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• Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2015 (Revised April 2018)

  CJ E&M: Creating a K-Culture in the U.S.

  Elie Ofek, Sang-Hoon Kim and Michael Norris

  Buoyed by the success of K-pop music and K-drama television shows in Asian countries, Chairman Jay Lee, of the South Korean conglomerate CJ Group, believed that the time was ripe for taking Korean cultural content to the West. One initiative, carried out by the Group's Entertainment & Media (E&M) division, was a daylong fan convention, called 'KCON', that was held in Irvine, CA in October 2012 and which featured various Korean cultural elements, such as music, dance, film, and food.
  
  In the spring of 2013, Miky Lee, the Group's Vice Chairman (VC), called a meeting with key executives to review the results of KCON 2012 and make a recommendation to the Chairman on whether to hold a similar event in 2013. As part of their deliberations, the executives were expected to consider where a potential 2013 convention should be held, which artists to invite, which target consumers to focus on, how to price tickets and how to attract more sponsors. With KCON 2012 having lost money, despite a robust turnout, it was far from clear whether to repeat the event and, if so, whether its scale should be expanded beyond 2012's $1.1 million budget. With CJ recently opening a chain of mid-market Korean food restaurants in the Los Angeles area called Bibigo, the meeting would also touch on the restaurant's U.S. growth plans and how they might be connected to KCON.
  
  More broadly, the executives had to wrestle with the question of whether Americans would ever really embrace Hallyu, the Korean Wave, beyond one-off success stories like PSY's "Gangnam Style." And even if they believed so, was KCON the right vehicle to make it happen, or was the event just a waste of the company's time and money?

  Keywords: global strategy; Cultural Consumption; Media Businesses; international marketing; event marketing; Creative Industries; cross-cultural adaptation; ethnic marketing; South Korea; Marketing Strategy; Entertainment; Global Strategy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; South Korea;

  Citation:

  Ofek, Elie, Sang-Hoon Kim, and Michael Norris. "CJ E&M: Creating a K-Culture in the U.S." Harvard Business School Case 515-015, January 2015. (Revised April 2018.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2016 (Revised April 2018)

  JCPenney: Back in Business

  Elie Ofek, K. Shelette Stewart and Christine Snively

  In 2016, JCPenney was in the midst of a multi-year turnaround after coming dangerously close to bankruptcy. Under CEO Marvin Ellison, the company had identified three strategic objectives—a focus on omnichannel, private label goods, and increasing revenue per customer—to guide all company initiatives. The company was running pilot tests on a new line of appliances, rebranded hair salons, and new private label merchandise, and management now needed to decide how best to roll out and market these initiatives across the chain. Ellison also considered how to build upon the company’s new ad campaign, Get Your Penney’s Worth, and how to strike the right balance between serving its “core” and “emerging” customer segments. He wondered if these objectives and initiatives were enough to restore JCPenney’s position in the evolving retail landscape.

  Keywords: retail; marketing strategy; brands and branding; Customer Management; omnichannel; turnarounds; private label; promotions; competition; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Ofek, Elie, K. Shelette Stewart, and Christine Snively. "JCPenney: Back in Business." Harvard Business School Case 517-037, October 2016. (Revised April 2018.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2017 (Revised April 2018)

  Kameda Seika: Cracking the U.S. Market

  Elie Ofek, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

  In spring 2016, Kameda’s CEO, Michiyasu Tanaka, is facing difficult questions from board members over the lackluster performance of the company’s U.S. subsidiary. Kameda was the leading player in the Japanese rice cracker market and was looking to expand overseas to achieve growth, with the vision of becoming a global food company. Starting in 2008, it had tried to market its best-selling product in Japan, Kakinotane, as well as other types of rice-based snacks to U.S. consumers. Despite years of offering samples to consumers, modifications to the naming and packaging design, the addition of new flavors, changes in the supermarkets where it placed its product, and offering retailers slotting fees—sales were well below expectations and losses were mounting. The situation was especially baffling as the company believed that the gluten-free trend as well as a growing desire for healthier food should have bode well for its rice-based snacks; moreover, several Japanese food makers had recently achieved success in the U.S. (such as Calbee with Snapeas and Ito En with teas). On the bright side, Kameda’s recent acquisition of a U.S. company, Mary’s Gone Crackers, was showing steady sales growth, though profits were very low due to high manufacturing and raw ingredient costs, and distribution coverage was limited. Tanaka and his management team had only a few years to turn things around or consider closing the Kameda USA subsidiary. Every marketing element was on the table: from changing the packaging to rethinking the retail approach to accepting private label deals to investing in more efficient plants to partnering with a well-known U.S. brand in the snack food space. Could Tanaka save Kameda USA and dramatically improve the profits of Mary’s Gone Crackers?

  Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Food and Beverage Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Japan; United States;

  Citation:

  Ofek, Elie, Nobuo Sato, and Akiko Kanno. "Kameda Seika: Cracking the U.S. Market." Harvard Business School Case 517-095, February 2017. (Revised April 2018.)  View Details

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