Friendly Laser: Can We Boost Sales?

This critical incident is about a strategic marketing decision. Andrew, the young marketing director of Dobry Svet (“Friendly Light”), faced a tough dilemma: how to provide further expansion of the Moscow-based business. Dobry Svet had been assembling and selling medical lasers in the Russian market since 2000. All component parts were supplied by Aerolase, U.S. Aerolase was successful in the U.S. due to the portability and low prices of its advanced technology products. Annual sales in Russia in 2012 were 65 lasers—the same total the company had attained in each of the previous ten years. For 2013, Dobry Svet set a new goal: to achieve sales of 120 units of laser systems by the end of the year. This critical incident provides an opportunity to analyze the use of “push and pull” strategies, including the added challenges of “pulling” demand in an emerging market which is very different from U.S. or other developed markets.