"Unintended Consequences of Algorithmic Personalization" (HBS No. 524-052) investigates algorithmic bias in marketing through four case studies featuring Apple, Uber, Facebook, and Amazon. Each study presents scenarios where these companies faced public criticism for algorithmic biases in marketing interventions, encompassing promotion, product, price, and distribution. The case is designed to enhance students' understanding of algorithmic bias in personalized marketing. It encourages discussions on its causes and strategies for detection and mitigation. A key learning is that such bias is often unintentional and can occur without data errors or underrepresentation in the sample. A central theme is the trade-off between optimization and fairness in algorithmic decision-making. Overall, these case studies provide comprehensive discussions on the causes, implications, and solutions to algorithmic bias in personalized marketing, complemented by the technical note "Algorithm Bias in Marketing" (HBS No. 521-020) that accompanies the case.

Since its founding in 2019 by Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede, Skims, a solutions-oriented brand creating the next generation of underwear, loungewear, and shapewear with an eye toward body-type and skin-tone inclusivity, has experienced a meteoric rise. Kardashian, who was a well-known media personality, socialite, influencer, and businesswoman, served as the brand's creative director and aesthetic muse and brought her cultural impact and followers into the brand. CEO Grede and COO Emma Grede had experience managing celebrity brand relationships and founding other celebrity brands. In July 2023, the company was valued at $4 billion, an incredible achievement for a direct-to-consumer products company. Skims seemed to be bucking the trend that was dragging down other DTC brands, which for the first time in a decade were having trouble raising new venture money, raising money in down rounds that diminished the valuations of their companies, or seeing sharp stock price declines post-IPO. Instead of looking to other DTCs for inspiration, Skims' founders were inspired by brands such as Nike, Apple, and lululemon, hoping to propel Skims to iconic brand status. With the recent $4 billion valuation, Skims' investors would pressure the management team to drive exponential topline growth while managing profitability. Could Skims continue to accelerate its growth trajectory or would it fall prey to the same forces slowing down the growth and profitability of other DTC brands?

In 2022, the Crocs Classic Clog was the best-selling item of clothing on Amazon, the brand was one of the fastest growing brands in the U.S., and global net revenue had increased to approximately $3.6 billion. By most accounts, Crocs had become the "it" shoe. Crocs shoes were spotted on high-fashion runways, collaborating with luxury brands and designers including Balenciaga, Christopher Kane, and Christian Cowan, and on the feet of massively popular celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Post Malone, Bad Bunny, and Luke Combs. Crocs was also considered a top preferred footwear brand among U.S. teens in 2023. Few could have predicted Crocs' meteoric success given the state of the brand just ten years earlier. Indeed, in the late 2000's and early 2010's, Crocs shoes were often mercilessly mocked for their hideous appearance, and the organization had nearly gone bankrupt. So how did Crocs clogs go from internet meme fodder to sought-after cultural sensation? Could the Crocs brand maintain its popularity and grow more globally, or was the brand destined to fall out of favor once the tides of fashion changed again? How should Crocs evolve its product portfolio and marketing strategy to ensure a stable and permanent place in consumers' wardrobes?

DayTwo is a young Israeli startup that applies research on the gut microbiome and machine learning algorithms to deliver personalized nutritional recommendations to its users in order to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals. After a first year of trial rollout in Israel, CEO Lihi Segal and her team are devising a global go-to-market plan for the firm. The team is considering several target markets, ranging from people with diabetes to professional athletes, and distribution strategies including selling direct to consumers or through partnerships with healthcare professionals or insurance companies. Their choices are important because they will affect DayTwo's costs, pricing, positioning, distribution channels, marketing efforts, and product development.

In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use "co-experience platform", allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work, play, learn, and purchase virtual and real goods. Brands saw Roblox as a major metaverse testing ground and experimented by offering a variety of branded items and experiences. In 2022, Roblox was grappling with how to maintain revenue growth and generate profits, considering two key decisions. First, how should Roblox expand its partnerships with brands, and should Roblox allow brands to offer immersive advertising within experiences? Roblox would have to tread carefully to not raise the ire of watchdog groups who were wary of advertising targeted at children. Second, should Roblox change its economic model which was free to publish, and adopt a "scarcity economy" whereby Roblox would allow creators to only publish items in limited quantities and charge an upfront fee for item creation, similar to a manufacturing fee? On one hand, scarcity could prevent excess supply from driving down prices, but culturally Roblox users and developers were accustomed to unlimited supply, low prices, and virtually no upfront fees.

Founded in 2018 by Jake Bullock and Luke Anderson, Cann sold "social tonics," or cannabis-infused beverages. By 2022, the company had several notable celebrity investors and talent partners, had sold over 10 million beverages to consumers, was distributing in six states and two Canadian provinces, and had closed on a $27 million Series A funding round. Moreover, Anderson and Bullock had their eyes set on expanding into New York and New Jersey, both of which legalized recreational sale and use of cannabis in 2021 and appeared to be a promising new market for Cann. However, Cann faced significant challenges to growing the business. First, cannabis was illegal at the federal level in the U.S., and the laws varied across states regarding the manufacturing, packaging, sale, distribution, and use of recreational cannabis. Second, distribution of recreational cannabis was still limited primarily to licensed dispensaries. There were also severe limitations on advertising cannabis, even in states where consumption was legal, and individual media properties and platforms commonly rejected or prohibited advertisements for cannabis products. Finally, Anderson and Bullock were trying to create an entirely new category for cannabis consumption and position themselves as an alternative to alcohol. Could they convince mainstream consumers to integrate cannabis drinks into their social imbibing? How should they allocate their marketing spend to give themselves the best chance of success? Which markets should they focus on serving and how should they position the product?

This note explores the emerging multi-billion dollars commerce trend of livestream commerce. Livestream commerce is the sale of goods or services directly to consumers via live shows on digital platforms (such as social media or e-commerce platforms). It is a form of social commerce in which consumers engage with real-time videos to complete transactions. Livestream commerce was especially popular in China, where gross merchandise value through this channel reached $316 billion USD. In the rest of the world, livestream commerce had mixed success, and has not gained traction in Europe and North America. The note explores the 3 top livestream commerce in China - Taobao Live, Douyin, and Kuaishou, to learn about the phenomenon and explore the success of livestream commerce in the future. In particular, the note allows for discussion of the following questions: How should a platform develop a sustainable business model in livestream commerce? What would it take for any of these platforms to come out on top of the competition? Are social media or e-commerce platforms better positioned to win in this market? Was the boom in China's livestream commerce replicable in other countries? Why hasn't livestream commerce gained traction in Europe and North America? Was it just a matter of time, or are there inherent factors that impede on the success of this shopping format?

This exercise can be used in conjunction with the main case "Zalora: Data-Driven Pricing" to facilitate class discussion without requiring data analysis from the students. Instead, the exercise presesnts reports that were created by the data science team to answer the pricing question presented in the case. The students analyze those reports to facilitate learnings about data genertaing process, descriptive analysis, statistical analysis, and other aspects important for data driven decision making.

In 2022, retail media was one of the fastest growing segments in digital advertising. A retail media network (RMN) allows a retailer to use its assets for advertising. Retailers set up an advertising business by allowing marketers to buy advertising space across their different channels, such as their website or mobile application as well as physical stores or other properties the retailer owns or partners with. The value proposition retailers offer advertisers is to potentially generate more effective advertising and to drive sales, by leveraging their exclusive data that includes customer behavior and transactions (both online and offline), allowing advertisers to close the loop from ad exposure to purchase across channels. This note provides an overview of retail media networks in 2022. First, it describes the role played by each key player-retailers, brands, and consumers-as well as the main drivers behind the dramatic growth of RMN in the last few years. Then, it describes the main challenges for retailers who aim to seize the RMN opportunity. Third, it positions the RMNs within the broader context of digital advertising, identifying key challenges and open questions in this industry.

Athletic Brewing Company ("Athletic," for short) was founded by Bill Shufelt and John Walker in 2017. In creating Athletic, Shufelt and Walker opened the first U.S. brewery and taproom fully devoted to the production of non-alcoholic (NA) craft beer. By 2021, Athletic was generating around $15 million in annual revenue, and struggling to keep up with consumer demand. Athletic's success was notable in light of long-standing stigmas associated with drinking non-alcoholic beer, particularly in U.S. markets. For example, there was a historical societal stigma surrounding non-alcoholic beer as a result of assumptions that people who chose not to drink alcohol are abstaining because of a problematic relationship with alcohol. Athletic overcame this barrier, and found early success, by specifically addressing the needs of athletes who wanted to enjoy a great beer and be included in the social ritual of drinking without compromising their athletic performance. However, Athletic's success was also part of a larger cultural shift and increased receptivity to non-alcoholic beer in the U.S., which subsequently attracted stiff competition from both small and large brewers who created their own non-alcoholic offerings. Can Athletic continue its upward trajectory or will it be squeezed out by competitors? Will the bubbling embrace of non-alcoholic beer in the U.S. become mainstream or will it prove to be a passing fad?

This case supplements the "PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion" case, and provides major highlights on what happened at the company since the first case.

Spreadsheet supplement to case 522046.

PittaRosso, a traditional Italian shoe retailer, is implementing an AI system to provide pricing and promotion recommendations. The system allows them to implement changes that would affect both the top of funnel and bottom of funnel activities for the company: once the objective function was defined, they could plan the season and choose which products to markdown and by how much, which additional promotions to apply and when, and how much to spend on online marketing. But what was the right objective function? Should they focus on revenues, margins, or the sell through of older inventory? Each department had different views. The case supplement spreadsheet contains a simplified version of the AI system to allow students to examine the effect of different strategic and tactical decisions and make data informed choices and arguments, in addition to the information provided in the case.

By June 2021, Yummy had become Venezuela's first and largest food delivery app and last-mile logistics company. In Caracas, the nation's capital, Yummy held a 55% market share, while operations in other cities had already started to take place, including in three of the country's most populous ones. But this did not come without challenges - it had been a hectic year since the operations were launched in April 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out - with the direst one being the difficult task of raising money to start and grow a business in Venezuela, a country that ranked among the worst globally for doing business. However, the startup has just gained admission to an American seed money startup accelerator, allowing Yummy to attract institutional investors and to explore potential growth avenues. With a board meeting approaching, the company's CEO, Vicente Zavarce, reflected with co-founders on the possibilities that lay ahead. Should Yummy keep expanding geographically to other cities in Venezuela or even branch out into other countries, either in Latin America or worldwide? Should the company instead grow by expanding to new verticals, leveraging its customer base by offering additional services such as ride-sharing or financial services? And what would be the right sequence for these activities if Yummy's new vision was to become a super app?

By 2021, the mindfulness app wars reached their apex. Over 2,000 meditation apps were available to consumers, but two apps, Headspace and Calm, dominated the space, jointly holding about 70% of the total market. Headspace had established itself as the approachable educator for novice meditators. Headspace also invested heavily in athletics partnerships, business-to-business services, and in creating Headspace Health, which they hoped would gain FDA approval and become the first prescription meditation app. Meanwhile, Calm had earned a reputation as the soothing sleep app. Calm was also known for its numerous partnerships with A-list celebrities such as Matthew McConaughey, Harry Styles, and Idris Elba. Indeed, Calm was focused on becoming the leader in "calmtainment" and making a home for itself in Hollywood. What does the future hold for the rivalry between Calm and Headspace? Will both brands continue to co-dominate the mindfulness and meditation space or will one ultimately prevail? What should the brands do to maintain their co-dominance or edge out the other and claim the number one spot?

AptDeco, a used furniture marketplace, was growing rapidly in the tri-state area. The co-founders were confident that the business model, financial position, and unit economics positioned AptDeco for scaling in the massive $120 billion furniture market, despite its complexity and high costs. The co-founders were looking at different options to scale: working to convert sellers into buyers and vice versa, finding superusers that would fuel the supply for their platform, expand to new markets, rebrand with a sustainability focus. What is the best way for them to scale?

This notes provides information about the eGrocery industry and how traditional CPG companies handle this channel and potential data. It is recommended to use together with a series of exercises entitled: "E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms (A), (B), and (C)."

THE YES, a multi-brand shopping app launched in May 2020 offered a new type of buying experience for women's fashion, driven by a sophisticated algorithm that used data science and machine learning to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on her style preferences, size, and budget. When a woman downloaded THE YES app, she embarked upon an interactive shopping journey that leveraged a fun, easy, gamified user experience (UX) reminiscent of dating apps to collect a stream of data from her that could be used to dynamically curate an ever-changing product assortment just for her. The founders had to decide whether to continue developing the UX and the algorithm to deliver on the company's customer value proposition, or to focus on new customer acquisition via paid media, with the idea that more users on the app improve the algorithm's performance. Several ideas for further monetizing the platform were on the table, including the development of social shopping features to make the shopping experience more viral, the design of an influencer program to bring fashion influencer voices onto the platform, and the construction of a customer loyalty program. Should THE YES invest in improving the algorithm, enhancing the UX with new functionality, or on customer acquisition?

This case introduces a new Amazon program that has consumers upload their receipts from transactions outside of Amazon, in exchange for money. Through the discussion, the case aims to explore issues in customers' privacy in the digital age, the value of customers' own data, and the change in regulations aimed to protect consumers that move companies from using third party data to first party data. In addition, the case offers an opportunity to discuss the power dynamics of online giants such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook.