Publications

May 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Camposol

By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred

With $289 million in 2015 revenues, Camposol is a Peruvian grower, exporter, and marketer of fruits and vegetables, with a focus on the high-growth, high-margin blueberry category. Camposol aspires to become Peru’s first multinational branded produce company. It... View Details

March 2010
Case

Target: Responding to the Recession

By: Ranjay Gulati, Rajiv Lal and Cathy Ross

Within 10 months of Gregg Steinhafel's taking over as CEO at Target, the U.S. was mired in the most significant economic downturn in 50 years. Top competitor Wal-Mart had positioned itself well for the crisis, while Target's same store sales began to slide. While... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Strategy; Operations; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Competition; Retail Industry; United States

February 1980 (Revised April 1981)
Case

Poland Spring Bottling Corp.

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Poland Spring is a small domestic bottler of mineral water trying to compete in a rapidly expanding market against Perrier, the dominant brand, and 20 other foreign and domestic waters. Company management must decide how to position and promote its product with limited... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Competition; Globalized Markets and Industries; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

June 1990 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Sorrell Ridge: Slotting Allowances

By: John A. Quelch

Management is attempting to penetrate the California retail grocery market with the company's line of all-fruit preserves. Substantial up-front fees (slotting allowances) have been requested by the chains. Management must decide how to respond. View Details

Keywords: Food; Distribution; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; California

September 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Chai Point: Disrupting Chai

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Ramana Nanda and Rachna Tahilyani

Chai Point is India’s largest organized chai retailer. It has missed its target for retail store openings by approximately 25%, goals that are very important to its investors who are also board members. However, it has developed an exciting new internet-based tea... View Details

January 2024
Case

Vibrant Health

By: Henry McGee and Sarah Mehta

This case is about nutritional supplements company Vibrant Health, among the 100 largest Black-owned businesses in the U.S. After acquiring the company from its white founder in 2007, co-owners Ted and Paige Parker significantly grew its sales. Set in September 2023,... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Race; Entrepreneurship; Nutrition; Ownership; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Leadership; Sales; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Eastern United States

May 2005 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Gallardo's Goes to Mexico

By: Clayton M. Christensen

The theories of market segmentation and brand building in Chapter 3, What Products Will Customers Want to Buy? in The Innovator's Solution by Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor suggest that when companies segment markets and build brands in ways that match how the... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Global Strategy; Brands and Branding; Segmentation; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Mexico

George Serafeim is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He co-leads a Lab, within Harvard's Digital, Data, Design Institute, and serves on the faculty steering commitee of Harvard University's Salata Institute. He... View Details

Keywords: food; food; food; food; food; food; food

Geoffrey G. Jones

Geoffrey Jones is the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, and Faculty Chair of the School's Business History Initiative. He holds degrees of BA, MA and PhD from Cambridge University, UK. He has an honorary Doctorate in Economics and Business Administration... View Details

Keywords: food; food; food; food; food; food; food; food; food; food; food; food; food

July 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

The Clorox Company: Leveraging Green for Growth

By: Elie Ofek and Lauren Barley

The Clorox Company needs to decide on the marketing strategy going forward for its three sustainable brands, Brita, Burt's Bees and Green Works. These brands had fared differently over the past 3 years and each presents multiple courses of action heading into 2011.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Managerial Roles; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Sales; Opportunities; Corporate Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Chemical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

2021
Book

Management as a Calling: Leading Business, Serving Society

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Business leaders have tremendous power to influence our society, how it operates, whether it is fair, and the extent to which it impacts the environment. And yet, we do not recognize or call out the responsibility that comes with that power. This book is meant to... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Power and Influence; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Leadership

Program

Agribusiness Seminar

and agribusiness entrepreneurs, in all sectors of the industry Producers of crops and livestock Processors, traders, distributors, and marketers of agricultural commodities, biofuels, and food products... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture; Agriculture

05 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 5, 2007

the United States. What has driven its success? How can it be sustained? Purchase this case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=706417 John Mackey and Whole Foods Market Harvard... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2024
Article

Price Discounts and Cheapflation During the Post-Pandemic Inflation Surge

By: Alberto Cavallo and Oleksiy Kryvtsov

We study how within-store price variation changes with inflation, and whether households exploit it to attenuate the inflation burden. We use micro price data for food products sold by 91 large multi-channel retailers in ten countries between 2018 and 2024. Measuring... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Inflation and Deflation; Price; Consumer Behavior; Personal Finance; Product Positioning

Read Now

Career Coach

Connie Walsh

services for a healthcare NFP called Helping Hands. Prior to Staples, Connie worked in strategic marketing and brand management at Harvard Business School, Kraft Foods and Johnson & Johnson. Connie also... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products; Retail; Social Enterprise; Technology

18 Nov 2009
HBS Case

Customer Feedback Not on elBulli’s Menu

six months that elBulli, his restaurant, is open. The world is beating a path to Chef Ferran Adrià's door, but why? "Creativity comes first; then comes the customer," he has said. So what can HBS students learn about marketing... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

January 1994
Article

Foreign Multinationals in British Manufacturing, 1850-1962

By: G. Jones and Frances Bostock

This article draws on a new database to describe the dimensions and characteristics of 685 foreign companies which established British manufacturing subsidiaries between 1850 and 1962. The numbers of foreign companies grew from the 1890s, expanded rapidly in the... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Business Subsidiaries; Expansion; Chemicals; Metals and Minerals; Food; Mergers and Acquisitions; Market Entry and Exit; Research and Development; Trade; Investment; Production; United Kingdom; United States; Scotland; Wales

Find at Harvard

November 1983 (Revised December 1984)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: Grandma's ""Ready-To-Eat"" Cookies

Mr. Kenneth Treece, marketing director of Frito-Lay's Grandma's (R) Cookie division has received the final test market figures for the new supermarket line of Grandma's Ready-To-Eat cookies. One set of data, the Kansas City test results, was extremely encouraging;... View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States