Martha Stewart Cannabis – Overcoming Obstacles

REMINDERS

1. This is a group case and, as such, it must reflect the work of the entire group.
o It must read and be presented as an integrated piece of work.
o It MUST not be a “cut and paste” job which simply assembles the
individual work of group members.
2. This is a “major” assignment and, as such, is worth 25% of your final grade in
MRK620, including the group’s presentation to the professor. Please ensure that
the quality of the work reflects the overall importance that this assignment has
for your overall performance in the course.

3. A completed “Group Project Peer Assessment” is an integral part of the case

submission. Failure to submit a properly and completely filled out peer review
will result in a grade of “INC” for the entire group.
o Ensure that both the Individual and Group Evaluations are submitted.
o For clarity, a peer evaluation that rates every member of the team equally
is not properly filled out. You are expected to provide an honest critique
of the work of yourself and your team members.

4. As this case is about your interpretation and analysis of the situation to

determine the true problem, and the identification and assessment of
marketing strategy alternatives to determine the necessary recommendations
that solves the problem, no use of ChatGPT or any other form of AI assistance is
allowed.
5. An executive summary or table of contents page is NOT required for this deck.

EXTERNAL RESEARCH IS REQUIRED

Unlike other cases used in the program, external research is absolutely required to
supplement the limited information provided in the case document. All external
research must, of course, be properly referenced.

Searching for information and answers on the internet on what actually happened is
not permitted and will is not required, nor is it permitted unless specifically required
in the case instructions.

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THE MANDATE

While the case takes place in 2020, you are to bring the case forward to today. This
means that your analysis, alternatives & recommendations must reflect the current
situation as of March 2024. You are also to take a North American perspective that
includes Canada where cannabis is now a legal product and the United States where
the legal status of cannabis varies by state. The following websites may be helpful
in clarifying the legalization status of cannabis:
 State Medical Cannabis Laws (ncsl.org)
 Cannabis laws and regulations - Canada.ca

You are the Chief Brand Officer for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and you are
responsible for the partnership between Canopy Growth Corporation (Canopy) and
Martha Stewart, and your business decision deck must be written from that
perspective. You are presenting a marketing strategy deck that will be presented to
Martha Stewart and the CEO of Canopy, David Klein.

Your marketing strategy will be driven from a thorough analysis and assessment of
the situation. The situation analysis must lead to the identification of appropriate
and relevant insights which then can be used to determine the actual problem,
generate alternatives and drive the assessment of your alternatives to arrive at your
recommendations.

Your marketing strategy must cover defining the market (what business we are in),
choosing a segmentation base, segmenting the market, selecting a target audience,
determining a positioning, selecting an impactful key benefit, writing a positioning
statement, developing a brand strategy and product recommendations.

All decisions in your deck must be supported by an appropriate assessment that

includes all relevant criteria that are stated as close-ended questions unless
specifically directed otherwise in these case instructions. Remember that your
criteria must reflect anything or anyone that is impacted by the decision, and
anyone or anything that can impact the decision’s success.

GRADE ALLOCATION

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Your group’s grade will be determined on the quality & completeness of your
analysis, specification of the correct problem(s), identification & evaluation of
alternatives and the resulting recommendation(s) along with the utilization of
appropriate course concepts in solving the case. Your individual mark will reflect
the group’s overall mark adjusted for your relative performance on the case as
established by the peer review.

Remember that your business decision deck must be organized so that it “tells a
story” with a logical flow that engages the reader with strategic marketing
decisions made in the correct sequence. It is not a “question and answer” paper.
The information provided in the grade allocation section is intended to help you
prepare a complete analysis and set of recommendations.
 The allocation of space for each of the required areas is up to your group as long
as the assignment requirements are appropriately covered.
 There is no maximum or minimum length specified for this deck.

This assignment represents 25% of your final grade in MRK620 – Strategic Analysis
and will be graded out of 250 marks as follows:

o Market Definition (What Business Are We Really In?) 10 marks

o You must have a minimum of 4 potential markets to be assessed using a
properly constructed criteria table using an appropriate selection of close-
ended criteria to determine what market does the consumer believe that
Martha Stewart and Canopy are in.

o Situation Analysis & Insights - Company 15 marks

o What is the current situation and business performance for Canopy and for
Martha Stewart?
o What are their short and long-term objectives including business objectives,
the objectives for the joint venture and for their customers?
o What competitive advantages, if any, does the joint venture have? What
competitive advantages do the partners (Martha Stewart & Canopy) bring to
the joint venture? Insights from your competitive advantage analysis (VRIO)
are to be incorporated into this section.
o 50% of the marks for your situation analysis are for identifying insights
relevant to the decisions that are required in this case.

o Situation Analysis & Insights 20 marks

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o Factual information provided in the situation analysis must be relevant to the

identification of the problem and the business decision that needs to be made.
o Factual information from the case and your external research must be used to
develop relevant and meaningful insights which add to the reader’s
understanding of the problem, the potential solutions and your
recommendation.
o All relevant C’s must be covered in the situation analysis including the
customer, competition, collaborators and all relevant aspects of a PESTLE
analysis (political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental and
ethics) and, of course, the market and context.
o For your PESTLE analysis you must only analyze and include factors that are
relevant to the industry as you have defined it, Martha Stewart Cannabis,
the joint venture partners current situation and the business decisions you
are making.
o Inclusion of generic and irrelevant PESTLE factors will result in a reduction
in marks for the situation analysis.
o Identify what unique challenges emerge as a result of the unique nature of
cannabis and the fact that this is a relatively new product (or a relatively new
legal product)
o Insights on industry attractiveness from your 6 Forces analysis must be
seamlessly incorporated into your situation analysis.
o There are multiple insights that should and can be derived from the case facts
and 50% of the marks for this section are based on the insights you have
discovered.

o Evaluate The Fit Between the Martha Stewart brand and Canopy Growth
10 marks
o What benefits and challenges, if any, does Martha Stewart bring to the joint
venture and the overall cannabis industry?
o Should the Martha Stewart brand be involved with this industry? Why or
why not?
o What benefits and challenges, if any, does Canopy bring to the joint venture?
o Is there a good strategic fit between the two companies? Why or why not?
o Does the joint venture between the two brands help deal with some of the
unique challenges of cannabis and cannabis products? How?
o A criteria table is NOT required for this section.

o Problem Identification and Statement 5 marks

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o This includes your analysis & justification for the problem you’ve identified,
identifying the correct problem at the right level as well as the construction of
the actual problem statement using the proper problem statement template.

o Note that I should not find the words “Problem Statement” anywhere in your
deck. It should be absolutely obvious to the reader what the problem is and,
if it isn’t, it indicates an issue with the flow of your deck, the problem you’ve
identified and/or your actual problem statement.

o Segmentation Base Decision 10 marks

o This includes identifying an appropriate range of alternatives, the analysis of
those alternatives using relevant and thorough close-ended criteria and your
overall assessment leading to your recommendation on which segmentation
base(s) to use.
o A criteria table is required for this decision.

o Target Market Decision 10 marks

o This includes segmenting the market using your chosen segmentation base,
the analysis of the segments you have identified using relevant and thorough
close-ended criteria and your overall assessment leading to your
recommendation on target audience.
o A criteria table is required for this decision.

o Positioning Decision (Perceptual Maps & Quadrant Selection) 20 marks

o This includes building effective, properly designed and complete perceptual
maps, and then a thorough assessment of the possible position options to
select a positioning (quadrant on a perceptual map) using a properly
constructed decision criteria table.
o Your perceptual maps must show an appropriate selection of competitors
consistent with your market definition.

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o A minimum of 3 perceptual maps are required and 2 of those maps must have
completely unique axis.

o Key Benefit Determination & Positioning Statement Creation 25 marks

o A well written positioning statement following the template taught in our
classes is a mandatory part of your recommendation.
o The positioning statement must be supported by an appropriate analysis using
a criteria table of the possible functional (minimum of 3) and emotional
(minimum of 3) benefits that derive from & support your chosen positioning
and the strength of the reason to believe in that benefit.
o Not only must your positioning statement be technically correct, but it must
also be compelling to your chosen target audience.
o You must follow the prescribed positioning statement template:

o Brand Strategy & Brand Name (Brand Architecture) 15 marks

o What branding strategy from the brand relationship spectrum should the joint
venture use?
o This requires you to identify alternatives using both the concepts covered
in the brand relationship spectrum and actual brand names, and then
evaluate those alternatives using appropriate close-ended criteria
including master/product brand interactions, customers, wholesalers,
retailers, etc.
o A criteria table is required to determine the branding strategy
recommendation.
o Based on that branding strategy, how should the products offered by the joint
venture be branded?
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o Final recommendation & summary rationale 5 marks

o A summary of ALL the decisions you have made with a short rationale for
those decisions is required.

o Overall impression, impact, thoroughness & completeness of your business

decision deck 20 marks

o Quality and quantity of external research 15 marks

o In order to complete this deck, external research is absolutely required.
o There must be a minimum of 5 credible & quality external sources and, as
always, doing the minimum does not earn full marks.
o All external research must be properly referenced in order to qualify.
o It is not necessary to reference the case document and any articles posted by
the professor do not count towards this deliverable.

o Industry attractiveness (6 Forces) and competitive advantage (VRIO) analyses

20 marks
o Your deck must include a properly completed 6 Forces (including a summary
assessment on overall market attractiveness) and competitive advantage
(VRIO) analyses
o The VRIO analysis must include the correct identification of a minimum of 5
relevant core competencies.
o These core competencies are for the joint venture between Martha
Stewart and Canopy but can also include specific competencies at either
Martha Stewart or Canopy that the joint venture can leverage.
o Each core competency must be correctly assessed using the VRIO framework
with supporting rationale for each element to determine if it is a competitive
advantage or not.

o For your Industry Attractiveness (6 Forces) analysis, you must assess each
force for intensity (HIGH-MEDIUM-LOW or a combination) with a short
rationale.
o An assessment of the overall attractiveness of the industry must be provided.
o Your assessment should discuss attractiveness related to competitiveness and
profitability and must assess the industry (the market) that you determined
earlier in the case.

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o Presentation To The Professor 50 marks

o All group members must be present for the presentation. If a group member
doesn’t attend and/or participate in the actual presentation, they receive a
grade of 0 for this section of the deliverable.
o An effective presentation will include active participation from all group
members, only key points being addressed versus reading exactly what is on
each and every slide, the group’s ability to answer any questions from the
professor, the group’s ability to complete their presentation within the
allotted time, etc.
o Your group will have exactly 30 minutes for their presentation, and a group’s
grade will be negatively impacted if they are unable to complete their
presentation in the allotted time.
o You do NOT have to create a presentation deck for the on-line meeting with
the professor. You are going to take the professor through your business
decision deck.

THE BUSINESS DECISION DECK (The Fine Print)

Your deck is to be presented as a professional business decision deck as is

described in the “Business Decks – Guidelines & Requirements” document that I
have posted on blackboard and as outlined in the “Course Grading, and Case
Assignments Overview & Instructions” that is also posted on Blackboard. For
clarity, a business decision deck is an information intense, detailed document that
executives use by management to decide what to do. This is not a presentation
deck which is heavy on graphics & pictures and light on words. All the necessary
information for the reader to evaluate your recommendation must be included in
your business decision deck and its appendices:

Remember that you must submit a power-point document and an excel spreadsheet
via email and a PDF through SafeAssign. Remember that your group’s submissions
must be absolutely identical; if that is not the case, a grade of “0” will be given for
the assignment.

The overall quality, flow, consistency & professionalism of your submission must
meet an appropriate standard for a business deck in the “real world”. Marks, up
to 10% of the total grade for this assignment can be deducted if those
expectations are not met or if too much irrelevant content is included.

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