Fast-moving Consumer Goods - Publications - Faculty & Research

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Is There Help for the Big Ticket Buyer?

As a professor of decision making and negotiation, I often receive unsolicited phone calls from relatives, friends, and acquaintances seeking my advice on consumer matters such as negotiating for a house, bidding on eBay, and investing in... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman

November 1992 (Revised June 1994)
Case

Packaged Products Company: Handy-Pak Introduction

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Laura Goode

The product manager and the market research director for a new line of snacking nuts are reviewing options concerning the upcoming roll-out of the product. These options include changes in pricing, promotional plans, and salesforce incentives intended to build support... View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Product Launch; Distribution; Planning; Research and Development; Sales; Salesforce Management; Alignment; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

Citation

Find at Harvard

Houghton diversified Corning Glass products and expanded, for the first time, into the field of consumer goods. He sharply reduced the prices for beakers, Pyrex ovenware, and electric light bulbs, making them more attractive as... View Details

Keywords: Fabricated Goods

Eugene M. Patterson

Though educated and trained as a lawyer, Patterson eventually joined the family business, expanding it from its tobacco equipment roots to include many other consumer products, most notably automated bowling equipment, as well as various... View Details

Keywords: Fabricated Goods

23 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

Will the “Long Tail” Work for Hollywood?

long-tail view suggests that consumers will purchase an increasing number and a wider variety of videos, everything from Hollywood classics to obscure foreign films. Long-tail proponents believe that View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Entertainment & Recreation

01 Dec 2015
News

Faculty Q&A: The Price Is Right

for buyers, then buyers will pay more for the same good than when exchange norms are salient. This was an easy, no-cost adjustment for a substantive shift in revenues. + ONLINE web-only content Past studies have shown that the way View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

15 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Deconstructing the Price Tag

available—for example, in cases where goods are produced by a variety of manufacturers. For companies with goods and services that depend on high fixed costs, such as research and development and overhead,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

What Your Competition is Telling You

commercial properties, and planned communities. So as the Rouse shopping center becomes the place of choice for consumers primarily interested in good jewelry or children's clothes, the competing shopping... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

02 Feb 2016
Blog Post

A Summer Internship in General Management

summer at a consumer packaged goods company that makes some of the country’s most well-known brands, I learned how to approach a problem from a marketing perspective. I feel that the additional granularity... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

17 Nov 2020
In Practice

How Retailers Can Thrive in a Shopping Season Like No Other

American retailers are heading into a holiday shopping season unlike any other as the spiraling COVID-pandemic and limp economy threaten consumer spending. We asked Harvard Business School faculty members—in particular, authors of recent... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Retail

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Cyber-Marketing: Scouting the Digital Communications Frontier

Seated before a computer with an Internet link, consumers today can flip through an estimated 800 million Web pages of public information by merely clicking a mouse. Add to this that television, now in 98 percent of American homes, is... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

01 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

How Much Time Should CEOs Devote to Customers?

the current economic downturn, companies need marketing skills more than ever. But while every corporate mission statement pays lip service to respecting customer needs, actual customer expertise is typically a mile wide and an inch deep. A View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Peeling Back the Global Brand

powerful countries—homes of transnationals—are less persuaded by the dimensions," said Holt. And as national borders become less important, niches or pockets of consumer preferences become more important. A View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

26 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

How Grocery Bags Manipulate Your Mind

did something good for the environment, so you can have a cookie.” New experimental research shows that shoppers are more likely to buy virtuous organic items when they bring their own reusable bags to the store than when they opt for... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Ground-Floor Opportunities for Retail in India

opportunity for goods and services that offer new consumer concepts or new product qualities, but most Indians believe brands are more expensive—even when they're not. It can be difficult for a new product... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

November 2014
Teaching Note

Marketing Marijuana in Colorado

By: John A. Quelch

The case, set in the middle of 2014, reviews the first six months of marketplace activity in Colorado, following the legalization of marijuana for recreational use and the expansion of marijuana retailing from medical dispensaries to recreational stores. The case... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Innovations; Retail Government Services; Public Health; Agribusiness; Customers; Goods and Commodities; Government and Politics; Health; Marketing; Society; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; North and Central America

Citation

Purchase

17 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Beyond Pajamas: Sizing Up the Pandemic Shopper

significantly as more consumers than ever started shopping online. As vaccines fuel hope about life after COVID-19, retailers are trying to learn more about the pandemic shopper. Are they different from the existing online users? Do they... View Details

Keywords: by Ayelet Israeli, Eva Ascarza, and Laura Castrillo; Retail

Web

Strategy and Technology - Course Catalog

attributes, which make their products increasingly valuable if more consumers buy their product or if more complements become available. What are the implications for market tipping, pricing and growth strategies? Multisided Platforms... View Details

24 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Busting Six Myths About Customer Loyalty Programs

There are three ways to differentiate in retailing: location, location, and location. The problem is that as markets mature, location becomes less potent as a competitive advantage because the consumer has a growing abundance of... View Details

Keywords: by Marcel Corstjens & Rajiv Lal; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

15 Mar 2019
News

A Model of Drive and Impact

three years), and the opportunity it has provided to fulfill a personal mission. “What we do at Clicars is to eliminate in-person visits to car dealerships through digitalization and trust. Thirty percent of consumers would rather go to... View Details

Keywords: Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers; Retail Trade

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