Publications

February 2002 (Revised December 2003)
Case

H-E-B Own Brands

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

H-E-B is a $9 billion grocery chain located in Southwest Texas. This case focuses on H-E-B's private label strategy, a product category that accounts for 19% of H-E-B's sales and one that earns gross margins 50% higher than national brands. A leader in its markets,... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Sales; Strategy; Competitive Strategy

13 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

The Tricky Business of Nonprofit Brands

Are brand management issues faced by a powerful for-profit company such as Toyota the same as those navigated by an international non-government organization (NGO) such as the Red Cross? Yes and no. In their... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

August 2015
Case

Building an e-Commerce Brand at Wayfair

By: Thales Teixeira and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

Wayfair, Inc. comprised five home goods, furniture, and décor e-commerce brands. Wayfair.com, the main brand, which was responsible for the majority of sales, targeted the mass-middle home-goods market. AllModern, DwellStudio, Joss & Main, and Birch Lane were niche... View Details

17 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Why Global Brands Work

bureaucracy in which regional managers exaggerate the need for local adaptations to defend their turf; and a deteriorating market share, financial performance, and stock price. Fords worldwide should have a common look, feel, and View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Auto

22 Feb 2022
News

Brand New

World War II, members played a key role in the Normandy invasion. When Sundy left the army for the corporate world, he turned his attention to similarly storied names such as Cheerios, Betty Crocker, KitchenAid, and Maytag in his marketing roles at General Mills and... View Details

Keywords: April White; manufacturing; life experience; leadership; Black; African American; Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

2020
Chapter

The Relational Roles of Brands

By: Jill Avery

In contemporary culture, brands play important relational roles, linking consumers to others and serving as relational partners. This chapter provides an understanding of the relational roles of brands to illuminate why and how consumers connect with brands and how... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customers; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Marketing

June 2003 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Habitat for Humanity International: Brand Valuation

By: John A. Quelch

Habitat for Humanity underwent a brand valuation study and found that its brand was worth $1.8 billion, equivalent to Starbucks. Senior management reviews the issues facing the organization; students are afforded insights into what drives brand value for a major... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Valuation; Brands and Branding

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Peeling Back the Global Brand

Transnational Brand: How Global Perceptions Drive Value," drew inspiration from Theodore Levitt in order to probe a missing link: the management of the transnational brand. Transnational brands are... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Retail

Blog

Take Control of Your Personal Brand

are accurate and positive? In other words, if you don't do the work to manage your own personal brand, someone else will do it for you—and you may not like the results. A strong personal brand grows out of... View Details

23 Apr 2012
News

The Paradox of Personal Branding

Research Summary

Branding in Digital and Social Media

By: Jill J. Avery

This very contemporary line of research explores the rapidly changing digital world, and investigates how emerging technologies are creating a new consumer culture in which consumers expect to be partners in the co-creation of brands. The work explores the branding... View Details

09 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Starbucks’ Lessons for Premium Brands

prices. Third, opening new stores and launching a blizzard of new products create only superficial growth. Such strategies take top management's eye off of improving same store sales year-on-year. This is the heavy lifting of retailing, where a local store View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Retail

October 1995 (Revised January 1998)
Case

Heineken N.V.: Global Branding and Advertising

By: John A. Quelch

Heineken managers are evaluating the results of the research projects designed to identify the values of the Heineken brand and to translate these into effective advertising messages. View Details

Keywords: Value; Advertising Campaigns; Globalization; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry

October 2001
Case

Healthcare Brands Corporation

By: David F. Hawkins

A U.K. and a U.S. firm are entering into a merger agreement. Management must decide whether the merged companies should be domiciled in the United Kingdom and account for the merger as a pooling of interests or the United States and account for the merger as a... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Mergers and Acquisitions; Contracts; Health Industry; United Kingdom; United States

01 Apr 1999
News

A Vibrant Brand

whom he regularly rubs shoulders. Instead, they include the likes of Dick Serafin, a production manager at Time Warner, and Sherill R. Heron and Jonathan A. Kraft, HBS classmates whose support he is "determined to pay back." Clinkscales's... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

01 Sep 2008
News

The Levitt Brand

management is particularly relevant in a global business,” she adds. “I knew every single department store owner in every part of the world we did business in. I always took a special gift from Mrs. Lauder and sat down for a glass of... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

July 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Lenovo: Building A Global Brand

By: John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Announced in December 2004, the $1.75 billion acquisition of IBM's PC division by Lenovo, China's largest PC maker, made headlines around the world. A relative upstart in the business, Lenovo acquired the division of IBM that invented the PC in 1981. While Lenovo was... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Information Infrastructure; Global Strategy; Acquisition; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Computer Industry; China

May 2020
Teaching Note

Kraft Heinz: The $8 Billion Brand Write-Down

By: Jill Avery

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-076. On Friday, February 22, 2019, following an unexpected and disappointing earnings report, The Kraft Heinz Company’s stock price fell 27%, wiping out $16 billion in market value. CEO Bernardo Hees had announced that the company had... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

May 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Teaching Note

Brand Activism: Nike and Colin Kaepernick

By: Jill Avery and Koen Pauwels

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-046. Nike’s selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the thirtieth anniversary of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Consumer Products Industry; Sports Industry; United States; North America