• June 2016
• Teaching Note

Relating to Peapod

By: Jill Avery and Susan Fournier

This case concerns the topics of relationship marketing, customer acquisition and retention, brand loyalty, service failure and recovery, new product introduction, and the use of consumer ethnography to study consumer behavior. Specifically, the case explores the... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Customer Behavior; Consumer Behavior; Retailing; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; E-commerce; Retail Industry; United States

Citation

Purchase

Related

Avery, Jill, and Susan Fournier. "Relating to Peapod." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 316-175, June 2016.

• April 2022
• Article

Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton

Many products and services are designed to make caregiving easier, from premade meals for feeding families to robo-cribs that automatically rock babies to sleep. Yet, using these products may come with a cost: consumers may feel they have not exerted enough effort.... View Details

Keywords: Effor; Caregiving; Close Relationships; Symbolic Meaning; Signaling; Relationships; Consumer Behavior; Perception

Citation

Find at Harvard

Related

Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams, and Michael I. Norton. "Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others." Journal of Consumer Research 48, no. 6 (April 2022): 970–990.

• 30 Aug 2017
• News

Looking to win the battle for consumer attention? Take the blindfold off.

• 05 Aug 2002
• Research & Ideas

Are Consumers the Cure for Broken Health Insurance?

If companies are willing to embrace a new model of health coverage—one that places control over costs and care directly in the hands of employees—the competitive forces that spur productivity and innovation in View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger

• 01 Jun 2003
• News

Male Consumers as Man-of-Action Heroes

of the authors’ research, marketers may need to re-examine the idea that they should imbue their brands with either respectability or rebellion. Instead, as Holt and Thompson’s study suggests, it is in the... View Details

Keywords: Douglas; Holt; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

• Research Summary

Selling China: Foreign Direct Investment During the Reform Era

The aim of the book is to illustrate the dynamics of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China in the 1990s. The topic is important both because China is the world's second largest recipient of FDI and because there are substantial misconceptions about the drivers of... View Details

• October 2009
• Article

Shaping Online Consumer Choice by Partitioning the Web

By: Jolie M. Martin and Michael I. Norton

This research explores how partitioning attributes in online search interfaces changes the valuations of those attributes-and impacts subsequent choice-such that attributes that are displayed as separate categories tend to receive greater decision weight than... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Management; Demand and Consumers; Research; Internet and the Web; Valuation

Citation

Find at Harvard

Read Now

Related

Martin, Jolie M., and Michael I. Norton. "Shaping Online Consumer Choice by Partitioning the Web." Psychology & Marketing 26, no. 10 (October 2009): 908–926.

• September 2016 (Revised November 2017)
• Case

Casper Sleep Inc.: Marketing the 'One Perfect Mattress for Everyone'

By: Robert J. Dolan

“A Warby Parker of mattresses? Somebody is going to do it. Why not us?” This was the topic of a conversation begun in spring 2013 among Gabe Flateman, Philip Krim, Neil Parikh, and T. Luke Sherwin. The four met as members of a New York City venture accelerator... View Details

Keywords: Mattress; Sleep; Marketing; Business Model; Marketing Channels; Adoption; Sales; Consumer Products Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

Related

Dolan, Robert J. "Casper Sleep Inc.: Marketing the 'One Perfect Mattress for Everyone'." Harvard Business School Case 517-042, September 2016. (Revised November 2017.)

• March 2025
• Article

Differentiating on Diversity: How Disclosing Workforce Diversity Influences Consumer Choice

By: Maya Balakrishnan, Jimin Nam and Ryan W. Buell

Companies are facing increased pressure to “walk the talk” on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their operations. One specific call-to-action from stakeholders is the public disclosure of EEO-1s. Companies with 100+ employees are federally mandated to annually... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Corporate Disclosure; Diversity; Employees; Perception

Citation

Read Now

Purchase

Related

Balakrishnan, Maya, Jimin Nam, and Ryan W. Buell. "Differentiating on Diversity: How Disclosing Workforce Diversity Influences Consumer Choice." Production and Operations Management 34, no. 3 (March 2025): 457–474.

• 2012
• Working Paper

Entrepreneurship in the Natural Food and Beauty Categories Before 2000: Global Visions and Local Expressions

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper examines the creation of the global natural food and beauty categories before 2000. This is shown to have been a lengthy process of new category creation involving the exercise of entrepreneurial imagination. Pioneering entrepreneurs faced little... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Consumer Goods; Entrepreneurs; Environment; Food; Globalization; Business History; Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; North and Central America

Citation

Read Now

Related

Jones, Geoffrey. "Entrepreneurship in the Natural Food and Beauty Categories Before 2000: Global Visions and Local Expressions." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-024, August 2012.

• 09 Feb 2012
• Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Online Marketing

benefit merchants through advertising, simply by informing consumers of a merchant's existence via e-mail. For some merchants, the benefits of offering discount vouchers are sharply reduced if individual customers buy multiple vouchers.... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Technology