Channel Sales - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Aug 1998
News

High Honors

expanded into other parts of the country, added four production facilities, and saw sales top $7 million. In 1960, Barford sold his share of the business to his partners and returned home with his family to Toronto. The following year, he... View Details

15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

or as an effort of managers to massage metrics. The salutary effects of activist investors can be appreciated, just as one also appreciates the information and incentive problems that plague their money management industry. The channeling... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

26 Nov 2001
Op-Ed

Why Corporate Budgeting Needs To Be Fixed

the total value of the company. We saw such erosion in the two examples presented earlier. We see it as well in the common practice of channel stuffing—when managers ship loads of products to distributors to meet immediate View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

Interestingly, these services subsidize the declining productivity of key item and category sales in the store. This idea of subsidizing competitively challenged parts of the offer is a common occurrence in retail. For example, the... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

Web

Judges - Alumni

/AR and frontier technology by Goldman Sachs, CB Insights, and Pitchbook. Brandon spent time in sales operations and corporate development at Box. His passions and focus are mainly in enterprise technologies; notably applied machine... View Details

23 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovative Ways to Encourage Personal Savings

essentially "raffle off" the interest pot each period. Savers give up a large chance of a small return for a small chance of a large, life-changing return. I have studied these programs in England, where they have been run for over 50 years, as well as in South Africa.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

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

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October 2022 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Aphro Beverages

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amram Migdal

This case focuses on distribution, sales, and product decisions as Aphro Beverages reaches an inflection point in its growth trajectory. In 2020, Aphro Beverages, based in Accra, Ghana, successfully launched its brand and brought two new alcoholic spirits products to... View Details

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01 Dec 2022
News

Singing to the Corn

throughout college and into HBS. That intensity has been channeled by mentors throughout Keen’s life. One such person is Deward Walker, who in 2007 challenged Keen with a question that has a recurring role in Sacred Seed’s origin story:... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Vance Jacobs; Agriculture

09 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Overcoming the Challenges of Selling Brand New Technology (Hey, Need a 3-D Printer?)

collateral design, launches the product, and then “throws it over the wall” to sales and marketing. “This process is product-centric and a bucket-brigade approach where the groups work serially and in silos in a rapidly changing tech... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Consumer Products; Electronics; Industrial Products; Information Technology; Manufacturing; Medical Devices & Supplies; Retail

21 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The Pandemic Conversations That Leaders Need to Have Now

organization doesn’t seem psychologically safe, create venues for honest questions and ideas. Find a channel for people who have concerns they may not want to bring to their direct supervisors. In meetings, allow people to submit... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Robin Abrahams, and Katherine Connolly Baden

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

client-centric approach. It intensified virtual interactions with customers, merged sales and customer service, and boosted integration of all databases, which had been spread across functions, into a single customer resource management... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

04 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Predictions, Prophets, and Restarting Your Business

clear-cut. “A problem with megatrend predictions is that, even if they turn out to be generally accurate, they’re not managerially useful.” In the first month of social distancing in the United States, online sales at Walmart and Target... View Details

Keywords: by Frank V. Cespedes

2009
Working Paper

Crafting Integrated Multichannel Retailing Strategies

Multichannel retailing is the set of activities involved in selling merchandise or services to consumers through more than one channel. Multichannel retailers dominate today's retail landscape. While there are many benefits of operating multiple channels, these... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Sales; Integration; Retail Industry

Citation

Read Now

07 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Rocket Science Retailing

better supply chain management.For many of the retailers in our study, forecasting product demand is a right-brain function that relies on the gut feel of a few individuals and not on the systematic use of sales data. But it's a big... View Details

Keywords: by Marshall L. Fisher, Ananth Raman & Anna Sheen McClelland; Retail

05 Dec 2007
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Marketing

Cannibalizing Direct Sales? Working Paper: Adding Bricks to Clicks—The Effects of Store Openings on Sales through Direct ChannelsConsider a retailer who operates both brick-and-mortar stores and direct View Details

30 Apr 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Brand Management

disagrees. Key concepts include: Most B2B marketers cannot economically address thousands of small businesses using the traditional direct sales force. If left unattended, individual managers will each do their own ad hoc marketing. B2B... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Sports; Publishing; Auto

22 Jan 2001
Research & Ideas

Control Your Inventory in a World of Lean Retailing

perspective of actual consumer buying patterns, a blazer in an atypical size actually has more in common with a fashion-driven product than with the same style jacket in a popular size. For example, sales for 46-regular, one of the most... View Details

Keywords: by Frederick H. Abernathy, John T. Dunlop, Janice H. Hammond & David Weil; Consumer Products

18 Mar 2014
News

The Oz of Data Opens the Curtain

valuable and transformative." Also last September, Acxiom unveiled its beta Audience Operating System, which allows marketers to connect traditionally disconnected data across all channels — online, offline, and mobile — and which Howe... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley; Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services; Information

August 1983 (Revised May 1985)
Case

Jamestown Co.

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Edward J. Hoff

In May 1983 Ms. Katherine O'Brien, vice president of marketing, was deciding whether Jamestown should discontinue the use of independent representatives in favor of a direct company salesforce. Jamestown sold informal stoneware dinnerware through department and gift... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Leadership Style; Marketing Channels; Salesforce Management

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