In December 2022, amid mounting pressure to cut costs, Google announced it would consolidate the operations of its four navigation-related brands under the leadership of Chris Phillips, vice president and general manager of the Geo services division. The restructuring plan meant that the 500-member team of Waze, a navigation app that had operated independently since its acquisition in 2013, would now be tied to Google's core mapping products--Google Maps, Google Street View, and Google Earth. Students will take the role of Aaliyah Williams, a fictional marketing consultancy CEO, and make recommendations to Phillips on crafting a portfolio strategy that optimizes Google's market share and growth. In analyzing this case, students will learn how to leverage brand architecture and brand management tools to ensure a strong portfolio with clear positionings that minimize brand overlap and cannibalization.

In the summer of 2022, the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Lyric), a major opera company, is facing a deepening challenge. Lyric has seen ticket sales decrease, declining from 54% of revenue in 1998 to 33% by 2018. Since 2010, the primary source of this decline has been a loss in subscribers--high-value patrons who attend several operas per year. This subscriber lack is concerning not just for the lost ticket sales but also because subscribers are far more likely than single-ticket buyers to make gifts (a stream that now constitutes 51% of Lyric's revenue). As it plans to counter this downward trend, Lyric's marketing team has two questions to answer: First, the team must decide which audiences to focus on to fill its empty seats--past subscribers, "opera-primed" lookalikes of past subscribers, more diverse audiences closer to Chicago's urban core, or millennials; then, once the team chooses a target audience, it must determine how Lyric should address that audience with its product, customer experience, and opera programming choices.

Chris-Tia Donaldson was the CEO and founder of Thank God It's Natural (tgin), a specialty hair care line for women with naturally curly, kinky, or wavy hair types. By early 2019, Donaldson had built tgin into a national brand in the United States, with its products widely available at large retailers such as Walmart and Target, as well as in specialty beauty retail stores like Sally Beauty. One important beauty retailer still did not carry the brand, however: Ulta Beauty, a US chain of 1,196 brick-and-mortar beauty stores located predominantly in high-traffic shopping centers around the country. Ulta also had a robust online storefront in ulta.com and had cultivated a vibrant social media presence. On Donaldson's desk was an offer from Ulta Beauty to stock tgin for the first time. Should she commit to this deal, knowing she was setting aside other opportunities, such as e commerce, direct-to-consumer (DTC), and the pursuit of additional distribution channels? All things considered: Was this distribution agreement with Ulta really the best path forward for tgin?

Chris Pew, an expert backcountry skier, was a founder and the CEO of 12-year-old TREW Gear, a premium niche brand for technical backcountry ski apparel. TREW Gear's products--snow bibs, jackets, pants, and accessories--were selling well through independent and specialty retailers and direct to consumers on trewgear.com. Heavy on Pew's mind, however, was how to continue growing the business, particularly the question of whether he should start selling TREW products on Amazon.com. Would TREW's presence on the behemoth US-based e-commerce platform help the company grow, long-term? Shorter-term, would selling on Amazon deliver the 20% increase in revenues his investors wanted to see by the end of the year? And if Amazon wasn't the best choice, what distribution strategy should he embrace?

This article explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in aiding personalized engagement marketing-an approach to create, communicate, and deliver personalized offerings to customers. It proposes that consumers are ready for a new journey in which AI is a tool for endless options and information that are narrowed and curated in a personalized way. It also provides predictions for managers regarding the AI-driven environment on branding and customer management practices in both developed and developing countries.