What you need to do:

1. What significant changes have occurred in the Canadian mouthwash market in the past three years?

2. How do consumers evaluate the brands available in the market?

3. How would you evaluate the performance of Scope over the past three years?

4. What are the pros and cons of the options available for Scope?

Keep in mind that when evaluating options for Scope you should only consider the ones available to the decision makers at that point in time, that is, those discussed in the case!

What you will turn in

For the write-up of your analysis, you will assume that you just got hired as an assistant to Gwen Hearst, the brand manager for Scope in Canada, and she has asked for your input summarized in a 1-page memo addressed to her. The memo should follow a business memo format and contain the following:

a) a brief summary of your understanding of the issue (keep in mind that she has the same information but she probably wants to see that you also understand what the problem is about). Don't start by just repeating facts from the case but explain what you think they mean for the company's future.

b) identification of possible actions

c) evaluation of possible actions (both pros and cons) based on both qualitative and quantitative information

d) your recommendation

For information on how to write a memo, the OWL site from Purdue will be helpful. Keep in mind who your reader is and that the information itself is not new to her. Your goal is to show her that you can provide a meaningful analysis of the data. She also receives many memos or emails so you need to start by reminding her about why you are writing the memo (i.e., that she gave you the assignment to do so).

How you will be graded

Your memo will be graded on both content and writing/grammar.

For content, you need to identify and evaluate all options before making a recommendation. There are advantages and disadvantages associated with each option and you need to show that you base your decision on comparing these for all options. The evaluation of alternatives and your recommendations should take up about two-thirds of the paper. This means that the background analysis section needs to be efficiently written. Finally, in order to be specific, use data/statistics from the case rather than general statements.

For writing, your memo should be free of grammatical errors, be clearly structured, concise, and use an appropriate tone.