other products take longer to come to consumers' attention, and longer still to become popular. Some new products flop, and soon disappear from sale.

The growth stage comes next. Growth can take weeks or months (eg the latest fashion clothes) or years (eg the typical packet or canned food and drinks found in supermarkets). Eventually the maturity stage is reached, where sales of the product and consumers' level of product awareness are both high. At this stage, products risk going into decline, largely because they have become too familiar and are seen as less exciting than recently launched alternatives

The life-cycle of a product

Marketing departments are expected to ensure that products do not go into decline. Mature products need new life injected into them, to keep the buying public interested and aware of the product's benefits.

This case situation invites suggestions and recommendations on how to put new life into a favourite, leading brand: Kit Kat.

Why Kit Kat needed revitalising

Kit Kat is the UK's best-selling chocolate bar and the market leader since 1985. However, in the competitive modern world consumers' tastes continually change. As a result, even the most popular icons have to re-invent themselves from time to time in order to keep their appeal and stay 'on top'. For example, pop stars adjust their image, film animators amend their favourite cartoon characters, and car designers re-design old favourites such as the Volks Wagon Beetle. One secret of success is to retain enough of the old image to keep the loyalty of present enthusiasts for the product, whilst making sufficient innovations to attract a whole new group of consumers.

In the world of popular chocolates and sweets, there has been in recent years an ongoing revolution in modifying products. In previous times, sweets and chocolate