Publications

February 2017
Case

Shang Xia: The Creation of a Chinese Luxury Lifestyle Brand

By: Anat Keinan, Sandrine Crener, Jing Xu, Janet Borgerson, Jonathan Schroeder and Zhiyan Wu

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... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Luxury; China

10 Sep 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Branding Yoga

example. "You get this stuff for free out of your faucet," he says. "With Evian or Dasani you pay $2, $4, and that's the reaction consumers have: 'You are just attaching a fancy name on it, which costs me money.' " It's up to the company to add... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

September 2008 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Hearts On Fire - Brand Development Manager

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Benson P. Shapiro

Hearts On Fire, a successful branded diamond producer, established the position of Brand Development Manager (BDM) to build the company's presence, sales, and relationships with its retail customers. After one year, the CEO, CFO and President must evaluate the impact... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Investment Return; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Business Processes; Salesforce Management; Business Strategy

2016
Chapter

Luxury Branding Research: New Perspectives and Future Priorities

By: Anat Keinan, Sandrine Crener and Silvia Bellezza

Several major trends have changed the landscape for luxury brands. These shifts include the increasing role of technology (digital and mobile) as well as the use by consumers of alternative signals of status, such as wearing less prominently branded apparel, being less... View Details

Keywords: Luxury; Brands and Branding

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04 May 2009
Research & Ideas

What’s Next for the Big Financial Brands

headquarters reminds us that a brand is a precious asset. The value of any brand asset depends upon whether it has delivered on its past promises and is believed likely to do so in the future. It takes years... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Banking; Financial Services

03 Nov 2014
Research & Ideas

Brand Lessons From the Nobel Prize

Greyser cites the early days of Airbus, which began as a consortium of independent European aviation firms, to build planes together using the Airbus brand as a hub—and to compete with Boeing, Lockheed, and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

March 2020
Teaching Note

onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy

By: Jill Avery and Anat Keinan

onefinestay was a two-sided marketplace that offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the... View Details

Article

Putting the 'Relationship' Back into CRM

By: Susan Fournier and Jill Avery

Many managers think that the way to capture value through relationship marketing is to focus on the 'good' customers and get rid of the 'bad' ones. But there is a lot more to best practice relationship management than maximizing revenues on individual customers and... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; CRM; Customer Relationship Management; Brand Building; Brand Management; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry

Find at Harvard

September 2008
Teaching Note

Allston: Brand vs. Architecture (TN)

By: Christopher M. Gordon and Ben Creo

Teaching Note for [208079]. View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Buildings and Facilities; Selection and Staffing; Massachusetts

November 2019 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Shiseido Acquires Drunk Elephant

By: Jill Avery

On October 7, 2019, the Shiseido Group announced that it would acquire clean skincare brand Drunk Elephant for $845 million, a valuation of 8.5 times sales. Did Shiseido pay too much or too little for this brand asset? How much was the Drunk Elephant brand worth and... View Details

Keywords: Personal Care; Startup; Brand Equity; Brand Valuation; Brand Value; Brand Storytelling; Brand Management; Brands and Branding; Valuation; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Japan

04 Jun 2014
What Do You Think?

Does Internet Technology Threaten Brand Loyalty?

marketing beliefs and expenditures regarding brand building and the lifetime value of a customer. It may also suggest different approaches to the management of human resources, specifically methods for... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Advertising; Consumer Products; Technology

07 Dec 1999
Research & Ideas

Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century

efficiently as possible. Increasing the company's product line was a potentially quick, inexpensive way to shape a nascent market for processed food. It was also a means, Heinz reasoned, of building the brand. In the 1870s, View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn

November 2015 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Huaxia: Building a U.S.-Style Dairy in China

By: Tarun Khanna, Nancy Hua Dai and Juan Ma

In 2015, Charles Shao, chairman of Huaxia, considered the alternatives to ensure sustainable growth of Huaxia and rebuild the overall health of China's dairy industry. He came to China in 2004 and set up Huaxia dairy farm with the goal to build a world-class dairy farm... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Emerging Markets; Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; China

September 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Kaspi.kz: Building Trust through Innovation

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Fares Khrais and Marilyn Morgan Westner

This case is written to help students explore how companies can maintain and develop trust while innovating, how to identify and respond effectively to warning signs that they may not be as trusted as they believe, and how being trusted can aid in expanding and growing... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Trust; Technology Adoption; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry

23 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Brand Power from Wedgwood to Dell: Part Two

hundreds of women, offering them free makeovers, demonstrating her products, and providing a sense of the elegance and self-definition that her cosmetics offered customers. As the brand and company grew, these qualities were translated... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

30 Jan 2006
HBS Case

The Case of the Mystery Writer’s Brand

in which a supplier builds a persistent demand and designs production to perpetuate that brand's most enticing qualities. The third age, embodied by the book clubs, is that of interactive marketing, where a company uses individual... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Brand Power from Wedgwood to Dell: Part One

A conversation with Nancy Koehn, author of Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust From Wedgwood to Dell, HBS Press, 2001. "I am just fascinated by the power, the quirks, the determination, and the durability of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

June 2020
Teaching Note

Shiseido Acquires Drunk Elephant

By: Jill Avery

On October 7, 2019, the Shiseido Group announced that it would acquire clean skincare brand Drunk Elephant for $845 million, a valuation of 8.5 times sales. Did Shiseido pay too much or too little for this brand asset? How much was the Drunk Elephant brand worth and... View Details