Written Case Assignment I: Mary Kay (& WeChat):

Your focus should be on Mary Kay and what they should do to meet the challenges of growing through e-commerce. The material on WeChat should help you craft a strategy. These cases (Mary Kay and WeChat) and the readings are jam packed and rather dense with information. It is interesting to see through these cases how advanced the Internet, mobile technology and apps are working in China. Why is that the case? How is the Chinese internet/e-commerce culture and user behavior different from that in the US? What are the trends in e-commerce and the market trends in the cosmetics and skin care market? What does Mary Kay need to do to adapt to this environment? How has the Mary Kay set of core values both aligned with Chinese culture and constrained their ability to adapt? How can MaryKay adapt to e-commerce and stay true to those core values? What are the opportunities for Mary Kay for market expansion in China?