This case study begins in October 2022, two years after Sophia and Eileen Goh, who were sisters, rebranded the footwear company to expand its customer base from baby boomers and Gen X to millennials and Gen Z. The footwear brand was originally positioned as a workwear brand, specifically to cater to women who had wide feet and suffered from bunions. Growth was steady in the first 20 years and was primarily driven by word-of-mouth. However, by 2020, the brand had lost its appeal to the millennials and Gen Z. In September 2020, the sisters embarked on an initial rebranding strategy by repositioning DMK as shoes for every occasion and milestone across a woman's lifetime journey. The rebranding effort was further strengthened by focusing on five pillars including supporting the female community, product diversification, reintroduction of DMK Care to enhance comfort of the shoes, introducing a new retail experience to provide immersive customer experience at the outlets and strengthening of DMK's digital capabilities. The Singapore footwear market was worth US$870 million in 2020 and was expected to grow to US$1,270 million by 2025. What else could DMK do to further elevate the brand and future prooffuture-proof the business?

Set in September 2020, the case talks about marketing an accessible (affordable) luxury watch brand, 'August Berg', by a luxury-product distribution company, Norbreeze, based in Singapore. The company's founder, Anders Peter Juel Sauerberg, was sceptical about the launch of a new collection of the watch brand, as it had seen limited sales in one year since its inception. Sauerberg had set up a kiosk store of the brand in an iconic luxury mall in the city and adopted social media platforms and influencer marketing to promote the brand with little success. The brand represented the ethos of Danish design - minimalism and high quality and targeted a niche category of millennials, i.e. young parents and professionals. The brand was also attached to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative that supported the education of children from low-income families. While Norbreeze had seen success in the Singapore market with the distribution of other accessible luxury watches and jewellery from Danish brands like Skagen and Pandora, it had failed to see similar results for its own in-house brand, August Berg. The 'lipstick effect' of the market due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lack of brand awareness for the new watch brand were identified as the key reasons for low sales. Given the financial constraints of operating as a start-up, how could Sauerberg enhance the brand awareness of August Berg? What digital and social media marketing strategies could he implement to promote his brand?

Set in July 2020, this case talks about ZENXIN Organic (Zenxin) - an organic farming company of fresh produce in Malaysia, and traces its evolution using the brick and mortar retail supply model in a nascent market where customers liked to "see and feel" fresh produce before purchasing them. Zenxin used a 'Farm to Fork' approach to expand its brick and mortar retail business to become the largest supplier of organic produce in Southeast Asia. The company acquired more farmland to increase supply, widened its produce variety to include a selection of 200 products with affordable price points, established supply partnerships with more than 100 supermarkets, opened 12 brick and mortar retail stores, and an agro-tourism recreation park under its brand name. Zenxin ventured into delivering organic produce online in late 2018, about a year before the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced millions of consumers to switch to online mode of purchase for their daily needs. While Zenxin was presented with the opportunity of tapping on this demand through its recently launched ecommerce platform, its digital marketing strategy to sell its products was still evolving. The company had implemented an improved ecommerce website, an updated Google My Business profile and social media accounts to build brand awareness and drive online sales, and seen some positive results. However, it was still struggling to build a strong, regular, online customer base. The firm's CEO, Sengyee Tai, wondered how he could further improve on Zenxin's digital marketing and e-commerce marketing strategies to attract more customers.

In November 2019, David Broom, Chief Marketing Officer of FWD Singapore, replayed a commercial ad clip of his company, as he ruefully considered the competitiveness of the insurance market in Southeast Asia. Building competitive resilience in a cutthroat market dominated by large traditional insurance players was a constant challenge for FWD. Although his company had launched innovative products in the market with improved claims processes, competitors had quickly replicated the product features and launched similar products. FWD had launched its direct-to-consumer business in September 2016 with the aim of changing the way people felt about insurance by leveraging technology to deliver products that were relevant, easy to understand, and well-priced. The direct-to-consumer business focused on life and general insurance products like direct-term life, car, travel, personal accident, and maid insurance. All FWD products were sold online, making it one of the first completely online insurance companies in the region. The company had implemented an online underwriting system, and mobile technology solutions for claims processing. FWD was also the first corporate health insurer in Southeast Asia to adopt two AI solutions - one to read documents and another to assess corporate claims (detecting fraud waste and possible abuse). And yet, despite its best efforts to leverage technology, FWD found that technology alone yielded a very slippery slope as a competitive advantage. Broom brainstormed with his colleagues for hooks that would provide FWD with that practically difficult "oomph factor" known as sustainable competitive advantage. What could be their competitive strategy?

In July 2019, Evangeline Leong, co-founder and CEO of Kobe (a Singapore based start-up providing Influencer Marketing services) had a challenging task ahead of her. Her company was preparing for a campaign to build brand awareness of Jia Jia herbal tea amongst millennial consumers in Singapore. At Kobe, Leong and her team provided end-to-end influencer marketing services for clients including consultation on marketing strategies for realising brand objectives, assisting clients in identifying KPIs, execution and monitoring of campaigns, analysis of campaign results and providing recommendations. In addition, Kobe's AI driven influencer platform allowed clients to choose the most suitable influencers from a database of over 5000 influencers. Millennials in Singapore were social media savvy and often-brought products based on recommendations of influencers they trusted. Targeting this customer segment through social media was therefore a viable option. However, the Jia Jia campaign had a few limitations including a small budget and a short timeframe. Another constraint was that herbal tea was not popular with millennials. Historically Chinese herbal tea was synonymous with Singapore's culture and dated back to its history as a British settlement. However, over the past decade, bubble tea had become the preferred drink of the millennials. Leong knew she was being ambitious in trying to "sell bell-bottoms to Millennials", and she wondered if her influencer marketing campaign to rebrand Jia Jia herbal tea in Singapore could be as successful as the Levi's Jeans' 501 campaign. Could Leong turn the clock back and make Jia Jia the most talked about beverage brand in Singapore?