Marketing Case Analysis
Marketing Case Analysis
MKTG 101 – Principles of Marketing
Group 6
Section 5
Professor Bruce Wilson
Case 24
Quality Cutting Tools, Inc.
Group Case 2
Prepared by:
Vaccarezza, Andrew M
Jiang, Benson X
Longcrier, Emily N
Benson, Brooke E
Kalachik, Tatyana V
Konkel, Meghanne B
Lay, Tiffanie N
Skinner, David
May 17, 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
COMPANY OVERVIEW
PROBLEMS AT QCT
SOLUTIONS
MAJOR RELEVANT ISSUES
COMPETITION
MARKET TRENDS
MARKET RESEARCH
MARKET MATURITY
WHOLESALERS
CENTRAL PROBLEM
IMPLICATIONS ARISING FROM THE PROBLEM
LOSING MARKET
CUSTOMIZING PRODUCTS
SALESPEOPLE
ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
CURRENT MARKET
CUSTOMER SERVICE
NEW WHOLESALERS
CHANGING STRATEGY
RECOMMENDED SOLUTION
Executive Summary
Company Overview
Quality Cutting Tools, Inc. is a successful manufacturer of industrial cutting tools in an industry where every company is intensely devoted and competitive. The cutting tools provided by QCT have been labeled as top-quality products and QCT has been successful in the past when competing with OEM cutting tools as well as with imported foreign cutting tools.
Currently, QCT uses National Mill Supplies, Inc. (NMS) as their main channel of distribution which accounts for 90 percent of QCT’s sales. However, QCT and NMS are losing sales due to a lack of product specialization and knowledge in the NMS workforce.
Problems at QCT
With the industry introducing new products and means of conducting business, QCT is faced with several problems. Customer service is failing and the thought of losing revenue is raising concerns for President Ben Colavito. Inevitably, QCT will have to find strategies to raise their competitive advantage in current and new specialized markets.
Ben has tried different approaches to study the emerging specialized market. One of these approaches was using a research company to gather information regarding the new market of specialized cutting tools. The forecast showed a promising future in the new specialized cutting tool market.
Many new distribution channels specialize in the cutting tool market. These new distribution channels provide better customer service. Ben is receiving complaints about the customer service his distributors are providing. Unfortunately, Ben takes these complaints lightly and is unsure of the future of QCT.
Solutions
QCT’s strategy should be developed around two different markets for two different types of cutting tools. Their distributors will need to provide better overall technical support and build better relationships with their customers. This is only possible if customized cutting tools are separated from the general cutting tools market. This will help QCT to keep current customers in the current mature market as well as capture new customers in the newly developed customized cutting tool market. This should raise the competitive advantage and improve customer service.
This will lead QCT to discovering new wholesalers while developing new products as they move to the market maturity stage of business. This should inevitably make QCT more competitive in a newly transforming