Publications

2019
Working Paper

Managing Churn to Maximize Profits

By: Aurelie Lemmens and Sunil Gupta

Customer defection threatens many industries, prompting companies to deploy targeted, proactive customer retention programs and offers. A conventional approach has been to target customers either based on their predicted churn probability, or their responsiveness to a... View Details

Keywords: Churn Management; Defection Prediction; Loss Function; Stochastic Gradient Boosting; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Profit

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September 2013 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Marquee: Reinventing the Business of Nightlife

By: Anita Elberse, Ryan Barlow and Sheldon Wong

In January 2013, nightlife impresarios Jason Strauss and Noah Tepperberg are celebrating the re-opening of their famed New York City–based nightclub Marquee. While most clubs are over within their first one and a half years, Strauss and Tepperberg managed to keep... View Details

Keywords: Creative Industries; Nightlife; Service Management; Entertainment; Fashion; Celebrities; Event Marketing; Risk Management; Customer Relationship Management; Change Management; Supply Chain Management; Music Entertainment; Product Marketing; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Las Vegas

August 2013 (Revised January 2016)
Case

Sustainability at Siemens

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Amy C. Edmondson, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Emer Moloney

Describes sustainability efforts at Siemens since arrival of Chief Sustainability Officer, Barbara Kux, in 2008. Asks students to evaluate success of those efforts and outline what the company should do going forward. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Sustainability; Energy Efficiency; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Energy Conservation; Environmental Sustainability; Gender; Electronics Industry

August 2013 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Amazon in 2024

By: Sunil Gupta and Margaret L. Rodriguez

Amazon launched its website in July 1995 to sell books online and by 2020 it has grown to become a digital giant with over $280 billion in annual sales. A large part of its growth came from expanding into a variety of businesses that some see as unrelated. Has it... View Details

Keywords: Platforms; Complements; Showrooming; Ecosystem; Growth Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Network Effects; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Retail Industry; Publishing Industry

August 2013
Case

Tyra Banks: Personal Branding

By: Rohit Deshpandé

Keywords: Branding; Brand Management; Marketing; Brands and Branding

August 2013
Teaching Plan

Tyra Banks: Personal Branding (TP)

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Kerry Herman and Annelena Lobb

2013
Working Paper

Where do the Most Active Customers Originate and How Can Firms Keep Them Engaged?

By: Clarence Lee, E. Ofek and Thomas Steenburgh

In this paper, we study how firms offering Web services can acquire and develop an active customer base. We focus on two basic questions. First, how does the method of customer acquisition affect the way customers use the service to meet their own needs and to interact... View Details

Keywords: Customer Engagement; Adoption Routes; Hidden Markov Models; Search; Word-of-Mouth; Digital Media; Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Mathematical Methods; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Marketing Reference Programs; Web Services Industry

July 2013 (Revised August 2017)
Case

TaKaDu

By: Elie Ofek and Matthew Preble

In December 2012, Amir Peleg, founder and CEO of TaKaDu, reflected on how to position his young firm for the next fiscal year and beyond. The small Israeli startup had developed an innovative software system that used patented algorithms and statistical analysis to... View Details

July–August 2013
Article

A Joint Model of Usage and Churn in Contractual Settings

By: Eva Ascarza and Bruce G.S. Hardie

As firms become more customer-centric, concepts such as customer equity come to the fore. Any serious attempt to quantify customer equity requires modeling techniques that can provide accurate multiperiod forecasts of customer behavior. Although a number of researchers... View Details

Keywords: Churn; Retention; Contractual Settings; Access Services; Hidden Markov Models; RFM; Latent Variable Models; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior

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July–August 2013
Article

Complementary Goods: Creating, Capturing, and Competing for Value

By: Taylan Yalcin, Elie Ofek, Oded Koenigsberg and Eyal Biyalogorsky

This paper studies the strategic interaction between firms producing strictly complementary products. With strict complements, a consumer derives positive utility only when both products are used together. We show that value-capture and value-creation problems arise... View Details

Keywords: Complementary Goods; Product Development; Royalty Fees; Product Marketing; Competition

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2013
Tool

Harvard Business Review's Go to Market Tools: Pricing for Profit

By: Thomas Steenburgh and Jill Avery

What price is right? Figuring out the best price for your product or service can be nerve-wracking. Your new product launch or marketing campaign's success—perhaps even your career advancement—may hinge on the price you choose. So how do you select a price that's... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Tools; Pricing; Profitability Analysis; Pricing Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Marketing

June 2013 (Revised June 2015)
Teaching Note

Sir Alex Ferguson: Managing Manchester United

By: Anita Elberse

June 2013 (Revised January 2016)
Case

Château Margaux: Launching the Third Wine

By: Elie Ofek and Eric E. Vogt

Château Margaux, one of only five prestigious estates in the Bordeaux Medoc wine region to have been classified as a "first-growth", is facing a host of strategic decisions in early 2013. Up until this point the estate had been selling two red wines, a first wine whose... View Details

Keywords: New Product Launch; Marketing Plan; Brand Management; Go To Market Strategy; Channels Of Distribution; Wine Industry; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; France

2013
Dissertation

Designing Freemium: A Model of Consumer Usage, Upgrade, and Referral Dynamics

By: Clarence Lee, Vineet Kumar and Sunil Gupta

Abstract. Over the past decade "freemium" (free + premium) has become the dominant business model among internet start-ups for its ability to acquire and monetize a large install-base with limited marketing resources. Freemium is a hybrid strategy where a firm offers... View Details

Keywords: Discrete-Continuous Choice Dynamic Structural Models; Bayesian Estimation; Word-of-Mouth; Digital Services; Freemium; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Motivation and Incentives; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Reference Programs; Business Startups

May 2013 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Innovation at the Boston Consulting Group

By: Robert G. Eccles, Das Narayandas and Penelope Rossano

This case is about how the Boston Consulting Group has approached innovation from its founding to the present day. It discusses the role of the firm's talent market and client market in developing these innovations. View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Strategy Consulting; Professional Service Firm; Knowledge Management; Client Management; Product Development; Leadership; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Independent Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Value Creation; Consulting Industry

May 2013 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Ron Johnson: Retail at Target, Apple, and J.C. Penney

By: Das Narayandas, Kerry Herman and Lisa Mazzanti

In April 2013, Ron Johnson (HBS '84) stepped down after just 18 months as CEO of J.C. Penney. In his brief tenure, Johnson, an acclaimed retailer respected for his innovation and success in shaping the retail image at Target and Apple, introduced dramatic departures... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Situation or Environment; Failure; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; United States

May 2013
Teaching Note

Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite): Plus ça change... (TN)

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Arthur I. Segel, Elie Ofek and Carin-Isabel Knoop

May 2013
Case

Eureka Forbes Ltd.: Managing the Selling Effort (A) (Photonovel Version)

By: Das Narayandas, Kallol Das and Kerry Herman

The CEO of EFL (India), a direct sales organization, must decide which changes to the sales compensation systems would better motivate his sales reps and improve their sales performance. View Details

2013
Tool

Harvard Business Review's Go to Market Tools: Market Sizing

By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

Market size matters. On the hook to launch your division's next great product or service? Need to convince higher ups that your product will fit that gaping revenue hole—and is worth the team's scarce marketing and product development resources? You need hard data to... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Tools; Go To Market Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Marketing