case library / competitive dynamics and pricing
Orchard Gate Cider
A medium competitive dynamics and pricing case, interviewer-led, built for live practice with an AI interviewer that grades like a coach.
- Pricing contribution
- interviewer-led
- medium
- ~30 min
- 1 exhibit
Our client makes hard cider. They've been at it for over 60 years, started as a craft orchard brand, now a mid-sized national player. The US cider market has been declining about 2% a year for a decade, and the brand had tracked that. But last year revenue fell 18%, despite selling 12 million cases, the same volume as the year before. The CEO wants to understand what's happening and how to restore revenue without sacrificing profit.
What happens when you run it live
Your interviewer holds answers to 4 clarifying questions candidates usually ask, so opening the case correctly gets rewarded. The case unfolds over 5 phases, with 1 exhibit handed to you at the right moments. You structure, do the math out loud, and close with a recommendation. Then you get a graded report across structure, quant, insight, synthesis, and communication, with the specific moments that cost you points. The exhibits, numbers, and answer key stay inside the live session, the way a real interviewer keeps the case packet on their side of the table.
How to approach a competitive dynamics and pricing case
These cases start with someone else's move: a rival cuts price, a new entrant shows up, a tariff lands. The question is how to respond, and the trap is answering before you understand the attacker's economics and your own. Contribution margin does most of the real work in pricing decisions: what does each unit actually earn, and where is the walk-away line.
Interviewers listen for game-thinking without game-theory jargon: what does the competitor want, what can they sustain, which responses escalate versus contain. The best answers weigh matching, differentiating, and not responding at all, and pick one with a clear trigger for changing course.
Run Orchard Gate Cider live, free. About 30 minutes, graded in the same sitting.
Start practicing freefree · no card · graded in minutes