Publications

October 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

American Legacy: Beyond the Truth Campaign

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

The hard-hitting "Truth" campaign has been one of the most successful antismoking initiatives in history. The focus of the "Truth" campaign is to dissuade teenagers from smoking. The sponsor of the campaign, the American Legacy Foundation, is now trying to decide... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Communication Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Ethics; Brands and Branding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

August 1999 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Brita Products Company, The

By: John A. Deighton

Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Acquisition; Retention; Safety; Natural Environment; Emerging Markets; Investment Return; Equity; Demand and Consumers; United States

September 2018
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek

In mid-2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry

26 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation

countries generally lack a solid technology base of trained scientists and world-class research universities. 2. Companies in developing countries must manage to eke out a profit while serving customers with low disposable income; per... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull, Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi & Martin Escobari

20 Aug 2018
Research & Ideas

Bargain Hunters Beware: A Store's 'Original Price' Might Not Be After All

but it’s persistent,” Ngwe says. Examining the data from the outlet stores, he realized there was a wealth of information that could answer whether customers were actually fooled by faux pricing. In fact, when he compared fake prices to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising; Retail

February 2008
Exercise

Gerson Lehrman Group

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr. and David Lane

Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) brought together decision makers in search of hard-to-find answers with specialized experts in nearly every imaginable field. Over time, GLG developed software to help minimize potential conflicts of interest among and between experts and... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Customer Focus and Relationships; Governance Compliance; Conflict of Interests; Competitive Advantage; Software; Consulting Industry

Find at Harvard

23 Apr 2014
News

Timing plus smart ideas are the keys to being an entrepreneur

Victoria Ransom (MBA 2008) launched Wildfire Interactive, now a Google company, to connect companies and customers through social media. (Published April 2014) View Details

December 2012
Article

Defending the Markers of Masculinity: Consumer Resistance to Brand Gender-Bending

By: Jill Avery

I study the Porsche Cayenne SUV launch to ethnographically analyze how men consuming a gendered brand respond to perceived brand gender contamination. Consumers' communal gender work in a Porsche brand community is analyzed to uncover brand gender contamination's... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Building; Brand Equity; Brand Management; Brand Positioning; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Gender; Identity; Customer Focus and Relationships; Auto Industry; Consumer Products Industry

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Article

The Business of Business Schools: Restoring a Focus on Competing to Win

By: Robert Simons

As business leaders worry about the decline of American competitiveness, business schools are responding by changing their curriculums. But are the topics and approaches taught in today's business schools part of the solution or part of the problem? In this paper, I... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools; Purpose Of Business Schools; Management Education; Business School Curriculum; Strategy Execution; U.S. Competitiveness; Capitalism; Management Profession; Innovation; Competing To Win; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Trends; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Design; Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Innovation and Management

Read Now

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

How Bank of America Turned Branches into Service-Development Laboratories

deposits and withdrawals. Five were turned into "financial centers," spacious, relaxed outlets where customers would have access to the trained staff and advanced technologies required for sophisticated services such as stock... View Details

Keywords: by Stefan Thomke; Banking; Financial Services

06 May 2002
What Do You Think?

What’s Driving the “New Marketing?”

'Partner' I mean both the customers (who help define the value) as well as the enabling partners (who help in delivering the value)." Perhaps we should be encouraged that the ideas excerpted from Marketing Moves (always at the risk... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Web

Once in a Lifetime Opportunities | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

effectively and efficiently measure the impact of Acumen’s portfolio companies. “We developed Lean Data as a smart way to listen to our customers and understand the impact of our products and services on their lives,” Kasia says. In the... View Details

25 Feb 2020
News

Case Study: The Credit Bureau

young professionals) select pieces from curated collections on the company’s website—think Scandinavian, mid-century modern, or industrial looks. Within a week, a white-glove team delivers preassembled pieces and arranges the room. When the lease is up, the View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Real Estate

March 1999
Case

Australia's Telstra Corporation (A): Going Public

By: W. Earl Sasser, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

Frank Blount is named CEO of Telstra, Australia's state-owned telecommunications giant. In preparation for its 1997 IPO, he must reorganize the company from an inefficient public entity into a lean, customer-driven organization. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Focus and Relationships; State Ownership; Performance Effectiveness; Privatization; Telecommunications Industry; Australia