Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(4,206)
- Faculty Publications (1,126)
Sales
→
- August 2020 (Revised September 2020)
- Case
Facelift at Olay (A)
By: Sunil Gupta, Rajiv Lal and Olivia Hull
By October 2017, Procter & Gamble’s skincare brand Olay has been struggling with declining sales for several years. The team has tried many remedies, but none has returned the brand to growth. As pressure grows from Olay’s competitors, including hundreds of new... View Details
- August 2020
- Supplement
Luckin Coffee (B): Revelations of Fraud
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman
This case describes revelations of fraud at Luckin Coffee, beginning with an anonymous report in January 2020 and continuing with the company’s admission in April 2020 that it had inflated its revenues by 2.2 billion RMB ($310 million), almost half its reported... View Details
- August 2020
- Article
Workplace Knowledge Flows
By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton
We conducted a field experiment in a sales firm to test whether improving knowledge flows between coworkers affects productivity. Our design allows us to compare different management practices and to isolate whether frictions to knowledge transmission primarily reside... View Details
- July 2020
- Technical Note
Digital Natives Growing Without a Sales Force
By: Das Narayandas, Michael Norris and Amram Migdal
This brief case describes the rise of so-called digital natives (also called born-in-digital) in the 2000s and 2010s that successfully grew without a sales force. The case highlights the emergence of business-to-business Internet and cloud-based companies and their... View Details
Keywords: Government Administration; Crisis Management; Health; Health Pandemics; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Information Technology Industry; Australia; North and Central America; United States; Illinois; Chicago; California; San Francisco
- July 2020
- Case
Amanda and Kristen: Mented Cosmetics
By: Steven Rogers, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Alterrell Mills
The co-founders (Black HBS alumnae) of an e-commerce beauty startup explore the unmet needs within the beauty industry. This case study examines the entrepreneurial opportunities that come from identifying an underserved market, specifically within the Black community... View Details
Keywords: Brands and Branding; Competition; Customers; Disruption; Disruptive Innovation; Distribution Channels; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Macroeconomics; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Product Design; Product Development; Product Positioning; Sales; Social Issues; Social Marketing; Business Startups; Strategic Planning; Strategy; Supply Chain Management; Venture Capital; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Advertising Industry; Public Relations Industry; Chemical Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; North and Central America; United States; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US)
- July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
- Case
Pattern Brands
By: Sunil Gupta, Elie Ofek and Julia Kelley
In March 2020, direct-to-consumer (DTC) company Pattern Brands needed to decide how to allocate resources across its different brands. Pattern Co-Founders Nick Ling and Emmett Shine hoped to avoid the pitfalls faced by some DTC companies—such as inability to scale and... View Details
Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Business Model; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Business Strategy; Diversification; Competitive Advantage; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; North and Central America; United States; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US)
- July 2020
- Case
Karen Bruck: Growing Managers at MercadoLibre
By: Joshua D. Margolis, Fernanda Miguel and Mariana Cal
Karen Bruck, Corporate Sales Director at MercadoLibre, Latin America's largest e-commerce platform, needs to make a decision about one of her managers, who, while analytically savvy, has an approach that does not fit in with the company's culture. View Details
- June 2020
- Case
TransDigm: The Acquisition of Aerosonic Corp.
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher
In April 2013, TransDigm, a company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and commercial aircraft, announced an agreement to acquire Aerosonic Corporation for $39 million in cash (1.2 times Aerosonic’s sales of $31... View Details
- June 2020
- Teaching Note
Understanding the Brand Equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar
By: Jill Avery and Gerald Zaltman
Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 519-061 and 519-062. In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of twenty of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. Under the... View Details
- June 2020
- Teaching Note
Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent
By: Jill Avery and David Fubini
Armarium, a two-sided digital platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments:... View Details
Keywords: Luxury Brand; Fashion; Sharing Economy; Two-sided Marketplace; Target Market; Customer Selection; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Two-Sided Platforms; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Fashion Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America
- June 2020
- Article
Frenemies in Platform Markets: Heterogeneous Profit Foci as Drivers of Compatibility Decisions
By: Ron Adner, Jianqing Chen and Feng Zhu
We study compatibility decisions of two competing platform owners that generate profits through both hardware sales and royalties from content sales. We consider a game-theoretic model in which two platforms offer different standalone utilities to users. We find that... View Details
- May 2020 (Revised June 2020)
- Case
TransDigm's Acquisition and Integration of Arkwin Industries
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher
In May 2013, TransDigm, a company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and civilian aircraft, announced it was buying Arkwin Industries for $286 million in cash (3 times Arkwin’s sales of $91 million). Having acquired... View Details
- May 2020
- Teaching Note
Talismark
By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 211-097. Talismark negotiated waste hauling contracts for small and medium size companies. Its owners, Charles Muszynski and Marshall Staiman, were able to grow the business by more than 30% per year since it was founded, but believed... View Details
- May 2020
- Teaching Note
Shiseido: Reinvesting in Brand
By: Jill Avery
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-026. Shiseido was in the midst of a six year corporate turnaround, trying to reverse the effects of decades of under-investment in R&D and marketing that had led to a vicious cycle of declining customer support and brand value. Would... View Details
- May 2020
- Teaching Note
Baskits Inc.
By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 217-001. Robin Kovitz (MBA 2007) acquired Baskits, a Canadian gift basket company, in October of 2014. The business was highly seasonal with two-thirds of its sales occurring in November and December. Baskits dealt with its seasonality... View Details
- May 2020
- Case
Big Boom Beverages: Fight or Flight?
By: Stephen A. Greyser and William Ellet
Four college friends market a beverage that combines ingredients like those in a drink they consumed in college bars. It includes a caffeinated energy drink, malt liquor, and a soft drink flavoring. They launch the business, Big Boom Beverages (BBB), with their own... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Anchors Aweigh: Analysis of Anchor Limited Partner Investors in Impact Investment Funds
By: Shawn A. Cole, T. Robert Zochowski, Fanele Mashwama and Heather McPherson
This note describes results from a survey of “anchor investors” in impact funds. Anchor investors
are described as “generally the first investor to make a substantial capital commitment to a fund,”
(according to the Global Impact Investing Network, “GIIN”) and their... View Details
- May 2020
- Teaching Note
Chem-Ecol
By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld
Dahra Allen acquired Chem-Ecol, a machine oil recycling business, for C$13.3 million in December of 2012. Allen decided to hire a sales director and the case discussion largely focuses on selecting the sales director from her short-list of five candidates. During the... View Details