Subject: Sales and Distribution Management

Submitted to: Prof. A. Vidyasagar

Topic: Conflict at Acme Ltd.

MBA Batch 2021-23

Marketing - Section A

Submitted by:
Group 7:

21020841067 - Namisha Kondaskar

21020841139 - Souvik Kar
21020841173 - Nikita Basumatary
21020841187 - Shromona Chakraborty
21020841229 - KVR Yaswanth
21020841230 - Yashada Joshi
Case Background:

The ACME case highlights the conflict between the approaches of its Marketing Manager and
Sales Manager. Mr. Gurunath, the Marketing Manager’s recommendations are to – increase
the price of the product by 5% and to increase advertising budget by 5% and compensate
that with a 3% decrease in retailers’ margin. However, this conflicts with the Sales Manager,
Mr. Chaturvedi's observations that notes that the increase in price would adversely affect the
brand image and reduction in the retail margin might affect the business and impact sales.
The VP of the company, Mr. Sinha, is now in a dilemma on how to resolve the conflict and
align both the essential functions of the business.

Considerations for Strategy:

• Viewpoints of both parties

• Sales budget for allocation
• Elements from market research
• Competitors price and value offerings
• Customer’s perception
• Relationship with retailers
• Retailer margin terms and policies
• Time frame for controlled test marketing

Controlled Test Marketing Plan

1. Select four representative cities in the country (one each in north, south, east, west).
2. Increase advertising expenditure by 5% in four cities only based on assumption that
advertisement pull will happen after 2 months.
3. Note down the ROI from advertisements and average sales cycle from these 2 months.
4. Now increase the price by 5% from month 3 to month 6 in the four cities.
5. Note down the ROI from advertisements and average sales cycle from these 4 months.
6. If the ROI in the last 4 months is higher than ROI of first 2 months, then roll out a
national campaign implementing all the suggestions made by Marketing Manager.
7. Else, price and advertisement will remain same as before the study.

Final Word

An organization is successful when all its functions are aligned and synchronized.
Furthermore, any market research study shall be conducted only after all due discussions
held between the sales and marketing departments. This is to avoid to any future conflicts
between the departments.