This document provides instructions for a marketing case study assignment on the Finnish dairy company Valio. Students are asked to analyze Valio's business, products, markets, and competitors. They must also propose a marketing campaign for Valio's creme fraiche product and integrate concepts from course readings. The assignment involves 5 parts and is to be completed in pairs. Students will present their findings and answers in a PowerPoint and written report due on March 29th.

1. Introduction to Marketing
Assignment 1
Company analysis and making use
of market information
CASE: Valio

2. Learning objectives
1. The student can grasp the operating environment of a
company and the basic characteristics of its business
2. The student learns how to find information relevant for
segmenting and justify their analysis based on market
information
3. The student is able to make recommendations about
enhancing a company’s business based on the information
available

3. Background
• Read carefully the instructions for the assignment and
familiarize yourself with the background material
• http://www.valio.fi/portal/page/portal/valiocom
• Take a look at what is written about Valio in the media (for
example the english version of Helsingin Sanomat)

4. Assignment: Part 1 – Company analysis
Answer all questions:
1. In which geographical areas does Valio operate? What are
the most important market-areas for Valio?
2. What are Valio’s product groups that are aimed at
consumers?
3. Who are the main rivals for Valio?
4. This assignment is focused on the consumer business of
Valio. What other business does Valio practice?
5. Who are the owners of Valio? How do you believe this affects
the price of raw material for Valio?

5. Assignment: Part 2 – Analysis of a BU
• Let’s focus on one of the business units of Valio, the Cooking Products.
1. Cooking products include fermented cremes, sour cremes, creme
fraiches, cooking cream, cooking yoghurt, cottage cheese dessert
sauces, sauces for meals and soups. What are the main characteristics
of this business unit?
2. How should the marketing of the business unit be organized/optimized?
How can marketing add value? Could the group be more than the sum
of its parts?
3. In regard to marketing, are the basic products and the value adding
products different from each other? How about the spiced and the non-
spiced products? Is it possible to create unified segmentation, or should
the segmenting be product-related? Consider positioning when
elaborating your solution

6. Assignment: Part 3 –
Analysis of the product offering
• Let’s focus on looking at one single product offering,
the creme fraiche
1. How should Valio market the category? Should the products be
marketed individually or as a group? Is the product offering
consistent?
2. What kind of core value is communicated to the customers?
How successful this communication is?
3. What kind of role does the Valio brand play in this product
offering?
4. How do you see the segmenting and the positioning of the
creme fraiche offering in the future?

7. Assignment: Part 4 – Launch campaign
• Assignment: Create an innovative and out-of-box launch campaign for Valio’s creme
fraiche. The aim is to use new methods and target niche segments (without forgetting
others) being confined to a small budget of max 20 000 EUR. Avant garde thinking,
and even wildest ideas are the key for a successful implementation
• Compose a SWOT-analysis of the creme fraiche market potential
• Guiding questions to guide your thinking:
– How could you benefit from the themes brought up in the previous parts of the
assignment in marketing creme fraiche?
– Discuss the potential drivers of the heavy-users. How could you use this
information to enlarge the target market from heavy-users to masses?
– What other segments could the product be targeted tot?
– What new usage patterns could the product have? How should you communicate
these?

8. Assignment: Part 5 –
Integrating course readings
• The last part deals with the articles that can be found on the
course website. Answer all questions:
1. Based on Martin (2010): Contemplate the ownership structure
of Valio. Why is the maximization of customer value justified
from the owners’ point of view?
2. Based on Comstock et al. (2010): The authors describe four
important jobs for the marketer. How are these visible in
Valio’s operations?
3. Based on Ariely (2009): Reflect yourself as a consumer of
dairy products. What factors must be taken into account when
you make buying decisions?

9. Instructions and grading (1/3)
• The assignment is done in pairs
• Submission deadline is for the lecture of March 29th. The
deadline is non-negotiable
• Return your work both as a soft copy
(daniel.rahman@aalto.fi, prior to class) and as a hard copy
to the class

10. Instructions and grading (2/3)
• The answer consists of two parts:
1. The first part is max 15 PowerPoint slides, where you
present all the relevant findings and answer concisely
all the questions
2. The second part is a text document, where you explain
the slides and answers more in depth (Max 20 pages,
font 12 pt, spacing 1.5)

11. Instructions and grading (3/3)
• Points
– The assignment is graded on a scale of 0-5
– The assignment will be discussed during the lecture on
March 31st. Everyone must be prepared to present their
work in front of the class, if asked by the instructor