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Hundreds of thousands of would-be hoteliers have been popping up all around the world, hoping to rent their own homes and apartments to complete strangers through a service called Airbnb. The goal of Airbnb’s aspiring hosts was to use the company’s website to attract guests who were willing to pay the highest rates to stay in their homes for a short time. For Airbnb, the goal was to improve customer review performance so it could, in turn, increase profits. How could the company achieve its goal? Enter text mining, a technique that allowed businesses to scour Internet pages, decipher the meaning of groups of words, and assign the words a sentiment proxy through the use of a software package.

In order for text mining to be useful for Airbnb, its marketing professionals first had to gain access to customer review data on the company’s own website. The team then had to analyze the data to find ways to improve property performance. Was the team going to be able to leverage this large amount of data to determine a strategy going forward?

Besides the metrics developed to measure the impact of the video campaign run by the company, the case has serious practical implications for all companies in emerging markets selling budget/low-cost products. Marketing managers can take note of these key performance indicators in evaluating the success of their social media campaigns.More importantly, students need to understand how the campaign managed to integrate uninitiated and less-privileged consumers to the world of social media with aspirational sentiments.

The case deals with a digital media planning activity for a low-cost handset company based in India. TRIVIA International Ltd is a manufacturer and marketer of smart phones and feature phone in the price range of below US$70–100 and US$20, respectively. The phones cater to low-income consumer bracket, which forms the vast microcosm of India. The consumer base is huge, but the purchasing power is very low, so they are at times referred to as the micro-consumer in Bottom of Pyramid approach. To approach this consumer base, Trivia planned a very engaging campaign on social media that yielded positive results, contrary to popular belief that only high-income individuals explore the social media intensively through their smart phones. The chapter ends with a set of recommendations for all digital managers who want to analyse their campaigns effectively via awareness, sentiment and engagement metrics.

The case is meant for all post graduate programs in Business Management, which include the MBAs, Masters in Business Administration and the Executive Development program for managers. The case can also be used in Part Time Business Management programs held over weekends for working professionals. Most likely the students are going to handle this case in their second year of a full-time program or at an advanced level of their career development programs. The subjects so mentioned here were offered as electives or areas of specialization. It is presumed that the students undergoing these courses have basic understanding of marketing management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:1. Analyze the pricing strategy followed by Netflix in India;2. Examine the challenges faced by media companies, including over-the-top (OTT) service providers, in developing content for target consumers in emerging markets; and3. Evaluate the dynamics of the Indian OTT industry and understand the effect of external and internal factors on the growth of Netflix in India.

This case discusses the dilemma faced by Netflix in India regarding pricing and content. Netflix was accused of hurting the religious and political sentiments of Indians by broadcasting bold shows such as Sacred Games and A Suitable Boy. Netflix is caught in a dilemma between its pursuit to achieve its target of achieving 100 million subscribers from India versus continuing its profitable high pricing strategy. Another key dilemma is regarding the streaming of attractive bold content which may occasionally hurt the religious/political sentiments of some Indians or stream only safe content which may be deemed as boring by its young target audience.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Marketing courses in Commerce and Business Management streams can use this case.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Discusses the challenges that internal departments face as organizations grow and expand. The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, grew significantly over a short period of time, creating considerable problems in the finance department, as staff and systems failed to keep pace with the evolving demands placed by the museum departments. These problems resulted in outdated policies and procedures, unhappy users, and frustrated employees. The finance department needed big changes but had to make them while maintaining vital functions, improving morale, and instituting new policies and procedures. Discusses several key nonprofit management issues, including change management, the role of leadership in a crisis, the challenge of informal personnel networks and knowledge management, and key financial issues facing nonprofit organizations.

This case study exposes students to the process of decision-making given the market uncertainty, evolving shareholder expectations and other variables that executives and managers must consider ensuring business continuity and growth and helps students develop an appreciation of the impact emerging technologies are having on organizational digital transformation. This case study evaluates the strategic considerations for whitespace digital solutions into existing organizational operations, balancing innovation with core operating principles; exposes the students to the drivers of fostering a culture of innovation and employee buy-in during strategic digital transformation initiatives; and evaluates and appreciates the role of key stakeholders, such as customers, employees and executive management, in shaping a successful digital transformation strategy and promoting sustained business growth.

Vidhii Partners, a leading Indian law firm, grapples with the burgeoning demand for legal services in a rapidly evolving market. Traditional methods may struggle to keep pace, prompting Vikram Wadehra, a partner, to champion the adoption of Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technology. Vidhii Partners embarks on the development of two GenAI tools: VidAI, an AI-powered chatbot designed to democratize access to legal information, and VidAI Pro, a business-to-business offering aimed at streamlining legal research and drafting. Wadehra envisions these tools not only enhancing efficiency but also fostering a culture of legal awareness and generating new business opportunities. However, crucial decisions remain. Can Vidhii Partners bridge the potential gap between innovation and the firm’s established practices? How can they effectively integrate GenAI into their operations while ensuring user trust and employee buy-in? This case study presents a rich opportunity to explore the challenges and opportunities associated with digital transformation in the legal sector. Students will grapple with themes such as navigating market uncertainty, fostering a culture of innovation within a traditional organization and developing effective strategies for stakeholder management during change initiatives. Through the lens of Vidhii Partners’ GenAI journey, students gain valuable insights into the complexities of embracing disruptive technologies within a dynamic business landscape.

This case study is designed for masters level (MBA).

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

There are two theoretical concepts that can be taught in this case.The new approach to teaching entrepreneurship is termed “lean start-up” and “hypothesis-driven entrepreneurship.” The business model canvas is a core tool of this approach. This framework defines nine key components of a successful business strategy. These components include defining value propositions; identifying customer segments; identifying channels; maintaining customer relationships; defining key activities, key resources and key partners; understanding the revenue model of the business; and the organization’s cost structure. This is considered to be a rigorous approach to learning about and developing a new venture.The other theoretical approach that can be discussed through this case is the link between uncertainty and entrepreneurial growth. These theories associate the willingness of entrepreneurs to bear the perceived uncertainty associated with entrepreneurial acts as representative of the belief-desire model. There is a need for entrepreneurs to experiment and search for alternative paths forward in order to counter this uncertainty. Systematic search processes to discover relevant information will strengthen this process.

This case is based on primary data collected through interviews with company personnel. The company consented freely to the use of their data in the case. The authors have no connection with the company. The four student coauthors had previously pursued an internship with the company and had worked on the machine learning analysis part.The two faculty coauthors in the case contacted the company after the internship and discussed the opportunity to write the case on the company. One of the faculty then interviewed key personnel in the company, including one of the co-founders.

Xoxoday is a technology company that provides employee rewards and corporate gifting to its customers. The company was started by Sumit Khandelwal, Manoj Agarwal, Abhishek Kumar and Kushal Agarwal. In 2018, the company reinvented itself as an experiential gifting company.The company faced some challenges during the lockdowns imposed due to COVID-19. Khandelwal knew that they had to try something new to achieve higher growth in the future. He wondered if higher usage of technology was the solution. It was necessary for them to carve a new path in these times.

This case study can be used at the undergraduate level in courses relating to entrepreneurship strategy and business models for entrepreneurs.The case can be used to highlight the dilemmas faced by entrepreneurs due to unforeseen crises. This case is relevant for classes that will discuss growth crises and out-of-the-box solutions for unprecedented crisis situations.

This case study is designed to enable students to understand the reasons behind the launch of a beauty brand grounded on traditions and culture, understand the strategies adopted by Florasis to establish its presence in the C-beauty space and emerge successful, analyze the positioning of a C-beauty brand in a highly competitive beauty market, identify the issues and challenges faced by a C-beauty brand in its efforts to disrupt the C-beauty space and suggest strategies that Florasis can adopt to emerge as a market leader in the global beauty industry.

Set in 2021, the case study discusses about the emerging C-beauty brand Florasis innovative strategies to promote the brand. Florasis was founded in 2017 with a vision to become a century old national makeup brand of China. Florasis was successful in getting on board a story-telling experience that featured traditional Chinese culture, aesthetics and heritage. It sold cosmetic products with retro packaging, concepts derived from traditional Chinese style, promoting a sense of national pride and nostalgia. The case study highlights the innovative strategies Florasis adopted like influencer marketing through key opinion leaders and key opinion customers, celebrity endorsements, user co-creation programs, social content and network marketing, brand crossovers and collaborations, etc. In April 2021, Florasis became the No. 1 cosmetic company in China with a gross merchandise value of 218m yuan and further the total sales for second quarter of 2021 reached 830m yuan, endorsing its supremacy over other global and local beauty brands in China. However, with success came along a set of challenges. Some analysts pointed that the brand was slow in innovating its product line-up, it focused more on promotions and advertisements and the brand positioning with a single sales channel, the cost performance and quality of the products and excessive marketing campaigns targeting a niche segment. Going forward, what should Florasis do to conquer the global beauty space? Can Florasis aspire to become a digitally empowered global beauty brand? Has it got the momentum? Will its direct-to-consumer model and unprecedented marketing and promotion gimmicks, help it achieve the lead in the global beauty space?

This case study is suitable for students of the graduate and undergraduate programs in management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

A secondary research method was used to collect data for this case. The authors have made use of newspaper articles and articles by experts published in the public domain.

This case discusses the dilemma faced by Amazon Prime Video in India regarding content. Amazon Prime Video attained success and rapid growth in India ever since its entry into the Indian over the top (OTT) market in 2016. However, the pursuit of attractive and bold content landed Amazon Prime Video in a legal tangle in India. Amazon Prime Video was accused of hurting the religious and political sentiments of Indians by broadcasting bold shows like Tandaav, Family Man, Mirzapur, Family Man 2, etc. Litigations against Amazon Prime Video were filed in the Indian courts by members of religious and political organizations. Protests and online campaigns on Twitter caught the attention of internet influencers in India. The key dilemma faced by the protagonist in this case is whether to continue streaming attractive content that may be controversial and may occasionally hurt the religious/political sentiments of some Indians or stream only safe content that may be deemed as boring by its young target audience.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students studying marketing management and international business courses in business management and commerce streams can use this case.

This case study is designed to enable students to analyze the competitive landscape of a business impacted by technological disruption; evaluate the viability of an organic growth strategy using stakeholder analysis; evaluate the revenue and cost structure of Apollo 24/7 and decide on the future investment strategy; and analyze funding strategies of traditional hospitals versus pure digital players.

To extend its reach, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (Apollo Hospitals), a leading private sector brick-and-mortar hospital chain in India known for using state-of-the-art technology, launched a unified virtual mobile platform Apollo 24/7 in February 2020, 45 days into the COVID-19 pandemic. The management believed that the digital platform had a unique ecosystem that could not be replicated. The analysts were optimistic about the impact of the decision on the future performance of Apollo Hospitals, as it was expected to lead to higher penetration and increased revenue. They also anticipated the unlocking of value, as and when the venture capitalist (VC) would invest in Apollo Hospitals. However, with increasing operating expenses on account of burgeoning technological and marketing expenses, things did not seem to go going as planned. Three years later, in February 2022 after the Q3 of financial year 2023 results. Suneeta Reddy, the company’s managing director found herself pondering whether the digital platform could boost Apollo Hospitals’ profitability in addition to expanding its reach and increasing affordability when the company missed the analyst estimates. In India, which was then the second most populous country, “incremental access” and “affordability” were what mattered to the patients, However, for the investors and analysts, it was quarter-on-quarter performance. The change in the macroeconomic environment stalled the company’s plan of raising money from VCs.

Furthermore, the financing dilemma also plagued Reddy. She knew there was a difference between financing for conventional businesses that for digital businesses. She also had to take decide between short-term profitability with which investors were obsessed versus long-term sustainability, which involved taking care of stakeholders’ interests.

This case study is basically aimed at postgraduate courses and executive management courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS11: Strategy.

The case looks at the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project from its inception in the year 1860 to 2012 when the Pachauri Committee was about to submit a report on the latest canal alignment (4A) as suggested by the Supreme Court. It takes the reader through a series of developments starting from the initial proposals and alignments to formation of Sethusamudram Corporation Limited and highlights the impact of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute Report, Tsunami Detailed Project Report, and Subramaniam Swamy Report on various issues including environmental, political, religious, security and legal. The case brings out multi-dimensional aspects involved in an Indian infrastructure project and gives both students and the faculty an opportunity to explore the complexities faced by the Indian decision makers in today's context.