Welcome, .

It is December 2010. You are the Brand Manager for a newly developed brand of mass market fresh-squeezed juices in the drinks Division of an international consumer-products group. You are responsible for building the brand rapidly and sustainably within the constraints of a launch budget set by the Division. You need to build both awareness of the brand amongst consumers and availability for the product in retail stores.

You are not responsible for the production or distribution of the brand, nor for the product's costs, which you can assume are managed well by the Production and Distribution Director. The product is charged into your budget at a standard and unchanging cost.

Three items are under your control:

• the amount of advertising expenditure (mostly TV) committed to building consumer awareness,
  
  
• the wholesale price of the product charged to retail stores for each litre they purchase - retailers add a standard percentage mark-up to arrive at a retail price to consumers, and
  
  
• the size of the sales force, who both call on new stores to persuade them to add the brand to their stocking-list and also visit stores already stocking the brand to persuade them to continue doing so.

Your performance is judged by a balance between the number of active consumers you attract to the brand, the sales volume you succeed in selling, and the cash flow you generate from the brand.