Charlsberg United Breweries Ltd. Case
...etrated by this giant brewery. This explains the switch to Mikkelsen as marketing director, because Mikkelsen already has great experience in Malaysia due to his time with Volvo as director of marketing there. Mikkelsen is very innovative and rumor has it that ST Studios is about to get another shot at providing presentations for Charlsberg for one small test account. He is heavily interested in finding a solid yet flexible supplier to the Malaysia region who would be capable of the quick turnaround expected from a growing market segment. We have heard that the Charlsberg general manager in Thailand, Matthias Ritterband, is interested in choosing a presentation provider who is extremely knowledgeable of the culture specific nature required when presenting to the Malaysia region. Ritterband recommends that whoever is chosen upon to present to possible Thai and Malaysian suppliers should also work closely with Rittapanat Tchongthai, a major Thai communications consultant that has worked with Charlsberg in Singapore and Vietnam. Ritterband also believes that the message is more important than the execution and that the less tech-oriented Thailand could be intimidated by too flashy of a presentation. Alternatives: Our goal in this situation is to keep ST Studios from taking over this large account, and specifically the new account that is developing in Thailand and Malaysia. We are working hard to keep Charlsberg as our customer, and the following alternatives will strive to do just that. First of all, it will be important to remind Charlsberg, specifically the marketing director Mikkelsen, of DeeGraphic’s strengths regarding the key issues. We should develop a strong contact with Ritterband whose ideas and opinions go right along with our company standards and values. We are known for keeping things relatively simple and to the point, and with his knowledge we could use valuable information within the presentation that would go along with what everyone wants. In this perspective we should go ahead and contact Rittapanat Tchongthai Communications Consulting in Thailand and develop a relationship now that would allow us to move forward together in the future. It would be great to be able to handle the entire workings of the Charlsberg in Malaysia account ourselves, but it would be very ignorant to assume that we would not do a better job with the likes of Rittapanat Tchongthai on our side to guide us in developing our communication strategy. If we are able to develop a stronger relationship with the Thai consulting firm before ST Studios does, that it would be very difficult for us not to gain this new expansion project. Also, it will be necessary to grow our contact with the current marketing director, Mikkelsen, and explain to him why we worked so well with Hansson, the previous director. Mikkelsen may be under the impression that our main reason for doing business with us (DeeGraphics) was because of account executive Lars Quist was such good friends with Hansson. Even though this is true, it will be necessary to reinforce the other reasons why we are doing a good job. We should talk about our large customer base in much of the Scandinavian multinational corporations including telecom, pharmaceuticals, and financial services. Remind Mikkelsen of our history and experience, and do everything possible to let him know that we are the best choice for their expansion needs into Thailand and Malaysia. Show him examples of our work in other industries in which we were able to capture excellent suppliers for other companies when they used our presentations. Do not be...