The case study method is particularly well suited to teaching strategic marketing, a complex subject due to the many factors that come into play in the decision-making process. This book offers what numbers do not: more specifically, it provides training in decision making in the unpredictable context of the consumer products sector.

This competitive world, with its colossal financial stakes, has become so demanding that only essential human aptitudes such as intellectual rigour, analytical skills, sound judgement, and the ability to make decisions can guarantee a successful career.
Therefore, this book recounts, in as many different stories, the real-life experiences of certain companies, whether large or small, and whatever their business sector. Each case provides a realistic example of a specific situation drawn from the day-to-day running of these organisations: information is factual and relevant, structured and quantifiable, albeit sometimes partial or incomplete. However, keen students will be prompted to fully immerse themselves in all these very diverse real-life business situations so they can learn to make strategic choices and decisions on appropriate courses of action, based solely on the information available to them. Just like in “real life”!
And as in “real life”, there is never just one solution to a given problem, and what’s more, “miracle” solutions do not exist. In most cases, several more or less satisfactory alternatives will emerge depending on the desired outcome. As the reader will have understood, the cases in this textbook demand much more than just a theoretical academic approach or vaguely realistic storytelling.

Moreover, no one can impose decisions without taking the human context in which they operate into account. That is why, whilst focusing on the subject of marketing strategy, this book’s approach is to encourage dialogue and open discussion.