• Research Paper on:
    Case Study / Price Promotion at Hartmann Luggage

    Number of Pages: 7

     

    Summary of the research paper:

    A 7 page case study of whether Hartmann Luggage Company should indeed offer annual price promotions to its retailers, or whether the company should maintain its policy of image maintenance and high quality that have been the company's hallmarks for more than 100 years since its founding in 1877. The more narrow issue discussed is whether the price promotions of 1978 and 1979 were indeed profitable. Included are alternatives that Hartmann could reasonably employ to increase the company's market share while avoiding the price promotions they dread. No Bibliography.

    Name of Research Paper File: D0_Hartmann.doc

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    Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
    1950s, and by 1960 had relocated the entire operation to a site in Lebanon, Tennessee. Fifty years after the company first started producing luggage, Hartmann was an established high-end  manufacturer of high-quality, well-constructed luggage. The companys official policy on price promotion had been that of discouragement until the late 1970s. In an effort to preserve Hartmanns image as  a high-end line worthy of the distinction, the president of the company, Ira Katz, maintained until 1978 that any promotion undertaken by Hartmann should be directed to the retailer, rather  than to the consumer. Though today value and functionality tend to carry more weight with consumers than does the concept of "image," Mr. Katzs stance still held mostly true  in the late 1970s, though the concept of overall value was gaining ground. Except for the materials (i.e., leather), Hartmann must have been able to show some of the lowest  costs of production and shipping in the industry at the time. Lebanon, Tennessee and the surrounding area is rural. Located in the foothills of the Smokies, the entire  area tends to mountainous enough to be inappropriate for large-scale farming, and few industrial concerns had chosen to make Lebanon their home at the time, though the area now has  been growing over the past several years. The local population contributed an abundant supply of skilled and semi-skilled labor to supply Hartmanns needs. Managements View of the 1978  Promotion In 1980, the total dollar value (wholesale) of all luggage sold in the United States was $664 million. The forecast growth for 1981 of 9 percent was to  have equaled that of the industry growth in 1980. Though 1979 industry figures are unavailable, it can be assumed that they ran at 91 percent of the total for 

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