case library / competitive dynamics and pricing
VitaTube Diagnostics
A medium to hard competitive dynamics and pricing case, candidate-led, built for live practice with an AI interviewer that grades like a coach.
- Duopoly price war
- candidate-led
- medium to hard
- ~30 min
Our client is VitaTube, one of two manufacturers of blood-collection tubes for US laboratories, the market is a duopoly. The market is about 150 million units a year. New federal guidelines on blood-draw frequency for chronic patients take effect next year and are expected to shrink demand by about 5%, to a new steady state. The client doesn't want to lose profit, and they're open to getting it in different ways. Our job: how should they respond?
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. 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 VitaTube Diagnostics live, free. About 30 minutes, graded in the same sitting.
Start practicing freefree · no card · graded in minutes