Marketing

1 This case was prepared by Professor Patrick Kaufmann and Associate Professor Frédéric Brunel of

Boston University, and Associate Professor Lisa Abendroth of the University of St. Thomas. It is based on a case written by Jeffrey Sherman and Benson Shapiro (HBS 580-104). This case is written for class discussion rather than for an illustration of effective or ineffective managerial decisions. Last updated September 2019

Metal Pad Manufacturer: MetalCo1 Pile driving machines like the one pictured below use a powerful hammer to drive metal or cement piles into the ground to form the foundations of buildings. Your company, MetalCo, has invented a new product, a curled metal pad that can be used to cushion the shock between pile driving machine hammers and the piles. Cushioning pads keep the shock of the hammer strike from damaging the pile as they are hammered into the ground. Each year about 300 million feet of piles are driven in the US.

In the past, the pile driving companies simply used blocks of wood which sometimes caught on fire, so now they mainly use unbranded pads made of pieces of asbestos-like material that they buy from local industrial supply houses for about $3 a piece. These supply houses sell a wide variety of products needed by construction companies. They mark-up their products to sell for 30% over their cost to buy the products. Typically, pile-driving companies rent their equipment and pay their workers an hourly wage. Rental and labor costs together are about $150 per hour per machine. MetalCo is a small ($20m in sales) but successful firm specializing in a metal wire twisting technology typically used for making various kinds of filters for the automobile industry. Your new product is a completely new application of this technology. It is made from metal wire twisted to form a coil and then wound to form a pad. The pad is expected to transfer the driving energy to the pile much more efficiently and is protected by a patent. Each pad costs $25 to make

and will not require any additional investment in plant or equipment. Your company has a policy of marking up its products by 50% over the variable costs of manufacturing. After months of effort, a responsible pile-driving contractor, PileCo, finally agreed to try your new metal pads – no strings attached. The test job was typical and required 15,000 feet of piles to be driven. A job this size would require approximately 100 of the asbestos-like pads and would drive piles at a speed of 100 feet per hour. PileCo appeared to be very excited by the results. So far all you know is that the new pads significantly increased the speed with which piles could be driven and that just 5 pads were needed for the entire job. You are scheduled to meet with PileCo to negotiate selling your metal pads to them directly (i.e. skipping the supply house) for a period of 1 year. How would you price the new metal pads?

Figure 1: Pile Driving Machine