Video Cases

These questions are based on videos from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that accompany the textbook. In addition to whatever in-class use your instructor may have given them, they're available on this website for online viewing. If directed to do so by your instructor, you can answer the questions online and email the results.
     These videos are intended only for students using the 10th Canadian Edition of Basic Marketing. To view the video, you'll require a password. Refer to page 782 in your textbook and use the first word appearing in the main text column as both 'username' and 'password.' Use of the word is case-sensitive.
     The free RealPlayer plug-in is required in order to view the videos. If needed, the plug-in can be downloaded from Real.

Sugar High
Winnipeggers Chris Emery and Larry Finson have a lot to smile about. Their company, Krave's Candy, has been tagged Manitoba's fastest- growing company-growing 938 per cent and hitting annual sales of close to $1 million in just three years. But the founders of Krave's don't want to stop there. Chris and Larry want Krave's to become Canada's premier candy company, taking on Hershey's and Nestle's. Venture's video journalist Tracie Tighe followed Chris and Larry over this past year as they struggled to keep the Clodhoppers dream growing.
     It all started with Chris's grandmother's special cashew-graham wafer-and white-chocolate recipe for candy. Chris says he knew the candy was a winner because his college roommates used to steal his supply.
     The next step: Chris and his high school buddy Larry quit their jobs to start their candy company. They christened the candy confection with the name Clodhoppers. They also came up with an imaginary family called the Krave's (as in crave) to give their company a name of its own.
     Sales built slowly over the past few years, and then came their biggest sale ever to Wal-Mart for the Christmas '98 season. But making a big deal with a big retailer is one thing; getting the product into shopping carts is something else altogether. It was a mad and expensive rush for Chris and Larry, as they flogged the Clodhoppers through in-store demos across the country. Their constant complaint: no matter how many sales they continued to make, they still seemed to be broke.
     However, there was good news around the corner. The candy sold well enough that Wal-Mart ordered more for Christmas '99. And Zellers, which had taken a pass the previous year, also came through with an order. By last spring, Chris and Larry had deals for a million dollars worth of candy.
     Once again, though, there were just one or two small hitches-an ancient bagging machine AND that money problem.
     In a desperate bid to keep the company going, Chris and Larry were prepared to do almost anything: borrowing from their banks, family, even mortgaging their homes and selling off a small share of the business to a U.S. supplier. What they didn't want to do was lose control of the company they had worked so hard to build. But there were times when even that looked likely. A last-minute bailout from Chris's father saved the day, though, and so far majority control of Krave's Candy remains in the family.
     With another successful Christmas season behind them, now their dream is to push Krave's beyond the Christmas market, to turn the product into a year-round product. And they're dreaming of annual sales of $5 million. That means the need for more financing, and more investors.

View Sugar Highs (Parts I & II)

1		Trace the developments of the Clodhopper product?
2		Have Chris and Larry done a good job marketing the product?
3		What kept Kraves from becoming "Canada's Candy Company"