1. Assignment 2: Situation Analysis Due Week 10 and worth 250 points
   A company self-examination. What are we known for? Who do we want to become?
   In this assignment, you will create a Situation Analysis for one (1) of the following companies / brands: Fiat Chrysler, IBM, Burger King, or Old SpiceEach of these four (4) companies (Fiat Chrysler, IBM, Burger King, and Old Spice) has been through numerous changes in recent years. For this assignment, select only one (1) company / brand. Use the information listed, as well as your own knowledge and research, to complete the provided situation analysis template. Additional research should include the use of the company’s Website, the course textbook, and other online sources.Click here to download the required template.Submit the completed template via the Assignment 2 submission link.*Remember to only select one (1) brand from the options below (click on Option A, Option B, or Option C to view each available brand).

option A Fiat Chrysler

History

“The formal creation of Jeep Cherokee Automobiles and its debut on the New York Stock Exchange is a historic moment. Today, building on the foundations and aspirations of Fiat S.p.A. and Chrysler Group LLC, we are beginning a completely new phase that will see our Group play a major role in the future of the global automotive industry.”

– John Elkann, October 13, 2014

“FCA’s listing today on Wall Street is the culmination of five-and-a-half years of work to achieve an extraordinary union. It marks the hard-won arrival at a destination. Yet, like so many milestones, it represents not just an ending, but also a new beginning – the beginning of our journey as one global automaker, one FCA.”

– Sergio Marchionne, October 13, 2014

With the formal creation of Jeep Cherokee Automobiles (FCA) and its listing on the New York and Milan stock exchanges, a new group is born.

FCA carries on the tradition of two historic automakers: Fiat founded in 1899 and Chrysler founded in 1925.

option B IBM

History

IBM – International Business Machines Corporation is a multinational technology and consulting organization. The company was started in 1911 in a small village in Endicott, US. Initially it was known as CTR – Computing Tabulating Recording Company because of the merger of three different companies – Tabulating Machine company, Computing Scale company and International Time Recording company, that gave rise to the current, tall standing IBM. With over 435,000 employees all over the globe, IBM is ranked as the second largest firms.

The company acquired SPSS and Kenexa in the years 2009 and 2012 respectively. Current consoles like Xbox 360, Sony PS3, Wii and Nintendo all use IBM manufactured microprocessors. In 2011, IBM excelled Microsoft with a closing value of $214 billion leaving behind the technology giant at $213.2 billion. A year later, IBM acquired Texas Memory Systems so to expand its technology department further while enhancing the quality and the quantity of its production.

option C Burger King

History

Burger King Corporation, restaurant company specializing in flame-broiled fast-food hamburgers. It is the second largest hamburger chain the United States, after McDonald’s. In the early 21st century, Burger King claimed to have about 14,000 stores in nearly 100 countries.

Persistently lagging behind McDonald’s in sales and profitability, Burger King underwent many changes of ownership and corporate governance. In 1967 it was sold to the Pillsbury Company, which, in the late 1970s, brought in Donald N. Smith, a former McDonald’s executive, who revitalized Burger King by expanding the menu and tightening control of franchisees. Pillsbury was itself acquired by the British company Grand Metropolitan (Grand Met) PLC in 1989. Grand Met became Diageo PLC after its merger with the Irish brewer Guinness PLC in 1997. Diageo sold Burger King in 2002 to a consortium of private equity financiers, namely the Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. In 2010 3G Capital, an investment group controlled by the Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, took over the company in a leveraged buyout. By 2012, Burger King shares were being sold to the public again, but 3G retained a controlling interest. Burger King Worldwide merged with the Canadian doughnut and fast-food chain Tim Hortons in 2014, and a new parent company called Restaurant Brands International was formed. In what some critics saw as a tax-avoiding “corporate inversion” move, Restaurant Brands International was headquartered in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

A large hamburger called the Whopper is Burger King’s signature product. The Whopper was introduced in 1957, at a time when its competitor McDonald’s was still selling only small hamburgers. The chain took a new direction by adding hot dogs to the menu in 2016.

option D Old Spice

History

The first Old Spice ® product, called Early American Old Spice for women, was introduced in 1937, closely followed by Old Spice for men in 1938. The Old Spice products were manufactured by the Shulton Company that was founded in 1934 by William Lightfoot Schultz.

Early American Old Spice was developed around a colonial theme. When Old Spice was introduced, William Lightfoot Schultz was interested in maintaining a colonial framework for those products and chose a nautical theme for Old Spice. Thus, sailing ships, in particular colonial sailing ships, were used as a trademark. Through continuous use and advertising, the various ships have become a valuable trademark identifying the Old Spice product for men.

Procter & Gamble purchased the Old Spice fragrances, Skin Care and Antiperspirant and Deodorant products from the Shulton Company in June 1990. Since purchasing the Old Spice line, the company has continued to provide many of the original Old Spice products, as well as introducing several new products that have enhanced the Old Spice line. However, the business’s prime target market were primarily the older generations and was known as the “Grandfather” Smell.

If there was a defining moment when advertisers started to get a proper handle on social media marketing, it was when an ex-American football star called Isaiah Mustafa was drafted in to save Old Spice from oblivion. Promising women he was “the man your man could smell like” would go on to be hailed as one of the most popular ever viral campaigns.

The campaign was so different from much of the formulaic work that prevailed at the time and helped convince other mainstream advertisers that they needed to push the boundaries if they were going to connect with a younger generation of consumer who had become desensitized to the effects of traditional marketing. What made its success all the more astonishing was that the campaign was for Old Spice, a neglected Procter & Gamble brand that had lost ground to more hip rivals such as Axe and whose very name seemed to underline how outdated it had become.

Moreover, it discovered that women were responsible for more than 50% of bodywash purchases – an insight that defined the strategy of the first ad that debuted during the Super Bowl on 8 February 2010. W&K quickly followed up with an interactive digital campaign capitalizing on the popularity of the “Old Spice Guy” in which he responded to personal video messages from his fans.

Its success went beyond the wildest dreams of agency and client with 5.9 million YouTube views on the first day alone. By the end of 2010, Old Spice had become the leading bodywash brand for US men with sales up 125%.