Maple Leaf Consumer Foods - Fixing Hot Dogs (A)

Maple Leaf Foods is Canada's largest and most dominant food processor. The recently appointed senior marketing director discovers on her first day on the job that the hot dog business at the company is completely broken: market share is down, profits are in free-fall, the products taste bad, there is a proliferation of brands and her team is a mess. To make matters worse, she inherits a job where there is little market data in the files and little to go by to help guide her decisions. She must prepare a short-term plan and a clear strategy for the future. The supplement to this case, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods - Fixing Hot Dogs (B), product 9B03M018, looks at the senior marketing director's short-term plans. Also available is the video, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods - Fixing Hot Dogs, product 7B03M017, that provides an update to what happened and a discussion with the senior marketing director.