Publications

Article

Positioning Brands Against Large Competitors to Increase Sales

By: Neeru Paharia, Jill Avery and Anat Keinan

We explore the effect of having a large dominant competitor and show the conditions under which focusing on a competitive threat, rather than hiding it, can actually help a brand. We demonstrate through lab and field studies that highlighting a large competitor's size... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Brand Positioning; Competitive Positioning; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

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October 2015 (Revised October 2016)
Case

Paez

By: Jill Avery, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Laura Urdapilleta

Paez, an Argentine start-up fashion brand, sold traditional alpargatas, a sleepy shoe category that suddenly woke up when U.S. company TOMS borrowed the traditional alpargata design, covered it with fashionable colors and prints, and tied it to a social cause. Paez's... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Brand Positioning; Entrepreneurship In Emerging Markets; Retailing; Fashion; Competitive Strategy; Marketing; Advertising; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Competition; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Argentina; Spain

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Dulcie Madden (A)—Growth or Exit?

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Christopher Payton and Shweta Bagai

This is part of a three-case series that follows Dulcie Madden's journey as a founder over five years. Case (A) is about managing growth and cash flow; Case (B) is about the exit decision and conditions on a sale; Case (C) shows Madden dealing with adversity and the... View Details

01 Dec 2019
News

Action Plan: Tapping into a Legacy

As the new managing director of Hall & Woodhouse, one of England’s leading regional breweries, Matt Kearsey (AMP 193, 2017) knows that the best-tasting beer requires more than premium hops and pure spring water. “We give the process the... View Details

Keywords: Leah Flickinger; manufacturing; craft beer; leadership; management; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing

March 2014
Module Note

Implementing Environmentally Sustainable Operations

By: Michael W. Toffel

November 2019 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Shiseido Acquires Drunk Elephant

By: Jill Avery

On October 7, 2019, the Shiseido Group announced that it would acquire clean skincare brand Drunk Elephant for $845 million, a valuation of 8.5 times sales. Did Shiseido pay too much or too little for this brand asset? How much was the Drunk Elephant brand worth and... View Details

Keywords: Personal Care; Startup; Brand Equity; Brand Valuation; Brand Value; Brand Storytelling; Brand Management; Brands and Branding; Valuation; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Japan

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

Updated to clarify a failure rate figure included in an earlier version. When planning new products, companies often start by segmenting their markets and positioning their merchandise accordingly. This segmentation involves either dividing the market into View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

February 2017
Teaching Note

Paez

By: Jill Avery

Paez, an Argentine start-up fashion brand, sold traditional alpargatas, a sleepy category that suddenly woke up when TOMS, a U.S. company, appropriated the traditional alpargata design, covered it with fashionable colors and prints, and tied it to a social cause.... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; Brand Positioning; Competitive Positioning; Competitive Strategy; Retailing; Go To Market Strategy; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Argentina; Latin America; South America; Europe

January 2017 (Revised April 2018)
Background Note

Introduction to Incentive-based Sales Compensation Systems

By: Willy Shih

This background note explains the structure of incentive-based sales compensation systems. View Details

Keywords: Sales Compensation; Sales Force Compensation; Sales Force Management; Sales; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

19 Aug 2021
Op-Ed

Don't Ignore Your Employees' Misery—TAKE Control

employees’ dismay. If nothing else, the pandemic has taught us that one-size-fits-all approaches can be extremely counterproductive. In fact, numerous surveys and news articles suggest that employees have been just as productive working... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

2010
Article

The Strategic Use of Brand Biographies

By: Jill Avery, Neeru Paharia, Anat Keinan and Juliet Schor

We introduce the concept of a brand biography to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author a dynamic, historical account of the events that have shaped the brand over time. Using a particular type of brand biography, "the underdog," we empirically... View Details

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Raffaella Sadun is Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and is a Co-Chair of Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work and co-PI of the Digital Reskilling Lab. Sadun received her PhD in Economics... View Details

January 2020 (Revised April 2020)
Teaching Note

Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

By: Jill Avery

Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods (CPG), offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3.00 price point that promised... View Details

Keywords: Brand; Brand Management; DTC; Private Label; Groceries; Packaged Food; Personal Care; Startups; Retailing; Amazon; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Business Startups; Disruption; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

June 2024 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light

By: Jill Avery and Celine Chammas

On April 1, 2023, social media content creator and influencer Dylan Mulvaney recorded a promotional post. It featured a video of herself drinking from a can of Bud Light beer, offering a virtual toast to her followers. Alongside the video, she posted a photograph of a... View Details

Keywords: Brand Crises; Brand Management; Influencer Marketing; Boycott; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Social Media; Advertising; Social Issues; Public Opinion; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

January 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Hewlett-Packard: The Flight of the Kittyhawk (A)

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Hewlett-Packard decided that, to grow more rapidly, it needed to design a revolutionary disk drive product that would create an entirely new market or application for magnetic recording technology. The company followed most of the "rules" good managers follow in such... View Details

Keywords: Management; Information Infrastructure; Innovation and Management; Product Development; Computer Industry; United States

Third Quarter 2018
Article

Why and How Investors Use ESG Information: Evidence from a Global Survey

By: Amir Amel-Zadeh and George Serafeim

Using survey data from a sample of senior investment professionals from mainstream (i.e., not SRI funds) investment organizations, we provide insights into why and how investors use reported environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. Relevance to... View Details

Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Sustainability; Investment Management; Investment Strategy; Metrics; Standard Setting; Accounting Standards; Finance; Investment; Information; Environmental Sustainability; Governance; Performance Effectiveness; Strategy

SSRN

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June 2012
Supplement

Foro Energy (B)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter, William A. Sahlman and James McQuade

Foro Energy developed proprietary and patent-pending fiber-laser technologies that could disrupt existing processes and services for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. These breakthrough laser technologies were protected by a strong intellectual... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Technologies; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Development Stage Enterprises; Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurs; Petroleum; Natural Gas; High Technology; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Energy Industry