Publications

February 2003 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Reaching the Bottom: UniGlobe's Small Local Stores Dilemma

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Lana Newishy

To distribute products to very small retailers in a very fragmented retail environment, the local subsidiary of a large consumer products company created an innovative distribution mechanism. The subsidiary's Small Local Stores division employed middlemen who... View Details

Keywords: Distribution Channels; Innovation and Invention; Consumer Products Industry; Philippines

10 Apr 2025
Blog Post

IFC India 2025: SELCO - Decentralized Renewable Energy to Develop While Decarbonizing

technologies. Over our ten days in India, we explored numerous decarbonization solutions, but for true climate action to succeed in India, it must be inclusive. SELCO is achieving this by using DRE to... View Details

11 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

The House Wants to Squelch Voices of ‘Small’ Shareholders. Research Shows Those Voices Matter.

Source: iStock In June 2017, the US House of Representatives passed the Financial CHOICE Act, a 589-page bill designed to repeal many of the regulations in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

June 2014
Case

Going Social: Durex in China

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Aaron Smith

When Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a leading consumer goods company, first entered China, it encountered significant challenges. RB's strategy relied on selling high margin products supported by cost-effective advertising and distribution, but the highly competitive Chinese... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Multinational Firms and Management; Internet and the Web; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; China

16 Oct 2013
HBS Seminar

Minjae Song, University of Rochester

05 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Raise Their Prices: Because They Can

much as they did." Instead, markups—the difference between prices charged at checkout and the marginal costs incurred by a company in order to make a product—climbed about 25 percent between 2006 and 2019,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

November 2021
Article

Ratings, Reviews, and the Marketing of New Products

By: Itay P. Fainmesser, Dominique Olié Lauga and Elie Ofek

We study how user-generated content (UGC) about new products impacts a firm's advertising and pricing decisions and the effect on profits and market dynamics. We construct a two-period model where consumers value quality and are heterogeneous in their taste for the new... View Details

Keywords: Online Reviews; Product Ratings; Social Networks; Word Of Mouth; Pricing; User-generated Content; Advertising; Product Marketing; Price; Consumer Behavior; Product Positioning; Social Media

23 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Three-Dimensional Strategy: Winning the Multisided Platform

third party. By contrast, a grocery store also creates a space for consumers and multiple brands to meet—but the store controls the transaction, serving as a reseller. Done right, the MSP model has proven... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

December 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Beingmate

By: David E. Bell, Juan Ma and Natalie Kindred

Founded in 2002, Hangzhou, China–based Beingmate was a major producer of infant formula and related products in the high-demand Chinese market. After an infamous 2008 food safety episode in China, in which toxic infant formula sickened thousands of babies and led to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Food and Beverage Industry; China

April 2012
Article

Bouncing Out of the Banking System: An Empirical Analysis of Involuntary Bank Account Closures

By: Dennis Campbell, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez and Peter Tufano

Using a new database, we document the factors that relate to the extent of involuntary consumer bank account closure resulting from excessive overdraft activity. Consumers who have accounts involuntarily closed for overdraft activity may have limited or no access to... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Customers; Social Issues; Outcome or Result; Budgets and Budgeting; Forecasting and Prediction; Competition; Banks and Banking; Policy; Personal Characteristics; Credit; Employment; United States

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

problems valuing the business, which seemed at times to resemble more of a holding company or conglomerate than anything else, nor that most consumers barely knew that Unilever as such existed. There was, in... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

November 2001
Case

Gold Kist Inc.

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Stephanie Oestreich

An oversupply of poultry causes a major decrease in margins for the company and the industry. How does the only cooperative in the industry respond to short-term and long-term economic pressures? View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Economics; Profit; Consumer Behavior; Supply and Industry; Strategic Planning; Business Strategy

Research Summary

Foreclosure with Incomplete Information

In this paper we investigate the robustness of the widely-used new foreclosure doctrine and its associated welfare implications to the introduction of incomplete information. In particular, we make the realistic assumption that the upstream firm’s marginal cost... View Details

January 2018
Case

Trian Partners' Proxy Contest at Procter & Gamble

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

In July 2017, activist hedge fund Trian Partners announced that it was launching a proxy fight at U.S. consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. P&G would be the largest company ever subjected to a proxy fight, as Trian sought to have its CEO, Nelson Peltz, elected to the... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Governance; Institutional Investing; Investment Activism; Business and Shareholder Relations; United States

Article

Product Positioning in a Two-Dimensional Vertical Differentiation Model: The Role of Quality Costs

By: Dominique Lauga and Elie Ofek

We study a duopoly model where consumers are heterogeneous with respect to their willingness to pay for two product characteristics and marginal costs are increasing with the quality level chosen on each attribute. We show that while firms seek to manage competition... View Details

Keywords: Duopoly and Oligopoly; Customers; Quality; Product Positioning; Competition; Management; Cost; Product

July – August 2008
Article

Should You Invest in the Long Tail?

By: Anita Elberse

The blockbuster strategy is a time-honored approach, particularly in media and entertainment. When space is limited on store shelves and in traditional distribution channels, producers tend to focus on a few likely best sellers, hoping that one or two big hits will... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Distribution Channels; Sales; Marketing Strategy; Online Technology; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Retail Industry

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December 2013
Case

Clique Pens: The Writing Implements Division of U.S. Home

By: Frank V. Cespedes and James Kindley

The Clique Pens Writing Implements division of U.S. Home is a manufacturer of a full line of pens, pencils, markers, and art supplies. Despite solid sales, division president Elise Ferguson has seen gross margins drop from 42% in 2010 to just over 36% in 2012 as a... View Details

Keywords: Production; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Compensation and Benefits; Sales; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

April 2025
Case

Breezm: Innovative 3D-Printed Eyewear (A)

By: Juan Alcácer, Brian Mao Fu and Adina Wong

In 2023, Breezm, a South Korean startup, faced a strategic decision about how to grow its innovative 3D-printed, custom-fit eyewear business. Co-founded in 2017 by Zenma Park and Wooseok Sung, Breezm combined facial scanning, AI, and in-house production to solve the... View Details

Keywords: 3D Printing; Eyeyewear; Growth; Business Startups; AI and Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Expansion; South Korea

August 1999 (Revised October 1999)
Case

RCA Records: The Digital Revolution

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

In 1995, Bertelsmann-owned RCA Records was considered a "tired and old" record label. By 1999, the company represented a number of the "hottest" acts in the music industry. Nevertheless, the company's position (as well as that of the entire music industry) was under... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Business Model; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Internet and the Web; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Music Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States