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• Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2020

  Big Boom Beverages: Fight or Flight?

  Stephen A. Greyser and William Ellet

  Four college friends market a beverage that combines ingredients like those in a drink they consumed in college bars. It includes a caffeinated energy drink, malt liquor, and a soft drink flavoring. They launch the business, Big Boom Beverages (BBB), with their own money and funds from friends and family members. Their initial product sells reasonably well, but not enough to remain profitable. When they introduce a reformulated product, Totaled, its social media presence explodes. Young consumers upload many videos to YouTube that record the impacts of consuming large quantities of Totaled that earn millions of views. Totaled becomes a star brand on social media and sales skyrocket. The company is inundated with distribution requests. The founders see success looming. As sales of Totaled and similar products increase, so do reports of binge drinking and its negative consequences. Emergency room doctors and public health officials express concern about the combination of high levels of alcohol and caffeine in these products. Rapidly expanding distribution of the beverage through convenience stores gives underage drinkers easier access to the beverage. All these factors attract national media coverage. The founders are unprepared to deal with the bad reputation their product is gaining and regulatory and public-relations crisis they face. As the case ends, they are deciding how to respond. "Big Boom Beverages: Fight or Flight?" can be used with undergraduate and MBA courses in entrepreneurship, marketing, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, general management, and public health.

  Keywords: alcoholic beverages; energy drinks; regulation; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Reputation; Communication Strategy; Decision Making;

  Citation:

  Greyser, Stephen A., and William Ellet. "Big Boom Beverages: Fight or Flight?" Harvard Business School Brief Case 920-557, May 2020.  View Details

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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | May 2020

  Big Boom Beverages: Fight or Flight? (Brief Case)

  Stephen A. Greyser and William Ellet

  Teaching Note for HBS Brief Case No. 920-557. The case addresses analysis and decisions related to the entrepreneurial life of a distinctive energy beverage, including its niche market launch, early problems, reformulation, social media impact, market success, and public policy/ethics challenges—as well as the three co-founders' approaches to management and decision making. Ultimately, the partners must opt for "fight or flight." The extensive Teaching Note encompasses two alternative discussion plans, one focused on the ultimate decision (fight/flight/compromise), and the other following the case facts, analysis, and decisions over time. The elements of market entry, competition, product modifications, communications strategy, regulatory challenges, and management decision-making are all treated. Key topics and study questions assist instructors in course selection for the case and student assignments.

  Keywords: alcoholic beverages; energy drinks; regulation; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Reputation; Communication Strategy; Decision Making;

  Citation:

  Greyser, Stephen A., and William Ellet. "Big Boom Beverages: Fight or Flight? (Brief Case)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 920-558, May 2020.  View Details

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• Chapter | Museum Marketization | 2019

  Integrated Partnerships in Cultural Sponsorship: The Cases of Guggenheim UBS and MFA Boston-Fleet

  Stephen A. Greyser and Ragnar Lund

  This chapter presents and interprets two field-based studies of sponsorship collaborations between major museums and significant financial institutions—a global multi-year partnership between the Guggenheim Foundation and UBS, and the pioneering regional integrated sponsorship program between the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Fleet Bank (subsequently part of Bank of America) for the “Monet in the 20th century” exhibition in 1998. The studies offer insights on the rationale (as well as non-objectives) and implementation of the sponsorships and explore critical elements of resource integration in terms of complementary resource mobilization and internal integration.

  Keywords: museums; Financial Institutions; Partners and Partnerships; Culture; Cooperation;

  Citation:

  Greyser, Stephen A., and Ragnar Lund. "Integrated Partnerships in Cultural Sponsorship: The Cases of Guggenheim UBS and MFA Boston-Fleet." Chap. 11 in Museum Marketization: Cultural Institutions in the Neoliberal Era, edited by Karin M. Ekström, 188–207. Mastering Management in the Creative and Cultural Industries. Routledge, 2019.  View Details

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