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The founder of Zentein Nutrition Inc. needed a short-term plan for 2023 to maximize his goals for business growth and customer reach. The company was based in London, Ontario and provided natural, simple, healthy, and nutritious food alternatives to an affluent, health-conscious, and health-knowledgeable customer base. Its competitors included many large companies in a highly competitive and fragmented market, but the company had a competitive edge by offering a simple and sustainable ingredient list, use of collagen as a protein source, and made-to order protein bars. With demand outpacing supply, the founder paused all promotional efforts but the company continued to grow exponentially with only word-of-mouth promotion and a social media presence. The founder was now wondering which sales and distribution channels he should pursue for the rest of 2023, and also for the future, after supply would be increased with automation. The three sales channel options—the company website, the Amazon online platform, and traditional retail stores—each offered specific benefits and drawbacks, but the founder had to make a decision that would deliver both quantitative and qualitative results.

<p align="justify">In 2023, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV leadership faced a developing crisis in the United States after conservative backlash to a Bud Light promotional campaign in partnership with a transgender influencer led to a boycott of the brand. The promotional campaign aimed to appeal to a more diverse and inclusive audience but ultimately resulted in Bud Light losing significant sales and market share. This put the brand at risk of losing its competitive advantage, brand value, and long-standing position as the leading beer brand in the United States. This case is the first in a continuing A-B case set.

<p align="justify">In response to the boycott of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV leadership attempted to placate dissatisfied consumers by reaffirming their support for conservative values and distancing the company from both the executive in charge of the promotional campaign and the transgender influencer it had partnered with. This course of action, however, not only failed to repair the company’s relationship with conservative consumers but also drew further criticism from liberal consumers who felt that the company’s response contradicted its core values of equity and inclusivity. This is the continuing B-case for product W36313.

Between 2016 and 2019, Jijihong Catering Management Co. Ltd. (Jijihong)-a well-established company in Jiangxi Province, China-encountered a plateau in its development as the number of its chain stores consistently stagnated at around 80 and never surpassed 100. To address this growth challenge, in January 2019, the general manager of Jijihong led her team to proactively adjust the company's strategy. They decided to discontinue various company sub-brands, focusing instead on a single brand (Jijihong) and a single business (spicy hot pot) within a single market (Jiangxi). Before the new strategy could produce significant results, however, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 completely altered the competitive landscape of and set new development trends in the hot pot industry, disrupting Jijihong's development plans.

The founder of Zentein Nutrition Inc. needed a short-term plan for 2023 to maximize his goals for business growth and customer reach. The company was based in London, Ontario and provided natural, simple, healthy, and nutritious food alternatives to an affluent, health-conscious, and health-knowledgeable customer base. Its competitors included many large companies in a highly competitive and fragmented market, but the company had a competitive edge by offering a simple and sustainable ingredient list, use of collagen as a protein source, and made-to order protein bars. With demand outpacing supply, the founder paused all promotional efforts but the company continued to grow exponentially with only word-of-mouth promotion and a social media presence. The founder was now wondering which sales and distribution channels he should pursue for the rest of 2023, and also for the future, after supply would be increased with automation. The three sales channel options-the company website, the Amazon online platform, and traditional retail stores-each offered specific benefits and drawbacks, but the founder had to make a decision that would deliver both quantitative and qualitative results.

In 2023, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV leadership faced a developing crisis in the United States after conservative backlash to a Bud Light promotional campaign in partnership with a transgender influencer led to a boycott of the brand. The promotional campaign aimed to appeal to a more diverse and inclusive audience but ultimately resulted in Bud Light losing significant sales and market share. This put the brand at risk of losing its competitive advantage, brand value, and long-standing position as the leading beer brand in the United States. This case is the first in a continuing A-B case set.

In response to the boycott of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV leadership attempted to placate dissatisfied consumers by reaffirming their support for conservative values and distancing the company from both the executive in charge of the promotional campaign and the transgender influencer it had partnered with. This course of action, however, not only failed to repair the company's relationship with conservative consumers but also drew further criticism from liberal consumers who felt that the company's response contradicted its core values of equity and inclusivity. This is the continuing B-case for product W36313.

In May 2022, the founder and chief executive officer of Just Kitchen Holdings Corporation (Just Kitchen), a Canada-based and publicly listed operator of ghost kitchens in Taiwan, met with the company’s management team to deliberate on the company’s plan to expand into new markets, specifically, the Philippines. Their optimism for the Philippine market stemmed from the country’s growing online food delivery industry, favourable demographics, and supportive government policies. While the founder his team explored this expansion possibility, they recognized that entering the thriving online food delivery market presented advantages and disadvantages, and questions loomed: What would be the most effective approach to enter this market? And, equally importantly, what challenges and pitfalls should they anticipate as they ventured into such a business opportunity in the Philippines?

Biryani by Kilo (BBK) is a Gurugram (Near New Delhi, India) based Quick Service Restaurant founded by Koushik Roy and Vishal Jindal in 2015. The company specializes in serving authentic Indian dishes. They offer both dine in and delivery options and have multiple locations in India. They are known for using high quality ingredients and traditional cooking methods to create delicious biryani dishes. They brought many innovations to their offering. Now they wanted to create a McDonald's for Indian food but were in a dilemma about how to proceed. How could they eventually build a national brand and then expand it globally?

In February 2022, an emergency registered nurse who worked a night shift in a Toronto, Ontario hospital was appalled at the overwhelming number of patients arriving at the emergency department with mental health issues. In recent times, the increase in the number of mental health patients arriving in the emergency department, especially with the novel COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating the rise in mental health disorders, made the registered nurse aware of the need for effective strategies to address this issue. The growing interest and changing attitudes about psychedelic-assisted therapy was a potential treatment for mental health, which has the potential to disrupt the health care industry. From the beginnings of psychedelics use and research, starting with the creation of lysergic acid diethylamide (commonly known as LSD) in 1938 and the experimentation with psychedelics during the Cold War, questions were raised about the use of psychedelics in therapy and the need for further research to fully understand their potential as a treatment option. Based on the growing interest and changing attitudes about psychedelics in psychotherapy, the potential benefits and challenges of this field raised important ethical considerations that needed to be discussed and examined.

This case discusses Toblerone chocolates' pricing strategy at duty-free shops in international airports and entails 15-20 minutes of reading time. It analyses how the world-renowned Swiss chocolate brand Toblerone created a successful market strategy for duty-free shopping, and why it is considered one of the most iconic brands in duty-free stores worldwide. Central to the case is the assessment of Toblerone's variable pricing strategy across different airports, and whether duty-free prices are lower than local store prices. What is the rationale behind Toblerone's pricing strategy? Is duty-free shopping actually cheaper? Adding depth to the analysis, the case also evaluates the pricing strategy of other products such as duty-free favourites like alcohol brand Johnnie Walker and electronics brand Apple iPhone, providing valuable comparisons. The Teaching Note supplements the case by comparing Toblerone prices to Dairy Milk, fostering a more comprehensive discussion. The goal is to offer insights into Toblerone's strategic approach to pricing within the unique context of duty-free markets and to stimulate thoughtful discussion on its sustainability and effectiveness in meeting consumer expectations.

Jason Kelce, an NFL player and athlete recognized around the world, had built a strong personal brand over the course of his career. He had reinvented himself and worked hard at honing his own personal branding, successively building a successful platform for each venture and staying forward-looking about his future after retiring from football. By 2023, Kelce was at a crossroads. He was not quite ready to hang up his Philadelphia Eagles jersey, and he knew that managing his own personal brand was a full-time endeavour as well. What was the best way to further develop his brand so that it would continue to flourish post-NFL career? What kinds of projects should Kelce take on next?

ECOALF, a Spanish fashion brand and sustainability pioneer, aimed to tackle the industry's challenges of excessive consumption and production. The brand's mission was to create timeless apparel exclusively from recycled and eco-responsible materials, matching the quality and design of the best non-recycled alternatives on the market. ECOALF sought to demonstrate that success extended far beyond the reaches of financial profitability, though expanding the business was sometimes at odds with the brand's ambitious goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions. Could ECOALF reconcile purpose and profit?

In recent years, new consumer brands have mushroomed to meet consumers' increasingly diverse and personalized demands. However, some struggled to achieve sustainable, long-term growth as they relied heavily on capital investment, outsourced production, and excessive marketing. This case focuses on Winona, a functional skincare brand for sensitive skin, and its parent company, Botanee. It unveils how Winona achieved product innovation through consistent R&D efforts, built a presence in the niche market of sensitive skin by leveraging multi-touchpoint marketing across various channels, and evolved into a leading skincare brand in the Chinese market. As a result, Winona featured in Tmall's sales top 10 in the cosmetics and skincare category for several consecutive years since 2018, becoming the only Chinese brand maintaining this position. However, Botanee faced several challenges as it sought to grow its business further. With Winona contributing 99% of the company's revenue, how could Botanee expand its brand portfolio and broaden its consumer base? While Winona's flagship product, Anti-Sensitive Moisturizing Tolerance-Extreme Cream, remained its primary revenue driver, how could the brand establish a second "hero product" to sustain its growth in the future? The issue of internal branding also came to the fore as Botanee's business expanded, touchpoints multiplied, and organizational structure grew increasingly complex.

Fake reviews have become a pervasive problem in the realm of online commerce, affecting businesses and consumers alike. These fraudulent reviews can cause significant damage to the credibility of companies and negatively impact consumer welfare. While various platforms, such as Yelp and Amazon, have implemented measures to combat fake reviews, these efforts have been largely ineffective and, at times, even exacerbated the problem. As a result, on November 8, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it is soliciting input for possible regulations around ways to fight fake reviews. The growing sophistication of Artificial Intelligence-particularly generative AI technologies like ChatGPT-worsens the problem by enabling the production of human-like fake reviews at an unprecedented scale. This lends new urgency to the fake review problem, so it is imperative to examine the pros and cons of extant approaches and propose alternative approaches that are better equipped to tackle the issue. In this article, we introduce a novel approach using digital identity verification, which involves verifying a user's identity via various forms of digital information that represent the individual and have not been applied to online reviews. We highlight the limitations of extant techniques and outline ways in which digital identity verification may be a promising solution to the problem of fake reviews. Potential benefits and challenges, as well as the effectiveness of our proposed approach in addressing the issue of fake reviews, are discussed.

Kyrö Distillery Company (Kyrö), founded in 2012 in Isokyrö, Finland, focused on producing rye whisky from Finnish rye. However, it took an average of three years for one batch of whisky to be produced and ready for sale, so, to cover their costs and stay afloat, the founders decided to start producing gin, which could be produced faster. As luck had it, in 2014, Kyrö’s rye-based Napue Gin was named the best gin in the gin-and-tonic category in the UK-based International Wine & Spirit Competition, and Kyrö now had two promising products in its roster: rye whisky and rye-based gin. <br><br>Kyrö exported its products to overseas markets, including Japan, where its results had so far been modest, but it planned to expand and grow its businesses in Japan. As an underdog in an industry dominated by major global players, Kyrö had to work to increase its market share. It relied on its authentic brand image, original products, and brand ambassadors. In September 2022, as one of Kyrö’s co-founders travelled to Japan to meet with the company’s main Japanese distributor, he wondered, How could the company gain growth in a market that was highly competitive and dominated by well-established local companies?

Managing Customers for Growth (MCG) is a 14-session elective course for second-year MBA students at Harvard Business School. It is designed for business professionals engaged in roles centered on customer-driven growth activities. The course explores the dynamics of customer acquisition, retention, and development, aiming to assist managers in achieving sustainable customer growth. MCG focuses on examining the complexities of managing customer relationships in an environment characterized by increasing data availability and rapid technological advancements. The course blends case studies and practical exercises/workshops, aiming to provide comprehensive insights into customer management strategies, key frameworks, and tools for enhanced decision-making. It also highlights the challenges that today's managers face, especially regarding the ethical and responsible use of data to protect consumer privacy and prevent algorithmic bias. The interactive workshops enable students to engage with various forms of customer data, which will be analyzed to inform strategic decisions. The aim of these workshops is to hone students' quantitative intuition and to improve their ability to effectively collaborate with data science teams, thereby enhancing their data-driven decision-making capabilities. This note outlines the course objectives, the key questions, and the core ideas explored throughout the course.

In late May 2023, Sarah Merino, the newly appointed manager of the Customer Insights group at Travelogo-an online travel booking platform-initiates a comprehensive analysis of clickstream data to understand the varied behaviors and needs of their users. In preparation for the upcoming marketing strategy meeting, Merino and her team delve into the extensive customer data collected by the platform as users search for flights, aiming to understand search patterns, trip characteristics, and clicking and purchasing behaviors. This deep dive is to identify distinct customer personas and actionable insights that will shape Travelogo's marketing strategies. The case provides students with a hands-on exploration of the fundamentals and benefits of customer segmentation, fostering an understanding of how to create detailed buying personas from complex data for strategic marketing purposes. Additionally, the case emphasizes the critical need for effective collaboration between decision-makers and data science teams, underscoring the importance of clear communication to ensure that data analytics are precisely aligned with business objectives, especially when crafting sophisticated strategies to engage and cater to a varied customer base with a deep understanding of their preferences.