Publications

July 1991 (Revised June 1992)
Case

Retail Promotional Pricing: When Is a Sale Really a Sale? (A)

Addresses the controversy that surrounds highly promotional retail pricing referred to as "high-low pricing" by the trade. High-low pricing involves setting prices at an initially high level for a brief period of time, then discounting off the so-called "regular" or... View Details

Keywords: Courts and Trials; Price; Ethics; Consumer Behavior; Product Marketing; Retail Industry; Colorado

Educators

November 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Supplement

PittaRosso (B): Human and Machine Learning

By: Ayelet Israeli

This case supplements the "PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion" case, and provides major highlights on what happened at the company since the first case. View Details

Profile

Hayling Price

you look at neighborhoods of persistent poverty, you see failures, not just of policy, but of markets. To lead the kind of change I see, I needed a different set of skills. To speak truth to power, I need to use the language of markets to View Details

Keywords: Financial Services; Nonprofit/Government/Education

September 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Case

J.C. Penney's 'Fair and Square' Pricing Strategy

By: Elie Ofek and Jill Avery

As a he gets ready to release 2nd quarter 2012 results, Ron Johnson, the new CEO of department store J.C. Penney, is reconsidering the dramatic changes he initiated for the business model and brand image of his company. A new pricing scheme he put in place in February,... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Consumer Behavior; Management Teams; Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Price; Brands and Branding; Decision Making; Retail Industry; United States

Educators

2021
Working Paper

Does Cash Really Mean Trash? An Empirical Investigation into the Effect of Retailer Price Promotions on Household Food Waste

By: Arjen van Lin, Aylin Aydinli, Marco Bertini, Erica van Herpen and Julia von Schuckmann

28 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

How to Avoid a Price Increase

When product companies see the cost of materials rise, the result for consumers is often a price increase (gasoline) or, less often, a smaller amount of product at the same price (potato chips). Which option... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

April 2016
Teaching Note

Cree Inc.: Introducing the LED Light Bulb

By: John Gourville and Michael Norris

This case is taught as part of the first year required marketing course in the Harvard Business School's MBA program. This course is built around the "Four Ps," with modules focusing on product, promotion, place, and pricing. The Cree case is used in the product policy... View Details

Keywords: Lighting Industry; Marketing; Pricing; Promotion; Technological Innovation; Energy Conservation; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; Energy Industry

2002
Other Unpublished Work

The Effect of Editorial Discretion Book Promotion on Sales at Amazon.com

By: Benjamin Edelman

A new dataset collected by the author allows estimation of the effect on book sales of promotional listing on Amazon's editorial discretion pages. Following Goolsbee and Chevalier (2001), sales quantities are inferred from sales rank data freely available on Amazon's... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Sales; Marketing Strategy; Web Sites; Competition; Books

2014
Working Paper

Bride Price and the Returns to Education

By: Nava Ashraf, Natalie Bau, Nathan Nunn and Alessandra Voena

Traditional cultural practices can play an important role in development, but can also inspire condemnation. The custom of bride price, prevalent throughout sub-Saharan Africa and in parts of Asia as a payment of the groom to the family of the bride, is one example. In... View Details

Keywords: Zambia; Indonesia

2021
Government Testimony

How Health Care Consolidation Is Contributing to Higher Prices and Spending, and Reforms That Could Bolster Antitrust Enforcement and Preserve and Promote Competition in Health Care Markets

By: Leemore S. Dafny

Reforms to antitrust law and enforcement can help to address rising healthcare prices and spending. View Details

Keywords: Antitrust Law; Health Care and Treatment; Consolidation; Price; Spending; Cost Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; United States

15 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Deconstructing the Price Tag

When a company sets a price for a product, shoppers typically have no idea what it costs to produce that item. But it turns out that consumers reward efforts to lay out these figures—to deconstruct the price... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

29 Oct 2015
News

Options to Promote Competitive Generics Markets in the United States

04 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How Schmoozing with the Boss Helps Men Get Promoted

Business School Working Knowledge. [Image: mediaphotos] Related Reading Women Pay a Higher Career Price in Today's Always-On Work Culture Gender-Diverse Companies Thrive Only Where Diversity is Embraced How Gender Stereotypes Kill a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Seven Tips for Managing Price Increases

the board but only on items selected as your inflation-busters. For cash poor consumers, these promotions should hit the key price points on small pack sizes. For cash rich consumers, encourage multi-unit... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

June 2014
Article

The Price of Wall Street's Power

By: Gautam Mukunda

Over and over again, executives make decisions that aren't in their companies' best interests, in response to pressure from Wall Street. Though many believe this happens because firms have a "fiduciary duty" to maximize shareholder returns, U.S. executives do not, as a... View Details

21 May 2018
HBS Case

How Would You Price One of the World's Great Watches?

need to go into this," Thomke says. He prefers not to reveal the final price settled on by the company, in order to promote a more lively discussion during class. Let’s just say it’s expensive. While... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Fashion

01 Dec 2015
News

Faculty Q&A: The Price Is Right

What intrigued you about the pay-what-you-want (PWYW) model? It’s very unusual for a firm or a seller to completely relinquish pricing power to their customers. Typically consumers encounter a price, and then they decide whether or not... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

August 2018 (Revised February 2019)
Case

Shindigz

By: Frank Cespedes

Shindigz provides party and celebratory items for various occasions and events through its branded online channel, through third-party retail and wholesale channels, and external online marketplaces. The case focuses on pricing challenges facing a venture with an... View Details

Keywords: Ecommerce; Pricing; Price; Strategy; Decision Making; Brands and Branding; Distribution Channels; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry

Educators