Good Case Study About “Case Study”

Symptoms:

Hines has developed a new benchmark technology in 3-d displays
His new invention fails to do well in the market
His licensees are unable to generate any sales
He does not correctly predict his target market – he is targeting only retailers, jewelers, museums etc. He
He is socially aloof and awkward, and hence is not marketing his products the right way
There are chances of his invention getting copied
Hines does not have any people skills – He wants to work alone and does not want to deal with people
Licensee want to sell the invention back to Hines because they could not find any customers
Licensees are not good enough to generate business for Hines
Causes:
Hines technology is not properly marketed due to his lack of knowledge and willingness to deal with his potential customers directly

He could predict his target market accurately – Casinos and gaming industry was excluded from his potential target markets

Hines does not have any patent protection in the market outside the USA
Credentials of licensees were not checked before giving them the licenses. There is a chance that these licensees are not capable for selling high technology product

Analysis

There are several problems that can be highlighted from Hines case. However, the primary problem or the major problem is that his products are not marketed well enough. There were two reasons for that. First reason was that Hines was never a social person, and relied heavily on his licensees to generate sales. His lack of knowledge made the matters worse for his companies, and there were little or no sales for his products. The second reason for this failure was the inability of his licensees to sell the product. He did not verify the credentials of his licensees well enough before giving them the license. As a result, the wrong companies got the licenses, and they were unable to generate the much needed sales for HinesLab. This lead to the decline of the product which was once considered a benchmark in the new 3d technology. Another reason for this failure was that Hines was unable to identify the target market for the product. Hence, he could focus the actual target market, and wasted his time and energy on retailers, jewelers, and museums.

Alternatives and Conclusions:

There are several option available for Hines such as finding better licensees, improving his people’s skills, and learning about marketing and selling a product. However, these are long term fixes and cannot solve the problem quickly. Hines can only solve this problem by hiring market experts in the company. The reason for hiring these people will be to check the market potential of the product. Most of Hines considerations have only been assumptions till this moment. The product and its potential have not been tested in the market. By hiring these experts, Hines will be able to know the exact worth of his product. This will enable him to market is product better, and the facts and figures obtained from the market research will be able to communicated to the interested companies which will increase the business for Hines.

Implementation:

In the first phase, the marketing experts will assess the true worth of this invention called the HoloBox. In the second phase, the same marketing team will try to figure out the possible target market, and will deliver them presentations on the use and efficacy of using the product. This will create a market for the product. It will tempt the people, businessmen, and investors to buy the product. This was missing from Hines sales plan up till this point. It will be beneficial for the business, and will give great boost to the sales of the product.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:
Experts doing the job
Enhance the product’s market attractiveness
Will identify the right target market to focus upon
Weaknesses:
Will be costly for Hines
May lead to the product getting copied
Marketers may not be able to generate hype for the product, if they do not know about the product. If they know too much about the product, important information may be leaked

Opportunities:

It will be an important innovation for the retail industry
Breakthrough in the way ads are displayed in retail shops, and casinos
Can lead to bigger developments
Threats:
Cheaper Chinese versions of the product
Will lead to innovative destruction of the current methods used in advertising such as Billboards
All above discussion shows that the major fault in this case is lack of marketing of the product. It also shows the importance of good marketing for the success of any product. However, since the problem has been identified, it can now be cured by using the marketing experts, and this invention can be a breakthrough in the advertising industry.