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Known for manufacturing industrial equipment, GE has decided to invest in software and analytics capabilities to become a digital industrial company. They have also created a software platform that they hope will power the Industrial Internet. GE executives forecasted that the company will generate $15 billion in digital revenues by 2020. What steps does GE need to take to reach their goal?

As a global company based in Hong Kong, Techtronics Industries (TTI) is sitting on top of the world. Since its incorporation in 1985 as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), TTI grew into a leading producer and brand-owner of power equipment and floor-care products in North America, Europe and Australia. At an investors meeting in 2015, it boasted of an unbroken 4-year growth of sales revenues and double digit net profits. TTI attributes its success to its passion for product innovation, manufacturing excellence, and unwavering devotion to specific markets. To sustain its growth, TTI was convinced that the Asian region would be its next frontier. How should it go about deciding which countries to target? What are the challenges and risks in introducing TTI's premium products to emerging markets?

The case traces the birth of Shang Xia, a joint venture between the Hermès Group and Chinese designer Jiang Qiong Er. Launched in 2009 in Shanghai, the new brand's core mission is to revive and promote China's 5,000-year-old cultural heritage and leverage Chinese craftsmanship to design contemporary products. Describing the brand evolution over its first eight years of existence, the case allows for an exploration of the challenges associated with creating a luxury brand and reconciling several strategic imperatives: the need to build a strong, desirable, and prestigious brand identity and grow a profitable and sustainable business. The case also provides an opportunity to discuss the benefits and challenges associated with 1) building a luxury brand from scratch and 2) being a luxury brand "made in China" with global ambitions.

In February 2016, the president of the Union Pearson Express was being pressured to lower the fare price. The rail link between Union Station in downtown Toronto and the Toronto Pearson International Airport had only been running for eight months, but ridership was well below targets. On average, the train ran at only 10 per cent of capacity, and current revenue only covered 35 per cent of operating costs. The president and her team had set the one-way fare price at CA$27.50 to reflect the high-value positioning of the train. However, this price had received a great deal of criticism. The president had attempted to combat the criticism both in the press and with marketing actions, blaming entrenched consumer behaviours regarding travel. She also offered discounts and promotions to boost ridership, which ultimately failed. Now she had to decide whether to lower fares and how to market the Union Pearson Express.

In 2014, the owner of Shiva Tourist Dhaba, a highway restaurant specializing in authentic Indian cuisine, faced a pressing decision. The business had been successful since opening in 1995, but it now faced intense competition. The owner was working with a marketing research team in pursuit of two objectives: to gain insight into customer loyalty and to decide on his restaurant's positioning strategy. After conducting a survey of restaurant customers, the marketing research team needed to determine the tool that would best analyze the data to help resolve the issues facing the restaurant owner.

In 2014, the owner of Shiva Tourist Dhaba, a highway restaurant specializing in authentic Indian cuisine, faced a pressing decision. The business had been successful since opening in 1995, but it now faced intense competition. The owner was working with a marketing research team in pursuit of two objectives: to gain insight into customer loyalty and to decide on his restaurant’s positioning strategy. After conducting a survey of restaurant customers, the marketing research team needed to determine the tool that would best analyze the data to help resolve the issues facing the restaurant owner.

In February 2016, the president of the Union Pearson Express was being pressured to lower the fare price. The rail link between Union Station in downtown Toronto and the Toronto Pearson International Airport had only been running for eight months, but ridership was well below targets. On average, the train ran at only 10 per cent of capacity, and current revenue only covered 35 per cent of operating costs. The president and her team had set the one-way fare price at CA$27.50 to reflect the high-value positioning of the train. However, this price had received a great deal of criticism. The president had attempted to combat the criticism both in the press and with marketing actions, blaming entrenched consumer behaviours regarding travel. She also offered discounts and promotions to boost ridership, which ultimately failed. Now she had to decide whether to lower fares and how to market the Union Pearson Express.

Paris-based S.T.Dupont is engaged in the manufacture, marketing and sale of luxury goods for men and women, including lighters, pens, jewelry, leather goods, eyewear, watches, belts, fragrances and casual and formal attire. Founded in 1872 by an entrepreneurial French photographer and carriage-maker, the company began making luxury leather luggage for wealthy aristocrats. It was owned and managed by the same family until the 1970s, when it was sold to the American multinational Gillette. A decade later, it was sold to Hong Kong conglomerate Dickson Concepts. Having largely lost its brand identity, S.T.Dupont languished until 2006, when a new management team based in Paris successfully turned the company around with a unique branding and marketing strategy. Please visit the dedicated case website http://cases.insead.edu/stdupont to access supplementary material.

Twitter Inc. (Twitter), based in California, was a social media platform whose growth had stalled over the past few years. Once a promising tool for individuals looking to broadcast short messages to a network, Twitter had been eclipsed by other platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter limited its users’ messages to 140 characters. This format served Twitter well in its early days, but users had turned to other more flexible platforms. In October 2016, Twitter’s chief marketing officer faced two main challenges: how to advertise an already popular social media platform to non-users and how to encourage current users to stay with the platform.

Twitter Inc. (Twitter), based in California, was a social media platform whose growth had stalled over the past few years. Once a promising tool for individuals looking to broadcast short messages to a network, Twitter had been eclipsed by other platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter limited its users' messages to 140 characters. This format served Twitter well in its early days, but users had turned to other more flexible platforms. In October 2016, Twitter's chief marketing officer faced two main challenges: how to advertise an already popular social media platform to non-users and how to encourage current users to stay with the platform.

Strength Pharma was an Indian health care company that focused on developing, manufacturing, and marketing products that catered to the sports nutrition market in India. The senior director of marketing was responsible in March 2016 for managing the upcoming launch of the company's newest whey protein supplement, Muscle-RDX. This new product would be the first protein supplement for high-endurance athletes ever to be approved by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India, and its chances for success in the Indian market looked quite promising. With the upcoming new-product launch just a few months away, the marketing director needed to develop a product-positioning strategy and a marketing communication plan for Muscle-RDX. To find the best plan, he had several questions to answer: Who would be the ideal target customer? How should the key stakeholders be reached? What was an appropriate message for each of the fitness coaches and athletes? What role would the mobile application play in the marketing communication roll out?

Strength Pharma was an Indian health care company that focused on developing, manufacturing, and marketing products that catered to the sports nutrition market in India. The senior director of marketing was responsible in March 2016 for managing the upcoming launch of the company’s newest whey protein supplement, Muscle-RDX. This new product would be the first protein supplement for high-endurance athletes ever to be approved by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India, and its chances for success in the Indian market looked quite promising. <br><br>With the upcoming new-product launch just a few months away, the marketing director needed to develop a product-positioning strategy and a marketing communication plan for Muscle-RDX. To find the best plan, he had several questions to answer: Who would be the ideal target customer? How should the key stakeholders be reached? What was an appropriate message for each of the fitness coaches and athletes? What role would the mobile application play in the marketing communication roll out?

In 2011, Mr. Kapil, Brand Manager, was reviewing the research brief prepared to review the performance of the launch plan of the refined vegetable cooking oil brand Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil of GEF, a new company in Andhra Pradesh. Specific focus was on assessing the overall performance, the brand strength and the TV Commercial. The results are expected to help in the preparation of a marketing plan for the next year. Participants need to critique the brief from the point of view of defining a managerial marketing research problem for assessing a launch plan.

In April 2015, two years after launching Sattviko, a casual dining restaurant, the venture had three restaurants in Delhi. The two entrepreneurs who had established Sattviko wanted to continue growing but were feeling cash-constrained. Meanwhile, the online technology-based food industry in India was growing with an influx of venture funding. The entrepreneurs could take advantage of this wave and pursue venture capital, but they might have to shift their business focus to do so. Should they shift the Sattviko value proposition and brand positioning to grow their business?

In July 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of Tantan, a Chinese mobile dating application, considered the progress made by his firm since its launch less than a year earlier. Tantan had more than two million active users, yet significant challenges remained. The top management team needed to make several important decisions regarding Tantan's target audience, the positioning of the company, and how best to carve out a viable niche in China's fast-growing and increasingly competitive mobile dating market.

In April 2015, two years after launching Sattviko, a casual dining restaurant, the venture had three restaurants in Delhi. The two entrepreneurs who had established Sattviko wanted to continue growing but were feeling cash-constrained. Meanwhile, the online technology-based food industry in India was growing with an influx of venture funding. The entrepreneurs could take advantage of this wave and pursue venture capital, but they might have to shift their business focus to do so. Should they shift the Sattviko value proposition and brand positioning to grow their business?

L'Itineraire Community Group was a not-for-profit organization located in Montreal, Quebec. It published a French-language magazine that was sold by homeless and socially marginalized people in the city. The group's management committee was examining ways of raising additional funds because of the reduction in contributions from traditional sources such as government subsidies. Options included targeting the magazine to the Anglophone and immigrant communities in Montreal, targeting regions outside of Montreal, and producing a digital version of the magazine. The digital option had the additional constraint that the vendors of the magazine, the homeless and socially marginalized, would not be involved in selling. How should the organization deal with this issue?

By January 2017, Paytm, a mobile payments company that started in 2010, became India's largest mobile payments platform with over 142 million users and a $5 billion valuation. Could Paytm become the $100 billion company its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma envisioned it to be?

Technos was the market leader in the Brazilian watch market. Its CEO had made a firm commitment of evolving the company's marketing and commercial practices by focusing less on pushing product to retail clients and more on branding to end consumers to pull watches from retailers. In 2016, the company was about to re-launch its master brand's website. But the more time passed, the greater were the discrepancies between what the marketing, commercial (sales) and retail divisions of the company envisioned as an ideal ecommerce-enabled Technos website. What should be the fundamental role(s) of our master brand's website?