Serving Customer Needs Better through Improved Products and Innovative Ideas. The Singapore Airlines story that opens Chapter 1 highlights the need to serve customers better through better aircraft such as the Airbus A380, and through innovative offerings such as the Singapore Airlines World Gourmet Cuisine. Other ways of understanding and meeting customer needs are presented through the examples of the tourism boards of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Korea. The case study at the end of the chapter looks at the creation of karaoke and the needs it serves. Many students in Asia engage in karaoke singing and this should prove to be an exciting case for them.

Challenges of Planning in Organizations. Sony has had its fair share of challenges in recent years such as the need to recall faulty notebook batteries and the bid to be the industry standard for Blu-ray technology for optical disks. Chapter 2 opens with Sony Corporation and its vision, mission, and core capabilities. Other key concepts—strategic business units; objectives; culture; competencies; and business portfolio, market-product, and SWOT analyses—are explored through company examples such as Toyota, Unza Holdings, Samsung, Fujitsu, and Giordano. The case study on Lenovo enables students to look at key aspects of marketing planning.

Exciting Asia. Chapter 3 examines the key macroenvironment trends and developments in Asia with relevant and up-to-date Asian data on population breakdown and shifts, generational cohorts, households, ethnic and racial diversity, values, economic performance, income, and political changes. The opening story shows how Samsung is tapping opportunities presented by the digital revolution in Asia. The case study on Maybank enables students to examine macroenvironment trends relevant to the financial sector.

Meeting Customer Needs in a Responsible Manner. This can be a challenge if you market beer. The opening story in Chapter 4 on Asahi Breweries shows how the company is marketing beer in a responsible and ethical manner. The case study looks at the ethics of junk food advertising in Australia.

Children in Asia Have a Strong Say in What Their Families Purchase. The opening story in Chapter 5 is about tweens in Japan, China, and India and how they make their own purchase decisions as well as advice and influence their parents in family purchases. This chapter also looks at consumer behavior and examines the consumer buying process and the psychological and social factors affecting buying behavior through featured examples on Yakult, Shiseido, Sunora, Samsung, and Bee Cheng Hiang. The case study is an account of a television buying episode by a Singaporean family, and allows students to identify the buying process and influences.

Organizational Buyers in Asia Want Quality, Low Price, and Corporate Social Responsibility in Procurement Decisions. The opening story on Fujitsu in Chapter 6 shows the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility in business marketing. Fujitsu aims to have 99 percent of procured parts worldwide to be eco-friendly. Business marketers will do well to take note of the Green Procurement Movement in the business market. The case study features Jason Electronics, a Singapore-based company that supplies communications products to ships and vessels.

Look Out World! Asian Conglomerates Are Increasingly Going Global. The Tata Group, featured in the opening story in Chapter 7, operates in 96 countries on six continents. The company believes in long-term commitment and seeks to get involved in local communities, contributing to the economic and social development in these countries. The case study on Sakae Sushi enables students to look at factors affecting overseas marketing decisions and entry strategies.

Losing Your Way in Your Market? You Need Marketing Research. Singha Corporation was losing ground in the Thai beer market. Marketing research described in Chapter 8 has helped Singha to understand how Thai consumers in Bangkok and Chiangmai perceived six local and foreign brands of beer. As a result, the company was able to look at three different options for gaining the lost ground. AC Nielsen is featured for secondary reports on Asian markets in areas such as television audience measurement. The case study is on nEbO, the youth lifestyle club by NTUC. It enables students to examine research objectives, research design, questionnaire design, and data interpretation.

Five Groups of Affluent Asian Adults. The opening story in Chapter 9 describes the five distinct segments of affluent Asian adults based on a research study by Synovate. These five segments require different treatment by marketers. Companies featured using various approaches and concepts in segmentation and targeting include Futuristic Group, Samsung, WBL Corporation, Nera Telecommunications, and China Sports International. The case study on St James Power Station looks at various segments in the night entertainment market and the targeting strategies of St James, Zouk, and LifeBrandz.

Now You Can Share Music without Sharing Earphones. Chapter 10 covers new-product development and features Creative’s TravelSound for the iPod nano as the opening story. The chapter explores the factors for new-product success and the steps in the new-product development process through examples such as OSIM, University of New South Wales in Singapore, Crazy Horse in Singapore, Mattel in China, MUJI, and Slim Secrets in Australia. The case study is on Medtronic in China.

Still Going Strong after More Than 170 Years. Chapter 11 on branding features Brand’s® as the opening story. Brand’s® started with its famous essence of chicken and has now extended its product offerings to include an extensive range of health supplements, both traditional and modern. This chapter describes concepts such as product life cycle, brand management, packaging, and labeling, and product warranty using examples such as Tiger Balm and Toyota. The case study on Mr Bean allows students to examine issues such as benefits of branding, brand identity, and development of brand loyalty.

Second Funkiest Attraction in Singapore . . . after Changi Airport. Chapter 12 opens with Hotel 1929, described as Singapore’s second funkiest tourist attraction by The Washington Post. Each of the hotel’s 32 rooms is uniquely designed. The chapter deals with topics such as the unique attributes of services, classification of services, and marketing of services using examples such as Cathay Pacific, Singapore Post, and Development Bank of Singapore. The case study is on Etihad Airways, which aims to be the best airline in the world.

How Dot-Com Companies Still Thrive—by Helping Consumers Save Money and Time. Zuji.com is featured in Chapter 13 for helping consumers save money by getting good prices for air tickets, accommodation, and rental cars. This chapter lays the foundation for pricing decisions and talks about the importance of price, pricing as value, price in the marketing mix, pricing objectives and constraints, demand and pricing, and break-even analysis. The chapter features examples such as Lexus, Honda, and Nikon. The case study deals with the pricing challenges faced by Glitzz, a jewelry cleaner company in Singapore.

Cheapest Car in the World. Chapter 14 opens with the Nano, the car priced at one lakh or US$2,500. Through this example, issues in pricing such as costs and profits, and consumers’ and competitors’ reactions, are examined. This chapter also examines concepts such as demand-oriented, cost-oriented, profit-oriented, and competition-oriented approaches; fixed and flexible pricing; discounts and allowances; geographical pricing; and legal aspects of pricing, using examples such as Petronas, Daiso, Lee Kum Kee, and Japan Airlines. The case study on an electronics component manufacturer in Asia allows students to examine issues such as demand forecasting, breakeven analysis, and pricing decisions.

Vietnam’s Vinamilk Offers 220 Delicious and Nutritious Dairy Products. Chapter 15 looks at the management of marketing channels and wholesalers, and features Vinamilk in the opening story. The company has 1,787 salespeople and 220 distributors in Vietnam, and sells its products through 1.25 million outlets throughout the country. This chapter describes the functions of intermediaries, structure of channels, types of channels, vertical marketing systems, channel design, and channel management using examples such as Pokka, Far East Flora, Watsons, Mitsubishi, Acer, Samsung, and Ya Kun. The case study is on Shiseido and its channel decisions in China.

An Asian Company Succeeds in Europe through Advanced Supply Chain Technology. Chapter 16 describes the roles of supply chain and logistics in marketing and features as the opening story Acer’s success in Europe through advanced supply chain techniques such as the use of high definition radio frequency (RFID) solutions. The chapter covers issues such as importance of supply chain, objectives of supply chain, and key functions in logistics and reverse logistics using examples such as 7-Eleven, Toyota, Cosco, and ANA Cargo. The case study is on The Bakery Depot, which enables students to examine the supply chain challenges for bakery products.

Practical, Everyday Fashion at Affordable Prices. This is the positioning of Robinson Department Store, Thailand, featured in the opening story of Chapter 17. It is a challenge to get customers to keep coming back and Robinson does that by closely monitoring customers’ tastes and developing innovative programs in its stores. This chapter on retailing looks at topics such as value of retailing, classification of retail concepts, nonstore retailing, retail strategies, and the wheel of retailing, featuring examples like Development Bank of Singapore, House Way Company, Bee Cheng Hiang, Best Denki, 7-Eleven, Tops Supermarket in Thailand, Fujitaka, Nissen Company, and SM Mall of Asia in the Philippines. The case study features Frasers Centrepoint Malls, which owns and operates malls such as The Centrepoint and North Point in Singapore.

Making the “Write” Choice. Chapter 18 looks at integrated marketing communications (IMC) and features Pilot’s IMC programs in its opening story. The chapter describes the communication process, promotional elements, promotional mix, development of IMC programs, and evaluation of IMC programs through examples such as Ridsect in Malaysia, Tefal, Nu Skin, Sony Playstation, the Beijing Olympics, Sony, and Great Eastern Insurance. The case study is on Banyan Tree Holdings, which discusses appropriate IMC programs for a tourist resort.

A Controversial Campaign for a Good Cause. Chapter 19 opens with a controversial ad campaign by Action for Aids Singapore. Topics covered in this chapter include types of advertisements, the advertising message, advertising media, advertising scheduling plans, evaluation of advertising programs, sales promotion tools, and public relation tools using examples such as Archipelago beer, LG, Philippines Red Cross, Dairy Australia, Fairfax Business Media, Institute of Advertising Singapore, and Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore. The case study is on Tiger Beer and its “winner” campaign.

Selling Aircraft in Asia through Guanxi. Chapter 20 features Boeing salesperson Lee Hsing-Fei in the opening story. Personal selling topics such as forms of personal selling and stages of the personal selling process, and sales management topics such as objective selling, organization of sales force, sales force size, recruitment, motivation, compensation, and evaluation are covered using examples like Prudential, Starwood Hotels, Pokka, and Nissan. The case study is on Shah and Company, India.

Buying a Present is Simple at Panasonic.com. Chapter 21 starts with the story of a girl buying a birthday present for her boyfriend at Panasonic.com. The topics on interactive and multichannel marketing are described using examples such as Xpressflower.com, Nintendo, Samsung, and MobileOne. The case study is on Qotion.com, a Singapore start-up in e-commerce.

Challenges in Making the Right Marketing Decisions. Chapter 22 “pulls it all together,” and describes marketing decisions in dynamic conditions. The opening story features Fraser and Neave, which faces a fast-changing environment in the food and beverage market. The other topics in the chapter such as allocation of resources, variety of marketing plans, sources of competitive advantages, problems in planning, steps to ensure success in planning, organization for marketing, and evaluation of marketing efforts are presented with the help of examples such as Ryohin Keikaku Company, Creative, Chowking, Tiger Balm, Tata Motors, Disneyland Hong Kong, Sony, Singapore Airlines, Banyan Tree, and Ssangyong Corporation. The case study, on the food court industry in Singapore, allows students to examine the whole marketing process such as analyzing the macroenvironment, assessing the market potential, setting objectives, developing strategies, and ensuring implementation.

Finally, Appendix D, Supplementary Cases, contains 15 more cases on Asian companies.