Life After Clocky

Executive Summary

Within the case by the Harvard Business School, we are presented with a 2006 start-up company, Nanda Home, who has made tremendous strides with the initial launch of their first product “Clocky”. Clocky was designed to effectively wake sleepers, adding productivity to one’s day, and also represent a fun and entertaining product. As with many new start-ups, early growth has come fast and furious with reported sales of 2.2 million in 2007. [1] This rapid growth has come from initial exposure through media outlets including: national television, radio, and print that were all intrigued by a new invention that took the average alarm clock to a new level.

Although this initial success was quite a boon for a relatively small investment of $45,000 [1] between 2008 & 2009, Clocky sales dropped significantly to just under 1 million dollars annually. This drop is noted to be from a combination of recessionary consumer spending causing lagging retail sales, counterfeit products, and a fading of Clocky as a novelty item. This presented Nanda Home with several questions as to how best continue its success. Questions pertaining to new product lines, product line extensions, timing, costs, and how to market such products effectively were all at the forefront. We pick up this case at a point in time where some initial exploratory research has been conducted regarding alarm clocks and new product designs, and some quantitative data has been collected regarding past purchase habits of the original Clocky design and home good industry trends. The following review will address and prioritize recommendations regarding what Nanda Home should do next. These recommendations will pertain to organizational development, product & pricing, branding, and general marketing strategies.

To summarize and prioritize the next steps for Nanda Home, we first begin with organizational development that will enable Nanda the time and focus to work on the strategic growth of...