Supplemental Videos for Students

Key extracts from six Edelman prize videos are available. Each of these videos was made during the annual competition, sponsored by INFORMS (the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences), for the best worldwide application of management science methods to business problems. The contest involves more than $15,000 in prizes but much more than that value in prestige for the winner.

techtv Any Edelman prize finalist has had his or her work carefully reviewed by a panel of judges from the INFORMS College on the Practice of Management Science (CPMS, which administers the award), an independent verifier, and several outside technical referees.

The videos are live and are part of a serious and heated competition. The presentation tries to convince a panel of judges that this work represents leading edge management science methods that have provided verifiable economic value to the organization.

There are typically 5–7 finalists each year, and since the videotaping began in 1983, these six tapes remain the only marketing applications that have made it to the finals.

Fortunately, they represent good examples of a number of the key ideas we develop in the text and software. (Viewers here might also be interested in similar videos associated with the Lilien ISMS-MSI Practice Prize)

Teaching Tips for Supplemental Videos

ABB Electric Video

Concept:	Segmentation
Title:	Integrated Models to Enable a New Business to Gain Market Share Against Established Competitors - ABB Electric
Video Length:	~24 minutes
Summary:	ABB Electric pioneered the use of the "switchable customer" approach to customer targeting as well as the use of logit choice models to identify product attributes most valued by customer. Their decade long program of sales targeting, product development and segmentation allowed them to increase their prices and grow their share from 4% to 40% and also grow their profitability at a time when industry demand dropped by 50%. 1988, ABB was industry leader, with GE and Westinghouse having closed major production facilities.

Courtyard by Marriott Video

Concept:	New Product Design/Conjoint Analysis
Title:	Designing a Hotel Facility with Consumer-Based Marketing Models - Courtyard by Marriott Corporation
Video Length:	~35 minutes
Summary:	Marriott applied a conjoint-analysis-based approach involving all major hotel features and services influencing choice to design a new hotel chain. As a result, specific guidelines were selected, from target market segment of population to physical layout and services, resulting in Courtyard by Marriott, a concept successfully test marketed and subsequently introduced nationally and which spawned an entire new product category in the hotel industry.

Syntex Video

Concept:	Sales Force Sizing and Allocation
Title:	Sales Force Sizing and Deployment Using a Decision Calculus Model - SYNTEX Laboratories
Video Length:	~37 minutes
Summary:	A decision calculus model for sales force size and deployment was devised by Syntex managers, with a time horizon of three years. The model recommended large increases in sales force size, changes in sales force allocation of time to some products and market services and away from others. Model predictions proved to be more accurate than standard forecast and in financial terms resulted in a profit increases of $25 million and a 1000:1 benefit to cost ratio for the model development and implementation.

AT&T Long Lines Video

Concept:	Consumer-Based Marketing Models
Title:	Development, Testing, and Execution of a Marketing Strategy at AT&T Long Lines - AT&T
Video Length:	~35 minutes
Summary:	AT&T developed a new marketing strategy for its residential long distance market place. The five year program of market segmentation, ad copy testing and a new ad campaign was tested in a large field experiment. The experiment showed that ad copy changed purchase behavior and that the AT&T should see an additional $100million by implementing the new ad campaign.

American Airlines Video

Concept:	Revenue Management
Title:	Yield Management at American Airlines - American Airlines Decision Technologies
Video Length:	~35 minutes
Summary:	American Airlines Decision Technologies is actively involved in maximizing revenue from airlines flights, railroad runs, hotel rooms, rental car fleets and cruise ships. Yield management controls reservation availability through overbooking, class code control linked to pricing and traffic management. They maximize system revenue is maximized by considering traffic flow through centrally located hub airports. The application of the innovative yield or revenue management system has increased revenue at American Airlines by 5% for a bottom line increase of $1.4 billion over three years.

Management Decision Systems Video

Concept:	ASSESSOR Model
Title:	Pre-test Market Models: Validation and Managerial Implications - Management Decision Systems, Inc.
Video Length:	~29 minutes
Summary:	The Assessor model was developed to test and evaluate new consumer products before the expenditure of a test market. The predictive value of the model has a 6:1 benefit to cost ratio and has saved clients $126 million on 450 tested products.