Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
Back Matter Video Cases © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002While the new product team was developing the engine,
B&S marketing people had other work to do. To emphasize the
new engine’s distinct identity, they used an individual brand
name, Quattro, which means four in Spanish. They also devel-
oped promotional materials to use at the trade show, and started
work on ads and other cooperative promotional materials so
they would be ready for producers and retailers to use when the
Quattro started to appear on lawn mowers in retail stores.
The B&S salespeople also started to call on their top OEM
customers. Besides explaining the advantages of the new Quat-
tro motor and answering questions, they provided hundreds of
sample motors. That made it possible for the producers to get a
head start in creating prototypes of new mowers to show their
retailer-customers. And since the retailers have a big influence
on the producer’s purchase decisions, B&S salespeople also pro-
moted the features of the new motor—and the pull appeal of
the Briggs & Stratton name—to retail buyers.
The salespeople also explained the benefits of the B&S co-
operative advertising arrangements and how they work. B&S
provides cooperative advertising allowances and materials to
all of its OEM customers and to the retailers who sell their
products.
As a result of all this front-end planning, the Quattro got off
to a very successful start. In fact, customer reaction to the new
engine’s sleek appearance, power, and reliability was so strong
that demand was double what B&S had forecast. By mid-1995,
the company was hard-pressed to keep up with demand.
That’s one reason that during the first year B&S decided to
focus the marketing effort for the Quattro primarily on the
U.S. market. It didn’t make sense to spend money promoting
the product in foreign markets if supply would be limited.
However, exports account for 21 percent of all B&S engine
and parts sales, and the Quattro isn’t likely to be an exception
to that pattern. When the time comes for the Quattro’s inter-
national rollout some changes in the domestic marketing
strategies may be required. For example, while lawn and gar-
den equipment is important in nations with developed
economies, in less-developed countries the Quattro is likely to
be used for other types of applications—in agricultural, ma-
rine, and other commercial markets.- Are there any disadvantages to Briggs & Stratton’s deci-
sion to hold off introducing its new Quattro engine in
international markets? Explain your thinking. - What are the marketing implications for Briggs & Strat-
ton of the fact that the U.S. market for lawn mowers is in
the market maturity stage? - Given that engines are such an important component in
manufacturing lawn mowers, would it make sense for
Briggs & Stratton to develop and market its own line of
mowers? Explain your thinking. - Given B&S’ ability to compete well with Japanese motor-
cycle producers when they tried to take market share away
from Briggs & Stratton’s small engines, would it make
sense for Briggs & Stratton to produce a small
motorcycle—or perhaps a motorscooter—to market in
India and other countries where incomes are low but
demand for personal transportation is increasing? Explain
your thinking.
Frog’s Leap Winery*In order to save a $2.00 camping fee, John Williams rode
his motorcycle into a field in the Napa Valley, pitched his tent,
and was enjoying a good night’s sleep until he was rudely
awakened early the next morning by the owner of the prop-
erty, Larry Turley, a local doctor. In order to make amends,
John offered to share a bottle of wine with the doctor, and by
the time the bottle was empty, the two had discovered they
both shared a strong desire to make wine.
Having grown up on a dairy farm in western New York,
John originally went to Cornell University to extend his stud-
ies as a dairyman. However, a fortuitous work-study program at
Taylor Wine Company—and a few bottles of wine later—
made John realize he was more interested in making wine than
in returning to the family dairy farm. His newfound interest
led him to enroll in the Enology and Viticulture Masters Pro-
gram at the University of California, Davis. After concluding
his studies at Davis, John returned to the Finger Lakes area of
New York as the start-up winemaker at Glenora Wine Cellars.
But having been exposed to the superior climate and soils of
the Napa Valley, John eventually headed back to the Napa
Valley to assume winemaking duties at Spring Mountain
Vineyards.
Back in the Napa Valley, John reacquainted himself with
the good doctor whose land he had poached on several years
before, Larry Turley. Larry was now living on a small parcel of
land called The Frog Farm, so named because an old ledger re-
vealed that around the turn of the century frogs were raised
there and sold for $.33 per dozen, destined no doubt for the ta-
bles of Victorian San Francisco restaurants. As a lark, they
gathered some grapes and made a small quantity of wine. They
called the Wine “Frog’s Leap,” a combination of a good-
natured dig at Stag’s Leap, the classy Napa Valley winery, and
a tribute to The Frog Farm where Larry lived.
Because of their love of winemaking, they continued to
make small quantities of the wine for several years and man-
aged to sell a few cases each year to help defray expenses. John
and Larry continued to produce the wine as a hobby—they
both were still working full-time in their real jobs—and
probably wouldn’t have changed except for the fact that a
wine writer from The New York Timespicked up a bottle and
wrote a column entitled “Frog’s Leap: A Prince of a Wine.”
The free publicity resulted in hundreds of telephone calls and
the sale of their entire year’s production.
The opportunity to attempt to grow the winery was too
hard to resist, and, according to John, the hobby became a real
business when “We made the ultimate male sacrifice and de-
cided to sell our motorcycles in order to raise the capital
necessary to start the winery as a commercial venture.”
Production grew from 700 cases of wine at its inception in
1982, to 2,900 cases in 1983, to 4,400 cases in 1984. By 1985,
the winery was doing well enough for John to quit his paid
employment at Spring Mountain Winery and make Frog’s4Video Cases 703*Peter Rainsford prepared this case and the script for the accompa-
nying video. He would like to thank John Williams, founder and
owner of Frog’s Leap Winery, for providing information in the case
and for his constructive suggestions during its preparation.