Publications

2012
Teaching Note

Zhejiang Semir Garment Co., Ltd. (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao and Yuren Fang

With the rapid growth of China's economy and China's increasing integration into the global economy in the past two decades, China's leisure clothing and garment enterprises achieved a rapid rise and became an important competitive force confronting the foreign brands... View Details

Keywords: Business Model Innovation; Competitive Strategy; Management Controls; China; China

02 Sep 2010
News

Disputing wrongful dismissal; consumers like underdogs, too

17 Jun 2011
HBS Case

KFC’s Explosive Growth in China

crucial social skills for young adults who grew up in single-child households, creates lifelong Yum! Brands customers, and develops a culture of customer service in a country where there was none. The... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Food & Beverage

April 2004 (Revised May 2005)
Case

ING DIRECT

By: James L. Heskett

The CEO of ING Direct (U.S.) has to decide: (1) whether and how to coordinate his organization's branding effort with its parent, ING Group, and (2) how fast to grow the business. Includes color exhibits. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Planning; Problems and Challenges; Financial Services Industry; United States

August 2015 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Planters Nuts

By: Robert J. Dolan and Donald K. Ngwe

In 2012 Planters had about $1 billion in U.S. annual revenues, but had experienced declining unit sales and household penetration over the past six years. The snack nuts category was growing overall, but household spending was shifting away from peanuts, cashews, and... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

September 1995 (Revised August 1996)
Case

Land Rover North America, Inc.

Charles Hughes, president and CEO of Land Rover North America, Inc., is debating product positioning options for the new Land Rover Discovery. The positioning decision must consider the role of the Discovery vis-`a-vis other vehicles in the LRNA line, the brand's... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Brands and Branding; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; North and Central America; United Kingdom

March–April 2017
Article

What's the Value of a Like?: Social Media Endorsements Don't Work the Way You Might Think

By: Leslie John, Daniel Mochon, Oliver Emrich and Janet Schwartz

Brands spend billions of dollars a year on lavish efforts to establish and maintain a social media presence. But do those campaigns actually increase revenue? New research provides an answer to this question, which has vexed marketers ever since social media burst upon... View Details

Keywords: Social and Collaborative Networks; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Media

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12 Mar 2020
Video

Ian Fuhr

Ian Fuhr, founder of Sorbet, the largest chain of beauty salons in South Africa, describes how he built the Sorbet brand through offering unconditional refunds and careful training of staff in the company’s... View Details

05 Jan 2022
News

New Balance Lawsuit Shows How Flimsy the ‘Made in USA’ Label Actually Is

03 Feb 2013
News

Ad firms break down formula for success on Super stage

February 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Citigroup: Re-Branding in 2007 (A)

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Carin-Isabel Knoop

With its history of growth through acquisition, Citigroup has a conglomeration of sub-brands that need to be integrated and rationalized. Ajay Banga, CEO of Citi's Global Consumer Group International, chairs a task force to work through the process of re-branding the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Customer Focus and Relationships; Globalization; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

March 2007 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Burt's Bees: Leaving the Hive

Rapid growth is pushing Burt's Bees' natural personal care products into mass distribution channels, with products and brand elements that are less quirky, more commercial than they used to be. Indeed, CEO John Replogle believes that by focusing on efficacious,... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Consumer Behavior; Asset Pricing; Entrepreneurship; Distribution Channels; Product Development; Brands and Branding; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

28 Jan 2008
Research & Ideas

Billions of Entrepreneurs in China and India

Entrepreneurship in the world's two most populous nations, China and India, has through modern times been somewhat asleep. But now, says HBS professor Tarun Khanna in a new book, both societies "have woken up," View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

USA TODAY Online

By: John A. Deighton and Anthony St. George

How should USA TODAY use its brand franchise to build a publishing business on the World Wide Web? Advertising Age described the first steps as "a case study in how not to do it," but by the end of 1997 USA TODAY Online is the most visited news site on the Web. Now the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Design; Profit; Revenue; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Information Industry

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18 Nov 2019
Video

Alberto Grimoldi

Alberto Grimoldi, President of the Argentina-based apparel and footwear company Grimoldi, describes improving the image of his company by removing the name "Grimoldi" from their products, and using... View Details

April 2001 (Revised July 2002)
Case

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (A)

By: Susan M. Fournier, Kerry Herman, Laura Winig and Andrea Carol Wojnicki

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), a branded and integrated content and media company dedicated to "elevating the role of the homemaker," went public on October 19, 1999, creating a company with a market value of $1.73 billion, and a stake for Stewart worth $1.2... View Details

Keywords: Management; Media; Identity; Personal Characteristics; Brands and Branding; Media and Broadcasting Industry

May 1986 (Revised January 1989)
Case

Gillette Co.: Dry Idea Advertising (A), The Creative Problem

Presents the first of two cases describing the struggle to solve creative problems on the Dry Idea antiperspirant brand introduced in 1978 by the Gillette Co. and its advertising agency (Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborne). Provides company and industry background plus... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Advertising; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; United States

25 Feb 2019
News

Who Is Writing, & Who Is Teaching, The Best MBA Cases?

March 1998 (Revised August 1998)
Case

Pepsi Blue

By: John A. Quelch

Executives at Pepsico are considering a possible redesign of the Pepsi carbonated beverage packages worldwide to give the brand a modern, up-to-date image and "ownership" of the color blue against Coca-Cola's "ownership" of the color red. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Advertising; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; United States