Summary

This case is about a Lady Maria Alejandra (Lady A) whose parents had fled from Cuba. They
had meager earnings and lived foot to mouth. But this bold daring beautiful daughter of them
changed their standard of living from very poor to affluently rich class. It is a case study
about her dreams, her aspiration, her struggle & finally her success. It also trend to discuss
the problems associated with success and how she handles them. It discusses brand identity,
brand maintenance and brand repositioning. It also discusses how small group is converted
into Small Organization and then Small Organization into Big Organizations.

Problems in the Case

1.

Shift from Cuba to Florida (US) and the problems faced by Mr. & Mrs Carroccio due
to this shift.

2.

Shift of their daughter Alejandra from studies to the world of Music, Media &
Glamour.

3.

The poor economic conditions of her parents when she was born and was a child.

4.

The growth of Alejandra as a musician.

5.

The product life cycle (PLC) of Alejandra as a musician & model.

6.

The leadership style of Alejandra was very inconsistent and her employees never
know what to expect from her.

7.

The creation of a small Organization who managed her affairs the core employees
and peripheral employees.

8.

Change of business from Sole trader to a private ltd. company maintaining major
percentage of shares with her.

9.

Advert of information technology and misuse of technology.

10.

Brand formation and brand identity.

11.

Diversification into new business.

12.

Restricting of business.

13.

Strategic management for growth of business.

I.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths: 1.

Her Parents were determined, hard working and very dedicated.

2.

Her mother started from a very low salary but with her hard work she earned a
reasonable amount of money to educate her daughter.

3.

Alejandra was a beautiful girl and started doing small odd jobs at the tender age of
12.

4.

After she was selected as a singer & dancer in a movie, her talent was seen and
she grew after that.

5.

Along with her great looks, Alejandra was a great singer, actor, dancer & model.

6.

Her Audio CD albums were successful.

7.

She became very popular among her fans and they loved her performance.

8.

She was well aware of the brand identity & brand positioning

Weaknesses: 1.

Mr. & Mrs Carroccio had fled Cuba & moved to Florida (US) and did not belong
to the place.

2.

They had very meager earnings & when they had first arrived in US, they
struggled to satisfy even basic needs such as food & shelter, only by working long
hours they achieved economic security.

3.

Alejandra was a Spanish girl who had to survive in an altogether English

environment.

4.

She didnt have proper knowledge of organizing business.

Opportunities: 1.

The US near rapidly changing demographically the % of the American population

that was Hispanic was small but it was rapidly growing thus expending the
Spanish speaking American market which was favourable for Alejandra.

2.

A brand identity and proper organization could be made by Alejandra.

3.

Lady A became popular with English Speakers, especially teen-age girls and
young women, she also appealed to many Hispanics.

4.

It was a big market for perfumes & cosmetics it they were promoted under brand.

5.

South American markets were expanding.

6.

Develop a global market.

Threats: 1.

To survive in a full Hispanic environment being a Spanish.

2.

Alejandra had no negotiation skills so agents and competitions could fool her.

3.

Demographic shift from Hispanic to Spanish speaking American market was

creating a negative political reaction in the US.

4.

Revenue increase was leading to increase in expenses also.

5.

With falling sales revenue from music, artists had to transform themselves into
media personalities and find to generate revenue from these branded identities.

6.

Product life cycle of music starts if not carefully managed is after short.

7.

Reorganization of employers.

II.
1-15

Analysis of the Case

The case is about a Lady Alejandra whose parents fled Cuba & moved to Florida.
They had meager earnings and lived hand to mouth. They had to face lot of
difficulties and had no financial security. Her father then took a small loan and started
his own business. His wife learnt English and then found a job in the cafeteria of a
local school and with her income and Mr. Carroccios shoe repair shoe profits they
eventually maintained a stable household.

16-25 When their first child was born they wanted her to lead a good normal American life.
They wanted her to study well and learn English. They wanted her to study well and
learn English. They encouraged her to sing and dance. She was a beautiful girl and at
a very early age of 12, she started getting occasional jobs as a model, which led her to
get a role in a movie. Which proved to be very successful. Although her part in the
film was small, it led to many new opportunities for Alejandra.
26-51 Then a music label offered Alejandra a contact to produce a CD album and she
wanted an agent who worked with Spanish speaking performers. She had to be
targeted as with elegance in the US so that she could complete. Her first CD album
included a song that reached No. 1 position. Her agent understand that Branding her
was very important. Her first CD album included a song that reached No. 1 position.
Her agent understands that Branding her was very important. Her new agent was well
aware of the fact that Alejandra had to be portrayed as a product in the introductory
stage of product life cycle. She heal to be given a brand identity and turned into a
media sensation by proper promotion.
52-60 The product life cycle starts with introduction, growth maturity & ends at decline for
a good product the maturity period has to be delayed and the product modification
done in that level so that doesnt enter decline stage. But Ruth knew that unless the
PLC of music starts is not carefully managed, is often short lived i.e. it starts from
introduction growth & then takes a peak & decline like a mountain i.e. no maturity
which could be dangerous. So she had to work on various marketing strategies to
entered the maturity period. And Alejandra had a few positives i.e. youthful &
innocent look, her powerful voice and her Hispanic heritage. So both had to use these
as Brand characteristics and create a Brand called lady A. She added glamour and

portrayed her as an elite Brand and revenue sources other than music like
endorsements & high profile fashion magazines.
61-71 Ruth also did a little Brand Repositioning for Alejandra as he felt she needed to be
less ethnic. And cater to the American population since there was demographic shift in
Florida. Focus group studies of Marketing Research team indicated that people did
not like the name Lady Alejandra so her agent re branded her as Lady A and this
modification helped in earning a success profile for her. Changing her name helped
her to be popular among the English speakers especially teenage girls & young
women and her origin helped her to be popular among Spanish speaking Americans as
they saw her as a sharing success story of a Hispanic American. So Ruth in a way had
used the marketing strategy of CUSTOMIZATION for her client.
72-88 As she grew more popular, both her revenue & expresses increased By 2001, she was
earning millions of dollars per year from CD Album sales, concerts, magazine covers
and music videos. So she had to create a small organization of employees to help her
out with managing her expresses and other jobs. She employed a full time accountant
to help manage her revenue & other expenses. For her work, she employed a band, a
group of dancers, and a variety of music & video technician. A full time fashion and
hairstyler who would help her to get ready. She hired an events manager actually she
created a small organization with the above mentioned core employees. Then she
hired a group of temporary employees who were needed to help set up the venue &
stage, peripherical & pera staff to help her in comforts of life like a drive, chef,
personal trainer, two housekeepers, bodyguards etc. She selected the functional
departmentation at a low level where every person was doing their own function.
Her style of leadership for managing so many people however was very inconsistent
sometimes she was autocratic & sometimes benevolent. She was more or less a
situational kind of leaders who changed herself according to the demand of the
situation. But her employees never know what to expect from her and communication
lines were poor and the employees were complaining behind her back.

89-94 Originally she operated as a role trader, but as business grew, she had to convert her
business into a limited liability company i.e. a pvt. limited company. Lady A
management limited (LAM) whose she earned 98% shares and her parents & agent
2%. She converted from sole proprietorship firm to pvt. limited firm but remained
major share holder and decision maker.
95-101 The macro environment of music industry was changing. The technological
environment was changing and becoming more online file sharing of copyrighted
material was picking up pace. So the sales of CD albums began to fall and also
technology was changing to MP3 players and smart phones then video hosting
websites which eventually brought down the direct profitability of music riders and
even musicians had to produce their own music, videos and albums.
102-119

Since technological environments was changing, Artists required to transform

into media personalities and find other alternative sources of generating revenue.
Lady A also started endorsing products and promoting them for earning more revenue.
She even had to go for DIVERSIFICATION like launching her own product line of
perfumes and cosmetics promoted under her name Lady A and product research and
Marketing information system (MIS) reported that perfumes & cosmetics could
connect her directly with teenagers and youngsters. She even outsourced the
production of perfume to a company in Malaysia, where costs were lower. According
to competitive advantage theory it was better to produce in Malaysia at low cost &
sell in Florida & Los Angeles at a high price to gain more revenue. She also looked
into quality control and TQM for managing quality of her perfumes and cosmetics.
And she also outsourced wholesaling and distribution to a company in Minnesota who
sold these products in a nation wide chain of department stores in USA. She had a
proper distribution system for marketing her products.
120-125

Now Alejandra decided to reorganize the business and decided to give it a

proper formal structure with a Managing Director and a Human Resource Manager.
She even had a work force that did HRP (Human Resource Planning). But kept close
connection with the MD. She had a close control on the organization and even though
the structure was decentralized type or flat type of organizational structure, her
attitude was more or less centralized as she kept close control and major decision

making was in her hands. But this formal structure helped reduce ROLE
AMBIGUITY and less complains from employees.
126-135

On a personal level also, 2012 was a big year for Alejandra. She married

Rafaela Eco, an Italian investment banker and purchased a large Mansion in

Hollywood requiring even more peripheral employees. In next few years, she was at
the peek of her media power wealth & fame. She was more nature & learnt a more
democratic and participative type of leadership. She was more paternalistic i.e. more
like a parent to her employees raw and become more people centric rather than her
previous production centric leadership attitude. She also began to think about her
future as she was approaching her late thirties because female artists and musician
lose their craze as soon as they reach this age. So for her future she had three options
available:

III. OPTIONS AVAILABLE WITH ALEJANDRA

Option 1.

Move to South American markets. And her Hispanic origin would help her

establish roots there. And she could reposition herself as a new brand in the new geographical
region and take control as she did in North America.
Option 2.

Develop a product line with more products like textiles along with perfumes &

cosmetics. She could even distribute accessories in the same distribution channel which she
used before. She could even use Internet, e-commerce and online strategies for selling her
merchandise. Family branding of LADY A brand could be used as an umbrella brand as it
was already popular and had a proper brand identity.
Option 3.

Re-brand and reposition her. She could associate with a charitable or social

cause and keep earning revenue. This option was related to CSR (Corporate Social
Responsibility), which could help her to create a good will and then utilize it for generating
revenue. She could build the image of a social worker who donated some amount of her
profits for betterment of society i.e. trusteeship theory of management where management
gives some % of profit to the society as they are considered Trustees of business for society
take. This could allow new revenue generations.

CONCLUSION
This case study is a clear story of rags to riches where the hard work of Alejandra & her
parents converted their weaknesses into strengths and how they were successful in
establishing a big Organization. It is a real story of Management Evolutions.