“When Crocs came into the market, gardeners, moms, and campers lovedthe comfy foam footwear,” said Caroline Lee, a growth marketer and co-founder of CocoSign in Singapore. “Crocs were more durable and really needed less replacement; bBut now, the question arises with whether wearing Crocs will be a nightmare for your feet. The simple design makes it easy to copy, and the market is flooded with cheaper knockoffs. The company is closing several of its retail stores.”Trouble at Crocs can be traced back to at least 2014 when the company announced plans to close 75 to 100 of its 624 stores globally and lay off 183 employees. Things continued to spiral downward for the brand, and in 2018, it closed its last manufacturing plant. But surprisingly, that wasn’t the end for Crocs which at the time, alluded to a successful future but didn’t explain exactly how it would stay around. Forward to 2020 and the brand saw significant success through collaborations with other big-time brands like KFC. Can the brand manage to stay relevant? There’s reason to think not, but then again again, as Crocs CEO Andrew Rees told Forbes last December, “If you have a brand that has a lot of haters, that makes it even more interesting to collaborate with.”Prompt: Assume that you have been hired as consultants to help Crocs in a dire state of losing its edge in the industry and perhaps fail in a tough environment. What should this company do?Engineering & TechnologyIndustrial EngineeringOperations Management MANAGEMENT 102
