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1. WHAT IS TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION?

1.4 Case Study: The Cost of Poor Communication

No one knows exactly how much poor communication costs business, industry and government each year, but estimates suggest billions. In fact, a recent estimate claims that the cost in the U.S. alone are close to $4 billion annually! [1] Poorly-worded or inefficient emails, careless reading or listening to instructions, documents that go unread due to poor design, hastily presenting inaccurate information, sloppy proofreading — all of these examples result in inevitable costs. The problem is that these costs aren’t usually included on the corporate balance sheet at the end of each year; if they are not properly or clearly defined, the problems remain unsolved.

You may have seen the Project Management Tree Cartoon before ( Figure 1.4.1 ); it has been used and adapted widely to illustrate the perils of poor communication during a project.

Different interpretations of how to design a tree swing by different members of a team and communication failures can lead to problems during the project.

The waste caused by imprecisely worded regulations or instructions, confusing emails, long-winded memos, ambiguously written contracts, and other examples of poor communication is not as easily identified as the losses caused by a bridge collapse or a flood. But the losses are just as real—in reduced productivity, inefficiency, and lost business. In more personal terms, the losses are measured in wasted time, work, money, and ultimately, professional recognition. In extreme cases, losses can be measured in property damage, injuries, and even deaths.

The following “case studies” show how poor communications can have real world costs and consequences. For example, consider the “ Comma Quirk ” in the Rogers Contract that cost $2 million. [3] A small error in spelling a company name cost £8.8 million. [4] Examine Edward Tufte’s discussion of the failed PowerPoint presentation that attempted to prevent the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. [5] The failure of project managers and engineers to communicate effectively resulted in the deadly Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. [6] The case studies below offer a few more examples that might be less extreme, but much more common.

In small groups, examine each “case” and determine the following:

Define the rhetorical situation : Who is communicating to whom about what, how, and why? What was the goal of the communication in each case?
Identify the communication error (poor task or audience analysis? Use of inappropriate language or style? Poor organization or formatting of information? Other?)
Explain what costs/losses were incurred by this problem.
Identify possible solution s or strategies that would have prevented the problem, and what benefits would be derived from implementing solutions or preventing the problem.

Present your findings in a brief, informal presentation to the class.

Exercises adapted from T.M Georges’ Analytical Writing for Science and Technology. [7]

CASE 1: The promising chemist who buried his results

Bruce, a research chemist for a major petro-chemical company, wrote a dense report about some new compounds he had synthesized in the laboratory from oil-refining by-products. The bulk of the report consisted of tables listing their chemical and physical properties, diagrams of their molecular structure, chemical formulas and data from toxicity tests. Buried at the end of the report was a casual speculation that one of the compounds might be a particularly safe and effective insecticide.

Seven years later, the same oil company launched a major research program to find more effective but environmentally safe insecticides. After six months of research, someone uncovered Bruce’s report and his toxicity tests. A few hours of further testing confirmed that one of Bruce’s compounds was the safe, economical insecticide they had been looking for.

Bruce had since left the company, because he felt that the importance of his research was not being appreciated.

CASE 2: The rejected current regulator proposal

The Acme Electric Company worked day and night to develop a new current regulator designed to cut the electric power consumption in aluminum plants by 35%. They knew that, although the competition was fierce, their regulator could be produced more affordably, was more reliable, and worked more efficiently than the competitors’ products.

The owner, eager to capture the market, personally but somewhat hastily put together a 120-page proposal to the three major aluminum manufacturers, recommending that the new Acme regulators be installed at all company plants.

She devoted the first 87 pages of the proposal to the mathematical theory and engineering design behind his new regulator, and the next 32 to descriptions of the new assembly line she planned to set up to produce regulators quickly. Buried in an appendix were the test results that compared her regulator’s performance with present models, and a poorly drawn graph showed the potential cost savings over 3 years.

The proposals did not receive any response. Acme Electric didn’t get the contracts, despite having the best product. Six months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

CASE 3: The instruction manual the scared customers away

As one of the first to enter the field of office automation, Sagatec Software, Inc. had built a reputation for designing high-quality and user-friendly database and accounting programs for business and industry. When they decided to enter the word-processing market, their engineers designed an effective, versatile, and powerful program that Sagatec felt sure would outperform any competitor.

To be sure that their new word-processing program was accurately documented, Sagatec asked the senior program designer to supervise writing the instruction manual. The result was a thorough, accurate and precise description of every detail of the program’s operation.

When Sagatec began marketing its new word processor, cries for help flooded in from office workers who were so confused by the massive manual that they couldn’t even find out how to get started. Then several business journals reviewed the program and judged it “too complicated” and “difficult to learn.” After an impressive start, sales of the new word processing program plummeted.

Sagatec eventually put out a new, clearly written training guide that led new users step by step through introductory exercises and told them how to find commands quickly. But the rewrite cost Sagatec $350,000, a year’s lead in the market, and its reputation for producing easy-to-use business software.

CASE 4: One garbled memo – 26 baffled phone calls

Joanne supervised 36 professionals in 6 city libraries. To cut the costs of unnecessary overtime, she issued this one-sentence memo to her staff:

After the 36 copies were sent out, Joanne’s office received 26 phone calls asking what the memo meant. What the 10 people who didn’t call about the memo thought is uncertain. It took a week to clarify the new policy.

CASE 5: Big science — Little rhetoric

The following excerpt is from Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, [8] itself both a plea for and an excellent example of clear scientific communication:

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) would have been the preeminent instrument on the planet for probing the fine structure of matter and the nature of the early Universe. Its price tag was $10 to $15 billion. It was cancelled by Congress in 1993 after about $2 billion had been spent — a worst of both worlds outcome. But this debate was not, I think, mainly about declining interest in the support of science. Few in Congress understood what modern high-energy accelerators are for. They are not for weapons. They have no practical applications. They are for something that is, worrisomely from the point of view of many, called “the theory of everything.” Explanations that involve entities called quarks, charm, flavor, color, etc., sound as if physicists are being cute. The whole thing has an aura, in the view of at least some Congresspeople I’ve talked to, of “nerds gone wild” — which I suppose is an uncharitable way of describing curiosity-based science. No one asked to pay for this had the foggiest idea of what a Higgs boson is. I’ve read some of the material intended to justify the SSC. At the very end, some of it wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing that really addressed what the project was about on a level accessible to bright but skeptical non-physicists. If physicists are asking for 10 or 15 billion dollars to build a machine that has no practical value, at the very least they should make an extremely serious effort, with dazzling graphics, metaphors, and capable use of the English language, to justify their proposal. More than financial mismanagement, budgetary constraints, and political incompetence, I think this is the key to the failure of the SSC.

CASE 6: The co-op student who mixed up genres

Chris was simultaneously enrolled in a university writing course and working as a co-op student at the Widget Manufacturing plant. As part of his co-op work experience, Chris shadowed his supervisor/mentor on a safety inspection of the plant, and was asked to write up the results of the inspection in a compliance memo . In the same week, Chris’s writing instructor assigned the class to write a narrative essay based on some personal experience. Chris, trying to be efficient, thought that the plant visit experience could provide the basis for his essay assignment as well.

He wrote the essay first, because he was used to writing essays and was pretty good at it. He had never even seen a compliance memo, much less written one, so was not as confident about that task. He began the essay like this:

On June 1, 2018, I conducted a safety audit of the Widget Manufacturing plant in New City. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that all processes and activities in the plant adhere to safety and handling rules and policies outlined in the Workplace Safety Handbook and relevant government regulations. I was escorted on a 3-hour tour of the facility by…

Chris finished the essay and submitted it to his writing instructor. He then revised the essay slightly, keeping the introduction the same, and submitted it to his co-op supervisor. He “aced” the essay, getting an A grade, but his supervisor told him that the report was unacceptable and would have to be rewritten – especially the beginning, which should have clearly indicated whether or not the plant was in compliance with safety regulations. Chris was aghast! He had never heard of putting the “conclusion” at the beginning . He missed the company softball game that Saturday so he could rewrite the report to the satisfaction of his supervisor.

J. Bernoff, "Bad writing costs business billions," Daily Beast , Oct. 16, 2016 [Online]. Available: https://www.thedailybeast.com/bad-writing-costs-businesses-billions?ref=scroll ↵
J. Reiter, "The 'Project Cartoon' root cause," Medium, 2 July 2019. Available: https://medium.com/@thx2001r/the-project-cartoon-root-cause-5e82e404ec8a ↵
G. Robertson, “Comma quirk irks Rogers,” Globe and Mail , Aug. 6, 2006 [Online]. Available: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/comma-quirk-irks-rogers/article1101686/ ↵
“The £8.8m typo: How one mistake killed a family business,” (28 Jan. 2015). The Guardian [online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/law/shortcuts/2015/jan/28/typo-how-one-mistake-killed-a-family-business-taylor-and-sons ↵
E. Tufte, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint , 2001 [Online]. Available: https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/pi/2016_2017/phil/tufte-powerpoint.pdf ↵
C. McFadden, "Understanding the tragic Hyatt Regency walkway collapse," Interesting Engineering , July 4, 2017 [Online]: https://interestingengineering.com/understanding-hyatt-regency-walkway-collapse ↵
T.M. Goerges (1996), Analytical Writing for Science and Technology [Online], Available: https://www.scribd.com/document/96822930/Analytical-Writing ↵
C. Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, New York, NY: Random House, 1995. ↵

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1.10 Case Studies: The Cost of Poor Communication

This chapter is adapted from Technical Writing Essentials – H5P Edition by Suzan Last licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Learning Objectives

Apply your understanding of context, purpose, audience, and channel in case studies.

No one knows exactly how much poor communication costs business, industry and government each year, but estimates suggest billions. In 2017, Josh Bernoff claimed that the cost of poor communication was nearly $4 billion per year: “American workers spend 22 percent of their work time reading; higher compensated workers read more… America is spending 6 percent of total wages on time wasted attempting to get meaning out of poorly written material. Every company, every manager, every professional pays this tax, which consumes $396 billion of our national income” (Meier, 2017).

Poorly-worded or inefficient emails, careless reading or listening to instructions, documents that go unread due to poor design, hastily presenting inaccurate information, sloppy proofreading — all of these examples result in inevitable costs. In one tragic case, a lack of communication between contractors and engineers resulted in a walkway collapse that killed 114 people at the Hyatt Regency .

The waste caused by imprecisely worded regulations or instructions, confusing emails, long-winded memos, ambiguously written contracts, and other examples of poor communication is not as easily identified as the losses caused by a bridge collapse. But the losses are just as real—in reduced productivity, inefficiency, and lost business. In more personal terms, the losses are measured in wasted time, work, money, and ultimately, professional recognition. In extreme cases, losses can be measured in property damage, injuries, and even deaths.

The following cases show how poor communications can have real world costs and consequences.

A . Read “Case 1: The Unaccepted Current Regulator Proposal”. Then, answer the 5 questions in the quiz set.

CASE 1: Acme Electric Company

The Acme Electric Company worked day and night to develop a new current regulator designed to cut the electric power consumption in aluminum plants by 35%. They knew that, although the competition was fierce, their regulator could be produced more cheaply, was more reliable, and worked more efficiently than the competitors’ products.

The owner, eager to capture the market, personally but somewhat hastily put together a 120-page proposal to the three major aluminum manufacturers, recommending that their regulators be installed at all company plants.

The first 87 pages of the proposal were devoted to the mathematical theory and engineering design behind the new regulator, and the next 32 pages to descriptions of a new assembly line to produce regulators quickly. Buried in an appendix were the test results that compared her regulator’s performance with present models and a poorly drawn graph showed how much the dollar savings would be.

Acme Electric didn’t get the contracts, despite having the best product. Six months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

B . In small groups, examine one of the following cases and complete the following :

Define the rhetorical situation : Who is communicating to whom about what, how, and why? What was the goal of the communication in each case?
Identify the communication error (poor task or audience analysis? Use of inappropriate language or style? Poor organization or formatting of information? Other?)
Explain what costs/losses were incurred by this problem.
Identify possible solution s or strategies that would have prevented the problem, and what benefits would be derived from implementing solutions or preventing the problem.

Present your findings in a brief, informal presentation to the class.

CASE 2: Petro-chemical company report

Cameron (he/him), a research chemist for a major petro-chemical company, wrote a dense report about some new compounds he had synthesized in the laboratory from oil-refining by-products. The bulk of the report consisted of tables listing their chemical and physical properties, diagrams of their molecular structure, chemical formulas and computer printouts of toxicity tests. Buried at the end of the report was a casual speculation that one of the compounds might be a particularly effective insecticide.

Seven years later, the same oil company launched a major research program to find more effective but environmentally safe insecticides. After six months of research, someone uncovered Cameron’s report and his toxicity tests. A few hours of further testing confirmed that one of Cameron’s compounds was the safe, economical insecticide they had been looking for.

Cameron had since left the company because he felt that the importance of his research was not being appreciated.

CASE 3: Novaware instruction manual

As one of the first to enter the field of office automation, Novaware, Inc. had built a reputation for designing high-quality and user-friendly database and accounting programs for business and industry. When they decided to enter the word-processing market, their engineers designed an effective, versatile, and powerful program that Novaware felt sure would outperform any competitor.

To be sure that their new word-processing program was accurately documented, Novaware asked the senior program designer to supervise writing the instruction manual. The result was a thorough, accurate and precise description of every detail of the program’s operation.

When Novaware began marketing its new word processor, cries for help flooded in from office workers who were so confused by the massive manual that they couldn’t even find out how to get started. Then several business journals reviewed the program and judged it “too complicated” and “difficult to learn.” After an impressive start, sales of the new word processing program plummeted.

Novaware eventually put out a new, clearly written training guide that led new users step by step through introductory exercises and told them how to find commands quickly. But the rewrite cost Novaware $350,000, a year’s lead in the market, and its reputation for producing easy-to-use business software.

CASE 4: Policy memo

Nhi (they/them) supervised 36 professionals in 6 city libraries. To cut the costs of unnecessary overtime, they issued this one-sentence memo to their staff:

After the 36 copies were sent out, Nhi’s office received 26 phone calls asking what the memo meant. What the 10 people who didn’t call about the memo thought is uncertain. It took a week to clarify the new policy.

CASE 5: “Nerds gone wild”

The following excerpt is from Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, itself both a plea for and an excellent example of clear scientific communication:

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) would have been the preeminent instrument on the planet for probing the fine structure of matter and the nature of the early Universe. Its price tag was $10 to $15 billion. It was cancelled by Congress in 1993 after about $2 billion had been spent — a worst of both worlds outcome. But this debate was not, I think, mainly about declining interest in the support of science. Few in Congress understood what modern high-energy accelerators are for. They are not for weapons. They have no practical applications. They are for something that is, worrisomely from the point of view of many, called “the theory of everything.” Explanations that involve entities called quarks, charm, flavor, color, etc., sound as if physicists are being cute. The whole thing has an aura, in the view of at least some Congresspeople I’ve talked to, of “nerds gone wild” — which I suppose is an uncharitable way of describing curiosity-based science. No one asked to pay for this had the foggiest idea of what a Higgs boson is. I’ve read some of the material intended to justify the SSC. At the very end, some of it wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing that really addressed what the project was about on a level accessible to bright but skeptical non-physicists. If physicists are asking for 10 or 15 billion dollars to build a machine that has no practical value, at the very least they should make an extremely serious effort, with dazzling graphics, metaphors, and capable use of the English language, to justify their proposal. More than financial mismanagement, budgetary constraints, and political incompetence, I think this is the key to the failure of the SSC.

CASE 6: Same topic, different genres

Rowan (she/her) was simultaneously enrolled in a university writing course and working as a co-op student at the New Minas Boat Manufacturing plant. As part of her co-op work experience, Rowan shadowed her supervisor/mentor on a safety inspection of the plant, and was asked to write up the results of the inspection in a compliance memo . In the same week, Rowan’s writing instructor assigned the class to write a narrative essay based on some personal experience. Rowan, trying to be efficient, thought that the plant visit experience could provide the basis for her essay assignment as well.

She wrote the essay first because she was used to writing essays and was pretty good at it. She had never even seen a compliance memo, much less written one, so was not as confident about that task. She began the essay like this:

On June 1, 2018, I conducted a safety audit of the New Minas Boat Manufacturing plant. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that all processes and activities in the plant adhere to safety and handling rules and policies outlined in the Workplace Safety Handbook and relevant government regulations. I was escorted on a 3-hour tour of the facility by…

Rowan finished the essay and submitted it to her writing instructor. She then revised the essay slightly, keeping the introduction the same, and submitted it to her co-op supervisor. She “aced” the essay, getting an A grade, but her co-op supervisor told her that the report was unacceptable and would have to be rewritten – especially the beginning, which should have clearly indicated whether or not the plant was in compliance with safety regulations. Rowan was aghast! She had never heard of putting the “conclusion” at the beginning . She missed the company softball game that Saturday so she could rewrite the report to the satisfaction of her supervisor.

Meier, C. (2017, January 14). The Exorbitant Cost of Poor Writing (About $400 Billion). Medium . https://medium.com/@MeierMarketing/the-exorbitant-cost-of-poor-writing-about-400-billion-973b5a4f0096

Sagan, C. (1995). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House.

Exercises adapted from T.M Georges’ Analytical Writing for Science and Technology. T.M. Goerges (1996), Analytical Writing for Science and Technology [Online], Available: https://www.scribd.com/document/96822930/Analytical-Writing

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27 Case Study Examples Every Marketer Should See

Published: September 05, 2024

Putting together a compelling case study is one of the most powerful strategies for showcasing your product and attracting future customers. But it's not easy to create case studies that your audience can’t wait to read.

In this post, I’ll go over the definition of a case study and the best examples to inspire you.

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What is a case study?

Marketing case study examples, digital marketing case study examples.

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A case study is a detailed story of something your company did. It includes a beginning — often discussing a challenge, an explanation of what happened next, and a resolution that explains how the company solved or improved on something.

A case study proves how your product has helped other companies by demonstrating real-life results. Not only that, but marketing case studies with solutions typically contain quotes from the customer.

This means that they’re not just ads where you praise your own product. Rather, other companies are praising your company — and there’s no stronger marketing material than a verbal recommendation or testimonial.

A great case study also has research and stats to back up points made about a project's results.

There are several ways to use case studies in your marketing strategy.

From featuring them on your website to including them in a sales presentation, a case study is a strong, persuasive tool that shows customers why they should work with you — straight from another customer.

Writing one from scratch is hard, though, which is why we’ve created a collection of case study templates for you to get started.

There’s no better way to generate more leads than by writing case studies . However, without case study examples from which to draw inspiration, it can be difficult to write impactful studies that convince visitors to submit a form.

To help you create an attractive and high-converting case study, we've put together a list of some of our favorites. This list includes famous case studies in marketing, technology, and business.

These studies can show you how to frame your company's offers in a way that is useful to your audience. So, look, and let these examples inspire your next brilliant case study design.

These marketing case studies with solutions show the value proposition of each product. They also show how each company benefited in both the short and long term using quantitative data.

In other words, you don’t get just nice statements, like “this company helped us a lot.” You see actual change within the firm through numbers and figures.

You can put your learnings into action with HubSpot's Free Case Study Templates . Available as custom designs and text-based documents, you can upload these templates to your CMS or send them to prospects as you see fit.

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Blog Graphic Design 15+ Case Study Examples for Business, Marketing & Sales

15+ Case Study Examples for Business, Marketing & Sales

Written by: Alice Corner Jan 12, 2023

Have you ever bought something — within the last 10 years or so — without reading its reviews or without a recommendation or prior experience of using it?

If the answer is no — or at least, rarely — you get my point.

Positive reviews matter for selling to regular customers, and for B2B or SaaS businesses, detailed case studies are important too.

Wondering how to craft a compelling case study ? No worries—I’ve got you covered with 15 marketing case study templates , helpful tips, and examples to ensure your case study converts effectively.

Click to jump ahead:

What is a case study?

What to include in a professional case study, business case study examples, simple case study examples, marketing case study examples, sales case study examples.

Case study FAQs

A case study is an in-depth, detailed analysis of a specific real-world situation. For example, a case study can be about an individual, group, event, organization, or phenomenon. The purpose of a case study is to understand its complexities and gain insights into a particular instance or situation.

In the context of a business, however, case studies take customer success stories and explore how they use your product to help them achieve their business goals.

As well as being valuable marketing tools , case studies are a good way to evaluate your product as it allows you to objectively examine how others are using it.

It’s also a good way to interview your customers about why they work with you.

Related: What is a Case Study? [+6 Types of Case Studies]

A professional case study showcases how your product or services helped potential clients achieve their business goals. You can also create case studies of internal, successful marketing projects. A professional case study typically includes:

Company background and history
The challenge
How you helped
Specific actions taken
Visuals or Data
Client testimonials

Here’s an example of a case study template:

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, business case studies can be a powerful resource to help with your sales, marketing, and even internal departmental awareness.

Business and business management case studies should encompass strategic insights alongside anecdotal and qualitative findings, like in the business case study examples below.

Conduct a B2B case study by researching the company holistically

When it comes to writing a case study, make sure you approach the company holistically and analyze everything from their social media to their sales.

Think about every avenue your product or service has been of use to your case study company, and ask them about the impact this has had on their wider company goals.

Venngage orange marketing case study example

In business case study examples like the one above, we can see that the company has been thought about holistically simply by the use of icons.

By combining social media icons with icons that show in-person communication we know that this is a well-researched and thorough case study.

This case study report example could also be used within an annual or end-of-year report.

Highlight the key takeaway from your marketing case study

To create a compelling case study, identify the key takeaways from your research. Use catchy language to sum up this information in a sentence, and present this sentence at the top of your page.

This is “at a glance” information and it allows people to gain a top-level understanding of the content immediately.

Purple SAAS Business Case Study Template

You can use a large, bold, contrasting font to help this information stand out from the page and provide interest.

Learn how to choose fonts effectively with our Venngage guide and once you’ve done that.

Upload your fonts and brand colors to Venngage using the My Brand Kit tool and see them automatically applied to your designs.

The heading is the ideal place to put the most impactful information, as this is the first thing that people will read.

In this example, the stat of “Increase[d] lead quality by 90%” is used as the header. It makes customers want to read more to find out how exactly lead quality was increased by such a massive amount.

Purple SAAS Business Case Study Template Header

If you’re conducting an in-person interview, you could highlight a direct quote or insight provided by your interview subject.

Pick out a catchy sentence or phrase, or the key piece of information your interview subject provided and use that as a way to draw a potential customer in.

Use charts to visualize data in your business case studies

Charts are an excellent way to visualize data and to bring statistics and information to life. Charts make information easier to understand and to illustrate trends or patterns.

Making charts is even easier with Venngage.

In this consulting case study example, we can see that a chart has been used to demonstrate the difference in lead value within the Lead Elves case study.

Adding a chart here helps break up the information and add visual value to the case study.

Using charts in your case study can also be useful if you’re creating a project management case study.

You could use a Gantt chart or a project timeline to show how you have managed the project successfully.

event marketing project management gantt chart example

Use direct quotes to build trust in your marketing case study

To add an extra layer of authenticity you can include a direct quote from your customer within your case study.

According to research from Nielsen , 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer and 70% trust recommendations even if they’re from somebody they don’t know.

So if you have a customer or client who can’t stop singing your praises, make sure you get a direct quote from them and include it in your case study.

You can either lift part of the conversation or interview, or you can specifically request a quote. Make sure to ask for permission before using the quote.

Contrast Lead Generation Business Case Study Template

This design uses a bright contrasting speech bubble to show that it includes a direct quote, and helps the quote stand out from the rest of the text.

This will help draw the customer’s attention directly to the quote, in turn influencing them to use your product or service.

Less is often more, and this is especially true when it comes to creating designs. Whilst you want to create a professional-looking, well-written and design case study – there’s no need to overcomplicate things.

These simple case study examples show that smart clean designs and informative content can be an effective way to showcase your successes.

Use colors and fonts to create a professional-looking case study

Business case studies shouldn’t be boring. In fact, they should be beautifully and professionally designed.

This means the normal rules of design apply. Use fonts, colors, and icons to create an interesting and visually appealing case study.

In this case study example, we can see how multiple fonts have been used to help differentiate between the headers and content, as well as complementary colors and eye-catching icons.

Blue Simple Business Case Study Template

Marketing case studies are incredibly useful for showing your marketing successes. Every successful marketing campaign relies on influencing a consumer’s behavior, and a great case study can be a great way to spotlight your biggest wins.

In the marketing case study examples below, a variety of designs and techniques to create impactful and effective case studies.

Show off impressive results with a bold marketing case study

Case studies are meant to show off your successes, so make sure you feature your positive results prominently. Using bold and bright colors as well as contrasting shapes, large bold fonts, and simple icons is a great way to highlight your wins.

In well-written case study examples like the one below, the big wins are highlighted on the second page with a bright orange color and are highlighted in circles.

Making the important data stand out is especially important when attracting a prospective customer with marketing case studies.

Light simplebusiness case study template

Use a simple but clear layout in your case study

Using a simple layout in your case study can be incredibly effective, like in the example of a case study below.

Keeping a clean white background, and using slim lines to help separate the sections is an easy way to format your case study.

Making the information clear helps draw attention to the important results, and it helps improve the accessibility of the design .

Business case study examples like this would sit nicely within a larger report, with a consistent layout throughout.

Modern lead Generaton Business Case Study Template

Use visuals and icons to create an engaging and branded business case study

Nobody wants to read pages and pages of text — and that’s why Venngage wants to help you communicate your ideas visually.

Using icons, graphics, photos, or patterns helps create a much more engaging design.

With this Blue Cap case study icons, colors, and impactful pattern designs have been used to create an engaging design that catches your eye.

Social Media Business Case Study template

Use a monochromatic color palette to create a professional and clean case study

Let your research shine by using a monochromatic and minimalistic color palette.

By sticking to one color, and leaving lots of blank space you can ensure your design doesn’t distract a potential customer from your case study content.

In this case study on Polygon Media, the design is simple and professional, and the layout allows the prospective customer to follow the flow of information.

The gradient effect on the left-hand column helps break up the white background and adds an interesting visual effect.

Gray Lead Generation Business Case Study Template

Did you know you can generate an accessible color palette with Venngage? Try our free accessible color palette generator today and create a case study that delivers and looks pleasant to the eye:

Venngage's accessible color palette generator

Add long term goals in your case study

When creating a case study it’s a great idea to look at both the short term and the long term goals of the company to gain the best understanding possible of the insights they provide.

Short-term goals will be what the company or person hopes to achieve in the next few months, and long-term goals are what the company hopes to achieve in the next few years.

Check out this modern pattern design example of a case study below:

Lead generation business case study template

In this case study example, the short and long-term goals are clearly distinguished by light blue boxes and placed side by side so that they are easy to compare.

Lead generation case study example short term goals

Use a strong introductory paragraph to outline the overall strategy and goals before outlining the specific short-term and long-term goals to help with clarity.

This strategy can also be handy when creating a consulting case study.

Use data to make concrete points about your sales and successes

When conducting any sort of research stats, facts, and figures are like gold dust (aka, really valuable).

Being able to quantify your findings is important to help understand the information fully. Saying sales increased 10% is much more effective than saying sales increased.

While sales dashboards generally tend it make it all about the numbers and charts, in sales case study examples, like this one, the key data and findings can be presented with icons. This contributes to the potential customer’s better understanding of the report.

They can clearly comprehend the information and it shows that the case study has been well researched.

Vibrant Content Marketing Case Study Template

Use emotive, persuasive, or action based language in your marketing case study

Create a compelling case study by using emotive, persuasive and action-based language when customizing your case study template.

In this well-written case study example, we can see that phrases such as “Results that Speak Volumes” and “Drive Sales” have been used.

Using persuasive language like you would in a blog post. It helps inspire potential customers to take action now.

Bold Content Marketing Case Study Template

Keep your potential customers in mind when creating a customer case study for marketing

82% of marketers use case studies in their marketing because it’s such an effective tool to help quickly gain customers’ trust and to showcase the potential of your product.

Why are case studies such an important tool in content marketing?

By writing a case study you’re telling potential customers that they can trust you because you’re showing them that other people do.

Not only that, but if you have a SaaS product, business case studies are a great way to show how other people are effectively using your product in their company.

In this case study, Network is demonstrating how their product has been used by Vortex Co. with great success; instantly showing other potential customers that their tool works and is worth using.

Teal Social Media Business Case Study Template

Related: 10+ Case Study Infographic Templates That Convert

Case studies are particularly effective as a sales technique.

A sales case study is like an extended customer testimonial, not only sharing opinions of your product – but showcasing the results you helped your customer achieve.

Make impactful statistics pop in your sales case study

Writing a case study doesn’t mean using text as the only medium for sharing results.

You should use icons to highlight areas of your research that are particularly interesting or relevant, like in this example of a case study:

Coral content marketing case study template.jpg

Icons are a great way to help summarize information quickly and can act as visual cues to help draw the customer’s attention to certain areas of the page.

In some of the business case study examples above, icons are used to represent the impressive areas of growth and are presented in a way that grabs your attention.

Use high contrast shapes and colors to draw attention to key information in your sales case study

Help the key information stand out within your case study by using high contrast shapes and colors.

Use a complementary or contrasting color, or use a shape such as a rectangle or a circle for maximum impact.

This design has used dark blue rectangles to help separate the information and make it easier to read.

Coupled with icons and strong statistics, this information stands out on the page and is easily digestible and retainable for a potential customer.

Blue Content Marketing Case Study Tempalte

Case study examples summary

Once you have created your case study, it’s best practice to update your examples on a regular basis to include up-to-date statistics, data, and information.

You should update your business case study examples often if you are sharing them on your website .

It’s also important that your case study sits within your brand guidelines – find out how Venngage’s My Brand Kit tool can help you create consistently branded case study templates.

Case studies are important marketing tools – but they shouldn’t be the only tool in your toolbox. Content marketing is also a valuable way to earn consumer trust.

Case study FAQ s

Why should you write a case study.

Case studies are an effective marketing technique to engage potential customers and help build trust.

By producing case studies featuring your current clients or customers, you are showcasing how your tool or product can be used. You’re also showing that other people endorse your product.

In addition to being a good way to gather positive testimonials from existing customers, business case studies are good educational resources and can be shared amongst your company or team, and used as a reference for future projects.

How should you write a case study?

To create a great case study, you should think strategically. The first step, before starting your case study research, is to think about what you aim to learn or what you aim to prove.

You might be aiming to learn how a company makes sales or develops a new product. If this is the case, base your questions around this.

You can learn more about writing a case study from our extensive guide.

Related: How to Present a Case Study like a Pro (With Examples)

Some good questions you could ask would be:

Why do you use our tool or service?
How often do you use our tool or service?
What does the process of using our product look like to you?
If our product didn’t exist, what would you be doing instead?
What is the number one benefit you’ve found from using our tool?

17 Brilliant Case Study Examples To Be Inspired By

Lead generation is complex, which means that your best bet is to have multiple touchpoints on different channels designed to capture as many leads as possible.

While you’re setting up your lead generation funnel , remember that you need to have different touchpoints on your site itself, too. It’s not enough, after all, that they’ve landed on your site on their own; you need to convince them to convert as a lead or even as a customer once they’re there.

Case studies can help with this, allowing you to prove what kind of results your brand, product, or service can offer to real clients. You can back up what you’re promising, and show the how, what, who, and why questions that customers may have. They can help generate more leads and accelerate revenue quickly.

We’ve got some great resources on how to get the information on how to conduct great case study interviews and what makes case studies valuable , but today we’re going to look at 17 individual and diverse case study examples and talk about how to write great B2B case studies.

These examples all do something exceptional and approach their case studies a little differently, but they all have outstanding final results.

Ready to get inspired and get some actionable tips to write your own B2B case studies? Let’s get started.

How to Write Great B2B Case Studies

Before we start looking at different B2B case study examples, we want to first talk about what makes B2B case studies valuable and effective.

What All Great B2B Case Studies Accomplish

Case studies are most often used to build trust by proving that you’ve gotten a specific result for clients and that you can do the same for your existing leads. In many cases, case studies should:

Establish a persona or audience segment that the client fits into (which, in many cases, leads will relate to)
Explain what the client’s problem was before they started working with your brand
Detail what solution you offered to help the client (which should include some level of detail regarding the strategies, products, or tactics that you used)
Share the results, ideally the more specific (and numerical) the better; statistics that show improvements are golden
Feature a client impact statement or a testimonial if possible

You can use this as a guide post (or almost like a template) of how to get started with the content that you need to cover in your case study.

B2B Case Study Best Practices

When writing B2B case studies, you always want to follow these best practices:

Try to stick to a consistent template, that way as you create a fleshed-out case study section on your site, it will be scannable and familiar to leads
Tell a story, using a client’s problems and pain points to connect with potential leads and highlighting how you can help; think of the problem as the beginning of the story, the solution as the climax, and the results section as the resolution of the story
Be as detailed as you need to be, but as brief as possible; while B2B case studies can certainly trend much longer in length than most B2C case studies, you also want to make sure you’re offering value because if it goes too long, your customers will lose interest
Always include hard facts. Statistics, tactical solutions, and quantifiable data reign supreme here. They carry a case study, and they give you a nice impressive title to draw in the clicks, too.
Rely on great formatting. Do not write a case study that’s nothing more than a giant block of text. Use great formatting to keep the entire case study scannable and easy to read. Break it up with visuals whenever possible.

1. Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs has a number of content-based case studies on our site, and you know we had to feature these case studies first!

These case studies both accomplish everything we’ve discussed above; they detail a client’s problem and pain points, explain the solution, and share the results and client testimonials. All the major boxes are checked.

What these case studies do differently than most, however, is they use a content-focused approach. The case studies aren’t just boasting about the amazing results our clients have seen, but they actually share enough actionable information for other clients to replicate their success, too.

Let’s look at our case study, How to Reduce Your SLA by 99% . It discussed how a single client did reduce their SLA by 99%, but it also gives enough information that other users can discover how to use lead scoring to reduce SLA successfully themselves.

The case study is downloadable, which a “Download” button at the top of the page next to “Request Demo” and “Start Free” CTAs. It also features a well-formatted “What you’ll learn” section to engage users and assure them that they won’t just be reading about a client story, but they’ll walk away with something helpful.

One other thing to note here is that some B2B case studies can feel, for lack of a better word, a little cold. The client’s business name is mentioned, but pain points are relatively clinical and the tone is dull. That’s not the case with the Breadcrumbs case studies, where individual client contacts are referred to by first name and are written in a more conversational tone. It feels much more personal, and at the end of the day, we’re not just selling to businesses—we’re selling to the people who work for businesses.

2. AdEspresso

Want to turn your case study into a lead magnet? This case study example from AdEspresso is an excellent demonstration of how to use case studies not only to pique users’ but to actually convert them to leads.

Here’s how it works:

People go to the case study part of the site, find it through organic search, or are referred there by email, paid social ads, or blog posts
They read the title and the description, which mentions the company name, what was accomplished, a brief explanation of how (here, it’s split testing, targeting new and existing audiences, and AdEspresso)
The description gives a concrete result–“GlobeIn doubled its revenue”
They encourage users to download the PDF

While most of the case studies that we’re looking at are published on their brands’ sites, this one works as a lead magnet. When users click the “Download PDF” CTA, they’re taken to a landing page with a lead form.

The landing page touches more on what results were achieved, but still requires users to download the PDF to find out exactly which strategies were used. This works because the case study isn’t just stating “our tool gets more results,” it also offers strategic insights similar to a blog post that readers can leverage to improve their own campaigns.

If you create case studies that get strategic and are heavily content-based instead of just sharing results, they can act as a different kind of touchpoint in the digital sales funnel .

3. Freshbooks

Most businesses have multiple different buyer personas and audience segments that they’re targeting at any given point in time. When you want your case studies to really be effective, publishing diverse content that really speaks to each of those segments is crucial.

Freshbooks ’ case study examples really showcase how you can do that well. Their case studies feature brief customer stories from “relatable” small businesses (aka not mega CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, who are not Freshbook’s core Facebook target audience) talking about how their business used the tools to benefit.

You can see the different personas represented here. One is an agency that wanted to scale quickly; one case study example featured a growing franchise. Another was for a small business that needed help with tax prep, and the last pictured here is a freelancer who uses the invoicing software’s time tracking features to measure productivity and assess rates.

These are four very different types of businesses, and it shows potential leads in each audience segment that there’s a reason they should use this tool. By highlighting different use cases, it can increase lead generation for all high-value audiences by appealing to their specific needs instead of just highlighting general stories that would appeal to all.

4. Disruptive Digital

Disruptive Digital is a paid social agency while a high-level holistic approach to advertising. Instead of looking at “general best practices” that you could find on ten other blogs in five seconds or less, they offer strategic insights that showcases how they really get their customers result. They make case study examples a central part of a large number of their blog posts.

They’ll write a blog post about a high-level topic like “how to calculate your target ROAS,” and then show a case study with real client data to walk you through the process. This is more powerful than hypotheticals when you’re talking about data-driven PPC campaigns, and they always use it to back up their arguments as well as teach a strategy.

While these case study examples aren’t on a dedicated landing page, they work by appealing to users more towards the top of the funnel . It helps to build trust and establish credibility early while setting their blog posts apart. It’s good for their content marketing and lead generation efforts.

5. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a well-known SaaS content and social media planning and organization tool, and their case studies are phenomenal.

They do a few things well. The first is by featuring different types of clients in their case studies. In the case study example below, they’re showcasing not a brand, but a University alumni group.

Their formatting is also great. The first thing you see is “This 5-Person Marketing Team Managed 12x More Work While Working Remotely” in bright blue across the top of the page. They’ve also got a quick-reference, quick-facts bar on the side of the case study that lists the brand name, the brand’s site, the industry, company size, and marketing team size. Here, you can download a PDF of the case study, and immediately under there is a CTA to request a demo (also in blue, ideally to have the eye go from the headline to the CTA).

The case study itself is well written, and you can read the full study here . It breaks things down by sharing the challenge, the solution, and the results. As you can see below, they have a graph in bright colors to showcase exactly how impactful those results were, with the results in bolded text underneath it. They finish it off with a quote from a key team member to really drive it home.

As far as case study examples go, this one is pretty perfect. The design is excellent, with quick-reference data, important facts highlighted, great design elements to draw the users’ eye and attention where you want it, and a customer quote. They also have a strong CTA to get in touch, which can get the process moving quickly, or the option to download the case study (turning it into valuable content and a lead magnet) if the customer chooses.

6. ONESOURCE

ONESOURCE is a tax preparation product from Thomas Reuter’s, and the site features the below case study of The Cheesecake Factory—a major American brand—to help showcase value and generate sales.

As far as design goes, this case study is clean, organized, and condensed. It’s like a digital brochure, with all the information cleanly broken down into bullet points, key quotes and statements, and subheadings.

They share only the core information that’s needed (including what products were used, what was accomplished, and data about the Cheesecake factory’s tax department) and nothing that isn’t. It’s to the point and highly effective.

Slack is one of the most popular instant communication chat tools available right now, and especially after everyone had to work from home during the pandemic, we’re guessing a large number of readers are familiar with the platform.

Their case studies are, as you’d expect, strong and well-written. They’re longer and read almost more like a story-driven blog post than studies like CoSchedule’s fast-facts, brief-and-to-the-point content. But this works for this brand; storytelling is powerful, after all, and it’s memorable and relatable.

In this case study, they use storytelling to really highlight the company’s pain points, focusing on how shopping habits changed and impacted businesses during COVID-19. They focus on Shipt, a grocery-delivery company that was thrust into high demand quickly.

The case study talked about how Shipt had been using Slack for years, but how they really embraced advanced features and integrations during COVID to get the most out of the platform. They then share how the company uses it, and share data and statistics about usage .

There’s a quote from the director of IT in there, too, to stress the importance, and you’ll see they have a “quick facts” tab on the side with a powerful quote that highlights the value, key integrations that were featured, and a CTA to both contact the sales team and to try Slack for free.

They have a full page of case studies available, all of which state what Slack helped accomplish in a storytelling format as opposed to going hard with the data upfront. This feels more casual, but is just as powerful.

8. Culture Amp

We’re going meta. We just looked at case study examples from Slack, and now we’re going to look at a case study example about Slack.

Culture Amp helps brands maintain and facilitate their desired communication culture through feedback and communication response.

This case study features my favorite quick facts tab, sharing the brand name featured in the case study, a sentence each about the challenge, solution, and result. And there is, of course, that “request demo” CTA.

The case study does a few things that you don’t see a lot. They introduce two of the key figures in the Slack department who worked directly with Culture Amp, giving it a more personal touch and adding more credibility to the study.

It’s also well-written and engaging to read. Sentences like “Company culture is Slack’s North Star” aren’t your standard technical and almost clinical “just the facts, ma’am” approach to case studies. The case study is longer than some others, but the creative writing can keep you hooked, and it thoroughly explains how the single brand used the product and services to excel.

9. KlientBoost

We’ve already looked at one case study from a marketing agency, but the way KlientBoost has their case studies set up, it’s well worth taking a look at another.

Their numerous case studies are found under the “Results” tab on their site, making them all readily visible and easy to locate. It also increases the odds that users will stumble across the case studies on their own, even if they weren’t intentionally looking for them.

And one thing worth noting: They’ve got a sorting feature to “show me clients who” meet certain qualities like “are worth billions, “got acquired,” “have small budgets,” and “have crazy complex offerings.”

This is an easy way to tell all of their potential clients that “yes, we take clients like you and get results!” while making it simple for them to find proof.

The case study itself is of course well-written and designed, too. You’ve got a bold, color-contrasting header at the top in large text that lays out core benefits (x results in just three months), with more detailed results visible on the side.

They also break down the different advanced advertising features they used, a customer quote, and an image of what the ads looked like to bring the whole thing together. This shows prospective clients exactly what they can expect when working with the agency, and it builds a massive amount of trust.

10. Omnivore

Omnivore.io is a menu management tool designed specifically for restaurants that integrate with other tools to streamline the guest experience.

The content we’re going to look at is a great example of case study creation for hyper-niche industries that have specific needs.

It’s presented as a standard blog post, but the H1 title says exactly what benefits the company achieved, and they still have a “more seating options, more problems” header to present the challenge in a creative way.

They then explain how the TableUp app works with Omnivore’s tech and other integrations to be able to offer additional services to customers like adding their party to a restaurant’s waitlist, joining email lists for points, making to-go orders, and more.

They also shared an example of how a real client (Budweiser) used the feature, and included a blurb about the integrating tool.

You’ll notice that this case study looks a little different from others that we’ve looked at. It doesn’t have a lot of hard numbers or super detailed examples, but it works because it showcases a specific integration and details specific uses.

This is, in many cases, going to be an audience focused on use case value more than just statistics; if the tool can do what’s needed, that’s what they’re going to care most about. So this formatting works.

11. Pepperi

We’re on a food-themed case study roll right now! Next, we’re going to look at a case study of how Chex Finer Foods worked with the Pepperi omnichannel B2B Commerce.

This case study is long . It’s much longer than the others that we’re looking at, with 6 total pages of content (though some are heavily dominated by images). See the entire case study by clicking above.

Here’s why it works though: They keep the “Challenges” brief and the client breakdown visible right upfront to show users why they should care.

The solutions section is also brief, explaining how Pepperi solved the company’s challenges. That all happens within the first page of the case study.

The rest of the study has five pages that look like this, showing visuals that highlight the exact product that users received when working with Pepperi. There’s no hypothetical mock-up; you get to see the mobile app design , the site, the home page here. Other pages show how search results work for brands with extensive inventories, along with features like analytics, multi-product views, and more.

For customers who really want to understand what they’re getting and why they should choose this particular service, there’s no doubt. They can see what the interface looks like, and what real clients’ platforms offer.

12. DOTVOX

DOTVOX sells hosted VoIP business lines to their clients.

There are a few reasons I really liked this particular case study.

First, they do a great job showcasing how their specific technology can benefit a specific type of client: a multi-site company that needs help with business communications. This is niche enough that some other tools may not be able to help (or that may be a concern that some customers have).

They also focused the case study on a business in the financial industry, letting other clients in that niche know that they offer secure communication options suited for banks, mortgage lenders, and more. These are high-value clients, so it’s a solid choice.

Later on in the case study, they break down the individual results, services, and solutions achieved. The “Feature-rich” part is my favorite; they detail unique features that other tools may not offer and explain briefly how they work.

Potential leads reading this can get a good idea of what’s possible.

13. PortaFab

Last but not least, we’ve got this case study from PortaFab .

The reason I really wanted to look at this particular case study is that it’s not selling a service or a SaaS tool; it’s a physical product being sold to businesses. That automatically changes things up a bit.

They, of course, have a brief overview of what the project entailed, but it’s organized a bit differently. They featured the challenge on the right side of the case study and the project overview and benefits provided on the left.

Underneath this, however, they’ve got their solution featured, along with an extensive photo gallery showing the finished project.

Allowing customers to easily visualize the end result is important for physical goods, so this was a smart call.

14. Strands Retail

Strands Retail sells personalization and product recommendation software to eCommerce brands. Their case study below features the work they did for mega-brand Chewy.

Featuring this particular client was smart. Chewy is highly regarded for the exceptional customer service experiences they provide, so linking themselves to the brand is a good move. It’s also a massive company, and since the case study focuses on the fact that Chewy needed a solution that scaled with their brand, it gives them outstanding credibility in terms of the potential to serve enterprise-grade clients.

The case study is visually solid and well-designed, too. Since not all leads want to read the details and just want a few quick stats, featuring a few impressive key stats at the top in contrasting colors or with graphics (which they do here) can get the point across quickly and really exemplify how beneficial the product was.

15. Codeless.io

Like Breadcrumbs, Codeless.io takes a content-heavy approach to the case studies they feature on their site.

They don’t just want to show results (which are crucial for a content marketing agency to do in order to leverage trust), but they want to prove that it wasn’t just luck. They got their clients real, sustainable results with careful processes, and they can do the same for you, too.

Let’s look at an example. Their Loomly case study boasts an impressive 827% increase in CTR by updating the client’s existing content. This is smart, because it highlights a service many agencies may not offer and demonstrates the value of the service to clients who may be reluctant to spend on updating existing content.

The case study itself is written and formatted almost like a blog post and case study hybrid. You’ve got the essential details about the company listed off to the side, but there’s also an entire H2 section that details more about the business in question.

They also are incredibly transparent in the processes they used to help their client obtain impressive results, and this is something you won’t see many agencies do because they don’t want to “give away their secrets.” This builds trust, however, because clients can see that there is an actual strategy and that the company can help them, too. Everyone walks away from the case study without a doubt that Codeless was responsible for these results, not luck.

16. WizeHire

WizeHire is a hiring platform that helps businesses find the types of applicants they’re looking for, and their case studies do an outstanding job showcasing exactly how their products work and how they impact clients.

This case study , in particular—which features their client over at Mazda—is a great case study example to look at.

Their formatting is a little different than some of the others on this list, but it’s still undeniably effective. Towards the top of the case study, they have a “How We Helped” section. It introduces the point of contact, the client’s past pain points, and basic “before and after” points to highlight the value of the tool. This is a great quick overview to introduce readers to high-value concepts quickly.

They also use multiple media here, including images, video, and diverse text formatting. This makes the case study visually appealing and more engaging. If you want to just skim quickly through bullet points you can, but there’s also a video where the client raves about their experience.

And, of course, you’ve got a detailed results section highlighting how the client received long-term value from the product, featuring great statistics and a strong client testimonial.

Kosli is a highly technical tool for software developers and dev ops teams, and their case studies are a great example of how to discuss extraordinarily technical topics in an approachable way.

Let’s look at this case study , which promotes how their client Firi delivered over 100,000 changes without worrying about compliance. The case study itself is relatively short, but that’s okay, because it doesn’t need to be long to be effective.

It efficiently stresses that Firi operates in Norway, which has some of the most demanding sets of regulatory standards across the globe. That automatically assures customers that no matter where they’re based, this tool can help, making this client selection for the case study a great choice. They also explain the value upfront—100,000 changes and a proven audit trail if needed.

The formatting of this case study is smart, cleanly listing common challenges and then solutions. They had a “counterpart” solution, if you will, for each challenge listed, showing how they were able to help the client directly.

And while there isn’t a long list of statistics or improved performance in this case study, that’s okay, too; not every case study absolutely needs that. Instead, they have an explanation from their client (a CTO of the company), who explained why the software was so invaluable for their needs.

Final Thoughts

Case studies can be powerful tools used to generate and convert leads, boosting your overall revenue. And as you can see above, there’s no one-size-fits-all requirement for what an effective case study looks like or even where it should appear on your website . Take some time to think about what information you want to present and how it would be most effectively portrayed to your leads. This is a good starting point, and make sure to remember to get your design team’s input, too, so it looks and reads well.

Ready to get more conversions from the case studies you’re creating? Make sure your sales team is ready to nurture incoming leads with lead scoring! Book your free demo of Breadcrumbs today.

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Internal Communication Case Studies: The Terrible & The Terrific

It’s a question that often comes up: ‘How do other businesses do this?’. Whether you’re implementing a new sales structure or updating your software systems, it’s always helpful to consider how similar companies approached the issue. This is particularly relevant for internal communications , where there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each organisation has its own unique set of challenges and needs to tailor its internal communication strategy accordingly. Internal communication case studies can help you evaluate your approach, by exploring comparable situations and their outcomes.

In this blog, we’ve selected some of the best internal communication examples from the world of business. Not all were successful. In fact, some were complete disasters. But these failures, along with the success stories, are great examples of internal communication in action. When you’re looking for the answers to effective internal communication , nothing speaks more clearly than real-life examples.

We have grouped the following internal communication case study examples under the ‘seven golden rules’. These rules were proposed by Fitzpatrick in his ground-breaking publication Internal Communications: A Manual for Practitioners. These fundamental rules of internal communication best practices help us to categorise the relative successes and failures of these examples.

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Rule 1: Activity means nothing without results

The starting point for every IC has to be: “What do we want people to do?” Being busy and generating a constant stream of campaigns, videos and newsletters is a waste of time if nothing changes as a result. When you’re looking at improving internal communications , always keep track of the outcome as well as the action. This is where the true significance lies.

Case Study 1 - Nationwide Building Society

Background: Nationwide Building Society ran an award-winning five-week BIG Conversation, gathering ideas from all its 18,000 employees in a company-wide collaboration. The aim was directed to reinvigorating Nationwide’s sense of purpose.

Approach: The activity included TalkBack events, online surveys and a huge listening exercise to give staff and members the chance to contribute to its future. By implementing a company-wide internal communications survey , Nationwide opened up a free-flowing conversation with its workforce.

Outcome: The result has been a refreshed strategy and a marketing campaign based on the new concept of ‘building society, nationwide’ – helping people improve the quality of their lives. This business communication case study demonstrates the power of actively listening and acting on employee’s suggestions.

Verdict: Success

Rule 2: Value benefits the business

You will only be adding real value if your employee communication links directly to the business needs of your organisation and helps to achieve a defined strategy or a specific project. The benefits of good internal communication only become apparent when you define your desired outcomes and set actual targets.

Case Study 2 – XPO Transport and Logistics

Background: XPO wanted to leverage great ideas from its colleagues across its 104 UK sites to help its customers improve productivity and reduce costs. Its large, flexible and hard-to-reach workforce (from drivers for Asda to B&Q warehouse contractors) don’t usually have a company phone or laptop. Of all the case studies on communication in the workplace, this large-scale exercise is remarkable in its scope.

Approach: To spark engagement, Talkfreely developed the Ideas Matter App, which every employee was able to download to their personal phone. An internal communications app is the ideal way to connect with remote workers and hard-to-reach employees.

Outcome: Linked directly to business needs, the internal communications platform proved to be exceptional value. The generation of ideas has been significant; 1 in 4 of all ideas submitted are being put into practice. In addition, it showed a remarkable return on investment of 6.5:1 with £156,000 of savings in the first year alone.

Rule 3: In the thick of it

When you’re looking for new ideas, trying to work out what your employees are really thinking or wondering why a previous internal communications plan went wrong, don't sit pondering at your desk or researching online. Leave your office and start talking. Once you talk and listen to your employees, you will begin to understand what motivates them, what concerns them and how they feel about the company. Of all the internal communication ideas , this one is key if you want to keep track of engagement levels.

Case Study 3 – AOL

Background: AOL announced it was slashing its Patch local news network by a third. This was a large-scale change affecting many employees across the company and required careful handling in its communication.

Approach: CEO Tim Armstrong set up a conference call with 1,000 employees with the aim of boosting morale across the workforce. As Armstrong talked, Patch Creative Director Abel Lenz began taking pictures of him. He was immediately sacked, in front of the 1,000 staff on the conference call.

Outcome: Perhaps Armstrong did not know that Lenz’s job included photographing meetings with key leaders for the Patch intranet, for the benefit of remote workers. But he should have. If he had been in touch with his workforce, he would have been fully aware of the roles of individual employees. This employee communication case study gives a clear indication of the importance of understanding your employee’s job roles.

Verdict: Failure

Rule 4: Shut up and listen

Communicating with employees should be a two-way street. The megaphone approach is never going to work best because people only feel connected and motivated if they are part of a conversation. It’s vital to put internal communication channels in place that allow employees to comment on the messages coming down from the top. Listen to what they have to say … and learn.

Case Study 4 – PayPal

Background: The digital payment company needed to address an internal report that revealed not all their employees were not using the PayPal app. The President, David Marcus, wrote a company-wide memo to all staff regarding the problem.

Approach: David Marcus took a heavy-handed approach to the matter. He told his staff to use the product or quit: “If you are one of the folks who refused to install the PayPal app or if you can’t remember your PayPal password, do yourself a favor, go find something that will connect with your heart and mind elsewhere”.

A better policy would have been to find out why his employees weren’t using the payment app, whether they felt competitor products had better features and ask for their suggestions.

Outcome: The memo was leaked to the press. It generated widespread coverage across the media and left customers wondering what was wrong with an app that PayPal’s own staff wouldn't use. Internal communications best practice case studies demonstrate that opening a two-way channel for feedback will improve both internal and external communication .

Find out how an employee engagement app can play a pivotal role in delivering an employee engagement strategy

Rule 5 – I did it their way

Understand the working methods of those you need to convince. If leaders seem bound up in stats and spreadsheets, give them what they want. Gather data to prove your ideas work, show them a process, outline a clear outcome and they’ll soon be on your side. Measuring internal communications will help to provide the rationale behind your ideas. Equally, if the types of internal communication you are using don’t seem to be connecting with your employees, don’t be afraid to try a different approach.

Case Study 5 – Seymour House

Background: Seymour House runs ten outstanding childcare nurseries and wanted to get staff across the group engaging better with each other to share great practice. They needed to identify the best methods of internal communication that would resonate with their unique team-based workforce.

Approach: Talkfreely innovated with an internal communications app called Community. Community replaces static web pages and posts with highly personalised, bite-sized chunks of information presented on boards displaying relevant cards. These communicate quick stories and are far better at connecting people across teams.

Outcome: The Seymour House teams instantly connected with the Community app. Engagement levels took an immediate uplift as the communication and understanding between teams and individuals improved. This internal communications case study shows how crucial it is to connect with employees in a way that suits their style of interaction.

Rule 6: Make the most of managers

Your leadership team are crucial to the success of your strategy. However big or small your organisation, line managers and local leaders are your allies. They are essential to motivating employees and getting them on board: through discussion, allaying fears and leading by example. When you’re pulling together your internal communication definition , make sure leadership is one of the key points.

Case Study 6 – Yahoo

Background: The tech pioneer defined a need for remote workers return to the office environment. There was no longer a role for staff working from home and all employees needed to be office-based moving forward. The job of communicating this message was handed to the HR department.

Approach: Yahoo’s Head of HR sent out a motivational memo full of praise for the company’s “positive momentum”, “the buzz and energy in our offices”, “remarkable progress” and promising “the best is yet to come”. At the end of this message was the directive that all staff working from home must move back into the office or quit.

Outcome: A communication of this importance should have come from the head of the business. By trying to hide the order as a motivational HR message, it failed to provide a strategic business rationale. This is where the CEO needed to be a visible presence, sharing the reasoning behind this unpopular decision. Internal communication case study examples show time after time that leadership visibility is an essential element, especially when communicating change .

Rule 7: There is no silver bullet

We’d love to be able to reveal the secret to implementing that perfect internal communication strategy. Social media, the employee intranet , digital screens, email – they have all at some stage promised to revolutionise internal communications and make everything else redundant. But it hasn’t happened, which means the role of the internal communicator remains absolutely pivotal. Cut yourself slack in how you judge success, because every organisation has a different set of challenges and issues to overcome.

Case Study 7 – West Sussex County Council

Background: West Sussex Country Council has a workforce of over 6,000 staff spread across a wide geographic area in a variety of locations. In addition, around 25% of staff members have limited access to IT equipment and/or limited IT knowledge. The channels of internal communication in operation were outmoded and ineffective, leading to misinterpretation and inconsistencies.

Approach: Talkfreely developed a bespoke internal communications app designed to connect the disparate council workforce. Called ‘The Big Exchange’, the app allowed for real-time communication over a variety of digital platforms. Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it allowed for flexibility in work patterns, increasing its appeal for all employees.

Outcome: By the end of the first quarter, a third of the employee base were actively using the app. In some sectors, 33% would be a pretty modest engagement score. For West Sussex Country Council however, it has connected with those hard-to-reach employees for the very first time. In addition, it proved that there is a real council workforce appetite to get involved. For example - there were 25,200 page views in the first month which means on average, each active user visited over 25 pages of content per month. Read the full case study .

“The TalkFreely app has helped improve, beyond recognition, the way we communicate with our 6000 strong workforce, many of whom are hard to reach. This has become even more evident over the last few weeks in our local response to the coronavirus crisis, helping us to get critical, time-sensitive information out to staff quickly and easily wherever they are across the county.” William Hackett, Communications & Engagement Lead, West Sussex County Council

Final thoughts

It’s clear, when looking at this selection of communication case studies, that not every internal communication is destined for success. And, if handled incorrectly, a poorly targeted message can actually do more harm than good. Internal communication mistakes are very costly, to both morale and the bottom line. However, if you take the time to plan carefully, the positive impact of a good internal communication exchange can be considerable. When assessing internal communications case studies, it’s also vital to consider the arena in which the company is operating before judging the relative success of the campaign. Ultimately, every organisation will need to take a different approach, tailored to suit their unique set of circumstances.

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5 Best Crisis Communication Case Studies and Examples

Cristina Hure

on Sep 17, 2024

in Internal Communications

Today’s uncertain times increase the need for organizations to prepare for unexpected events. Explore these real-life examples of crisis communications case studies to protect your reputation and operations – in case fire lands on your doorstep one day!

Every brand, no matter how big or small, will face challenges from time to time. These can range from minor issues like a typo in a marketing campaign to major crises with global implications.

Some brands navigate these situations skillfully, while others struggle. Real-life crisis communication examples—including both best crisis communication examples and bad crisis communication examples—offer crucial insights into effective crisis communication strategies.

Whether dealing with internal crisis communication examples or broader corporate crisis communication examples, studying case study crisis communication scenarios helps organizations develop a robust crisis communication plan that effectively responds to difficult circumstances. For internal communicators and HR leaders, the crisis communication case studies in this article serve as valuable lessons in the art and science of dealing with crises.

Unmissable employee comms

Always get your message across with contactmonkey., what is crisis communication.

Crisis communication involves the technologies, systems, and protocols that enable an organization to efficiently communicate during a crisis. This strategic communication function is designed to mitigate damage to the organization’s reputation by asserting control in situations that could potentially be chaotic and damaging.

When communicators ensure consistent messaging, manage stakeholder expectations and maintain trust through transparency and prompt updates, effective crisis communication plays a critical role in mitigating damage.

How Does Internal Communications Play a Role in Crisis Communications?

In a crisis, internal communications are not just about damage control—they’re about safeguarding your organization’s most valuable asset: its people. Knowing what to do—and what to avoid—when managing an internal communications crisis can make all the difference in how your organization emerges on the other side.

As an internal communicator, your responsibilities go beyond fostering engagement and connection. You must also be prepared to respond swiftly and effectively when disaster strikes, demonstrating the importance of internal communications . Clear, consistent, and empathetic communication is essential in guiding employees through the turmoil, and ensuring that everyone understands the organization’s stance and next steps.

The insights below will help create a comprehensive crisis communication plan template to navigate crises with transparency, speed, and accountability.

Crisis Communication Best Practices

To handle crisis communications, communicators should adhere to key principles outlined in a wide-range of crisis communication case studies:

Stay consistent with your message: Every message should align with the organization’s overall narrative. For instance, if transparency is a priority, all internal updates should reflect this value, as seen in corporate crisis communication examples.
Practice what you preach: Deliver on promises. If safety measures are announced, promptly implement them to build trust—another common theme in many case study crisis communication examples.
Balance speed with accuracy: Timing is key in a crisis, but so is accuracy. Rather than rushing to communicate incomplete information, prioritize getting the facts right. For example, if there’s an incident affecting operations, promptly acknowledge it, but follow up with detailed, accurate information as soon as it’s available. Successful crisis communication plans balance both speed with accuracy to maintain credibility.
Lead with empathy: Recognize the emotional impact of a crisis on employees and tailor your communication to acknowledge their concerns. For instance, if layoffs are imminent, express understanding and support, offering resources like counseling or career transition services. Internal crisis communication examples show that addressing concerns compassionately can strengthen trust.

By following these principles, you can navigate crises more effectively and maintain the trust and confidence of your audiences. And, if you’re looking for more on this front, our internal communications best practices article can help.

5 Best Crisis Communication Case Studies to Know for 2024

1. marriott: authentic leadership in times of crisis.

Authentic leadership goes beyond being just a buzzword—it’s about genuinely acting and communicating in ways that build trust and inspire loyalty. Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International, exemplified this approach in a 6-minute video directed at employees, shareholders, and customers during the COVID-19 crisis.

Following the video’s release, what exactly did Sorenson do to earn overwhelming praise? This crisis communication case study is a prime example of effective crisis communication:

Context: As the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruptions to the travel and hospitality industry, Marriott International faced significant challenges, including drastic reductions in business, employee layoffs, and financial losses. Arne Sorenson’s video message became a key crisis communication case study by setting a benchmark for crisis communication strategies.

Analysis: Sorenson’s video was marked by its raw emotion, as he candidly acknowledged the severe impact of the pandemic on the company. He shared personal anecdotes, including his own battle with cancer, which humanized him and strengthened the message’s authenticity. As a prime example of crisis communications and effective planning, Sorenson communicated difficult decisions, such as employee layoffs, with empathy and transparency, helping to maintain trust and morale among Marriott employees.

Discussion: The video highlighted how authenticity in corporate crisis communication examples can strengthen organizational values and unity. By speaking openly about the challenges facing Marriott and his personal struggles, Sorenson connected with employees on a human level, which is often difficult to achieve in corporate communications.

Conclusion: This case study underscores the importance of transparency, emotional intelligence, and authenticity in crisis communication, providing valuable lessons for leaders in all industries.

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2. slack: honesty is the best policy when failures occur.

Effective crisis communication is about managing a message and building trust through honesty and transparency. Slack showed exactly how to do this during a service outage that left many users without access. Let’s take a look at the details behind Slack’s standout crisis management:

Context: In February 2022, Slack, a widely used messaging platform, experienced a significant outage that left many users unable to access its services. The disruption was attributed to a configuration change that unexpectedly increased activity on the company’s database infrastructure, causing instability and downtime.

Analysis: Slack’s swift and transparent response serves as a strong crisis communication case study. The company posted updates on its status page approximately every 30 minutes, detailing its progress toward a solution and openly acknowledging any errors made during the process. Additionally, Slack used Twitter to keep users informed, using a tone that was both apologetic and sincere. This multi-channel approach ensured that users were kept in the loop throughout the five-hour disruption, demonstrating Slack’s commitment to honest and transparent communication. Discussion: By being open about the problem, promptly sharing updates, and acknowledging their missteps, Slack reinforced its reputation as a customer-focused company. Their communication strategy aligned with best practices by being timely, transparent, and empathetic, which are essential elements in maintaining trust and credibility during a crisis. Moreover, Slack’s decision to use multiple platforms—its status page for detailed updates and Twitter for real-time communication—ensured that a wide audience was reached.

Conclusion: As one of the best crisis communication examples, Slack’s handling of the 2022 outage is a compelling case study in crisis communication. Their approach illustrates the importance of transparency, timely updates, and multi-platform engagement in managing public perception and maintaining trust during a crisis. By being forthright about the situation and openly acknowledging their errors, Slack not only managed to preserve user trust but also set a strong example for other brands on how to communicate effectively in the face of adversity.

3. Cracker Barrel: No Response is a Response

When Cracker Barrel unexpectedly found itself at the center of a social media storm over the firing of an employee, many expected the company to respond swiftly. However, Cracker Barrel opted for an unconventional crisis communication approach by letting the internet frenzy unfold without any public comment. This approach demonstrated that sometimes silence can be an effective part of a crisis management plan .

Our next case study explores how the brand’s decision to remain quiet during a viral crisis became a surprising example of how no response can be a powerful crisis communication strategy.

Context: In February 2017, Cracker Barrel faced a crisis when a customer named Bradley Reid publicly questioned why his wife, Nanette, was fired from her retail manager position after 11 years. His post on Cracker Barrel’s corporate website went viral, and the hashtag #JusticeforBradsWife began trending across social media. The situation quickly escalated, with over 17,000 signatures on a Change.org petition, altered Yelp and Google pages, and viral content on YouTube plus other platforms mocking the brand.

Analysis: Despite the growing public outcry and media attention, Cracker Barrel chose to remain silent. The company did not issue a public response, comment on the controversy, or acknowledge the online movement. While some brands and internet users capitalized on the situation for humor or publicity, Cracker Barrel’s silence became a notable aspect of the crisis.

Discussion: Cracker Barrel’s handling of the incident challenges traditional crisis communication techniques. While this strategy defied conventional wisdom, it ultimately had minimal impact on the brand’s core customer base, showcasing that an effective crisis communication plan can sometimes involve choosing not to engage.

Conclusion: The key takeaway for brands is that while silence carries risk, it can also prevent further escalation, especially when the crisis is fueled primarily by online chatter rather than significant operational failures or ethical breaches. 💡 PRO TIP: While certain situations are better left to fizzle out on their own, some require an internal communications response and plan to strengthen customer relationships. Read our article on how internal communication impacts customer engagement to learn more.

Plan like a pro: 2024 Internal Communications Calendar

Your blueprint for meeting kpis., 4. johnson & johnson: immediate corrective action saves the day .

In 1982, Johnson & Johnson found itself at the heart of a public health crisis. Instead of deflecting blame, the company launched an immediate, transparent response that set a new benchmark for crisis management.

This crisis communication case study is now one of the most notable examples of crisis communication. Read on to find out how the company’s approach became a model for corporate crisis response worldwide.

Context: Johnson & Johnson faced a major crisis when seven people in Chicago died after consuming Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. Despite evidence suggesting that the tampering occurred after the product reached store shelves, the company’s handling of the situation became a benchmark for effective crisis communication examples.

Analysis: Johnson & Johnson immediately took decisive action by halting all Tylenol advertising, issuing safety warnings, and sending 450,000 messages to healthcare facilities and stakeholders. The company maintained full transparency and did not attempt to downplay the situation, even expressing regret for not switching to tamper-proof packaging sooner.

Discussion: The company’s response set a standard for crisis management, emphasizing transparency, accountability, and swift action. Johnson & Johnson’s efforts were widely praised by the media and public, helping the Tylenol brand recover and setting a precedent for how companies handle similar situations. Conclusion: This crisis communication case study is considered one of the best examples of effective crisis management in corporate history. By prioritizing consumer safety, transparent communication, and taking immediate corrective action, the company not only reduced the impact of the crisis but also reinforced its reputation for integrity and responsibility.

5. Pepsi: Taking Responsibility Builds Trust

When Pepsi released an ad featuring Kendall Jenner, the company quickly found itself at the center of a public relations firestorm. This crisis communication case study explores how Pepsi managed the crisis with rapid communication and what lessons can be learned from their approach.

Context: In April 2017, Pepsi launched an advertisement featuring Kendall Jenner that quickly led to controversy. The ad portrayed Jenner leaving a modeling shoot to join a protest, ultimately handing a police officer a can of Pepsi to “resolve” tensions. The ad was immediately criticized for trivializing social justice movements and co-opting serious issues to sell a product. The backlash was intense, with widespread condemnation across social media and traditional news outlets, labeling it as tone-deaf and culturally insensitive.

Analysis: Initially, Pepsi defended the campaign by describing it as a message of global unity and harmony. However, within less than 24 hours, the company shifted its stance in response to the overwhelming criticism. Pepsi pulled the ad from all platforms and issued a second statement acknowledging its mistake: “Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace, and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark, and we apologize.” This rapid decision-making showcased Pepsi’s agility in crisis management and its recognition of the public’s sentiment.

Discussion: Pepsi’s response was notable for its speed and directness. By quickly retracting the ad and publicly admitting fault, the company took a proactive stance that demonstrated accountability and empathy. This helped contain the immediate fallout and prevent a prolonged controversy that could have further damaged the brand’s reputation. Despite the initial uproar, Pepsi’s brand weathered the crisis relatively well, thanks largely to its quick acknowledgment of error and efforts to communicate openly with its audience.

Conclusion: Pepsi’s swift apology and the decision to pull the ad were crucial first steps in mitigating negative reactions. By responding quickly and sincerely, Pepsi managed to limit the damage to its reputation. This crisis communication case study demonstrates the importance of prompt, empathetic communication and taking responsibility in a crisis, which can help protect a brand’s image and maintain public trust.

Worst Crisis Communication Examples

1. open ai: surprises aren’t always a good thing.

After OpenAI abruptly fired its CEO, Sam Altman, the news sent shockwaves through the tech world. The decision, announced on a Friday afternoon with little explanation and no immediate plan for leadership succession, quickly escalated into a crisis. Let’s examine the missteps and lessons learned from this controversial episode in tech leadership.

Context: In November 2023, OpenAI faced a PR crisis when news broke that CEO Sam Altman had been abruptly fired. The announcement came on a Friday afternoon, catching the tech world by surprise and leaving major stakeholders, including Microsoft, in the dark.

Analysis: OpenAI’s response to the crisis was poorly managed and an example of bad crisis communications. The company failed to prepare for the backlash, and communication was inconsistent, with no immediate follow-up to address concerns. The decision to release the news on a Friday, without a clear successor or explanation, fueled confusion and criticism.

Discussion: This situation illustrates the pitfalls of inadequate crisis management. OpenAI’s lack of preparedness, inconsistent messaging, and poor timing resulted in a loss of trust among stakeholders and negative media attention. The newly appointed CEO later admitted that the process had not been handled smoothly, further highlighting the missteps.

Conclusion: The key lessons are clear: have a crisis communications plan in place, avoid releasing significant news on a Friday expecting it to pass unnoticed, and ensure consistent, clear communication with all stakeholders. Proper preparation and transparency are essential to maintaining trust and minimizing damage in such situations.

2. Twitter: Confusion and Controversy Aren’t the Way

When Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, his unconventional approach to managing the platform quickly became a crisis.

This social media crisis communication example examines whether Musk’s unorthodox methods were reckless or a calculated risk — and what lessons can be learned from this high-profile rebranding saga.

Context: Since the Twitter acquisition, Musk had introduced a series of controversial changes, including firing employees, banning and unbanning users, charging for verification badges, and rebranding Twitter to “X” in 2023 without prior announcement. Analysis: Musk remained active on the platform, nonchalantly implementing these changes without formal crisis communication strategies. The sudden rebranding unsettled some advertisers and users but eventually normalized as people adapted to the new brand name, “X.”

Discussion: While Musk’s unconventional approach garnered significant media attention, it demonstrated a lack of strategic PR planning. The rebranding could have been managed more effectively to avoid initial confusion and backlash.

Conclusion: Musk’s handling of Twitter’s rebranding offers a critical lesson: purposeful and well-communicated changes are crucial for maintaining brand trust and stability. The controversy underscored the need for structured crisis communication plans, especially during significant transitions.

💡 PRO TIP : If you’re experiencing challenges with organizational alignment, read our article on how to avoid miscommunication in the workplace .

3. Facebook: Slow and Vague Responses Breed Distrust

In the 2010s, Facebook found itself at the center of a massive data privacy scandal. This case study explores how Facebook’s delayed reaction to the scandal turned a breach of trust into one of the most significant PR disasters of the decade.

Context : Facebook faced a major crisis when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, had collected data from up to 87 million users without their consent through a third-party app. This data was then used to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, sparking public outrage and leading to one of the biggest PR crises.

Analysis : Facebook’s response to the scandal was slow and marked by a lack of transparency, making it one of the worst crisis communication examples. It took several days for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to publicly address the issue, explain what had happened, and identify those affected. By the time a formal apology was issued, significant reputational damage had already occurred, and trust in the platform was compromised.

Discussion : This crisis communication case study underscores the importance of a timely and transparent response in crisis management, especially when dealing with sensitive user data. The company’s initial failure to clearly communicate the facts of the situation and outline corrective measures compounded the fallout.

Conclusion : The Cambridge Analytica scandal serves as an example of crisis communication failure, emphasizing the need for prompt action to prevent lasting harm to a brand’s reputation. The key lesson for companies is to quickly explain what went wrong, who was affected, and what steps are being taken to prevent future issues.

Connect teams during crisis

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ContactMonkey can play a prominent role in crisis communication by providing internal communicators and HR leaders with the tools they need to deliver clear, timely, and effective messages. From email templates to emergency SMS text alerts , here’s what you’re offered to enhance crisis communication plans:

Real-time internal email tracking : Helps communicators monitor who opens and clicks links emails, and engages with the content.
Avoids spam filters : Reduces friction through the Outlook and Gmail integration to ensure emails don’t end up in junk mail.
Integrated email templates : Provides ready-to-use templates for crisis communication through the email builder , ensuring consistency and speed when delivering urgent messages.
Segmentation and personalization : Allows targeted communication to specific groups within the organization, reducing confusion and ensuring relevant information reaches the right people.
Analytics and feedback : Collects data on email performance and employee feedback through the analytics and reporting dashboard , enabling better decision-making and response adjustments during a crisis.
Lead with speed : Take advantage of our SMS for internal communications to reach employees quickly and reliably.

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Methodology

What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on May 8, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyze the case, other interesting articles.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

Case study examples
Research question	Case study
What are the ecological effects of wolf reintroduction?	Case study of wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park
How do populist politicians use narratives about history to gain support?	Case studies of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán and US president Donald Trump
How can teachers implement active learning strategies in mixed-level classrooms?	Case study of a local school that promotes active learning
What are the main advantages and disadvantages of wind farms for rural communities?	Case studies of three rural wind farm development projects in different parts of the country
How are viral marketing strategies changing the relationship between companies and consumers?	Case study of the iPhone X marketing campaign
How do experiences of work in the gig economy differ by gender, race and age?	Case studies of Deliveroo and Uber drivers in London

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Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
Open up new directions for future research

TipIf your research is more practical in nature and aims to simultaneously investigate an issue as you solve it, consider conducting action research instead.

Unlike quantitative or experimental research , a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

Example of an outlying case studyIn the 1960s the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania was discovered to have extremely low rates of heart disease compared to the US average. It became an important case study for understanding previously neglected causes of heart disease.

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience or phenomenon.

Example of a representative case studyIn the 1920s, two sociologists used Muncie, Indiana as a case study of a typical American city that supposedly exemplified the changing culture of the US at the time.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews , observations , and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data.

Example of a mixed methods case studyFor a case study of a wind farm development in a rural area, you could collect quantitative data on employment rates and business revenue, collect qualitative data on local people’s perceptions and experiences, and analyze local and national media coverage of the development.

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

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In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis , with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyze its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Normal distribution
Degrees of freedom
Null hypothesis
Discourse analysis
Control groups
Mixed methods research
Non-probability sampling
Quantitative research
Ecological validity

Research bias

Rosenthal effect
Implicit bias
Cognitive bias
Selection bias
Negativity bias
Status quo bias

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40 Case: Business communication ethics

Case authors: Jerred Flynn, James Hills, and Ravneel Prasad

This case/scenario is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.

Activity Guidelines

Suggested course level

Lower level undergraduate course

Activity purpose

Students will complete a case relating to conflict management

Materials required

Activity instructions

Enron was a multibillion-dollar energy company who, through dishonest accounting practices, was able to hide their losses till the point where their next major merger fell through. They did this with shell companies that they would off load their losses to, to make their own financials look pristine. At the point of the failed merger, they filed for bankruptcy as their liabilities were too much for them to stay afloat. This resulted in tens of thousands of people to lose millions, both in pensions and shares of the company they could not sell.

Questions before the case

1) Is it alright to exaggerate anything when submitting official documents? Be it a resume, timesheet, or something else.

2) Back when all of this happened, the incentivization for people who came forward with information (whistleblowers) was almost non-existent. Should there be incentives beyond the social recognition of “doing the right thing” for whistleblowers?

3) If you are a manager, is it ever right to bend the truth so that you and those under you can keep your jobs or tell the truth and possibly lose them?

Revenue Recognition: Why Doing Something Different Isn’t Always Better.

In the case of Enron, they, like most of their competition, had a system of “historical cost” principles they had to follow when they booked their revenue. Basically, they bought the natural gas they sold at a given price, and when they sold it at whatever price they could get for it, they took the costs off and reported that as profit. This was how it worked in any given year to account for fluctuations in the selling price; they had to wait until they sold the gas before they could record revenues.

However, their executives lobbied for, and got, the permission from the SEC to change the way they reported their revenues. Instead of following the “historical cost” model, they switched to a “mark-to-market” model, which allowed them to record the profits on their contracts before the contracts were fulfilled. This led to several concerning outcomes. They were booking hypothetical profits as actual profits before they had sold their natural gas, based on forecasts of what the market would do. But they were booking this profit on contracts that had 20 years to fulfil, in some cases. The first concern is what they would do if they couldn’t continue signing these contracts, and revenues dropped off. The second is what would happen if they wound up having to sell the gas at lower prices than forecasted.

In short, they switched from a system of recognizing revenue after the transaction happened to a system where they recognized revenue at some value which they thought they would get for it at some time in the future. By using this “fair-value” system, it became a system that was almost entirely dependent on manager forecasting, which is almost impossible for managers to accurately calculate and even closer to impossible for anyone else to check (Benston, 2003).

Insider Trading: Making Sure the Boss Gets His…Money, That Is

Alongside the issues Enron was beginning to face from their CEO’s resignation for “personal reasons,” both internal and external sources began to realize that there were issues with the accounting processes at Enron (Healy, 2003). An Enron VP began to raise concerns about the issues with some of the reporting happening, and as such, got both internal and external auditors involved. The external auditors, Arthur Andersen LLP, had their lawyer contact Enron to “remind” them that the official action to take with old documentation was to shred it. All of this eventually led to October 2001.

On October 16, 2001, Enron filed their quarterly earnings statements. When they did this, it came to light that they had incurred their first (recognized) loss in four years. Also included in this figure is the write-down, or loss of income, of more than $1 billion. Finally, one of their subsidiaries which they were using to hide debt was terminated before Enron would be called on to exercise 58 million share options, which caused Enron to have to clear another $1.2 billion dollars from their balance sheet (Thomas, 2002). At this point, the Securities and Exchange Commission began to get involved. However, this isn’t where the insider trading began.

At this point, many of the Enron employees had been compelled to use their company pensions to buy Enron stock. More importantly, many of them had wanted to: the company was doing phenomenally well up to this point, and they saw opportunities for massive returns. However, on October 17, the day after the damning earnings statements, the company announced that their pension plan administrators had changed. This meant, by law, that no trading could happen with Enron’s pension plan assets for 30 days (Healy). So, in the wake of the most terrible earnings statement Enron had released, the employees had their pensions frozen and were unable to do anything about it. The worst aspect of this, however, was that the executives were still free to exercise their stock options and sell the stocks in the open market: this ban on trading only meaningfully affected the rank-and-file employees.

So, not only did Enron’s employees wind up by losing their jobs when Enron filed for bankruptcy in December 2001, they also wound up by losing their entire pension as well (Healy).

There were no good outcomes to the Enron saga; millions of investors lost billions of dollars, the employees wound up unemployed with their life savings wiped out, many of the executives spent years in jail, and two major corporate entities wound up bankrupted. But the conclusions to be learned are quite simple: in the absence of truthful, good faith communication, it doesn’t matter how good you engineer yourself to look. If you lie, cheat, falsify, you will wind up losing everything in the end.

With this information discuss with your group how Enron’s exaggeration of their financials and other unethical dealings led to their bankruptcy. Also discuss the questions posed at the beginning of the case, and if any of your perspectives have changed after reading this case.

Benston, G., Bromwich, M., & Litan, R. E. (2003). Following the money : The Enron failure and the state of corporate disclosure. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Healy, Paul and Krishna Palepu (2003). The Fall of Enron, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 17, No. 2. Retrieved from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kathrynd/JEP.FallofEnron.pdf

Thomas, C. William (2002). The Rise and Fall of Enron, Journal of Accountancy. Retrieved from https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2002/apr/theriseandfallofenron.html

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Tags: business communication case, business communication scenario, business communication ethics, Enron

Case: Business communication ethics Copyright © 2020 by Melissa Ashman; Arley Cruthers; Sarah Duncan; John Grant; Karen Inkster Vance; and Panteli Tritchew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Business Communication Report

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As a template for you assignment

Executive summery

Introduction, recommendations.

This case study report is a result of the call by the Junior, the owner of KJVM AMI FM radio station for a review of his organizations internal communications. The report looks into the factors that led to the dismissal of Mr. Dawson who had been a faithful employee of the organization for a long period of time. The report then gives recommendations on how communications can be enhanced to prevent a repeat of such dismissals.

The conflict that led to the dismissal of Mr. Dawson was as a result of poor business communication skills and techniques that include lack of proper: communication, emotional intelligence, conflict management among other issues such as dishonesty, and poor ethical values.

Following the identified problems that are facing the organization, the report holds the opinion that a transformation be undertaken with regard to: the organizational culture that has existed since the company changed ownership, the management team as well as policies and ethical values that are held by the company, especially with respect to how employees are handled.

Business communication refers to the aspect of relaying information within a business entity or among business structure. A passage of information in communication in a business environment may be intended for promotion of a given good or service, or for administrative purposes of an entity. This paper seeks to give a report on a case study that involves business communications.

The paper will identify technological, legal and ethical issues that are necessary in business communication together with principles of business communication. The paper will then analyze critical issues that caused communication problems in the company subject to the report together with the causes of these issues.

The paper will also look into the people who were responsible for these issues in the subject company’s case study as well as the communications strategies that could have been used by the company to resolve the conflict that faced it.

Bellow is a discussion and review of the problems that led to the frustration and subsequent dismissal of Dawson as an employee with Junior’s company. The actual problem into the issue is based on the inefficiency and the inability of the administration to establish a concrete communication mechanism leading to communication breach between Junior who is the company’s executive and his employees.

Junior’s managers have as a result taken advantage of the situation to drive their personal interest in the company. A clear understanding of essential communication issues together with appropriate changes in the management system of the company will help Junior to establish a better working environment for his employees.

Communication

Communications is a very important tool to the success of management. Some of the significant elements of communication as illustrated by Spence include the ability to identify and pose technical questions and then sit back and wait for responses that are provided. An administrator then analyzes the provided response with the aim of obtaining a very clear understanding of the drive to the given response.

Focussing on an employee to understand their issues thus follows the basis of communication in a business set up (Spence, 2009). The case that is witnessed in the Junior’s company illustrates a poor level of communication as demonstrated by the chief executive who does not take time to communicate with his employees.

He assumes a busy schedule that does not have time for his workers even when such employees have serious problems to be solved by him. Dawson who faces a seemingly harsh and unfair treatment for example tries to reach out to Junior but he does not even want to listen to the employee.

The managers in the company are also much concerned about their personal drive to listen to the employee. The lack of direct communication between Junior and his employees as well as that between the management and the employees is a significant problem in the company (Shafer, 2000, p. 59).

Emotional intelligence

Another key issue which is an element of business communications is emotional intelligence. Some of the features of emotional intelligence include “sensitivity, self disclosure, assertiveness, dynamic listening, criticism, team communication and analyzing relationships” (Knapp and Daly, 2002, p. 343).

A leadership that employs emotions intelligence in dealing with its staff will therefore be more sensitive to the needs of the staff. The consequences that actions against a staff can results in are for example thus considered before actions are undertaken against the employee.

Dynamic listening and assertiveness are also tools that are missing in the institution. In response to dynamic listening, an individual employee is given time to express him or herself concerning issues that may be bringing conflict between the employee and the management.

Serious consideration is then offered to the employee in an understanding manner in which help strategies can be adopted to assist the employee into adjusting to the organization’s system, which is if the problem is with the employee. Assertiveness as a communication tool also enables an individual to stress on a point that is probably being ignored in a communication.

Whether because the other party to the communication does not identify the point or chooses to ignore it. Assertion therefore helps to clear doubts in communication and room should be given to enable for assertion.

A fostered level of interpersonal relations across management levels which can concurrently be achieved through evaluation and analysis of such relations is another tool that the company lacks. A missing link is realized in which the chief executive officer is not informed of the relationships among his employees (Knapp and Daly, 2002, p. 343).

Elements of lack of emotional intelligence is quiet evident with respect to the case study. The characteristic treatment that Dawson is given is a feature of lack of emotional intelligence on the side of both his two immediate supervisors and the company’s chief executive.

As Knapp and Daly (2002) explained, individuals who have a history of social problems in their lives tend to be restrictive and give less regards, or no regard at all to what other people are going through. These individuals tend to be self centred to an extent that they may not like or appreciate successes that are registered by other individuals.

Such are the identified features of the two managers who move in to plot for the removal of Dawson from the organization on the grounds that he is making a lot of money from the organization and at the same time have influence over many of the organization’s other employees.

These two features are the basis of the conflict in the organization and the top manager is not informed because the organization lacks a mechanism of monitoring how its employees relate with each other and what could be causing such relations. Acculturated level of emotional intelligence could have helped Junior to identify and solve the problem before it was late (Knapp and Daly, 2002, p. 343).

Siljander (2008) also argued that emotional intelligence is more like a complementary element to managerial skills. He holds the opinion that in the absence of emotional intelligence, management is not complete and therefore experiences a lot of inefficiencies.

This opinion is evidenced in the case study as the personalization of management by the two supervisors leads to the loss of an employee who had for a long period of time been considered to be productive to the organization. There is also a resultant discomfort among the remaining employees posing a threat to the management (Siljander, 2008, p. 293).

Conflict management

As an organization with many employees, conflicts are bound to arise between individuals. Such conflicts can however be avoided or even resolved if appropriate communication techniques are acculturated in the organization. An initiative at personal level which includes “communicating ideas assertively and respectfully” is for example one of the ways of solving conflicts (Beck et al ., 2009, p. 367).

If a conflict can not be solved at a given level of the administration then it should be referred to the next administration level. The inability to identify, appreciate and resolve the conflict between Dawson and the two managers therefore contributed to the problems that arose in the organization (Beck et al ., 2009, p. 367).

Communications

The company lacks key elements of basic communication techniques that even hinder a direct communication between an employee and the management. There is also a broken link between employees and the top management of the company.

A level of lack of emotional intelligence is noted in the company’s two supervisors who discriminatingly and at a personal level frustrate an employee with less regards to ethical values and possible impacts to either the employee or the company.

Conflict resolution which is achievable through communication is rendered impossible by the poor communication level that has been developed between the employees and the management.

Case Studies: Successful Teams Built on Strong Communication

Effective communication is the cornerstone of any successful team. Whether it’s a sports team, a corporate department, or a non-profit organization, the ability to convey ideas, collaborate, and resolve conflicts is crucial for achieving shared goals. In this blog post, we will dive into real-world case studies to explore how strong communication played a pivotal role in the success of various teams with these team communication success stories.

Explore team communication success stories from Apollo 13, Pixar, and the Chicago Bulls. Discover how strong communication led to remarkable achievements.

Case Study 1: The Apollo 13 Mission

In 1970, the Apollo 13 mission to the moon faced a life-threatening crisis when an oxygen tank exploded . NASA’s ground control and the astronauts onboard had to collaborate flawlessly to bring the crew safely back to Earth. Communication was the key to their survival.

Clear and Calm Communication : Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert communicated calmly and precisely with mission control, relaying vital information about their situation.
Problem Solving Through Dialogue: The teams on Earth and in space worked together to devise ingenious solutions to the spacecraft’s problems, all thanks to open and effective communication.

The result? Against all odds, Apollo 13 safely returned to Earth, showcasing the power of clear communication under pressure.

Case Study 2: Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar Animation Studios is renowned for producing some of the most beloved animated films of our time. Behind every successful Pixar movie is a team of creative minds who prioritize communication.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Teams at Pixar consist of artists, storytellers, and technical experts. Regular meetings and open dialogues ensure that everyone’s ideas are heard and integrated into the final product.
Feedback Culture: Pixar fosters a culture of giving and receiving feedback constructively. This communication style leads to continuous improvement and groundbreaking animation.

Pixar’s commitment to communication has resulted in numerous Academy Awards and timeless classics like “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo.”

Case Study 3: The Chicago Bulls of the 1990s

The Chicago Bulls dominated the NBA in the 1990s, largely due to the exceptional communication and teamwork led by Michael Jordan and coach Phil Jackson.

Trust and Cohesion: Jordan and his teammates trusted each other implicitly. This trust was built through open communication, both on and off the court.
Effective Leadership: Coach Phil Jackson emphasized a collaborative team-first approach, fostering unity and communication among players.

The result? Six NBA championships in eight years, solidifying the Bulls’ place in sports history.

Conclusion – Team Communication Success Stories

These case studies highlight the undeniable connection between strong communication and team success. Whether it’s navigating a space crisis, creating blockbuster animations, or dominating the basketball court, effective communication is the driving force behind achieving remarkable feats as a team.

To achieve similar success in your own endeavors, remember the lessons from these case studies: communicate clearly, collaborate openly, and trust your team members . By doing so, you’ll be well on your way to building a team that can overcome any challenge and achieve greatness.

Communication isn’t just a skill; it’s a superpower that can turn ordinary teams into extraordinary ones.

Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for more insights on effective communication and teamwork!

COMMUNICATION BARRIERS AT THE WORKPLACE: A CASE STUDY

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What Is White Label Analytics? Benefits, Case Study & More

Learn how white label analytics enables businesses to quickly deliver branded, customizable analytics solutions to clients without the need for in-house development.

Noah Pearson

Introduction to white label analytics.

White label analytics refers to the practice of rebranding and reselling analytics software or services under a company's own brand.

It allows businesses to offer analytics solutions, such as a client portal, to their customers without having to develop the underlying technology themselves.

In a white label arrangement, a software or service provider creates and maintains the analytics platform, while the reseller company brands and distributes it as their own product or service.

White Label Analytics Definition : White label analytics is a business model where a company licenses or purchases analytics software or services from a third-party provider and rebrands it as their own offering, allowing them to provide or sell it to their customers under their own brand.

Why Would You White Label Your Analytics?

There are several scenarios in which implementing a white label analytics system makes sense. Below are just four examples, but there are many more situations that call for a white label analytics platform!

Scenario #1 : Inneficency in Distributing Data to Clients

Even when using powerful BI platforms like Tableau , Power BI , ThoughtSpot , etc., the process of distributing data insights to clients can become inefficient and time-consuming if you're relying on manual reporting, emails, or static dashboards.

These traditional methods often require analysts to create individual reports, export data, and send updates via email, which introduces delays and adds extra work for your internal teams.

Moreover, clients receive data that can quickly become outdated, forcing them to request updated versions or wait for the next report cycle.

This inefficiency leads to a sub-optimal customer experience, as clients must depend on your team for each new report or data refresh. This creates a bottleneck, slowing down decision-making and reducing the perceived value of your analytics offering.

Scenario #2 : Looking for Data Monetization Opportunities

Implementing a white-label analytics platform can open up new revenue streams through data monetization . Companies can package and sell data insights as a premium service, offering clients access to advanced analytics, real-time reporting, and in-depth business intelligence.

This creates an opportunity to charge for enhanced features such as customizable dashboards, predictive analytics, or additional data integrations.

For many companies, data is a valuable intellectual property ( IP ) asset. This makes it worth investing in, as companies can either sell or license access to this data to end users.

By treating data as an IP asset, businesses can further capitalize on its value, turning it into a key revenue driver and helping to diversify their revenue model.

Scenario #3 : Need to Scale Client Data Services

As a company grows, so does the complexity of managing data for an expanding client base. Initially, manual reporting or building custom dashboards for each client might be manageable.

However, as the number of clients increases, maintaining this approach becomes impractical. Manually creating, updating, and distributing reports for every client is time-consuming, resource-intensive, and prone to errors.

Additionally, the more clients you serve, the greater the risk of inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and delays in delivering accurate data insights . Scaling this manual approach not only strains internal resources but also hampers your ability to provide timely, personalized data services that clients now expect.

Scenario #4 : Limited Resources for Building In-House Solution

Many companies, especially those focused on non-technical industries, may not have the necessary development expertise or technical teams to build a fully custom analytics platform.

Developing a bespoke solution requires hiring or contracting skilled developers, data engineers, and architects, which not only incurs high upfront costs but also ongoing maintenance and support expenses.

For businesses without these in-house capabilities, the development process can be slow, error-prone, and resource-intensive.

How Does White Label Analytics Work?

In a typical white label analytics arrangement, the process works as follows:

A company identifies a need for analytics solutions within their customer base.
The company partners with an analytics software or service provider (the white label vendor) that offers a robust and customizable analytics platform.
The company customizes the branding, user interface (UI), and potentially some functionality of the analytics platform to align with their brand and customer requirements.
The vendor helps set up access controls and other security measures, such as single sign-on (SSO).
The company provides the analytics solution to their customers bundled with their products or services, sometimes offered as an add-on for additional monetization.
The vendor typically handles the backend infrastructure, maintenance, and updates, while the company focuses on their core competencies.

What Aspects of Analytics Tools Can Be White Labeled?

White-label analytics tools offer extensive customization options that extend far beyond just surface-level branding.

These tools empower you to fully integrate the analytics platform into your application, ensuring every element aligns with your brand identity. Here are the key components that can be white labeled within an analytics tool:

User Interface (UI)

One of the most visible aspects of white labeling is the user interface. You can customize the look and feel of the embedded analytics tool to match your brand, including logos, color schemes, fonts, and other visual elements.

This ensures that users engage with analytics in an environment that feels like a natural extension of your application, leading to increased brand loyalty .

No-Code Dashboard Development

White label analytics tools often come with no-code or low-code customization options, allowing you to build, modify, and integrate analytics features into dashboards without requiring deep technical expertise .

This enables quicker implementation, faster updates, and the ability to tailor analytics functions directly within your application, all while maintaining brand consistency.

Data Distribution and Alerts

These tools also allow you to customize how data is shared and delivered to users, including setting up personalized alerts and notifications.

You can tailor the distribution of reports, dashboards, and real-time insights through various channels such as in-app notifications, email, SMS, etc., ensuring that users receive timely and relevant information in a way that aligns with the brand’s communication style.

Benefits of White Label Analytics

White label analytics provide lots of benefits for businesses including:

Accelerated time-to-market
Seamless customer experiences
Company differentiation
Increased analytics adoption

Below, we go into detail on each of these benefits.

Accelerated Time-to-Market

White labeling analytics solutions can significantly accelerate the time-to-market for companies looking to offer advanced analytics capabilities to their customers.

By partnering with a white label analytics provider, businesses can bypass the lengthy and resource-intensive process of developing their own analytics platform from scratch.

Instead of dedicating valuable time and resources to building, maintaining, and continuously updating a complex analytics infrastructure , companies can leverage a pre-built, scalable solution.

Not to mention, white-label analytics providers typically handle the ongoing maintenance and update of the platform, freeing up internal resources for companies to focus on their business objectives.

This accelerated time-to-market can translate into a significant competitive advantage, allowing businesses to capitalize on emerging market opportunities and gain a first-mover advantage.

Seamless Customer Experience

White labeling analytics allows you to provide a seamless, unified experience for your customers under your company's brand.

By embedding analytics directly into your product or platform, you eliminate the need for customers to navigate to a separate third-party analytics tool. This streamlined experience enhances user satisfaction and reduces friction.

With a white-labeled analytics solution, all touchpoints remain consistent with your brand's look, feel, and voice. Customers interact with a familiar interface that seamlessly blends into their existing workflow.

This cohesive experience reinforces brand loyalty, as customers don't feel like they're leaving your ecosystem.

By providing a unified, branded analytics experience , customers perceive your offering as a comprehensive, integrated solution, rather than a patchwork of disparate tools.

Company Differentiation

In today's highly competitive business landscape, standing out from the crowd is crucial for success. By offering proprietary analytics through white labeling, companies can differentiate themselves from their competitors and gain a significant advantage.

While competitors may be relying on spreadsheets and email to distribute the analytics, companies with a white label analytics platform can create a customized and seamless analytics experience.

This more modern approach reflects more favorably on your business when compared to your competitor's.

Increased Analytics Adoption

White labeling analytics solutions can significantly increase adoption rates among end-users. By presenting a familiar brand identity, users are more likely to embrace and actively engage with the analytics platform.

Seamless integration with existing systems and processes further enhances user adoption. When analytics tools seamlessly blend into the user's workflow, the barriers to entry are minimized, encouraging consistent usage and data-driven decision-making.

Moreover, white labeling allows organizations to tailor the analytics experience to their specific needs and preferences.

By removing the perception of a third-party solution and presenting a cohesive branded experience, white label analytics empowers organizations to drive widespread adoption, enabling data-driven insights to permeate throughout the organization.

Why Not Build a Solution In-House?

When deciding between buying a white-label analytics platform and building a custom solution, the choice often comes down to time, cost, and focus.

Building a platform from scratch requires significant development resources, time, and ongoing maintenance, which can divert attention away from your core business functions.

In contrast, a white-label solution offers a faster, cost-effective deployment, allowing you to meet client needs quickly without the burden of managing infrastructure.

White-label platforms also offer built-in scalability and continuous updates, ensuring your solution remains future-proof without constant development.

Read more about the pros and cons of building vs. buying a client portal in this article:

White Label Reporting Case Study: 4Atmos Technologies

4Atmos Technologies, based in Waxahachie, Texas, specializes in helping organizations rapidly deploy solutions and best practices that optimize efficiency and reduce missed opportunities.

With a team of expert consultants, 4Atmos empowers its clients by providing tailored strategies and insights for operational improvement.

4Atmos initially relied on email to deliver reports to clients, but quickly recognized a key issue: clients were not consistently engaging with these reports. The company needed a more dynamic and efficient way to deliver live analytics and improve client interaction.

Although 4Atmos adopted Tableau to create visualizations and dashboards, they faced limitations with three-dimensional modeling and lacked an automated process for pulling and prepping client data.

To address these challenges, 4Atmos turned to a white label analytics solution: Zuar Portal . By implementing this solution, 4Atmos was able to automate their data preparation process and built a custom web portal that provides live dashboards with instant access for their clients.

The portal allowed 4Atmos to offer a highly personalized user experience, complete with interactive, three-dimensional reports, significantly enhancing client engagement.

Since adopting Zuar's white label analytics solution, 4Atmos has achieved remarkable results. By utilizing the platform's tools and services, 4Atmos has been able to identify and prevent over 2,000 mechanical failures for its customers, reducing downtime and avoiding potentially damaging PR.

White Label Analytics With Zuar Portal

Zuar Portal is a powerful white label analytics platform that allows businesses to deliver advanced analytics capabilities under their own brand.

With this solution, you can provide your customers with a seamless and branded analytics experience, without the need for costly in-house development or maintenance.

Zuar's white label analytics portal is designed to be highly customizable, allowing you to tailor the branding, user interface, and functionality to match your company's unique identity and requirements - with no coding required.

From the color scheme and logos to the navigation menus and dashboard layouts, you have complete control over the look and feel of the analytics experience.

Whether you need to support a few hundred users or tens of thousands, the platform can handle the load with ease, providing reliable and high-performance analytics capabilities.

Getting Started

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September 16, 2024

Developing African-Focused Case Studies for Impact in Teaching and Learning

Why Case Studies on African Businesses?

Since the publication of the first formal standalone case study, “General Shoe Company” by Clinton P. Biddle, by the Bureau of Business Research under Harvard Business School in 1921, over 100,000 case studies have since been developed. These cases have been utilized in training, mainly at the executive education level and in academic programs in leading institutions of higher learning globally. This is not to suggest that there were no case studies before 1921; faculty most likely used real-industry examples to reinforce content based on their lived experiences. However, these instances may not have been formally documented. Further, most case studies have historically focused on organisations in more established economies.

Over time, there has been a growing demand for case studies for use in teaching and learning in higher educational institutions in Africa and other developing economies. Rather than sitting back and watching, I decided to act. With the aid of a small but dedicated team at Strathmore University Business School (SBS), we established the Strathmore Africa Case Centre (SACC). You can explore the platform and its content at https://sacc.strathmore.edu/ to get a feel of some of the case studies we have documented so far.

What is a Case Study?

A case study for teaching and learning in higher education is defined as “a story and a teaching vehicle which presents participants with a critical management, leadership, or related issue, involving a dilemma of some urgency for analysis” ( https://sacc.strathmore.edu/author_guidelines ). It engages participants in a practical, applied, and lively classroom debate as they analyse and discuss the case. A typical case ranges from 3 to 15 pages, with enough content to keep participants actively engaged for over 90 minutes. Case studies can range from “armchair” (desktop research) to field studies, or multimedia cases that combine print, audio, video, animation, and other interactive elements.

Effective Use of Case Studies in Teaching and Learning

In the advent of competency-based education, case studies, when applied effectively, provide a robust learning experience. They reflect real-life situations involving real people making real decisions in diverse contexts. Case studies reveal the dynamics of how individuals think through issues, analyse problems, and make decisions. This diversity is highlighted when a case study clearly identifies actors, the dilemma to be addressed and provides sufficient content to facilitate informed decision-making by participants.

To achieve this, the case writer must develop the study clearly, avoiding bias or “sugar-coating”. The case should be captivating, much like the stories we were told in the old days (and I believe these stories are still being told!). The facilitator must also prepare thoroughly to ensure the intended learning outcomes are well articulated and achieved. This preparation typically requires at least three times the effort needed for delivery, demanding adequate and ample time dedication for better results.

The target participants also play a crucial role. The case must be presented to an appropriate audience, eager to learn from the material. Participants should come prepared, having read and engaged with the case in advance, to contribute to meaningful discussions.

Delivering a case study discussion can involve various techniques, including simulations, role-plays, and other methods that make the experience an exciting adventure. By the end, both participants and the facilitator should feel that the discussions and decisions made during the session were worth their time and effort.

Tapping onto Africa’s organizations to develop African stories

As an academic in Africa, I first encountered formal case studies during my undergraduate studies at Strathmore University in 2006. In my third-year strategy class, I vividly remember a case study on Kenya Data Networks (which later became Liquid Telecom Ltd. after a 2013 sale of 80% stake to Altech Ltd). As a student, I initially struggled to appreciate the structured, in-depth case study compared to the shorter paragraph-long mini-cases I was accustomed to. Navigating through detailed exhibits such as organograms, financials, and other content was a daunting task for a third-year student eager to graduate! Nevertheless, and with great thanks to Dr. Ruth Kiraka (now Professor Ruth Kiraka), I was introduced to the world of real-life case studies documenting real organizations and their decision-makers.

Fast forward 18 years, and I now lead an initiative to document African case studies. Why now? For years, SBS has offered executive programs largely facilitated using case studies purchased from learning global business schools such as INSEAD, IESE, Harvard, Ivey, Stanford among others. While some of these cases focus on African organizations, they are often written by faculty from these schools and may omit certain important contextual nuances. This inspired the creation of the Strathmore Africa Case Centre, with the aim of developing African case studies written by Africans for use in teaching and learning in Africa and beyond.

Africa offers a wealth of experiences that need to be documented. In one of my conversations with a top professor from one of the leading global business schools, he remarked on the level of “resilience” required of an entrepreneur to navigate business environments in Africa, such as managing operations across countries for instance Kenya, then Malawi, onto the Democratic Republic of Congo, and then Nigeria. These experiences are vastly different from those by entrepreneurs in established economies in Europe or the Americas. I wholeheartedly agree. African entrepreneurs’ shared experiences navigating geopolitical challenges while building successful ventures deserve to be documented.

Why African Academics Should Engage More in Developing Case Studies

Developing relatable, high-quality case studies for African universities is crucial for several reasons. First, it allows faculty to connect with industry without the need to work directly in the respective organisations. Within a span of two to four months during the case writing phase, one gets to learn a lot about the target organisation. As a case writer, one gains valuable insights into corporate decision-making and way of life, especially in environments characterized by uncertainty, volatility, and complexity. Through the case writing experience, faculty at all levels can develop a broader perspective and hone their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Moreover, writing case studies can position faculty members for roles in the industry such as advisory or statutory board members. These engagements are useful in building one’s professional profile, attracting consultancy opportunities and even research funding. Case studies not only enrich classroom environments but also serve as a bridge to corporate players who might otherwise be inaccessible. Personally, I had the opportunity to train in SBS’s Global CEO program alongside Dr. James Mwangi, Group CEO and Managing Director of Equity Group Holdings Plc, thanks to a case study we documented on Equity Bank’s expansion into the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is just one of many examples of faculty benefiting from writing case studies. I could provide more such examples of other faculty from other institutions of higher learning.

Conclusion and way forward

With the advent of competency-based learning in Kenya and the growing need to instil practical skills in Africa’s labour force, it is essential to recognize the role of applied case studies in education. African academics should be incentivized and recognized for developing structured case studies as part of their career progression. Africa is a continent of approximately 1.5 billion people with an average age of 19, brimming with potential and entrepreneurial energy. Tapping into this potential requires properly documented, unbiased narratives that accurately reflect the realities of African businesses. Those who craft these stories should be celebrated and supported for their contributions.

By: David Mathuva, Senior Faculty, Editor-in-Chief, Strathmore Africa Case Centre, and Associate Dean, Strathmore University Business School, Nairobi, Kenya

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An Analysis of the Increasing Trend of Digital Transformation of Business in India: Case Study Approach

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Veenus Gehlot 13 ,
Poonam Rajharia 14 &
Madhu Bala Kaushik 13

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 1037))

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International Conference On Emerging Trends In Expert Applications & Security

Digital transformation is the new normal in the field of business in the present times. In India, the number of internet users is growing exponentially and with respect to that the number of businesses going digital and online is also increasing. The aim of the research is to identify the increasing trend of digital transformations of businesses in India be it SMEs or big companies. An in-depth literature review was presented and the concept of digitisation, the technologies used in the business, and its advantages have been discussed in detail. The research is based on interpretivism philosophy, inductive approach, and qualitative case study method of analysis. It is observed that many small and big companies are using the mentioned digital technologies in the research and are transforming from the traditional form of business to the new form of digital business. The system is installed either in the procurement of raw materials, production, and service process, or the after-sale service.

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Gehlot, V., Rajharia, P., Kaushik, M.B. (2024). An Analysis of the Increasing Trend of Digital Transformation of Business in India: Case Study Approach. In: Rathore, V.S., Piuri, V., Babo, R., Tiwari, V. (eds) Emerging Trends in Expert Applications and Security. ICE-TEAS 2024. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 1037. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-3991-2_20

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